New Wild Road Jersey Revealed

Photos from Minnesota Wild

Promotional photos show up online 12 hours early

Whether intentional or not, the Minnesota Wild revealed their new road uniform on their official website late Saturday night — well before the anticipated Sunday morning unveiling event. So we're now getting to see the whole thing in all its glory.

First impressions? I like it. I was wrong about the shoulder yoke. Looked rounded in this morning's photo but obviously they've gone the same route as Carolina with the squared off design. It's a look I'm a big of — and Zach Parise is certainly no stranger to it after all his years in New Jersey.

Photos from Minnesota Wild

It's a solid design. Logo looks great, the colors are sharp. But more importantly, this design fits beautifully alongside the home and alternate jerseys. The old white one was just starting to feel out of place. This one instantly feels like it belongs. And I get the sense that's why the team decided a change was needed in the first place.

What's your take? Stare at it for a few minutes and then maybe write some stuff in the comments.

Last Wild Teaser Leaks a Day Early

Image shared by @andrewpheil (via Twitter)

The last of seven teaser images scheduled this week by the Minnesota Wild leaked this morning. Andrew Heil (@andrewpheil on Twitter) first came across the image and shared it on Twitter. The image, though small, appears to show the crest. And as I speculated earlier today, it will be the standard primary logo front and center.

The image comes from the splash page of the Wild's official website, so in truth they leaked it themselves. (Intentionally, perhaps?) The team has been updating the splash page each day with the latest teaser photo. Today, it looks like this. Tomorrow, presumably, it will look like what you see above.

A logical question is, could this be faked? It could be, but it's not. I got the image at the top of this post directly from the Wild's website — same as Andrew. If you're curious, the key is understanding and applying file naming conventions. Pretty simple and I'm surprised to see the Wild make this error.

But they did, so it's fair game. Now that we've seen all the teasers, all my efforts tomorrow can go into the big unveiling. It happens at 11:30 AM CT at the Minnesota State Fair. I'll leave you with a look at all seven teaser photos together in one place.

It's Shoulder Patch Saturday

Photos from Minnesota Wild (via Twitter) | Buffalo Sabres (via Instagram)

Wild, Sabres show peek of same part of new sweaters

The Minnesota Wild released the sixth in a series of seven images leading up to tomorrow's unveiling of a new road uniform. Based on proportions and stitching patterns, we're looking at a shoulder patch — and it's a new one. For the first time the crest from the red home jersey will be used on the shoulders.

This has led to a bit of Twitter speculation as to whether that means we're getting a script on the front — perhaps not unlike what's on the green third jersey. But I don't see it that way. If the Wild don't keep their regular primary logo on the white jersey, then it won't be on any of them.

It could be a Dallas Stars type of situation. The primary logo is on the front while a roundel with the primary logo in the middle is used on the shoulders. So I have no reason to doubt the crest will stay the same here for Minnesota.

Also, based on the bit of stitching seen in the corner of this photo, it appears the shoulder yoke is rounded — as opposed to a straight one like the Hurricanes have on their new road jersey. Was there a chance of that? I don't know. But the first teaser photo does make the yoke look larger than normal.

Then, there's the Buffalo Sabres shoulder patch. (UPDATE: Now, I'm not so sure. A reader has suggested this might be a hat. Think I'm just seeing what I want to see. Fail.) Technically, that photo was posted to Instagram on Thursday — so the title of this post is a little misleading. Anyway, given the yellow in the corner of that photo, I was assuming it's another third jersey teaser. (Maybe not!)

But if it is, it means, just like the Sabres original jerseys, that classic logo will be used both on the front and shoulders of the new sweater. So it's sounding like a strange mix of traditional and non-traditional elements on this one. Really curious to see the whole thing. Would love to learn the release date.

Buffalo, It's Getting Old Now

Photo from Buffalo Sabres (via Twitter)

Sabres' latest teaser exposes pants shell

You know I'm normally a cheerleader for the teams that do these sneak peeks leading up to a jersey unveiling. But, like many of you, I'm coming around to being less and less amused by the Buffalo Sabres and their excruciating process.

First, these images seem to coming out at isolated moments — though I'll admit we have seen them on Thursdays with some regularity. And second, what's the end date? How long will this continue? Other teams have done teasers this summer, but none have dragged it out for six weeks. And all have given us a final date to look forward to.

Anyway, the Sabres did end up revealing another element of their new alternate uniform yesterday. But in a single tweet, they told two untruths. Did you catch them?

First, this is not a piece of the third "jersey." (Unless they're really going out there with this new look!) Now, maybe I'm nitpicking or maybe I'm just a stickler for language. You know, how words have different meanings and all. And let's bear in mind they actually teased the teaser — posting this tweet 17 minutes before the pants shell photo.

Also, this whole "new aspect" and "you haven't seen yet" language wasn't quite true either. Did you guys forget that the pants were, in fact, among the first things we saw when that video teaser was released back in mid-July? Granted, that video didn't show the yellow portion of the stripe on the side, so we'll call this a half-truth. But was it really worth the extra promo?

I'm usually a fan of these sort of drips-and-drabs reveals. It's often fun to follow along and it quells the appetite for unauthorized leaks. But the Sabres have made some fatal errors. They're taking too long, the releases are too infrequent, and they refuse to say when the madness will end.

What's more, it's not just a handful of jersey nerds whining on a blog in some dark corner of the Internet. The Sabres' own fans are getting tired of it. Just read the replies to the tweets and Facebook posts.

I think that does it. I'll still cover every reveal, because that's what I do here. And I'm genuinely interested in seeing how this all comes together. But I think all that needed to be said. Who's with me?

The First 4 Wild Jersey Teasers

Photos from Minnesota Wild

Latest photo shows new sweater's striping

The Minnesota Wild have now released four of the seven teaser images planned ahead of the official unveiling of the new road jersey on Sunday. Prior to today, all we'd learned about were the details of the collar. The latest photo shows us the striping.

For those expecting a reversed version of the Wild's green alternate jersey, this is evidence to support you. Whether we're looking at a sleeve or the waist, this striping pattern looks awfully familiar. But that makes sense.

At the moment, all three of Minnesota's jerseys look wildly different (accidentally pun) — none use the same template. So I wouldn't be surprised to see this new jersey move closer in style to one of the others. And given how much the green appears in team marketing and promotions, it's a safe bet they're going in that direction.

Again, the full jersey will be revealed at the Minnesota State Fair on Sunday at 11:30 AM CT. I'll have photos here once they're available.

By the way, is anyone terribly disappointed that it's late Thursday morning and we still haven't seen a new teaser photo from the Buffalo Sabres? Yeah, me neither.

Update on Friday · Aug 30 · 2013 | 10:46 AM PDT by Chris

Photo from Minnesota Wild

Wild reveal red numbers for new sweater

Make that five! The Wild released their fifth teaser photo on the way to Sunday's road jersey unveiling. This one shows us they're sticking with red numbers (outlined in green, of course). Seems this jersey may have a nice mix of red and green. Just hope it doesn't start looking to Christmas-y.

The photo appears to show the sleeve numbers. I would expect the colors to be the same for the numbers on the back as well. What's a little sad is that the rugged-style numbers Minnesota had used from their inception in 2000 seem to be completely gone now.

This number style (font?) is the same as what's in use on the home and third jerseys. Simple, block lettering. it's almost as though they're "wild" no more.

Two more days until we see the whole thing! Plus, I'm cooking up something special following the unveiling.