Sabres Expose Another Puzzle Piece

Image from Buffalo Sabres (via Twitter)The Buffalo Sabres tweeted another enigmatic photo of their new third jersey today. And while it doesn't tell us much, it's at least different from other sneak peeks shared recently.

Today's tweet read:

*Exclusive* PHOTO: Here's your next puzzle piece for our new third jersey... pic.twitter.com/ye3AEYs3Hw

Puzzle piece is probably the right term. For the life of me, I can't figure out how these pieces fit together. And with this one, I'm not even sure what part of the sweater we're even looking at.

There's definitely something folded over but that's about as much as I can tell. Is it the sleeve? The shoulders? Something from the sides?

If you have a good guess, I'd love to hear it. Fill the comments with your thoughts. And if any concept artists what to take stab at reproducing it, I know a lot of readers would be eager to see it.

AHL Announces Frozen Frontier

Outdoor event will pit host Amerks against Lake Erie

On Tuesday, the league announced the Frozen Frontier, a 10-day outdoor hockey festival to be held at Frontier Field in Rochester, N.Y. It kicks off Fri., Dec. 13 with a game between the Rochester Americans and the Lake Erie Monsters. Later in the weekend, Sun., Dec. 15, there's a Sabres/Amerks alumni game.

And as to why the Monsters will join the Amerks outdoors:

Rochester’s opponent for the game, the Lake Erie Monsters, are based in Cleveland, Ohio, a city with a rich history in the American Hockey League and a long-standing rival of the Amerks. The Cleveland Barons were an original AHL franchise and went on to win nine Calder Cup championships. The Amerks and Barons twice met in the Calder Cup Finals, with Cleveland winning in 1957 and Rochester taking home the Cup in 1966.

So we can probably bet on throwback jerseys for the big game.

The logo, unfortunately, looks sloppy and rushed. The one creative thing about it that I like is the large snowflake that seems to be made out of hockey sticks. But more than half of it is hidden. And I've never seen anyone successfully cram 10 words onto one logo. Back to the drawing board.

The AHL has been putting on outdoor games since the 2009-10 season. And in case you were wondering, yes, the Frozen Frontier has its own website.

ECHL Unveils 2015 All-Star Logo

Orlando will host the game on Jan. 21

The event is still 16 months away, but the logo for the 2015 ECHL All-Star Classic is already here! Can't accuse anybody of dragging their feet on this one.

The ECHL named the Orlando Solar Bears host of the 2015 event back on June 26. Then just yesterday, the logo was officially unveiled. This may be the earliest we've ever gotten an official look at a major event logo in any league.

The logo is basically an extension of the Solar Bears brand. No surprise given how Orlando is going to want to really own this event. Of course the Joe Bosack Graphic Design Co. was behind the design of this mark as well as the rest of the Solar Bears' identity.

There's one more detail that caught my eye in all of Monday's press releases. Check this out:

In addition, CCM will provide the All-Star game jerseys which will be designed by one lucky winner of the ECHL All-Star Jersey Design Contest.

So there's going to be an ECHL All-Star Jersey Design Contest. I assume we'll get more details down the road. I don't imagine it will actually take place for another year. But definitely something to pay attention to. I'd love to see one of our talented concept artists create something for the ECHL's All-Stars.

ECHL has yet to announce an All-Star host for 2014

By the way, if you're searching your memory for the 2014 ECHL All-Star Game logo, you won't find it. Not only doesn't it exist, the league hasn't even named a host yet. One ECHL blogger learned last month from the league that there apparently aren't any teams interested in hosting in 2014.

So the ECHL may skip it this season. No big loss, I guess. With the Olympics and all, who'd be paying attention anyway? Still, it's one less new logo for us to stare at.

What are your thoughts on the 2015 logo? Love, hate, indifferent?

Monarchs to Don Classic Kings Look

Manchester club plans L.A. Kings Night for January

The famous "Burger King" jersey. Your vote could put it on pro hockey ice once again.

The AHL's Manchester Monarchs are planning L.A. Kings Night in honor of their NHL affiliate. And fans get to decide which Los Angeles throwback the Monarchs will wear for the game.

You can vote here, but the winning jersey will be announced on Thursday. So vote now!

Any of these would be cool to see on the ice again, but I'm particularly excited by the possibility of the Kings' old third jersey from 1996. That was a classic. So I won't mince words. Vote B!

Update on 2013-08-15 20:04 by Chris

And the winner is...

The Monarchs announced today that the Kings' 1996 third jersey won the two-week poll and will be the basis of the club's Los Angeles Kings Night specialty sweater. And it wasn't even close. (The winning design picked up a whopping 75% of the vote.)

From the press release:

Fans of the Manchester Monarchs, the primary affiliate of the Los Angeles Kings, have spoken and with over 11,000 people voting, the Kings first-ever alternate jersey from the 1995-96 season will be the inspiration behind the team’s specialty jersey which will be worn during the second annual Los Angeles Kings Night in January 2014, Monarchs President Darren Abbott announced today.

Following the 1994-95 NHL Lockout and the purchase of the Kings by Philip Anschutz and Edward Roski, Jr., the organization joined an NHL-wide initiative to introduce third jerseys. The Kings jersey featured an arcing stripe from the right shoulder down the left hip that faded from black to gray. It included shoulder patches of the Kings primary logo at the time and a new King logo on the upper left front of the jersey that is the only human image ever featured on a Kings jersey.

The alternate jersey was introduced on January 27, 1996 when the Kings won, 5-4, against the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim at the Great Western Forum.

While we eagerly await the the arrival of January, here's something to think about. When the Kings and Ducks meet for their Stadium Series game on Jan. 25, it'll be almost 18 years to the day when those two wacky third jerseys first hit the ice. They're all grown up.

Not that I think the NHL would be crazy enough to allow them to come back, of course.

NHL Unveils Stadium Series Logo

The NHL held a press conference in New York today make the 2014 Stadium Series official. Four of next winter's six outdoor NHL games will be played under this banner, the centerpiece of which is a pair set for Yankee Stadium. The Rangers will face the Devils and the Islanders at the baseball venue.

As a reminder, here's schedule of games planned for the open air next season:

• Wed., Jan. 1 — WINTER CLASSIC: Red Wings vs. Maple Leafs, Michigan Stadium
• Sat., Jan. 25 — Kings vs. Ducks, Dodger Stadium
• Sun., Jan. 26 — Rangers vs. Devils, Yankee Stadium
• Wed., Jan. 29 — Rangers vs. Islanders, Yankee Stadium
• Sat., Mar. 1 — Blackhawks vs. Penguins, Soldier Field
• Sun., Mar. 2 — HERITAGE CLASSIC: Canucks vs. Senators, B.C. Place

It begins Jan. 1 with the yearly tradition of the Winter Classic — this one in Ann Arbor, Mich. — and culminates with the more infrequent Heritage Classic in Vancouver. In between, we get four more games called the Stadium Series. That's it in a nutshell.

But no big event goes unbranded in the sports world these days. That is to say we'll have no shortage of logos and special uniforms for these six match-ups. While we'll have to wait to see what the sweaters will look like, the logos are already here.

First, there are the Winter Classic and Heritage Classic logos — which have their own distinct styles. Then, the three Stadium Series games, which are all the same and generic but for the city name.

The version shown at the top of this post features all three cities and I assume is used when discussing the Stadium Series in general as opposed to any individual game. There's also a version that includes the sponsor, Coors Light. But the logo patches that will be used on the jerseys will probably not include the sponsor — just like the Winter Classic and Heritage Classic.

The jerseys remain the only question mark. We got the Winter Classic jerseys (officially) back in April. But there are nine other teams I expect to see something new from. Garth Snow has already said a special uniform is in the pipeline for the Isles. Probably the same story for all teams involved.