Sabres Hide Hints in Plain Sight

By far, the new Buffalo Sabres third jersey is the most highly anticipated of this year's crop. I'm sure it has to do with the "slug" finally being "salted," but it's given fans passionate about the logo a reason to be happy again.

Many are just dying to see the new sweater — unwilling to wait for the magical date of Sept. 18 when all will be revealed. No wonder the rumors are running rampant.

Time for Icethetics to join the fray. I read a lot — A LOT! — of speculation from all sorts of places. The way I see it, it's my job to wade through it all and provide you guys with the most (hopefully) accurate information. I only write about what I believe has any validity. How often have I steered you wrong?

Having said that, here's my take on Buffalo. They've been hiding hints in plain sight. Have you noticed? Look closely, as the graphic above comes from the Sabres' website splash page about ticket sales. And it's telling us a lot.

The latest, most reliable rumors say the Sabres' new alternate sweater uses these three colors: Royal blue, gold (yellow) and vintage white (dingy white). The jersey itself will be royal blue, allowing us to assume the navy blue will remain on the home sweater.

Number styling on Sabres 3rd jersey?The back — this is where it gets interesting. See the strange stitching pattern on the years (enlarged, right) in that above graphic?

Apparently, that's how the numbers will be styled on this new sweater — vintage white with blue stitching inside the numerals. A bit odd perhaps, but it's one of those cool little details you'll only notice up close.

What about the nameplate? Blue block letters on gold material — on a blue sweater. Think of it as similar to what the Flyers have done with their home and road jerseys with the untraditional nameplates.

The Sabres did tell us this one would be different.

I'm not comfortable calling it yet, but the most widely held rumors say the old Buffalo Bisons script will be emblazoned across the front of the sweater. I'm happy to wait for better details.

One final note. It appears that, unlike their past anniversaries, will not have a specially-designed 40th anniversary logo. Instead, it looks as though they're going with the classic primary logo with "1970" added inside the blue — also as seen in the image above — to mark anything celebrating their first 40 years.

I hope this will tide you guys over until either more information comes out or the jersey is revealed 24 days from now.