In a matter of hours, the Washington Capitals will unveil their uniforms for the 2015 NHL Winter Classic. But we have a preview of a some branding elements already.

First, the Capitals are celebrating their 40th anniversary this season and will wear a patch on their uniforms to mark the occasion. You can see a couple of photos that showcase it on the right.

The logo was first unveiled two weeks ago. It's already being worn on jerseys during preseason games in the last several days.

Then this morning, in a Facebook post reminding us of tomorrow's event, the Capitals gave us our first official look at the text treatment for the 2015 Winter Classic branding.

Notice how they've worked in the stars above the word "Classic" calling back to the Caps' original logo and uniform designs.

It's pretty much par for the course on Winter Classic wordmarks. I'm more interested in seeing the full logo, which I presume we'll get tomorrow during the ballpark press conference.

But the most intriguing details came this morning by way of leaked photos on the blog RMNB (Russian Machine Never Breaks).

The photos appear to show Nationals Park — the site of Tuesday's unveiling and the Jan. 1, 2015 game — decked out in Winter Classic branding, including the special Blackhawks and Capitals logos.

They're blurry cell phone images, yes, but they seem to show a Capitals logo unlike anything we've ever seen before — which is becoming more commonplace for the Winter Classic in recent years.

They used to simply dig into a team's history for a classic jersey and logo. But we've seen the Red Wings and Flyers among others come out with completely new designs for the outdoor game.

So what sort of Capitals logo are we looking at here? We won't have to wait much longer. The Capitals will reveal all on Tuesday at noon ET.

Drop by Icethetics for full coverage.