Wednesday: The Day Has Finally Come

Well everybody, the day we've all been waiting for is here. Unveiling day. The Buffalo Sabres have unveiled the alternate jersey they've been teasing all summer. And it's just as bad as we all thought it'd be. But more on that after I remind you guys of your voting duty on a count of there's so many jerseys in this week's vote that we'll really need your help. As well as the deadline for the Anaheim contest.

COTW Aug 26-Sept 1 vote (ends Friday @ 11:59pm Eastern)

Anaheim Ducks entries (due Friday @ 11:59pm Eastern)

Well I love writing on Wednesday's because this is the third week in a row I get to review a new jersey! Hooray! Well let's dive into this mess.

Steve Ott's Twitter

Well the front of the jersey is interesting, just as we all were sure it would be. The yoke extends about halfway down the arm as well as BELOW the collar, which we've never seen before on a Reebok jersey, or at all I'm pretty sure. Speaking of the collar, it's silver and blue, but not in the way we've seen dual-toned collars done. We also see "BUFFALO" under the collar, where Reebok normally puts their name on non-NHL jerseys they make. Lastly there's a white piping/rectangle going down the arm into a gray cuff. It's a mess.

The back of the jersey is also exactly what we guessed. The blue yoke extends down the back and resembles a cape. The back is less ugly than the front despite the cape. I'm noticing the name and number are HUGE. I want to see a player with a double digit number and a long name because the number would definitely extend past the cape and the longer names are going to look bad. 

Steve Ott's Twitter

Surprisingly there's no shoulder patches, if the whole jersey is going to be some cluttered mess, why not go all in? You know, full commit. The blank shoulders as well as the small amount of room for the cool captain's letters we've seen, (Which might be the only good looking part of the jersey, beside the logo) I'm starting to wonder if those letters will show up on the shoulders. It wouldn't surprise me and it wouldn't be the first time the captain letter has showed up somewhere odd. (See the Red Wings Winter Classic jersey)

So overall rating.... Bad.... There's no pictures of the full uniform, pants and socks and what not, and there's no official graphic of the jerseys but I don't want to see them. I've wanted to see a yellow Sabres jersey for a while and they missed the mark by a whole lot. There's really only three things I like. The logo, the yellow base color (kinda) and the captain's letters. 

3/10

Now let's get that bad taste out of our mouths, or get that bad sight out of our eyes, by showing off some contest entries as well today's regular concepts.

Anaheim Ducks Contest Entries

Bastian

CPM

Jeff C.

Justin C.

Matt R.

Mike S.

Tyler G.

Today's Concepts

2014 Heritage Classic Concept - (Danny R.)

Danny gives us a concept for the upcoming Heritage Classic which has the Sens wearing 90's jerseys which look pretty good as well as the Canucks wearing Millionaires inspired jerseys. I feel like the Canucks will definitely go in that direction and same for the Senators. But I get the feeling that the Sens might just wear their current heritage jersey or possibly a light version of it. Nothing outside the box here, just pretty good guesses.

Rating: 6/10

New York Stadium Series Concepts - (Danny R.)

I've said it before that I don't think the Stadium Series will feature throwbacks or fauxbacks but Danny seems to think they will. The orange Islanders jersey is basically a color swapped version of what they wear now with a shoulder patch and vintage white thrown in there. The green Devils jersey is something we've never seen but it is just a near exact color swap of their original red jerseys with the yoke being different. And lastly the Rangers jersey is a vintage white version of their heritage alternate. With all the jerseys basically being color swaps of past jerseys there's no real originality here but the execution is nice.

Rating: 6/10


Colorado Avalanche Concept - (Ian V.)

Ian keeps the color scheme, logo, and font on the back but changes thing up with the striping for the Av's. The home and away jersey's striping is angled and has that subtle reference to the original jerseys with the hem stripes. The arm striping is interesting and I'd like to see what it looks like on a real jersey. The alternate jersey has that fauxback feel and the only thing I'd like to see is burgundy trim on the "COLORADO" script and mimic the arm striping on the hem. Pretty decent set overall.

Rating: 7/10


HK Nitra (Slovak Extraliga) - (Jake88)

Very heavy with the navy and silver in this Jake88 concept. First thing I'm noticing is the numbers on the back are spaced too far apart. It looks odd. I'm a big fan of the striping and template used. The logo looks great on the jersey but I'd like to see a small amount of that lighter blue somewhere in the striping.

Rating:  8/10


Wilkes Barre/Scranton Penguins Concept - (Kyle N.)

Kyle bases a new set of WBS Pens jerseys off of the Pittsburgh Penguins' 90's jerseys. The striping seems like too much. There's a lot of stripes and I feel like one or two of them could be lost. The alternate is interesting. The yoke is a unique shape, which I like, but that tan color is odd. I can't tell if it's supposed to be a darker tan or a vintage white jersey.

Rating: 7/10


Pittsburgh Penguins Concept - (Stephen T.)

Stephen tries to improve the Penguins jerseys but misses the mark. These jerseys are very boring. There's no striping on the jerseys. The socks have striping though. Apply that striping pattern to the jerseys at least. There's nothing on the hem. There's no gold on the pants stripe. Just white. Definitely take these back to the drawing board. Give it more striping.

Rating: 5/10


New York Stadium Series Concept - (Steve M.)

Steve gives both these teams "new" jerseys for the Stadium Series between the two. The Devils jersey is basically their current jersey with a rounded yoke. And the Rangers jersey, the better of the two, is a combination of their current road and alternate jersey. I'll give you some creativity points for combining two good looking jerseys and making it look good, but not so much for that New Jersey uni. 

Rating: 6/10

New York Stadium Series Concept - (Steve M.)

The only difference with this concept from the last is the Islanders jersey. It resembles Steven Grant's Islanders concept that is currently in the COTW voting. Which I said is a perfect Islanders concept. This would be a great looking game!

Rating: 8/10


Philadelphia Flyers Concept - (Steven G.)

Speaking of Steven, his De-Edge series continues with the Flyers. They resemble jerseys of their past, but the orange jersey doesn't feature a lot of black. It's not a bad look but it's odd to see. I'd prefer more black. Still, not a bad set.

Rating: 7.5/10

Chicago Cougars (WHA) Concept 1 - (Ted N.)

The first of Ted's Chicago Cougars concepts resembles a current Sabres jersey. The jerseys resemble the original Cougar's jerseys, as they featured triple stripe patterns, but these jerseys feature the piping on the front and back, well, the yellow jersey has back piping. The yellow helmet seems odd, I'd probably just stick with green.

Rating: 8/10


Chicago Cougars (WHA) Concept 2 - (Ted N.)

This seems like an update to the previous concept, white has been added to the striping and collars as well as the logo on the green jersey. Same critique applies here with the yellow helmet, but that's pretty much it.

Rating: 8/10


Well that's today's post, Sorry for the length but with today's Buffalo unveiling as well as a ton of Anaheim entires piled up on a pretty good amount of normal concepts, it had to happen, but hey.... That's just more for you to look at! Don't forget to email in your votes for COTW and to enter the Ducks contest!