Sabres, Rangers Logos Revealed for 2018 NHL Winter Classic

“eXcellent!”, “NYce!”… Just two examples of the terrible puns I seriously considered using in the headline of this article.

Today the 2018 NHL Winter Classic event and team logos were unveiled today at New York’s CitiField, the annual event now ten years on to be held on January 1, 2018 at the home of baseball’s Mets, between the New York Rangers and Buffalo Sabres.

The “X”… It’s the main focus for the logo this year, not a local landmark, a giant gold “X” representing the tenth anniversary of the first time the game was held; icicles forming off the sides of it (a Winter Classic logo tradition itself by this point). Local landmarks aren’t ignored entirely, at the top we see a New York City skyline featuring the Empire State Building and Statue of Liberty — I want it to be a subtle nod to the NYC skyline which once adorned the top of the scoreboard at Shea Stadium (and has since been moved over to the concourse at CitiField), but I imagine it’s likely just a nod to, you know, New York.

The “NY”… In case you were unaware, both Buffalo and New York are in the State of New York. To make sure you are aware, both logos feature an “NY”. The Sabres using their tried and true logo featuring a buffalo and sabres (it’s brilliant, really) but now with the state abbreviation included between the two swords. The Rangers meanwhile going full-on fauxback with a silhouette of their familiar shield logo with just an “N.Y.” on it in a simple but very authentically retro-feeling font and presentation.

Secondary marks were also later unveiled, the Rangers a simple re-colouring of the fauxback look presented earlier, and the Sabres isolating the buffalo from their primary logo, turned gold (no, not Buffaslug) and a “SABRES” scrawled across it. Looks good!

Uniforms were not unveiled, they’re still to come, if the past is any indicator we’ll see them sometime in November.

The first Winter Classic was held in Buffalo on January 1, 2008. The Sabres hosted the Pittsburgh Penguins at Ralph Wilson Stadium with Penguins captain Sidney Crosby scoring the winning goal in the shootout.

The Winter Classic is one of three games to be played outdoors during the 2017-18 NHL season, the Ottawa Senators and Montreal Canadiens will battle at Ottawa’s TD Place Stadium on December 16th at the NHL100 Classic; while the Toronto Maple Leafs will head to Annapolis, Maryland where they’ll face the Washington Capitals at the US Naval Academy for the 2018 Stadium Series on March 3.