Sabres, Rangers Dressing Up for 2018 Winter Classic Today

Happy New Year!

The Buffalo Sabres and New York Rangers are getting together outside this afternoon in chilly New York City to take part in the 2018 NHL Winter Classic on the tenth anniversary of the first-ever game in this series.

We’re going to recap the special uniforms both the Sabres and Rangers will be wearing for the game, below are the original articles from the unveilings of the uniforms with photos and explanations for the designs.

Enjoy

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BUFFALO SABRES – November 22, 2017

The Buffalo Sabres are throwing it back for the 2018 Winter Classic, the uniforms for the annual outdoor game unveiled today via the team’s official website.

Featuring a slightly modernized version of their original team crest on the chest (in the proper colours too), the white uniforms are obviously mostly inspired by the uniforms the Sabres wore between 1970 and 1996. The blue and gold colour scheme, the blue shoulder yoke (without a gold trim), and the logo are all carried over from that era – while we see new elements to the shoulders, striping, and pants.

An “NY” was added to the primary logo, a nod to the intrastate matchup that will take place in the game; the Sabres will be playing the New York Rangers at CitiField for the event.

Starting with the logo, in addition to the “NY” added to the bottom of the logo, there are ever-so-minor changes to the shape of the buffalo — a side-by-side which may help:

According to the presser, “the crest itself is executed in felt and faux leather materials as a nod to historical “hockey sweater” material construction”:

The striping pattern is officially a nod to their 40th anniversary alternate uniforms from 2010, they also look a lot like those worn by the NFL’s Buffalo Bills:

New logos include the charging buffalo in gold on one shoulder, which we saw in yesterday’s teaser:

And the crossed sabres on the pants:

Player name is inspired by the 1970s Sabres uniforms, number font inspired by the 40th anniversary jersey, a look at those styles:

A patch for the Winter Classic game itself will be worn on the right shoulder:

“The NHL Winter Classic is a celebration of hockey’s rich history and we wanted our jersey to signify that with a tribute to the early days of Sabres hockey,” Buffalo Sabres President Russ Brandon said in the official release. “This uniform combines our franchise’s great historical look with some new elements to celebrate the uniqueness of the event.”

The 2018 NHL Winter Classic will be played at CitiField, home of the New York Mets, on January 1, 2018 between the Sabres and the New York Rangers. The game comes ten-years to the day of the first Winter Classic which was held in Buffalo at Ralph Wilson Stadium between the Sabres and Pittsburgh Penguins. Buffalo wore similar uniforms to what we’re seeing here in that game.

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NEW YORK RANGERS – November 24, 2017

The New York Rangers this afternoon unveiled their uniforms for the 2018 NHL Winter Classic, the annual outdoor game will take place this coming January 1st at CitiField in New York against the Buffalo Sabres. The Sabres unveiled their uniform for the game earlier this week.

Staying true to their nickname, “The Blueshirts”, New York will wear blue… shirts.

Diagonally down the front of their jersey is their familiar “RANGERS” wordmark except now in white and in a sans-serif style font. This element is a fairly obvious nod to the uniforms worn by the Rangers during their 1926-27 expansion season, the team wore a wordmark identical in design and colour to the one shown here for 2018.

On the shoulders we see a treatment of the shoulder striping we’ve seen on Rangers white jerseys for nearly 70 years, one large blue stripe in the middle with thin white/red/white stripes on either side. This is the first time we’ve seen this style on a blue jersey for the Rangers.

A new logo for the club has been added to this uniform, one which looks like it could have existed for decades but somehow hasn’t until the late 2010s. A silhouette of the Rangers shield, shown in white on the jersey and pants, with the initials “N.Y.” on it in the same font as the jersey’s diagonal wordmark. This “N.Y.” font appears in red on the blue jersey and is in blue on the red pants.

This new take on the shield logo has been placed on the upper left side of the front of the jersey, in a neat twist the “N.Y.” initials are replaced with a “C” or an “A” if that particular player is a captain or alternate captain.

Player name and number are plain white, matching the wordmark on the front.

It’s another good lookin’ uniform for the Winter Classic, the annual outdoor game which skews to a more traditional look when it comes to the uniforms its participating teams wear, almost always results in an eye-pleasing result. The 2018 game, now with both the Sabres and Rangers uniforms unveiled is no exception to this trend.