Robviously

I was on the players' side when this debacle started but I'm basically blaming them at this point. In everything they've done, especially in hiring Donald Fehr, it's obvious they approached this thing with the (completely idiotic) mindset that they were somehow screwed by the last CBA. Hockey is a regional sport and the NHL is an afterthought in most of this continent, and yet the average NHL salary is higher than the average NFL salary (a league that is 100x more popular and where the players damage themselves far more by playing). But for some reason, they're looking at this negotiation as a chance for revenge or something. How were the players losers last time? What did they give up last time that was so egregious? Are their families all starving and they can't afford new school clothes for their kids, or is it more like NHL players are wildly overpaid for how popular their sport is? Whatever. Cancel the season. I can get cheap tickets to most Chicago Bulls games on StubHub and that'll keep me busy until the Cubs start up.

If they go with the yellow alternate I suggested a couple days ago, it'll be something completely new that meshes perfectly with their identity and history. If it's just another throwback or faux-throwback (like the 40th anniversary one), I'll be disappointed. At some point I'd like a new set that completely eliminates the gray (since it only muddies our identity and doesn't really add anything) and switches back to a royal blue. Go back to having the "B with a sword through it" alternate logo on the shoulder and we'll have the best set we've ever had.

Again, I'm not complaining about the fans themselves, just that we had that era at all. If someone wants to wear a 1998 Hasek jersey to a game, that's cool. I just wish the 1998 Hasek jersey looked at least somewhat like a 1975 Sabres jersey (at least enough that you could tell it was for the same team).

Back on topic: How do we know this isn't part of Pegula's three year plan to win the Cup? Lots of teams win championships in their first year with a new uniform - 1997 Denver Broncos, 2002 Anaheim Angels, 2007 Anaheim Ducks, etc. A new alternate uniform would arrive in year 3 of the Pegula era. So obviously that's what's really going on here. I'm surprised everyone missed this.

I get irked by fans wearing the black and red stuff -- not irked *by* the fans, just by the fact that we had a ten year span with completely different colors and an identity that doesn't mesh with our past or our present. [Even though, objectively, the black and red identity looked great -- just not as a "Buffalo Sabres" uniform.] I'm jealous of fans in Toronto and Chicago where they can wear any piece of merchandise from the last 50 years and fit right in with the rest of the crowd in 2012.

Dude, I don't even think there's a script. Sports teams change uniforms a lot these days, especially when they have a new owner. I don't think there's any new information to extrapolate from that.

You're a braver man than I am. I looked at that thread when it was ~10 posts long and never went back. No way in hell am I getting involved over there. And we still have 2.5 more months until the election.

What in the..... what? The team is getting new alternate uniforms one year from now. This will have zero effect on anything else the team does on or off the ice. This really doesn't call for conspiracy theories about what's "really" going on with the Buffalo Sabres.

Correlation is not causation, my friend. Once your team wins in a jersey, there is (and should be) less momentum behind a change in identity. Once your team wins a championship, you'd want to keep that look as long as you can so that it's easier for fans in the present to point back to that moment. If anything, winning makes teams less likely the change (and certainly not the opposite). It's the 21st century. I just accept that third jerseys are a part of the business. And if they're well-done, I think they're a good part of the business.

Total agreement with the bold. Third jerseys are fun and that should mainly be what fans are after. Also, from a practical standpoint, any sport with 82 regular seasons games and four rounds of playoff games, can easily get away with teams having 3 different uniforms. I've never understood the complaints about third jerseys. I understand complaints about ugly jerseys, but if your team has three different looks and they're all cool (like the Sabres last year), what's the problem? And if you hate that it's "all about selling merchandise", don't buy any. Pretty simple. Yeah, the Vegas gold has not aged well. I'm glad the Sabres didn't adopt that when they went back to blue and gold. The Kings and Canucks have disastrous uniforms histories. In general, teams that change their color schemes look pretty bad -- in MLB: Miami, San Diego, Tampa Bay, in the NFL: Seattle, in the NBA: about half the teams.

I liked the red jerseys too. They were simple and it was nice having a uniform with some bright colors again. The interesting part is that the Sabres prepped two versions of that jersey -- a red one and a gray one. The gray version was the same as the red version but had the red and gray parts swapped. It looked pretty cool, but would have officially made the Sabres the least colorful team in all of sports. The prototype gray jersey ended up on eBay right around when the red alternate was introduced. I'm not sure how it works, but I wonder if the Sabres could 'have' a third jersey but never wear it (i.e. wear the 40th anniversary jerseys for just one year and then keep them in a storage room for the mandatory second year). The Bills did this last season with their blue pants (which they have and are in the NFL style guide) and might be doing again this year. (Although I have no idea why the Bills are doing that.) If I was in charge (which I should be), the Sabres would bring back the "B with a sword through it" alternate logo and put it on the shoulders. It's the one thing we kept from the Goathead era when we switched and would give our current uniforms something from every part of the Sabres' uniform history (original logo, alternate logo from the 90s on the shoulder, darker blue and yellow from the 2000s). This. The ten year span where our colors were completely different really screws up how the crowd looks at FNA and makes our division/conference champ banners look silly together.

Best uniform in international hockey:

Blue and gold with the original logo? Are the Sabres finally going to make all my dreams come true and roll out a yellow third jersey? Seriously, take our current white jersey, make the white parts yellow, make all the stripes blue or white, and you've got another instant classic.

I think you, and a lot of other posters, are undervalueing Gagner. Yes, he's small and fairly one-dimensional, but he's only 22 years old (he turns 23 tomorrow) and already has five years of NHL experience. He put up 49 points as an 18 year old, which is pretty damn impressive, IMO. Plus, I know players are coming into the league earlier in the post-lockout era but I still think of "mid-20s" as when most guys start hitting their prime. He's almost definitely still getting better. (He's only one year older than Myers, Ennis, and Hodgson -- all guys we're excited about because we don't think they're finished products yet.) Also, if we combine this rumor/speculation with some other rumors/speculation, if we could get Gagner for relatively little (e.g. Leopold and ???), we could turn around and offer Sekera and Gagner to the Blues to acquire my boyfriend Patrik Berglund. They get their defensive help and a center to replace Berglund, while we add Berglund to Hodgon and Ennis and have the best trio of centers we've had in a long time.

I think we have a good thing going with Rochester in the AHL since it ties another big city to Buffalo for hockey. And the ECHL just seems like crummy, uninteresting hockey to me. I think we'd see a lot more future NHLers with the OHL.

You've never been more beautiful.

Agreed. If our big plan for moving the city into the 21st century requires waiting for failing attractions and buildings to somehow turn around, we might as well throw in the towel now. The city's best hope for renewal is the Inner Harbor. We should build it up as much as we can and hope the rest of the city can follow. I just wish we could get these new hotels and attractions built faster so that we'd have them the next time we host March Madness or (hopefully) another World Juniors.

They actually did the opposite. If you believe Paul Hamilton, the Bruins spent the rest of the game hammering the Sabres and mocking them verbally for their inability to fight back. The mental and physical weakness on display from the Sabres that night was staggering. Good thing management sprang into action and addressed the incident several months later by trading Paul Gaustad, and then waiting a few more months and trading Derek Roy. Problem solved. <_<

*cough* Patrik Berglund *cough* *cough*

I don't think they did "too much" of anything because they didn't really do anything. When is the last time the Sabres made really significant roster moves? They let guys go when contracts expire (Connolly, Hecht) or when contracts are about to expire (Gaustad) but big roster shake-ups never happen. Even last summer, all we traded was Byron and Butler and then we signed Ehrhoff and Leino but we didn't want to move anyone who was either a core player or appeared to have a lot of potential. The Sabres have the best group of young players they've had in a long time but I'd love a big trade that fundamentally changes the team's identity and future (and officially ends the Black Sunday era).

Now that it's 2012, this is a weird fight to watch:

I think the point of even trying to have an OHL team in WNY would be to have 34 more events in the FNC each year. Or, at least, down in that part of the city. If Pegula bought an OHL team right now AND got his Webster block proposal picked, I could see him revising the 2000-seat indoor rink to a 5000-seat indoor rink and using that (with an annual game or two in the FNC). Why not? I'm sure they could do that and it would be another way to have people visit the new Inner Harbor area. Either way, I don't think it hurts the Sabres. Are you less likely to go out to a nice dinner because there's a new McDonald's in your neighborhood? Nah, it's just another option. The Sabres would always be the marque hockey attraction but now there'd be an option for people who want great seats but can't afford them. Or if you have a family of four or five, now it's easy to go without breaking the bank. (And kids would have just as good a time at an OHL game for the most part.) I don't think the Bisons hurt the Bills or Sabres, and I don't think an OHL team would either. Plus, after the Bills season ends, there's just sooooooo little going on in Buffalo from January through March.

Holy crap! I accidentally started a good thread that people are actually replying to! This is one of the crazier days in the history of this board.

I never had much interest in the CHL (OHL, QMJHL, and WHL) until I saw some WHL games in Everett, WA, when I worked out there. The hockey was surprisingly good given how young the players were and the crowd was always into it (it was amazing how much the Everett fans hated Seattle and Vancouver). Every since Terry Pegula started buying hockey teams, I've been wondering if he'd think about adding a second team to Buffalo as part of the "Hockey Heaven" thing. Now that he's also looking to add extra ice rinks to the city too, I figure it can't be that much of a stretch. I did a Google search on OHL expansion and apparently it's been a rumor for years: http://www.ohlalumnicentral.com/ohl-expansion-poll/ A lot of the speculation is about adding a "Buffalo" team to the suburbs somewhere (Tonawanda?) but I don't see why they couldn't play their home games at the FNC. Just limit ticket sales to the 100 and 200 levels and you basically have a large CHL arena (and not the largest since the Vancouver Giants play in the Canucks' old Pacific Coliseum). If we're building up the entire neighborhood around the FNC, this is a good way to get people down there 34 more times a year. It'd also be nice to have another way to see hockey in the FNC with Sabres tickets getting more expensive and harder to come by (especially around the holidays, which is the only time a lot of us are home for hockey). There's no rule against Pegula buying an OHL team. Peter Karmanos, the Hurricanes owner, owns the OHL's Plymouth Whalers (and an ECHL team for three total). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Karmanos,_Jr. Uncle Terry probably feels like a chump for only owning two hockey teams. Why not a third? Anyways, it's August, so this is the type of stuff I think about.

How good do I think Vanek is? Very, very good. Is he an all-star talent? Definitely. Is he a top 20 forward? No. What do I like about his game? He's our most skilled winger since Mogilny. He's the no.7 goal-scorer in Sabres history and should move up to no.5 with a good season this year. He scores goals and does things with the puck that no one else on the team can. He also stands in front of the net and gets the crap kicked out of him on every power play (even when he's already playing hurt, BTW) which is something players who are bigger and supposedly tougher won't do. I like that even after he finally admits he's been injured (after the season ends) he doesn't use it as an excuse even though he was clearly struggling (see also: Ryan Fitzpatrick's broken ribs last year). He's not a perfect player by any means but "imperfect" doesn't stop him from being great. Plus I'm from Buffalo; I can appreciate imperfect things. I'm going to sleep now. We'll do it again tomorrow.