Buffalo Sabres reveal perhaps the NHL’s worst jersey: Pass or Fail?

It’s our fault. We trusted them. We assumed the Buffalo Sabres had learned the error of their ways, gained insight from their fashion faux pas from the past and would never again unleash an eyesore of a hockey sweater that makes one want to take a scouring pad to one's retina.

And yet this was revealed on Wednesday as the long-awaited new third jersey for the 2013-14 Sabres:

Somewhere, the Buffaslug sneers with glee. The Islanders Fisherman laughs. The ghostly Burger King nods knowingly.

The Sabres had been slowly teasing these by releasing color swatches over Twitter, which in hindsight is a bit like letting a little bit of the fart leak out before clearing the room.

We should offer a caveat here: These jerseys seem more terrible than they are because the Sabres’ primary sweaters and logo are Top 5 in the NHL in our books (especially for a non-Original Six team). Their most recent third jerseys were also retro-cool.

These ... not so much.

These look like warm-up jerseys for an indoor lacrosse team. The “Buffalo” font is terrible. The two different types of yellow are terrible. The gray inside the number that doesn’t carry over to the name plate is terrible. The gray on the arms, making it look like the player dipped his sleeves in wet cement ...terrible. And, sorry, is that some kind of lapel they’ve built in around the NHL logo on the neckline? Is Steve Ott going to skate out wearing an ascot? Or perhaps a fancy broach?

The Sabres aren't yellow. The Predators are yellow. And you know what? Their jerseys don't suck. These? Could you imagine LaFontaine or Mogilny or Gilbert Perreault wearing these?

If nothing else, this jersey disproves our theory that you can put the Sabres logo on anything and it’s automatically awesome. Don’t tell us we have to rethink Sriracha too.

It also leads us to assume that team president Ted Black moved the guy who did the Ville Leino contract over to the Sabres’ uniform development department, based on these results.

Provided this isn’t some epic troll job by Buffalo and the actual, awesome sweaters aren’t on the way, what say you?

PASS OR FAIL: The Buffalo Sabres new third jerseys.