Canes officially reveal third sweater

The Hurricanes revealed their third sweaters today, and the response has been overwhelmingly positive.

Black may be a played out color for alternate jerseys in all of sports, and of course my opinion is biased, but I think these look great. Hopefully, the Canesvision folks will resist the temptation to use AC/DC's "Back in Black" as the team takes the ice while wearing the alternates.

As expected, the sweater is primarily black. As expected, the secondary "storm warning" logo is the crest. As expected, the "sightless eye" moves to the shoulders.

There were a couple of things that were slightly unexpected. The storm warning flags along the hem line have remained, but now they're a black background with a silver square in the middle as opposed to the traditional (and nautically correct) black on a field of red. The "sightless eye" is grayscale, almost blending in entirely with the sweater. The player numbers and the C or A will be in red with white outline. The white outline is a really fantastic touch, which will make the numbers jump off the sweater. Almost a "glow in the dark" feel. The player name will be in white.

Here's the gravy... Everything about the third sweater outfit will be black. The pants, the socks, the gloves, even the helmet will be black. As my pal Stephen Patrick Morrissey says, "I wear black on the outside because black is how I feel on the inside, and if I seem a little strange, that's because I am." Check out the specs in this PDF file.

The dates for which the third sweaters were announced today, and are as follows:
October 13 v Detroit
November 2 v Toronto
November 16 v Tampa
November 26 v Philadelphia
December 7 v Washington
December 27 v Boston
January 2 v St. Louis
January 15 v Toronto
February 14 v Columbus
February 22 v Colorado
February 26 v Boston
March 9 v NY Rangers
March 21 v Washington
April 4 v Pittsburgh
April 7 v NY Islanders

According to the official team page, the sweaters will be available for sale at the Caniac Carnival on Sunday September 21. The release indicates that the pricing will be in line with the pricing of the normal sweaters: $300 for authentic and $115 for "premier". Customizing makes it more. I'm definitely getting one. Even with my STH discount, the authentic is a little rich for my blood. I'd rather by a "premier" (replica) AND a new digital camera.

I highly recommend a visit to the photo gallery of the event.

More on this in a bit