Buffalo Sabres fans woke up to some big news on Aug. 31. The infamous “goathead” is back.
This iconic black, red, and white jersey with a very different logo will be coming back as the alternate jersey and will be debuted on Nov. 23 for their ‘90s night game against the St. Louis Blues. It’ll be worn a total of 12 times during the upcoming 2022-23 season.
This jersey was first introduced for the 1995-96 season, and stuck around for good reason—it seemed like a good luck charm for a number of years. There were so many iconic moments in these jerseys, such as when the team made it to the playoffs in 1997 where Derek Plante scored an overtime slap-shot goal against the Ottawa Senators, pushing them into round two. Fans were overjoyed, even though they didn’t win the Stanley Cup that year.
On top of this moment, the team made it to the Eastern Conference Final in 1998, 1999, and 2006. They won the Eastern Conference Final in 1999, taking this jersey to the Stanley Cup Final, but ultimately lost the Cup to the Dallas Stars. This jersey marked a fresh, new, successful era at the time.
When you consider the state of the team today, they’ve been having some performance issues that are similar to what was experienced in the early 90s. However, 2021-22 season has been deemed by fans as the start of another new era in Sabres history. This era was initially marked by the Jack Eichel trade to the Vegas Golden Knights, but as the season went on and the Sabres saw more success than they had grown used to, fans have started to rejoice yet again, as a new fire has been sparked for this team.
When you consider the history of this iconic jersey, and compare it to recent successes the team has had, it only seems fitting that the “goathead” is making a comeback.
