As most Sabres fans probably know by now, 90’s Night caused quite a bit of controversy when fans noticed players wearing knock off jerseys with misspelled names.
Photos surfaced of former players such as Mike Robitaille and Dave Andreychuk with incorrect spellings on them, like this one:
However, most fans probably aren’t aware of how or why that happened.
We learned a few things over the past week from a source within the Sabres organization, and we wanted to share them with you because we believe all fans should know.
“Robitaille has been bringing that jersey for nine years with the incorrect spelling on it, thinks it’s funny. Doesn’t care. He’s known it the whole time, it’s like his own inside joke.”
So what about Andreychuk, you ask?
“Dave Andreychuk’s jersey – yeah, it was spelled wrong, but that happens. Wayne Gretzky once played an entire game with a jersey spelled wrong…But you know what happened with Andreychuck’s jersey? It never made it out of the hallway because our staff corrected it and gave him the proper jersey.”
The Sabres also wanted to wear past jerseys during warmups this season, but they ultimately weren’t able to because the organization missed the deadline for it. The person(s) responsible for this error is/are no longer with the organization.
It’s great to hear the reasoning behind all of this, but it’s a shame that a large number of fans haven’t been made aware of it.
As a fan and a writer on this site, we obviously care deeply about the team. These jersey issues were definitely blown out of proportion, but it also shows the frustration from a fanbase that hasn’t seen a playoff game in nine years. If the team was winning, things like this wouldn’t be an issue, or at least it’d be minimal.
Regardless, we wanted to take a few minutes to try and get this info out to the fans.
In a few months, we’ll all be talking about the new primary jersey that will be coming for the 2020-21 season and beyond, and that will likely be a much bigger discussion.