The Buffalo Sabres will honor the late Rick Jeanneret, who was the voice of the team for five decades, with a jersey patch bearing his initials of "RJ" this season.
Jeanneret, who called his first Sabres game in 1971 and was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame as the recipient of the Foster Hewitt Award in 2012, died Aug. 18 at the age of 81.
The circular patch will be worn on all Buffalo jerseys this season, in different color combinations to match the appropriate jersey; a blue patch with gold initials will adorn the home blue jersey; a white patch with blue initials on the white road jersey; and a black patch with silver initials on the black alternate jersey.
The patches will debut when the Sabres play their season opener against the New York Rangers at KeyBank Center on Thursday (7 p.m. ET; MSG-B, MSG, SN1).
Known simply as "RJ," Jeanneret made his radio play-by-play debut Oct. 10, 1971 and moved to the television side in 1995. He retired as the longest-tenured play-by-play announcer in NHL history when he called his final game April 29, 2022.
Signature phrases like "May Day," "Scary good" and "Top shelf where Mama hides the cookies" helped make him the voice of several generations of Sabres fans.
