But What Color Will The Zamboni Be?

It's not hockey is on strike or anything. But the Sabres have found time for a new innovation with their Rochester farm team...

If the ice is colored a soft shade of blue, what does that make hockey's blue lines? Orange of course. Don't adjust your TV sets — the Buffalo Sabres are using Rochester, their AHL farm club, to try out a new colored ice surface that could become the standard once the NHL resumes playing.

The first test comes Sunday, when Rochester plays Cleveland at Buffalo.

"It's an experiment, let's leave it at that," Sabres managing partner Larry Quinn said Tuesday while watching Rochester practice.

Quinn said the test came after NHL officials discussed whether changing the ice color from white would enhance how the game is viewed by fans in arenas and on television.

The Sabres offered to try it and, after some experimentation, settled on painting the sheet in what they call "electric powder blue." To offset the new colored surface, arena officials decided to make the blue lines fluorescent orange, which is also the color used for the faceoff circles.

The center line, normally red, is now dark blue.

Meanwhile, the NHL's books are covered in red ink.

And I'm wondering whether Icehouse will get royalties for someone stealing "electric blue."