Rumor: The NHL is hiding the Blackhawks logo on the new Retro Reverse jersey.

So right off the bat I'm going to admit that this is nothing but speculation and conjecture on my part, but from my perspective there definitely seems to be some funny business going on involving the National Hockey League and the Chicago Blackhawks logo.

As all of you know the NHL revealed it's line up of Reverse Retro jerseys on Monday, unveiling a new jersey from every single team in the league. The news has been extremely well received by fans and frankly I think the overwhelming majority of the jerseys released are spectacular. The thing is though, all of these jerseys have been pushed out in a similar way which makes sense given that this is a league-wide initiative. All of the jerseys except for the one belonging to the Chicago Blackhawks. 

Here is what I will call Exhibit A for my little conspiracy theory.

As you can see in the promo video released by the Blackhawks themselves, they never clearly pan over the logo. The trailers released by the other NHL teams slowly pan over the logo, focusing on a part of the jersey that is central to its design, but this is not the case for the Blackhawks. In fact even during what would be a close up shot of the logo, the man modeling the jersey places his arm directly across the logo in an almost deliberate fashion. As a result you never get anything more than a mere glimpse at the logo.

Here's what I will call Exhibit B.

In this album, directly from the National Hockey League's own Instagram, we can see that the only jersey without the logo featured prominently is that of the Blackhawks. Like I said I have no hard evidence to suggest that the league is going out of there way to do this, but the circumstantial evidence I have shown here is at the very least curious.

So why might the NHL be doing this? I have come up with 3 possible reasons I think this might actually be going on.

1. They don't like the way it came out.

I think this is the least likely of the scenarios but I'm including it because it's at least a possibility. The league simply doesn't like the way the logo has been printed onto the jersey. I think it is unlikely because there are no doubt several drafts before they ever get close to the final product being approved and I doubt the NHL would move to production with something they aren't happy with.

2. The NHL is distancing itself from the logo due to the controversy surrounding it.

Let's face it sports teams in North America with Native American imagery in their logos have been the target of public backlash in recent years. The Washington Football Team of the National Football League abandoned their logo not long ago after severe public pressure, and the Blackhawks have been receiving much of the same criticism whether justified or not.

In this current political climate would anyone be surprised if the NHL was quietly nudging the Blackhawks and their ownership towards a change in logo?

3. The NHL wanted to avoid controversy and therefore covered it up.

This might be the most likely of the 3 scenarios I have proposed here. It may simply be that the NHL wants to avoid any controversy when it comes to their big announcement and have therefore gone out of their way to avoid provoking the elements of their fan base that would otherwise object to the Blackhawks logo. 

Do you think there's something going on here? Am I just crazy? Let me know your thoughts in the comments.