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Time for a new season, time for the new edition of LetsGoWings.com's schedule desktop wallpapers! I'm still eye deep in development on the new LGW web site (getting close now!), but I wanted to make sure these weren't held up. Keep in mind that the new site will have an all-new file download system and once it's live the links to the different resolution wallpapers will be broken on the forums until I can fix it. Most, if not all, of you will have it already downloaded by then, anyway. This month's featured player is Nicklas Lidstrom. I've also added additional screen resolutions this season, and I'm planning on also offering more once the main site is back up (think: HDTV formats, iPad, etc.). Enjoy! Widescreen: 1920x1200 | 1680x1050 | 1440x900 | 1280x800 4:3 & 5:4: 1600x1200 | 1400x1050 | 1280x960 | 1280x1024 | 1024x768

All right kiddies, enough talking around the issue here are the games. All's ya gots to do is pick the winner in each of the games for this and each successive regular season weekend this year. I suppose we will do the same rules as last year (picks have to be posted before the puck drops; everyone will drop their worst two week's scores; one game a week counts double). Beyond that, we can discuss any additional rule changes over the course of this weekend before scoring. In the mean time, everyone should make their picks and I will count it up for this weekend. I can't commit to doing it beyond this week, but I may be able to pitch in here in there so if anyone else wants to volunteer that would be great. [Aussie - I don't know if you figured on doing it or what but I thought I'd help] PLEASE COPY AND PASTE THE SCHEDULE TO YOUR POST, AND MARK YOUR SELECTION BY MAKING IT BOLD AND BE SURE TO MARK YOUR DOUBLE GAME AS "X2" Friday, October 8 Minnesota at Carolina San Jose at Columbus Dallas at New Jersey Anaheim at Detroit Buffalo at Ottawa Washington at Atlanta Saturday, October 9 Phoenix at Boston Columbus at San Jose NY Rangers at Buffalo Dallas at NY Islanders Montreal at Pittsburgh Ottawa at Toronto New Jersey at Washington Atlanta at Tampa Bay Philadelphia at St. Louis Anaheim at Nashville Detroit at Chicago Los Angeles at Vancouver Sunday, October 10 Boston at Phoenix Los Angeles at Calgary Florida at Edmonton

One thing I'd like to add about the referees is, the NHL isn't alone in the boat with inconsistent reffing. Let's not forget the Galarraga perfect game, and the Calvin Johnson catch for local Detroit fans. Reffing isn't an easy thing and there are going to be mistakes. I would like to see improvement on the simplicity of the rules though.

-The NHL was already having labor problems before Bettman was hired. Bettman was hired to SOLVE THEM, and for the most part HE DID. Yes, it wasn't ideal, but the end justifies the means in many situations, including this one. The NHL has a CBA which protects teams doing poorly financially, and might have prevented the Jets, Nordiques, and Whalers from moving had it been in place back then. -So in other words, you have to get cable to watch games? ESPN, Versus. Wow, shocking difference. -The ESPN deal was $600m over 5 years, or $120m per year. It was followed by a one-year deal for the 2004-05 season which was $60m, with a $70m option for 2005-06. The Versus contract was $130m for two years, with a network-option third year. In other words, Versus offered more money than ESPN for fewer games and lower broadcast priority; ESPN would have demanded far more games, regular season and playoff, than Versus had. They would have demanded top priority for scheduling over NBC, also. -The 2009 playoff scheduling, as far as the finals which is what I know you are referring to, is because of the television contract with NBC. -Better reffing than 1992 and prior. -Bettman doesn't just say "Hey, let's have a team in Atlanta/Nashville/Phoenix/Raleigh!" The team owner decides where they want the team to play, and the NHL Board of Governors either approves or denies that. -The NHL's talent level is higher than it has ever been. In 1990 there were 20 teams' worth of Canadian players. Now there are 16. Also NHL teams typically have more skill players now rather than having a bunch of goons populate the bottom lines. This is a significant INCREASE in average talent, and based on the percentage of Canadian players in the NHL the league has actually UNDER-expanded. Of course, getting much larger would be ridiculous, so it will probably not happen. -Playing in Europe to increase the global fan base for the NHL for a sport which is played globally? Terrible idea. -As far as the Phoenix situation, what exactly could Bettman do? Balsillie tried to circumvent league policy, and acquire the Coyotes from Moyes through bankruptcy while Moyes receives what basically amounts to a kickback. Bettman did nothing but stood firm on league policy, because folding would set a dangerous precedent of "well you did this for this guy" and Balsillie's inability to follow the standard league procedure prevented him from purchasing the team. -As stated before, the NHL's officiating has been of higher quality since the two-referee system has been implemented than it was before, and Bettman and co. have done work to improve the quality of new officials.

I was on ESPN's website and found a good article on Gary Bettman. Now, before the Bettman insults start flying, I wanted to throw my thoughts on the table. I believe Bettman has done a good job with the NHL as a whole. The league is making money as a whole. The game has improved from the clutch and grab hockey that was prevalent in the late 90s and early 2000s. Its not all good though, as I also believe that the league has expanded too much and they should be contracting to 24 teams. Still, Bettman is a smart commissioner and deserves his post. Have a read of the article and let me know what you think. --- http://insider.espn.go.com/nhl/insider/news/story?id=5602951 --- The NHL commissioner is looking to define his league -- and his legacy GARY BETTMAN IS IN A GOOD MOOD. Two days earlier, an independent arbitrator upheld the league's rejection of the Devils' first attempt to sign Ilya Kovalchuk. The decision backed Bettman's belief that the 17-year, $102 million deal was just a blatant end run around the NHL's salary cap. It was the latest validation of Bettman's stature as the most dominating commissioner in pro sports. Even the August sun, pouring through a wall of windows into Bettman's Manhattan office, seems to shine for him. He's relaxed, even cheery, in pleasant contrast to his reputation as a pugnacious and humorless know-it-all who looks as if he were born in a dark suit. At the moment, he's even in shirtsleeves -- blue tie knotted at his throat, but shirtsleeves nonetheless. "Whatever you want, we're happy to help," he says. "In that case," I say, "I'd like a franchise." He grins: "Do you have an American Express card with a pretty big limit?" Soon enough we're digging into serious issues: the Kovalchuk deal, off-season drug testing and NHL participation in the Olympics -- all issues that will shape pro hockey in the coming years. Bettman handles even the most contentious subjects with aplomb. But something has him uneasy. Without warning, he blurts, "I assume when I'm being funny and cute, we're not going to intersperse it into the article." Any hint of a smile is gone. "Do it in context," he says, more order than request. Summer sun or not, Gary Bettman's office is suddenly as chilly as Calgary in January. KENESAW MOUNTAIN Landis saved baseball's soul by excommunicating the Black Sox. Pete Rozelle created an NFL juggernaut with a savvy merger and socialist distribution of TV revenue. But no major sport commissioner has had more far-reaching impact in his world than Bettman, who has influenced everything from the location of franchises to the size of goalie pads. The NHL is Gary's league; Sid and Ovi just play in it. In his 18-year reign, the NHL has gone from a league hemorrhaging $200 million a year to one that just produced record (estimated) profits of $180 million. On ice, the clutching and grabbing that numbed offenses last decade has given way to thrilling open-ice rushes. "He's the best thing that could've happened to the NHL, because he's always known what needed to be done," says Dave Checketts, managing owner of the Blues. Change, though, has come at a cost -- most traumatically, the 2004-05 season that Bettman sacrificed to win the hard salary cap he insisted was necessary for league survival. And still, payroll-cost certainty hasn't kept several owners from struggling. The Coyotes became a $170 million ward of the league, and other warm-weather clubs are barely above water, giving rise to the biggest wave of criticism about Bettman's reign -- his focus on southern expansion. This was probably why Bettman had second thoughts about his charge-a-franchise quip. He is a fierce protector of the brand. And god help the naysayer who suggests that even the toughest problems won't be solved. "He's the last guy you want to fight," Checketts says. "He doesn't give up, doesn't give in, doesn't bend. When he decides, it's over. He will win." His ruthlessness has Bettman both respected and despised. In Canada, fan and media vitriol is so nasty you'd think the man had torched every Tim Hortons from Halifax to Whitehorse. Players and GMs, fearing reprisals, refuse to talk publicly against him. Even Boston's Jeremy Jacobs, one of the NHL's most powerful owners, worries that an innocuous quote for this story about adjusting the collective bargaining agreement will get him fined. Don Meehan, one of hockey's shrewdest agents, can't get off the phone with me fast enough: "I'm not going there," he says at the first mention of the commissioner's name. Simple fear isn't all that makes players and agents go silent: Donald Fehr has told them to shut up too. The most powerful man in baseball for two decades as head of the MLB players' union, Fehr is a fierce negotiator who once won a $280 million payout when he proved that MLB owners were colluding. After retiring in 2009, he became an unpaid consultant to the chronically chaotic NHLPA; he's now the presumptive choice to be the union's next executive director, a hiring expected to be finalized by a vote later this fall. (Calls to Fehr, 62, went unreturned.) For the first time since former union boss Bob Goodenow lost his throwdown with Bettman six years ago, NHL players have someone who might just be able to muscle the commish. Over the next 18 months, Bettman will try to make himself stronger by shoring up struggling franchises, bolstering league finances, securing a more lucrative TV deal and, most important, sealing loopholes in the CBA. Bettman says the media overhyped the Kovalchuk contract battle, even though he spent the summer engaged in the talks. The NHL approved a slightly shorter and smaller deal on Sept. 4, but New Jersey was fined $3 million and lost two draft picks. More to the point, Bettman got the NHLPA to limit such deals going forward. The commissioner, never complacent, feels an extra urgency to secure labor peace. "I would prefer a constructive, strong relationship with a players' association that can work with us," he says, countering a pervasive feeling that he's trying to put the union out of business. "There's a lot of people saying we already did that," he says a bit too enthusiastically. Bettman seems to realize his overzealousness because he quickly adds, "That's not the goal." He saw the new union regime looming long before Fehr showed at the World Hockey Summit in Toronto in August. And he has been in charge too long to be scared. But it has been forever since Gary Bettman wasn't the undisputed smartest person in the room. He was small and felt like an outcast as an only child growing up in Queens, N.Y. His father, who owned a nut business, left home when Gary was 5; he died eight years later. "I don't think I'm overstating things," Bettman says haltingly. "I may have been the only kid in the '50s living in a single-parent household." He pauses. "It was different." What he lacked in size or social confidence Bettman made up for in smarts. And while that made him more of an outsider, it also gave him a means to control his world. Today, he eagerly argues the most controversial issues facing the NHL but gets prickly over innocent biographical questions -- like what he dreamed of growing up to be. "I'm 58 years old," Bettman snaps. "I'm not exactly in touch with what my feelings were 46 years ago. I'd need a couple of hours of therapy to start thinking about that stuff." For the record, he claims no memory of ever wanting to be anything other than a lawyer. He went to Cornell's school of industrial and labor relations, mostly for its prelaw curriculum, then got a law degree at New York University. Hired by a Manhattan law firm whose clients included the NBA, his talents were soon recognized by then-executive vice president David Stern, who hired him away in 1981. Bettman eventually rose from in-house lawyer to the league's No. 3 executive, charged with implementing its salary cap. The NHL came calling in 1992, making Bettman the first non-hockey lifer to run its ship. He wasn't born into the game, but Bettman seems genetically suited to command a sport. "Our mother had enormous brain power," says Jeffrey Pollack, Bettman's half-brother and 13 years his junior. "Gary is a kinetic intellectual force. Some of that came from her." Pollack says his own career was inspired by Bettman's: He founded Sports Business Daily before spending four years as commissioner of the World Series of Poker. Today, he heads the Professional Bull Riders league. Pollack knows how it feels to walk into a foreign culture as its boss. "Gary is a superior intellect, and some people take that as pugnacious," he says. "When I'm with him at an NHL arena and he gets booed, I cheer loudly. Gary laughs it off, but it's painful." The boos are one side effect of forcing many wrenching changes on the NHL. Six new teams -- Florida, Anaheim, Nashville, Atlanta, Minnesota and Columbus -- sprung to life during Bettman's first eight years on the job. Three others migrated south, pushing the NHL's center of gravity from its roots. But the current state of warm-weather teams has sparked some second-guessing, even within the NHL's Board of Governors (albeit anonymously). "I think selling ice to the Sun Belt, driving hockey into markets that didn't want it, may be Gary's one mistake," one owner says. The commissioner disagrees: "The idea that I hate Canada is obviously absurd. Calgary and Edmonton wouldn't have survived if not for the things I did to save those franchises. Having teams in big U.S. markets gave us a footprint competitive with what other leagues have. Those markets make us more attractive, long-term, to television and national sponsors." Another key to Bettman's recovery plan -- tamping down player salaries -- nearly killed the patient. Shuttering a major league for a year was an unprecedented gamble, one which won him a hard cap but also led to an untimely end to a valuable TV deal with ESPN. The NHL has since been shown on Versus, the young cable network owned by Comcast, which also owns the Flyers. That deal expires next summer and the league expects competitive negotiations, with ESPN among those at the table. How successful the league is at securing more money and exposure will largely answer the question of whether hockey has truly recovered from the lockout. Bettman says some evidence is already in. "Our cable ratings, nationally, in the first two rounds of the playoffs were the highest they've been since they started recording these things," he says. "On a network that isn't in as many homes." Those ratings reflect a more dramatic and clean game, mitigating gripes from traditionalists still rankled by postlockout innovations like tie-breaking shootouts. Bettman credits execs Colin Campbell, a former Rangers coach, and Brendan Shanahan, an ex-player, for authoring most of the rules changes. But that isn't to suggest he isn't heavily involved in every decision. HE PRACTICALLY BURSTS with delight. "Oh, I know the question that's coming!" Seven words into hearing a sentence, Bettman, like a game show contestant pounding the buzzer, jumps in. He's slightly off in anticipating the subject, but it's his overeager reaction that is most telling. He isn't just the smartest guy in most rooms; he can't resist making sure everyone is clear on that fact. When Bettman is excited, he springs up in his chair, military straight. "Go ahead!" he says. "It's the fighting question!" No actually, it's the head-shot question. Last season, the NHL confronted an epidemic of concussions by rewriting the rules to draw distinctions between east-west headshots and full-on noggin-poundings. So why can't a civilized-if-violent sport -- Bettman interrupts me to substitute "physical" for "violent" -- ban headshots entirely? "No, no, no!" he shouts. "It's not about hitting people in the head. We obviously don't want players hit in the head." Bettman then begins a disquisition about the tiptoe between letting players play and keeping them from killing each other. His reasoning is impressive. What gets him stoked, though, are illustrative examples. "So if I take my elbow and I hit you in the head," he says, leaning forward, words pouring faster, "or I take my stick and I hit you in the head or I take my fist and I hit you in the head & " The father of three and doting grandfather looks as if he'd like to drop the gloves right now, or at least unclasp his French cuffs. The biggest fight Bettman has won to date, the salary cap, still feels like a split decision. And it is largely what's drawn Fehr into the players' corner for the rematch. Sure, the cap saved franchises on both sides of the border, but it has also fueled a dizzying turnover in talent that frays the team-fan bond Bettman claims to prize. The Blackhawks won the Cup in June; by August the cap had forced them to jettison one third of their roster. "Since the lockout, guys have played for three, four, five teams," says Ian Pulver, an agent and former NHLPA executive. "The game is better and more exciting, and the players like that. But it's a lot different to be a player now. Everyone points to an increase in the average salary, but careers are cut short as younger players replace older, more expensive ones. Pack your bags, unpack, pack your bags." Bettman shrugs when he hears this critique. "The relationship with fans is about whether you're winning," he says. "Chicago decided what it was going to do this past season to try to win the Cup. I think they knew going in this wasn't a team they could sustain for the long haul." He brings the same lack of sentiment to the debate over whether to pause the 2014 season so players can participate in the Olympics in Sochi, Russia. "The players who represented their countries in Vancouver, they didn't get compensated, and they risked their careers," he says. "I think the total of their contracts exceeded $2 billion. And yet the IOC wouldn't even allow the NHL Network to cover my press conference!" His detached stance is entirely rational, but it also gives the commissioner another chip when collective bargaining comes around next year. Still, how will he tell Alex Ovechkin that he can't represent his homeland in his homeland, especially when Ted Leonsis, the Capitals owner, says he'll allow his star to play regardless? "Have you ever been to Sochi?" Bettman says with contempt. "Maybe you should go." So much for the charm offensive. Then again, Bettman isn't much interested in winning hearts, not when he believes his sport can do it for him. And, anyway, it is the looming battle with Fehr that will most likely determine his legacy. Bettman says, and has shown often, that he's not one to back down. But he claims not to be spoiling for anything other than a league that works for both sides. "I'm not a fan of the fight for the sake of the fight," the commissioner says, settling placidly back into his chair. Maybe the Kovalchuk wrangling, which ended with both the league and the union able to claim victory, was the beginning of something radical: hockey's combative commissioner figuring out how to wage peace. Or maybe that's just what he wants the other guys in the room to think.

On points ? im talking about an overall player, you clearly haven't watched any games hes played. Hes strong with the puck, has good skating and elusive style so he can get around you with dekes, and has good speed, makes good decisions and stellar passing ability to get the pucks where they need to go. He has a decent defensive game, and can also knot 30+ goals and hes only 23 and is only going to get better. However I guess thats not good enough for you.... Who are you to say he wouldn't be equal or better if he was the number one player on a team ? I personally think he could maintain 90-100 points he has achieved even without Ovy.Hes not a greedy player and doesn't try to do everything himself, even if he can net a open net, he will pass.

I will be at a Civil War reenactment at Wolcott Mill Metropark from Friday afternoon till Sunday afternoon. Pretty sure a bunch of us are going to go AWOL Friday night and slither over to Buffalo Wild Wings at 26 Mile and Van Dyke to watch the opener.

Does this mean less "intent to blow" calls this season?

I will be there! I bought tickets for the first three games! =) So excited too!

I can't wait for google tv and other services to run these guys outta business. We're currently paying separately for tv, telephone, and internet all running on the same networks and wires. You may get a combo pack, but you're still paying for 3 services, when internet is all that really should be charged anymore.

you better be putting up the gdt before you leave slacker=)

Obviously they were for 81 and 82.

Calling someone's post dumb is pretty much calling them dumb. Ah were only that true. But I can dream... Which is why it's a good thing we have you here at the ready to pass judgment. keep up the good work. cheers. apologies to the mods for derailing the thread. I facepalm myself.

Much of the criticism of Bettman is BS. He's a very smart guy who has done a pretty good job for his primary constituency (the owners). Fans -- especially north of the border -- will hate him no matter what he does. Too effing bad. Take it up with the owners. Totally agree that his big mistake was the aggressive push into the US Sun Belt. A toe-in-the-water, slow/incremental approach (i.e., one team instead of six) would have made a lot more sense if he wanted to pursue such a strategy. On the other hand, he's also shrewdly thrown the NHLPA a bone with the expansion by creating more player jobs. Even if just 2 or 3 of the Sun Belt teams survive (with the rest folding and/or moving to Canada), his strategy still will probably have been a success overall.

imo the NHL should be run by a former NHL player or coach or at least someone that knows something about hockey.

Bettman's a turd. Continue to boo him everywhere he goes. esteef

Bettman could have done much better. Revenues are up, but I feel they could have been up much more... by focusing on strengths and not expanding into nothing markets. No matter how you spin it - losing an entire season is an abysmal failure and has never happened in NHL history. He has effectively alienated almost the entire NHL fanbase. Yes, it is not a popular job but come on - this guy is universally hated by almost every single fan out there. He is an embarrassing public persona and combative with even the simplest questions posed to him.

The clutch and grab era was happening regardless of Bettman. Bettman legitimately fixed a widespread problem with the league that occurred, give him credit. Is 18 years absurdly long? Maybe he's doing absurdly well. And he has been responsible for widespread improvement across the league. Bettman is responsible for the two-referee system, which has resulted in a significant increase in quality of officiating due to a second pair of eyes on the ice from another angle on the opposite side of the play. Bettman is responsible for the league increasing revenues at a rate beyond what anyone even considered possible. Yes, a couple of teams were sold and had to move, but that was largely due to a triple combination of market size, fan support, and in two cases exchange rate. Bettman is responsible for this: the NHL used to pay 75% of revenue to players, now it's less than 55%. Yet there are more players than ever now, and a record average salary. As far as play quality? Bettman is responsible for killing clutch and grab. Bettman's rule changes have resulted in teams using more roster spots on skilled players, rather than unskilled goons. Self-serving? How? Explain that one to me.

No, 29 owners respect him as well. I don't hate him. Most people that do blame him for things he hasn't really been responsible for. It's not Bettman's job to make fans happy, he is supposed to make the owners happy. He doesn't work for us, he doesn't work for the players, he doesn't work for TV, he works for the owners and is answerable to them. It is the owners' responsibility to make the fans and players happy. Which is why salaries for players are so high, and why owners are always trying to find ways to cut costs to the fans without compromising the ability to generate revenue. No money in means no money out. Clearly, based on the 18-year tenure, Bettman is doing a good job as determined by the only people who really should matter to him. If you aren't happy with VS or southern teams, blame the owners who moved them or the networks that despised the game.

I've always been a fan. A lot of people that don't like him are from the "monkey see/monkey do" regime. No one offered the NHL a TV contract so he ran with OLN/VS and got the most money possible. The profits for owners and the NHL are retardedly hi. He's done a great job. He could have done better in a few instances, but as a whole, you have to be an idiot to think he hasn't done a good job.

I don't understand all the hate he gets. I think he's done a reasonable job. You'll never please everybody when you're in a position like he is. I'm just glad he's not driving the sport into the ground like Stern is with the NBA. What a joke of a league that's become.

Totally, have been in this camp for years despite the success.The Flip was a big flop in the S.J series ; no grit injury or not. I believe his no show along with the crappy goaltending did us in. Grinders, in Detroit has become a remote dream. Imagine were wondering abou the fate of Abdelkader - oh no another Knuble gone. Were far of course - I'll take a guy from PEI any day over ...

Exactly. The Wings forwards play O and D, they roll 4 lines to keep them fresh and try to move the puck around and different people score. It just prevents individual monster scoring from guys who could do it if they could play more and be one dimensional. We prefer Cups.

Z could easily score 50 if he was put on all offense, now he's one of the best shutdown guys in the game and he's got to be equally good in the defensive zone... nothin new just sayin'