VM1138

Howard is a remarkably consistent goalie. I'd say he and Miller are on the same plane (top 5 goalies), so it's a lateral move. Might as well stick with the guy we got, although I like Miller and lot and wish he could have some degree of success somewhere.

Great game. Very happy, but it was Buffalo after all. But I like our offense and how it's constantly attacking. Weiss is way better than Flip, I saw him make plays and crash the net in ways Flip never would do. Emmerton is just kind of...meh. I understand he's a center, but I'm very annoyed he's in over Tatar. Defense I'm not sure of. They really weren't challenged at all, but I didn't see anything egregiously bad. Kronwall looks like he's returned to form and was instrumental in a lot of plays. Alfredsson looked great, too. Seeing Datsyuk and Zetterberg dominate together was a great thing to see, too. It's going to be a good year, I think.

Unfortunately I'll miss this game due to work, as I suspect will happen quite a bit this year. Excited to have hockey back, though. Remember the rules, folks, keep things on topic and we'll all get along nicely. It has been for a while. Like most other terms, marketing has completely ruined meaning of words in general. Remember the Minnesota-Detroit "rivalry game" on NBC last year? I also don't like that entities try to "make" rivalries. They happen when they happen. I don't expect a rivalry to open with Buffalo tonight, but I do expect some to evolve between Boston, Toronto, maybe Montreal. But if they want to spark a rivalry tonight, I'm all for it!

Ick, these lines don't look as good as I thought they would. Success hinges on that second line. The bottom two are pretty blah, especially that third. It's a bad sign that our "energy line" could consist of one kid with speed and two older guys with no legs.

Good luck to him.

Total goals scored is a terrible measurement. The best team is rarely the highest scoring team. A team that is clutch and wins one goal games can win more games than a team that occasionally outscores the other team 7-0.

You really wonder? It'll be the Penguins. Again.

I don't fully understand how he could fall so quickly. He was a serviceable top 4 defenseman until last year, and all of a sudden he's an untouchable. Did he kill somebody's kitten?

It'll be something related to the new arena I bet. Maybe something Winter Classic-related. But I don't think relations with Fedorov have improved this summer so I doubt it's his participation in the game. And it can't be Lidstrom, because we don't have cap space. Sadly. I don't remember the last time they made a mysterious announcement. Strange.

Anyone else bugged by us being "like" Chicago, even though Chicago copied us?

I don't blame Holland. Hossa didn't have the reputation as a playoff beast. And really, I don't think he has been. Maybe I'm wrong. I haven't consulted the stats, but until this year Hossa was really a streaky regular season player. Holland could've gone either way, but it looked like the sky was the limit for Franzen. Then came the Cup hangover that lasted til last year.

We don't know Tatar and Nyquist can deliver. We hope and expect they can. Look, I'll miss Brunner as much as anyone. He has skill and the desire to improve. But Tatar is more well rounded than Brunner and equally driven. While it'd be nice to have two young scoring wingers, it's just not in the cards. Point is, Alfredsson is quality insurance in case Tatar doesn't develop. Consider Tatar to be Brunner 2.0 and Alfredsson to be icing on the cake. Tatar is the key to the season, I think. If he explodes we will do fine. If not, our offense hasn't improved much over last year.

Sammy has no excuse to be rusty. Sitting out the last part of the season for a pectoral issue, he better have been busting you-know-what to get in game shape. I've got a bad feeling (not based just on one preseason game) that we're going to have the same problems as last year with some line combinations and players. I hope Babcock isn't too loyal to Sammy and Cleary if they can't pull their own weight.

No way Holland gives up on Tatar. We can always waive Eaves, Bertuzzi or Sammy. There is just no way we trade Tatar when we have goal scoring issues.

Franzen is in for it now. There won't be a second whipping boy to share the load with.

I think we all like Cleary. But as a role player. Babcock likes to pretend he's a top 6 scorer. If we didn't have such a backlog of players I'm sure most of us would be fine with him returning if he was kept in his proper role.

I don't see the big deal. The jerseys won't win any "Awesome Jersey" competition, but they're not the most hideous we've ever seen in the NHL. This generates a big "meh" from me. But it does get annoying how some teams change their jerseys every year and say it'll magically make them better.

So far so good. But Holland not being able to unload anyone via trade worries me. DeKeyser is the only one who can be sent down to the AHL, which worries me. If we can't unload anyone, he might be sent down.

I like Brunner, but who would clear cap space to sign him? He'd be a great addition to any team but I'm not sure Is go to so much trouble to sign him. Unless it actually is the Wings who have a lot of chaff to dispose of.

Unlike those other teams the Rangers have had a fairly consistent talent level. From 2000 or so until now. Probably earlier, too. I think we are all talking in a general sense of this era of the Rangers, not just the current team or the last three or four years. At least I am.

The Rangers have had way more talent in recent years. There's really no excuse for their underachieving. When people said the Wings bought their teams I pointed to the Rags, who spent about as much money. It still takes talent to buy a winning team and assemble it. But Toronto has had talent, too. And being the center of the hockey universe, they are very disappointing, too. Toronto is the bigger embarassment, but the Rangers are the bigger disappointment.

We can debate not buying out Bertuzzi, but Sammy was outside of Holland's control. Sammy screwed the team by declaring an injury that probably doesn't exist, and you apparently weren't allowed to buy out an injured player.

That's what I remember, too. The official story was that he felt his era was over. Time to make room for the new Red Wings like Datsyuk. That being said, it could've been because he didn't want to deal with Babcock. I forget, did he go to Jersey after us? Was their coach more laid back?

There's no doubt we all love what Shanny did for us. The guy was Wing royalty for almost ten years. But alas, retired numbers should he reserved for very, very special cases. There will be lots of fantastic players playing for the Wings. I feel like you have to really define the Wings to be retired. Yzerman and Lidstrom did, perhaps Shanny didn't.

Hull played on the "Two Kids and a Goat Line" first in 2001-2002, with Boyd Devereaux and Pavel Datsyuk. I didn't see much of the 2003 season, but I think he played with Zetterberg and Datsyuk there, too, and the line had the same name.