Dabura

Flying off the handle after one game is what we do best. We also specialize in throwing people under the proverbial bus after two games. On a more "serious" note - "You have to remember, most of our guys didn't play a lot during the lockout" is a very lame excuse. No offense, of course. Just sayin'.

Pink jerseys? Really? Really?

God hates the Red Wings.

Hossa = Hot Franzen - Not

I'm not sure which is worse: the over-reacting or the self-rigtheous why-don't-you-just-quit-then responses to it.

It's a ploy. Make it seem like they're objective, unbiased. Don't buy it.

The new Captain makes it 2-1!

A segment on Sidney Crosby. Surprise, surprise. The irrational hater in me feels like the lockout was engineered to give "The Kid" a good rest.

They really do. Can't get anything going. Very clearly out-o-shape. Doc keeps talking about Bowman and the Wings. (The Bowman Wings.) Once, nothing strange, twice, eh, three times, that's weird...

Pretty much.

2-0 Pens. Close to halfway through the 1st. Pens came to play today, give 'em credit. Disco Dan likes what he sees. Doc telling the Bowman stopwatch anecdote --> Pens score --> weird transition from anecdote to SCORE!

Loving the crowd. Which is crazy, because I detest Flyers fans. Like, with a burning passion. But this is just Hockey. Good stuff.

One game just started a bit earlier than the other, that's all. It's gonna be one of those switch-if-we-can dealies, I think. Which is cool. Flyers looked gassed, lol. Interference call. Someone touched Crysob. ...and the wrong guy is in the box. Welcome back, NHL.

As a Pennsylvanian, I am..."proud" isn't the word. Hmmm. Aw hell, simply put: I loved seeing the orange & black s*** all over Sidney & Co. in the first round. Hope they continue the trend!

One thing I really like about the signing, and him as a person and player, is that he seems really big on expanding his game, learning to play in key situations - becoming a more complete player. Correct me if I'm wrong here, but I'd say that the majority of ultra-pests and enforcers (lightweight, middle, and heavy) are mostly very content with what they bring to the fold. "Right, I'm gonna destroy #19, and draw a penalty, and my work is done for the night." I like that Tootoo seems to want to be more - and, at the same time, has no illusions or delusions re: his biggest "draws," if you will. Maybe some of that is about distancing himself from his darker days. I don't know, and I'm not going to pretend otherwise and turn this into That Kind of Thread. I just think he deserves some props - and if not props, then at least a clean-ish slate. Not to knock Trotz, who I happen to have a pretty good deal of respect for, but, Trotz Tootoo = Babcock Tootoo? Not likely. (All the good, a bit of the bad.) Or, bottom line, I guess: Preds Tootoo = Wings Tootoo? Not bloody likely. (ditto) A friend of mine suggested the whistles have some kind of Pavlovian effect on him, i.e. they turn him into a ****** bag. Which, at the time, I took to be kind of a racist put-down. But, actually, I think it's sort of an intriguing idea. (OK, not really. I'm procrastinating/killing time.)

After last season, I think his "production" is, for better of for worse, something he's going to be judged by (if only in part). I mean, we all know how much Holland likes bruisers who really struggle to produce. Point being, (IMHO), he's here for what he does off the scoresheet, yes, but I think there are, and ought to be, some *expectations* (if relatively modest ones) regarding his point production. He will demolish fools. Absolutely destroy some. Take a lot of stupd penalties, some of which will have us clawing our eyes out. Make his fair share of boneheaded plays. And he will, I think, put up some pretty good numbers for a fourth-line pest.

Heard an interesting case for Franzen: that he doesn't like pressure, performs best when it's off. Which might, at least, explain why he seems so excited about the 48 to come. (No one is expecting this team to do any sort of real damage.)

No, I can't. But being in the top-6 doesn't necessarily make you one of the two best forwards. Anyway, that was last season. Is he considered one of (two of) the very best forwards on this Wings team? (Not to put too fine a point on it, but - Datsyuk and Zetterberg are our two best forwards, and Kronwall is our best defenseman.)

"Emdog" will probably be centering the first line by the time this (half-)season's through. And his wingers will be Nyquist and Tootoo.

Ouch. (Somewhere dark and secret, but with wifi, Nyquists rubs his hands together, grinningly madly.)

Smart money's on Big Rig, IMHO. Gonna be seeing a whole lotta ice this (half-)season.

It works out for me because I'm a non-local, and I've never really gotten into the whole special NHL TV package thing (Game Center, Center Ice). For these kinds of games (i.e. ones that aren't nationally televised) I typically just follow along with this thread and a box score page (nhl.com or espn.com or tsn.ca), and maybe a radio feed if I can find it. So basically I'm cheap and lazy when it comes to following along.[/badfan]

You. Are hardcore.

Re: "This team is too old," Yes and no (IMHO). "No" because we're not that old. "Yes" because everyone whose opinion matters seems to want this to be A Young Team. All these sound bites about hunger, and battling through this ridiculous schedule, and seizing opportunity, and surprising people despite a lack of experience, and trying to take a "blue-collar" approach - it all screams young-inexperienced-team-that-wants-to-overachieve. So where does an older guy fit into that? Well, I guess to retract what I said a little, I think that our older players actually fit that mold pretty well - as opposed to being, like, old and super-soft sniper specialists (e.g. Brett Hull), we have a nice collection of very hard-nosed, physically capable "blue-collar" types in Bertuzzi, Cleary, Samuelsson, et al. Even Zetterberg - he's like an ultra-class third-liner. Even Datsyuk has shown a salty side. Speaking of Datsyuk, though, he might actually be the "old guy" I'm most worried about. He, probably more than any of other "old Wing," is Skill, Skill, Skill (with some extra stuff thrown in - though less so every season, I assume, as he is in fact a near-ancient 34 years of age). How will his game hold up re: his body. How will it work in the context of this new-look, new-feel, "new-age" roster? I think that's where we may ultimately find Brunner's immediate worth, i.e. in, yes, his production, but, perhaps even more importantly, in how he helps to bridge old and new, super-skill-dependent-aesthetic-of-yesterday and young-and-dirty-workingman-ethos-of-today. Lordy, I dunno if any of that'll make any sense. I'm exhausted and my brain feels like mush.

8 PM is soooooo faaaaaaaar awaaaaaaayyyyyyy.