Desperate Hockey Housewives

...and girlfriends too.

Some (many?) of the wives and girlfriends of Hockey loving guys out there are sadly missing what was for them was the wonderful season of no hockey that they experienced last year. Now they're bumming while their spouses/boyfriends are cheering because...

HOCKEYS BACK... and they DON'T LIKE THAT.

"During hockey season, our life is totally taken over by hockey and I didn't realize how badly that was happening, until the strike came along," Lauren Burrows, who is engaged to a hockey fanatic, says.

"And then all of a sudden there was this beautiful freedom from hockey that I didn't know that I needed."

"I can't say that our relationship is in trouble, but I must say that watching hockey several nights a week, including the nights that he goes to play hockey, can get a little boring," Burrows says.

With their husbands distracted, like-minded women are even seeking out support in online forums.

Dr. oddmanrush's advice to Hockey lovers caught in these types of totally dysfunctional relationships is to........ RUN !!! Find yourself someone who's as passionate, committed and crazed as you are about this sport. They are out there. It might not be easy to find them but it's totally worth the effort. I know because I was lucky and blessed enough to find one. If a goofball puckhead like I can do it... so can you.

Hockey loving women are the best, DON'T settle for less.


GAME RECAPS for Sunday 10-10-05.

Rink Revival

Finding My Religion... (it is Sunday after all)

Hockey is my religion and as I once again watch it's holy services being held on the arena ice altars of the NHL after a extended exile in the wilderness I'm finding that my religion and it's most fervent followers have been rejuvenated... reborn.

HALLELUJAH!!!

At last, the National Hockey League is back. This is the NHL we remember fondly: The goals, the big hits, the arena rocking.
What happened Saturday night at Mellon Arena was hockey at its finest. Yes, hockey the way it was supposed to be played.

"It's exciting," Lemieux said after the game. "It's great for the game, it's exciting for the fans. They don't want to see 1-0 games."

Amen.

Truth be told, hockey had been missing for a lot longer than the NHL's 300-plus day lockout that wiped out the 2004-05 season. Even for a diehard fan, the NHL had become difficult to watch in the last decade with its soccer-like scores, the clutching and grabbing and the New Jersey Devils' dreaded neutral zone trap. It was a lousy product. But, if this game was any indication of what the "new" NHL is going to be like, I'm buying it.

See, people are being converted and even some of the harshest critics of the sports controversial leader are now singing his praises to the high heavens... well, sort of.

Often referred to in these pages as a cross between Lord Voldemort, Darth Sidius and Viktor Tikhonov, the diminutive NHL commissioner finally did something that could well keep him out of the villains' hall of fame.

Little Man Gary came up big.

The looong stormy period where the faith of many was challenged by the trials and tribulations of the Dead Puck Era and the year of Great Darkness is over and the true believers are now witnessing the coming of a glorious new day.

"The game looks much nicer now," Montreal Canadiens forward Alexei Kovalev said last night. "The refs can't keep up because the game is going so fast. It's fun to watch."

The fast and furious, you should know, wasn't just contained to the Air Canada last night. In Pittsburgh, the Boston Bruins stormed back from a 6-4 deficit in the third to win 7-6 in overtime on Glen Murray's goal, his fourth point of a night that featured Sidney Crosby's first goal to go with two assists.
When was the last time you read that kind of story line out of an NHL game?
Well, it also happened in St. Louis, where the San Jose Sharks trailed 5-3 entering the third period and fought back to win by the same 7-6 score on Jonathan Cheechoo's goal with less than two minutes left.

Are we having fun yet?

You bet we are and nowhere is that joy being felt more deeply, passionately and dare I say spiritually than in Hockeys' Holy Land.

Senators winger Bryan Smolinski an American talks about playing in this religions homeland.

"Coming to Canada to play hockey is like coming into a new religion," he said. "You don't realize it until you're in its grasp."
"The birth of babies were missed because the Leafs or the Habs were playing.
"The kids on my street were coming up to me and telling me, 'That was a goal you scored the other night in Toronto.' They want to know what Wade Redden and Dany Heatley are like. For a hockey player, this is Nirvana."

I'm really going to have to make a pilgrimage to Hockeys' Homeland some day and visit the sacred sites. Maybe go have my picture taken with it's Holy Grail. <<< That picture I love on a couple different levels.

So on this traditional day of worship remember to give thanks, praise God and pass the....... puck.

Reccommended Reading:

The Joy of Sports

"For sports fans who want to know why they're so committed, this book may provide an answer... an exhilarating exercise full of uncanny insights into the motives and metaphysics of sports and seventh-inning stretches of legend and nostalgia."

Publishers Weekly

RECAPS 10/9/05:
Another big night in the NHL last night with lots of interesting stuff happening, Crosby's first goal, Gretzky's first win, couple of 13 goal games, a couple of OT games and a couple of Shootouts. Here's the RECAPS.

(all emphasis mine)

Prophet sharing... and other stuff

Want to know who the first coach to be fired will be, how many points Sidney Crosby will score this season or what team won't be as bad as you think? Well this guy here seems to think he knows....

unlike all the other pundits who think there are too many variables to accurately predict what will happen this season, I've got it all figured out. Now I'm going to share it with you.
And when these things come true -- and they will -- please remember where you first read it

Aaaah, like I said he seems to think he knows.

Meanwhile in Minnesota the Gov. (not Jesse the body Ventura) used a word that rhymes with puck to lead the crowd in a cheer on opening night

It was the governor's tripping over the word "puck" that provoked the snickers. Instead of telling people to drop the puck, he used a very similar-sounding word that made him sound more like Tony Soprano than his usual smooth-talking self.

...oooopsie.

Some people don't like that "Thank You Fans" slogan the NHL has put on the ice. They want to know... Thanks for what?

Although it's good to have the NHL back playing, it's difficult to forgive and forget.
Seeing the message "Thank you fans" painted underneath the ice at Joe Louis Arena Wednesday night sent a twinge of anger up my spine.

In another sign of Hockey's continued world wide growth, popularity and health the Corpus Christi Rays of the CHL have added a Mexican born player to their training camp roster. If Brian Baxter Arroyo-Lopez makes the team he will become the first Mexican born athlete to play professional hockey in North America.

Rayz General Manager/Senior Vice President Larry Linde said...

“When you consider how well hockey has been received in South Texas it makes sense to try and extend it south of the border. Our Hispanic fan-base is passionate, knowledgeable and excited about Rayz hockey.

Rayz Head Coach Ken McRae added...

“He’s got good size and some international experience. The scouting report on him is that he skates extremely well and can handle the puck. I’m curious to see what he’s all about. The pro game is a different game than what he’s used to but he’ll have every opportunity to make our club.”

Pretty cool... que no? Odd Man Rush extends best wishes for success to Arroyo-Lopez.

Finally here's your NHL game recaps from last night (10-7-05). It was another exciting night of Hockey, the third one in a row... the streak continues.

Will it ever end?

Big Opening for NHL

The relaunch of the NHL for the most part went spectacularly well. Congratulations are in order. Attendance was 98% of capacity and that set a opening night record for the league. Television ratings also were good both in the USA and especially in Canada where they were very, very good.

Wednesday's season-opening doubleheader shattered all records for NHL viewership on the network, and rated as one of the most-watched nights in TSN's 21-year history.

"It exceeded our wildest expectations," said an incredulous TSN president Phil King. "Hockey is back in a huge way, that's for sure. It was just unbelievable."

A few numbers for your consideration. The Senators-Leafs early game, combined with a regional Flames-Wild telecast in Alberta, pulled in 2.1 million viewers. It peaked at 2.7 million during the overtime and shootout won by the Sens.

That's more than double the previous NHL high on TSN (a 2004 playoff game), and the first time a regular-season NHL game even cracked the one million mark. It was also the third most-watched event in network history (the top two, both over three million, are world junior hockey finals).

There's more. Game 2 of the twinbill -- Wayne Gretzky's Coyotes in Vancouver against the Canucks, along with an Oilers-Avalanche game in Alberta -- teamed up for an audience of 1.3 million.

TSN research indicated 6.4 million Canadians watched at least some portion of the NHL doubleheader.

"We knew going in that it was going to be one of the biggest nights in TSN history, but not like that," said King. "It was our day to shine.

All in all it was a good opening night all the way around, which I think is a good omen for the future.

The result, for the most part, was exactly what the NHL wanted - more freedom for the most talented players to make plays, and more goals.

A total of 95 were scored on the night, an average of 6.33 per game. In 2003-'04, the average regular season game produced 5.19 goals.

''It's definitely a fun game without all the clutching and grabbing,'' said Vancouver Canucks captain Markus Naslund. ''They're letting us play hockey.''

However there were a few holdouts who were still upset and unwilling forgive and forget including this one particular Canadian that caught my eye.

"No, I'm not watching any NHL hockey. None. Not goin' to any games, not gonna watch any games on TV, not gonna read anything in the sports pages. F@#k 'em. F@#k 'em all," groused McCoveny, an insurance claims adjuster. "They're all a bunch of selfish pricks, the owners, the players...their...wives...

Their wives?

The second night wasn't too shabby either. Here's the National Hockey League Game Capsules from 10-6-05.

Like I've said before put those shades on because the future's so bright your going to need them. I bet Mats Sundin wished he had put his on.

Early Numbers

Using my free NHL CenterIce for a week offer I caught most of the games last night and for the most part was happy with what I saw. ESPN this morning is confirming more or less what I witnessed from last nights play:

Scoring: UP 36%
Penalties: UP 44%
Attendance: UP 4%
and
Ticket Prices: DOWN 7.5%

Except for the penalty number which I suspect will go down as the season progresses those are all positives.

It's a Blog World After All

Speaking of ESPN they may no longer have the TV contract for the NHL but to compensate they got into the Blogosphere in a fairly big way for opening night with contributors at a number of games. Here's some exerts:

ESPN.com's Scott Burnside checks in from Pens-Devils (7:20 p.m. ET): As a Canadian, it's still a bit startling to show up to an arena like the Continental Airlines Arena and see full-fledged tailgating going on. Sausages on the BBQ in the backs of pickup trucks or under portable awnings. In Canada, you'd never see that! Restrictive laws surrounding the consumption of alcohol, plus the fact that it's freezing cold outside most Canadian rinks once the hockey season is in full swing, makes such revelry unknown.

Hockey Tailgating? Now there's a good sign.

ESPN.com contributor Damien Cox checks in from the Sens-Leafs game at the ACC (7:59 p.m. ET): As has been the tradition in Toronto, the 48th Highlanders drum and pipe band has hit the ice prior to game time, as has been the case for every Maple Leaf opening night since 1931. They will conclude, as has been a more recent tradition, with The Maple Leaf Forever. But before they do, yes, Stompin' Tom Connors has stepped out to do a live version of The Hockey Game. What can I tell you it's a Canadian thing.

Here's more on Stompin' Tom Connors and his song The Hockey Game.

And finally this from the Flames - Wild game:

Johnson (9:13 p.m. ET): Jacques Lemaire is using Wes Walz, Matt Foy and Stephane Veilleux against the Iginla line, which went shotless in the first period. Iginla's looking PO'ed. You get the feeling he may drop the mitts to give his passionless side some life. ... Calgary has doubled its shot total to six in the first 3:31 of the period. ... Kiprusoff's double save on Todd White and defenseman Willie Mitchell keeps his team within hailing distance.

Check out ESPN's complete Blog coverage from last night.

Opening Night blog: Hockey's back
It like the games played last night was pretty good and also like the games should steadily improve as the season progresses.

For a look at the summaries of all of last nights games go >>> here.

Hockey Days Are Here Again

FINALLY
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Tonight's Match Ups

New Hockey From A - Z

Fearless Puck Predictions

Don Cherry Prophesies

New Puck TV Coverage

30 Players to Watch This Season

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PLUS: FREE NHL CENTER ICE !!!!!

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Enjoy

O Canada

Cup Headed Home ?

Maybe.

This season could shape up to be the best chance in quite awhile for a Canadian team to win the Stanley Cup. All six teams should make the playoffs and a couple have legitimate shots at raising the Cup.

Canada, it would appear, is prepared to compete in the new NHL, and possibly dominate. Five of the Canadian teams Calgary, Ottawa, Vancouver, Montreal and Edmonton are solidly ensconced in the upper half of the league going into the 2005-06 season. A sixth, Toronto's Maple Leafs, could also be a playoff team, particularly if the risk-laden, off-season acquisitions of Eric Lindros and Jason Allison bear fruit.
The rise of the Canadian teams has been ongoing for some time, of course, spiritually ignited, some could argue, by the embarrassing effort to get the federal government to cough up cash to underwrite their losses. Once the feds got cold feet, the teams got down to fixing their own problems and, bolstered over time by a resurgent Canadian dollar, have done just that.

It's been eleven looong years since a club from Canada last won Stanley. That represents the longest drought suffered by the Great White North in NHL history going back to 1926 and 2005/06 very well could turn out to be the season the suffering ends.

I got no problem with that.

Here's a look at and analysis of the six Canadian teams and their chances at winning the Cup.

And how are the Canadian fans reacting to the new season and it's possibilities? In a word they're ecstatic.

In Canada, the return of the big-league version of the national game, beginning with the end of the lockout in July, has been greeted with something approaching ecstasy. All of that talk about greedy players and myopic owners and a commissioner who didn't really understand the sport -- gone. All of those pledges to never, ever attend another NHL game, never watch one on television, never crack open a sports section if there was a hint of hockey on the cover -- forgotten. Many a pox was placed on both their houses, but now the game comes back in an atmosphere of universal love.

Here's more on the ecstasy of the Canadian fans.

Let the games begin.

VOTE

It's your Hockey duty

Well, it's not really your duty but what the heck else do you have to do today? Vote for the Division, Conference and Stanley Cup winners in addition to team individual awards. Find out how your choices match up with the voting that's already taken place.

Your polling place is located >>> here.

Crystal Puck Gazing

Do it for too long and you'll go crazy

Trust me.

With the start of the season just a matter of days away there still is no consensus emerging from hockey fortune tellers regarding how the grand experiment will go. That however hasn't stopped any of them from gazing into their crystal balls... err I mean pucks and reporting back on what they see.

Some are pretty positive. In fact this one lists 12 reasons why he is and we should be also.

here's #...

8. Shooting the puck will be back in style. It won't be like the 1970s and '80s when Guy Lafleur and Mike Bossy used to roar down the wings and uncork long slap shots past netminders. The science of goalkeeping won't allow a complete return to those times, but forwards are now getting up to top speed through the neutral zone. Also, downsizing the goalie equipment has made more of the net visible. If there is more net showing, players will shoot. Count on that.

Others whose job it is to know these things have absolutely no clue what to expect or how to handicap the races and it's causing some big headaches.

...as for oddsmakers - they'd sooner take an Al MacInnis slapper to the groin than go about hanging NHL lines, a market where their profit margin has always been razor thin.
"This is creating a huge headache for us," says betCRIS.com oddsmaker Shane Catford. "There are a lot of things that we still don't quite have figured out."

...for now, sportsbooks and their customers find themselves on even ice when it comes to betting the new NHL. It's nearly impossible to say which teams will thrive in this reconfigured league, but with scoring the order of the day, look for clubs that can ripple the mesh.
"The more skilled teams that struggled in the past, when defense ruled, will likely rise to the top,” predicts Murphy. "Detroit, Dallas, and Colorado are the teams that will probably still be overvalued in the early going."

And then there are the cynics (no, not the rock band).

So how do you like the new NHL?
Because, after all, it's your NHL.
It certainly isn't mine any more, despite what the ads say.
My NHL wouldn't have 20 power plays a game in order to end "obstruction," only to forget about it during the postseason. And you and I both know that will happen.
But hey, there's now a tradition of having one set of rules for the regular season and another for the playoffs. Like, for example, ending those first "meaningless" 82 games with a shootout — that contemptible sideshow that ensures a winner in every game it's featured in, without a single pass being completed or a defenseman on the ice.
Why not just have them play a hand of Texas Hold'em instead?

Maybe then ESPN would have invited us back.

Ooooouch! That one left a bruise.


Me? Well I'm still Mr. Positive. The league has survived many other tough times they will these. As far as the rule changes go did you know that at one time a player couldn't pass the puck forward or that the net had no crossbar? The sport has weathered rule changes before, I'm not worried about it now. The game is much bigger than the people who run it, play it or watch it and it will be just fine. So relax... rejoice and enjoy it's long awaited return. Besides, I just noticed DirecTv turned on OLN for me... for free!... AND I saved a ton on my car insurance!

WOOHOO!

See, how could I not be positive? I'm seeing a future so freakin bright I'm just going to have to put some cool shades on. Wait a minute... this all couldn't be because I've been staring into the Crystal Puck for far too looooooooong? Could it?

Naaaaah.


... to be continued.

Cluster Puck

There's some very interesting round table like discussions taking place over at Battle of Alberta amongst members of the Canadian blogging community on various topics related to the upcoming NHL season. Great stuff.

Check it out:
NHL Brainstorm!

They're up to part 2 at this point (#3 is Sunday) in what appears to be a continuing series. It's Canadian only for now but who knows maybe they'll open it up here stateside, especially to bloggers covering the Northwest division.

Battle of Northwest
Bring it on.

Anyways, back to Alberta and our friends up north from... la belle province sans merci. If anyone is interested in learning more about the unusual and fascinating dynamics of this complex place of great hockey, great beauty and so much more you might want to check out:

Against the Grain:
An Irreverent View of Alberta

Books explaining Alberta are needed. Despite what the rest of Canada chooses to think about Alberta, it has now become necessary to make conversation with this brash, unruly and unpredictable province. No matter how intense the desire to avert the eyes, ignore Alberta, that strategy just won't work any more.

And books about Alberta are useful because they offer information on this now-unavoidable power within the national family, although no one book will provide a curious or dismissive out-of-province Canadian with a definitive answer. Alberta is a chameleon, prone to instant switchbacks, various disguises and multiple identities. Reader beware.

Indeed... beware.