This week is going by slowly and flying by all at the same time. In my defense, my brain is wandering around on it's own since I am leaving Friday morning for a family wedding at the beach and work is making my head spin non-stop. But enough with the excuses, the puck has FINALLY dropped on the pre-season and there's plenty of news to go around.
The Staal brothers (count 'em, there's 4) are all big, competive guys and apparently last season oldest brother Eric (Hurricanes) knocked down second oldest Marc (Rangers) during a game. All these months later, Marc is now expereincing concussion symptoms after practices. As if we needed to add someone else to the non-stop concussion list. Hopefully they are occuring simply because he hasn't skated this hard in months because this is the last thing the Rangers need to deal with. It's bad enough they are starting the season on the longest road trip ever due to renovations at MSG. Currently they are regulated to the MSG training facility and will venture to Europe for pre-season games and to actually start the season. Once they return state-side, they won't have a home game until October 27. After a month at home, they will throw HBO into the mix for 24/7. If no one has a mental breakdown in Ranger-ville, I'd consider that a successful season. Gearing up for the playoffs potentially might the least stressful aspect of their season. Good god. I'm tired just thinking about their schedule.
Mike Modano announced he is retiring as the most successful US born player. He might have left out the second part, but it's the truth. Check the stats. Everyone above him is shockingly, Canadian. Who would have thunk it?! He is hoping to get a position in the Star front office, once they have new owners.
Speaking of the Stars, I'm going to skip the fact they have declared bankruptcy since it's the first step to their potential new owners taking over in the next few months. Opppps. Moving on....
The Devils have a new coach, Pete DeBoer. They have no captain yet. “It’s down my list of priorities on things we’re trying to get done right now," DeBoer said. "For now we are at camp." That's because first on his priority list is making sure Lou Lamoriello is on his good side, so he doesn't get fired in case the team has an epic meltdown a la last season. The second would be to make sure that Jacques Lemaire is somewhere fabulous to ensure that he won't return for another stint in case of an epic meltdown.
The Winnipeg Jets have officially picked up where they left off. They sold out their arena for their first pre-season game, fans were dancing into the arena (seriously?) and Byfuglien had a fight with a Blue Jacket within the first 37 seconds. The Jets also scored 6 goals (each team played a split squad with NHLers and minor league talent mixed) so it's safe to say Winnipeg is running on pure adrenaline right about now. Hopefully the crash back to earth doesn't hurt too much.
The NHL has approved (conditionally) the green goal verification line and to use a thinner mesh on the top of the net. These are 2 changes we should see in place this season. A third change that was experimented with at the R&D camp this past summer is a shallower net. That change along with the mesh and verification line were used during the Maple Leafs-Senators game on Monday night and got the best type of feedback possible. Essentially none. The verification line never needed to be used (but its under the ice so it's not in the way, it's an aesthetic change) and the thinner mesh made no difference either. The only thing that semi mattered was the shallower net and one player thought something was different but had no clue they were testing it. He stated he had a "bit more" room behind the net to maneuver. The shallower net seems like a shoe-in for next years changes. The NHL also has acknowledged that by December they will unveil their new alignment plans.
Finally the Penguins held their Black and Gold game. Jordan Staal and Evgeni Malkin told the world they are healthy and ready to go by scoring 2 goals a piece for their teams. Staal played on the black team, while Malkin was on the gold side. The gold side prevailed and in a bit of friendly rivalry, the loser had to untie the winners skates after practice the following day. Hope Malkin's skates smelt good! Crosby has been skating in circles around practice. Literally. In. Circles. He showed he knows his shapes and followed the red circle on ice. He is not allowed to have contact yet, but seems to be on the verge of being in the way of another player based on the pictures the Penguins are posting. Clearly he is more ready than people knew or were letting on. He also gets to wear a nifty white helmet.
In continuing the grand tradition of acting like he barely knows who the hell Crosby is (this has only happened since he has been injured), Bylsma has said he has no clue if he is trying new helmets nor where he fits in the lineup when ready. A monkey could tell you where he fits. First line. Center. Give him 2 guys on skates with a stick and it will all magically work out. Meanwhile on the other side of the locker room, James Neal said it was exciting to be centered by Crosby during a non-contact practice drill. Neal will play on his head if it means to be on a line with Crosby (as would most of the league).
Pens are currently playing the Red Wings in their first pre-season game right now. In case you didn't know, I live in the Bermuda Triangle of sports, so although the game is being aired on NHL Network, I am blacked out since I'm expected to get Root Sports for Pittsburgh even though I live in Eastern PA. I also live in Philly, NJ, NY and Buffalo territory all depending on what map you are looking at. Maybe Bylsma drew up the map when he lived in the area for a bit just to mess with us......Pens are tied with the Wings 1-1 and I need to stop listening to whatever disgrace to my ears Simon Cowell has come up with on NBC.
Peace out....I'll try to be more on top of news next week :)
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