2013-14 NHL Season: "We Are North American Scum"

[The_Admiral]

Maybe it's all they had on file. It was a better logo anyway.

Nice start to the season, though Nordstrom clearing the puck out of Cook County certainly made things a little more breathless than they had to be. That's quite the power play the Capitals have, at least I hope it's that and not a penalty kill that's going to be terrible without Michael Frolik. The Caps looked good tonight, but they'll surely take their annual road trip to Don'tgiveacrapistan at some point in the middle of the season.

[twi]

This Edmonton color scheme was never meant for the high def era...so bad.

Love Smyth and his gloves that go halfway to his elbows, one of the trademark looks in the league.

Interesting the Jets still wearing the RR decal on helmets.

[The_Admiral]

False. It looks better than ever in high definition. As if navy blue, tan, and inexplicable red look good in HD?

The Jets don't look good in any definition. Eep.

[FGM13]

False. It looks better than ever in high definition. As if navy blue, tan, and inexplicable red look good in HD?

The Jets don't look good in any definition. Eep.

The Jets are fine, and I loved the pre-Edge jerseys. These are simply horrific in hi-def.

Oh, and congrats to Luke Gazdic on his first NHL goal.

[Lee.]

Eberle has turned into a man. Good player.

More thoughts: Jets' rookies look good. Bogo can go into beast mode when he wants to. Pavelec is...um.

[The_Admiral]

Montoya is a good Jet too.

Nice to see Trouba get on the board. And yeah, I've been a Jordan Eberle fanboy for quite some time now. The rest of the non-Edmonton hockey world will catch up with me very soon.

[Shumway]

Is it just me, or does the lighting look really strange in Rexall Place? It just seems dark and kind of unevenly lit on the ice.

[The_Admiral]

Yes, it is dark and unevenly lit. I think the lighting is calibrated to not be too hot against the ice or something. It's part of the charm, if you ask me. I hate when arenas just have the house lights way up. I'll miss this weird old barn when it's gone.

Frolik with his second goal late in the third! I'm happy for him. He just wasn't going to be a top guy for the Hawks.

[ninersdd]

Defense optional opening night. Nice comeback win for the Jets.

Side note: I'm not a huge fan of the Oil's retro look, but seeing the fans in the stands, the Oilers previous Edge jerseys just looked godawful next to the current unis.

[dbadefense1990]

Is it just me, or does the lighting look really strange in Rexall Place? It just seems dark and kind of unevenly lit on the ice.

Due to the lightning's visual effect on the perception of the ice, an Oilers game at Northlands looks like they're playing on top of the world's largest 7-Eleven slurpee.

Maybe it's just me.

[wildwing64]

When did the NHL have no-touch icing to go back to? I thought it was always touch-up.

They didn't? My bad.

And I echo what IceCap said, mostly because I think he's already echoing the things I've said: this makes the rule even harder to explain than it already is (and it shouldn't even be that hard in the first place; people just word it clumsily) and it puts the game even more in the hands of the short bus that is NHL officiating. I'll reiterate that the concern about player safety is way overblown. While there have been a few gruesome injuries from chasing down the puck, there are much worse things happening much more often in situations that are much less addressed, and at the end of the day, doesn't this just mean some guy will still risk getting his leg crushed, just farther from the goal line?

Yeah, once you get a better look at how it works it makes a bit more sense. Though it is gonna take some time to get used to, especially for basically everyone on the ice. I didn't follow the preseason very closely, but there was that one instance in a Canucks game where the linesman supposedly buggered up the call. I'd post a link to the video, but I'm in phone.

I was about the question the use of the old NHL logo. Then I saw ESPN's. Frankly I'm surprised they care, assuming they do.

Ninja edit: Now that I've looked at the previous page's posts, yeah, this does look like a Take That to the NHL. It's about as tacky and 90's or early 2000's looking as you can get.

[Lee.]

[The_Admiral]

That's nice, but how is that going to help him design a new Raptors logo?

[Sodboy13]

"And what was in those bottles? Sources say they may have contained the illicit substance commonly known as 'purple drank', a potent cocktail that has gained wide popularity in the young Atlanta community and hip-hop scene."

--Gary Lawless

[Generic]

As an apparent closet Jets fan (cause I haven't done the Jets logo in black and white for my sig, (it's a tricky one), it was great to see Scheifele and Trouba score.

[Lee.]

What was nice was seeing the two kids' reactions to their goals. Scheifele was all "yeah, done this before, got sent to junior, let's see if this sticks" while Trouba's face is probably frozen in a horrible Joker grin.

Good for them, though. It looks like Chevy's pickups (ha!) of Frolie and The Gooch (Thursdays at 9, on CBS) could work out very nicely.

Yes, I know it's one game in.

[Funky Bunky]

Dustin Penner is a healthy scratch tonight. I'm glad Bob Murray let's Getzlaf make the decisions around here...

[Still MIGHTY]

What the hell? Why? Penner played with Getzlaf and Perry all through camp. Scored a goal in the last preseason game. The whole point of signing Penner was to play him with Getzlaf and Perry and you're not going to do it in the first game of the year?

It looks like Palmieri is going to play win with Getzlaf and Perry tonight, which is fine. And Patrick Maroon goes in as a reward for a good camp, which is also fine. I guess Boudreau is trying to "push" Penner rather than just handing him that first line spot, but I think you brought him in to play there, you should let him start there and take him off if it doesn't work.

But whatever. It'll just be nice to start the season on time tonight. (And win. The Ducks have had some issues in Denver in the past, but they will be the better team on paper tonight.)

[The_Admiral]

Had a family dinner before the game last night. This is a conversation I had with my mom.

"So is everyone back on the Blackhawks from last year? Everyone we know?"

"Mostly, yeah. Bolland went to Toronto, Frolik went to Winnipeg, aaand, ah, Viktor Stalberg went to Nashville."

"...NASHVILLE?!?"

"Yeah, I know."

"How can there be a hockey team in Nashville if it doesn't get really cold?"

"I don't know. Just is. You think that's bad, there are teams in Phoenix and Fort Lauderdale. And Raleigh."

"That's ridiculous! There should only be teams in the midwest, not Tennessee and North Carolina and stuff. OR FLORIDA."

"Yeah, I know. Or out east. Or Canada."

"Well, why is he in Nashville?"

"Salary cap."

"..."

"You're only allowed to spend 64 million dollars on players. If you can't fit them in, they have to go somewhere else."

"Well, why don't the players just take less money over more time so that no one has to leave?"

"You mean like restructuring?"

"Yeah."

"You can't do that."

"Why not?"

"Because they think it gives an unfair advantage to teams that could afford to do that, like the Hawks, or Toronto. Or Philadelphia."

"Well, I think the Blackhawks should be able to do whatever they want."

"Me too."

So I think it's instructive to know that moms in the midwest think that hockey in Nashville is some sort of joke and that the CBA is a bunch of crap. (And I didn't even get into the good stuff!) Also, they really seem to overvalue Viktor Stalberg.

[Sport]

I know I know I know every team is going to play all 82 of their games by the end of the schedule, but it sucks to watch teams open their season a full three days before my team gets to play its first game. Some teams will have played twice before Friday.

I'm impatient damnit!