It's the middle of the summer and the beginning of August, so it's tough to get excited about the upcoming hockey season, but why not be excited about it?
After this weekend, the National Hockey League has a full schedule, rookies from not one year but two - seeing as there was no draft last summer - and the rules are going to be different.
Opening night is Oct. 5 and features some good ol' fashion hockey matchups - and some crappy ones. Boston-Montreal, New York Rangers-Philadelphia, Pittsburgh-New Jersey, St. Louis-Detroit and Ottawa-Toronto - now that's what I'm talkin' about, solid hockey rivalries.
What I'm not talkin' about on opening night is the San Jose and Nashville game, Columbus and Washington or Atlanta versus Florida. The league needs to make one more change and ax two of three franchises between Atlanta, Florida and Nashville. Hockey in the south is not cool and even the defending Stanley Cup Champions Tampa Bay Lightning should be considered, since they couldn't fill seats in the 2004 Cup Finals.
The biggest change in the scheduling is the fact that teams will now play their divisional opponents eight times per season. Four teams times eight games equals 32 of 82 games per season - cuts down on travel, makes teams more bitter against certain teams, so I like the idea.
For the Red Wings, it means playing Chicago, Columbus, Nashville and St. Louis eight times each, something that should help the Wings' record. Most likely this change will still benefit the big boys of hockey, like the Wings, allowing them to beat up on the weak teams in their divisions.
The thing I don't like about it is that in the other 50 games, you don't play all of the other 25 teams. What?
The Red Wings don't play the entire Northeast Division, which includes Toronto, Ottawa, Boston, Montreal and Buffalo. Did someone think, "It's a better idea for the Central Division and Northeast Division not to play at all?"
Detroit, Chicago, Toronto, Boston and Montreal, or five of the Original Six members, are in those two divisions. How can they not schedule them to play each other?
This is just one example of hockey trying to spread the rich tradition of all these teams to the Anaheims and Atlantas of the hockey world. And while it's disturbing now, I'm sure the schedule will rotate and next season the NHL will switch which teams don't play.
Back to the exciting part: The NHL Draft was this weekend and we have a new Wayne Gretzky - or in this case, phenom Sidney Crosby. The next great hockey player, according to everyone, couldn't have come along at a better time for NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman and friends.
In addition to Crosby, a year of no draft hopefully has created one of the better drafts in the history of the NHL. If some of the players can adapt to the rule changes, then the NHL will have a face-lift of young talent.
Speaking of the rule changes, I was kind of against the idea when I first heard of them, but now I am all for them. You have to figure the NHL is just following in the footsteps of Major League Baseball a little bit.
Remember - I don't, but my dad tells me stories - when a 3.52 earned run average (Detroit's Nate Robertson) was not good for a pitcher? Now it gets you in the top 10 ERAs in the American League. There are only 10 pitchers in MLB with sub-3.00 ERAs, as of Friday.
Look for goalie's goals against average to increase, just as pitchers ERA's have done in baseball. The NHL wants a more offensive game, with the reduction in pad size for goaltenders and other numerous changes, so the scores are bound to increase.
There was a day when guys scored 50 goals and 100 points in a season and it wasn't a stretch. The highs from the 2003-04 season were Martin St. Louis with 94 points and three players tied with 41 goals. No other player registering more than 87 points, and no one scoring more than 38 goals.
In this country, we like a lot of scoring and excitement - regardless of the sport - and that's just what the NHL is promising.
J. Ryan Mulcrone is the State News sports general assignment reporter. He can be reached at mulcron3@msu.edu.
