To put it lightly, I was excited.

My anticipation level was soaring as I pulled my car into the Joe Louis Arena parking garage. It was finally back. For the first time since May 1, an important NHL game was to take place at The Joe.

Hockey, my friends, is back.

The beauty of the thing nearly brought a tear to my eye. Oh, how I've missed you.

I got to my seat in row eight of section 226B with 10 minutes to go on the clock before the Detroit Red Wings took on the hated St. Louis Blues.

The player introductions, always a favorite of mine, went off without a hitch.

Except the one obvious problem: no Steve Yzerman.

Chills went through my body as Karen Newman belted out the last few lines of our national anthem and then came the moment I have been waiting for since I was still in high school: the puck dropped on the "new" National Hockey League.

The flow was unbelievable. Within the first few minutes I could see the new rules working. The biggest addition was the removal of the red line for two-line pass purposes. Both teams threw several long bombs and it really opened up the game.

On this night, the Red Wings showed up the Blues at every chance, mostly because of the new enforcement of the obstruction rules, which hurt the less talented Blues at every shot.

As you could see, if you watched, St. Louis is not very good. In the old NHL, the Blues would have resorted to clutching-and-grabbing to slow down the Red Wings, but now, even the slightest stick work is being called a penalty.

This, not payroll, will decide who wins games, and the Blues will not be winning many.

The grace of the game was amazing. Watching Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg fly up and down the ice was great. To finally see them not get impeded by lesser skilled players was a sight for sore eyes.

Players like Datsyuk will benefit the greatest from the new rules. They can dance up and down the ice without being touched, and if they are, they will be dangling on the power play.

Players should be able to fly all over the ice, a great asset for the game. Speedy players equals goals, which, I'm told, equal ratings. At least that's what the NHL powers-that-be are hoping for.

On the way back from Joe Louis Arena, I fired up my Sirius Satellite Radio and found the most tightly contested game. It was Toronto battling provincial rival Ottawa. The game was tied at 2 in overtime. The 4-on-4 wheeling-and-dealing overtime session was exciting to listen to even on the radio. The five-minute period ended without a goal and in the old NHL, that would have meant a tie and one point to each team but this, obviously, is not the old NHL.

Now, when overtime is not enough to determine a winner in the regular season, games will be decided in a shootout.

Each team gets three shooters and the most goals out of three wins. If it is tied, it goes to sudden death, where the last team to score wins.

Although purists might not like this way, it is exciting for the fans, just by looking at the preseason games where there was a shootout after every game, regardless of the outcome. Not one single fan left the arena. Not one single fan was sitting down. This is excitement at its finest.

In the Maple Leafs-Senators game, the Toronto shooters had to stare down Dominik Hasek, one of the best one-on-one goalies in history. They did not beat him.

If you can't get into the shootout, you might as well quit watching, because it doesn't get much better.

It's great to have hockey back, and I, for one, am convinced it is better than ever.

Matt Bishop is a State News football reporter. He can be reached at bishop20@msu.edu.