Hockey Season

   That's right folks, it's a HOCKEY NIGHT IN PITTSBURGH!!! Man have I been waiting to say that. Penguins, Redwings are underway and expecting greatness like always when these new rivals faceoff. Evgeni Malkin is back in the center circle for the Pens and is suppose to be better than ever! Pittsburgh's lost a beloved player and grinder this year with Max Talbot going to their dreaded rival the Flyers. Also losing center/winger Mike Rupp to the Rangers, with the sudden death of their havoc maker Derek "The Boogie Man" Boogaard. They did however pick up the crafty veteran Steve Sullivan (age 37) of Nashville and St. Louis of late. Other mentionable acquisitions of the Pens would be speedy winger Richard Park (age 35), jack-of-all-trades center/winger Jason Williams (age 31), defenseman Alexandre Picard (age 26) and last but not least the gargantuan 6' 7" defenseman Boris Valabik (age 25). Detroit's been Detroit as always and kept their core players together and just keep getting older. Okay seriously, the Red team has added some players this year and lost Mike Madono.... Wait did he do anything last year? Anyway the Wings have added former Penguin Chris Conner (age 27), who had an exceptional year last year as a fill-in player with all of the injuries Pittsburgh accumulated and showed that he can really hold his own on the forecheck and around the boards, even if he's only 5' 8". Two more players the Wings have signed this offseason are defenseman that I actually have always liked due tho there grittiness and being solid defensive defenseman, and they are Mike Commodore (age 31) and Garnet Exelby (age 30). My players to watch this game are Malkin in black and gold, and Jimmy Howard in white and red. Malkin mainly because i want to see this improvement everyone around him has been talking about. I want to see the effort this year. Howard I've always had my eye on before his NHL debut. Mostly with him being American and him being a hybrid style goalie. For those of you who don't know what that means i'll explain. A hybrid goalie is exactly what it says, a hybrid style that between the original stand-up style and the more modern butterfly style. Being a butterfly style myself you gain more respect for goalies and a keener eye for the diamonds in the rough, which is what I saw in both Howard and in the great Marc-Andre Fleury. Back to topic, if Howard can have another great year he will join the league's elite goaltenders.
   My big free agent acquistion this year goes to Washington. They signed one of the most respected goaltenders Tomas Vokoun. Vokoun is known for his occasional 50 save night shut out and carrying poor offensive and defensive teams on his shoulders. Going to a highlight reel team in the spotlight of the nation like the Caps could turn his misfortune around and add his name to lord stanley. Am i predicting the Capitals to win the cup? No, it's too early to make a bold statement like that. I'm saying by adding a quality goalie in Vokoun, Washington might finally get over their early playoff exit hump. Another big off-season move was the Los Angeles Kings trading young winger Wayne Simmonds to Philly for the Flyers Captain Mike Richards. This move is HUGE for the young and talented Kings who already added the big goal scorer from Edmonton Dustin Penner last year at the trade deadline. The Kings have been slowly making their way back to greatness by drafting players like Anze Kopitar, Dustin Brown, Drew Doughty, Jack Johnson, and goalies Jonathan Quick and Jonathan Bernier. Another player the Kings added this off-season was winger Simon Gagne from Tampa Bay. This team has the Talent to dominate this year and I WILL go out on a limb and say this is the Western Conference Champs playing in the Finals this year. My big question this off season is this. Why did the Flyers trade away two top notch centers to get young up-coming wingers and only go out and get third line centers to replace them? Max Talbot and Blair Betts are not first and second string centers in this league. I don't care if you have Jaromir Jagr, Wayne Simmonds, Scott Hartnell, James Van Riemsdyk, Jakob Voracek (who they acquired from Columbus in the Jeff Carter Deal), and Danny Briere (who used to play center for Buffalo but is better as a winger). They did bring in the great Ilya Bryzgalov from Phoenix and Anaheim, but that won't help you win face-offs and set up your high-caliber wingers.