Nothing Like Opening Night

I have to say that this opening night was pretty decent, even though it only had three games scheduled. Granted, it'd be hard to top last season's 15 game opening night, but what can you do. The Carolina Hurricanes raised their three banners for the Stanley Cup, SE Division, and Eastern Conference; but they came up short losing to Buffalo in a shootout. Like Marc said on the show tonight, it's hard to tell if the Sabres are the Predators or Penguins in their new uniforms.

The Toronto Maple Leafs saluted three of their own. Hap Day, Red Kelly, and Borje Salming were honored in a pre-game ceremony. Now, I'm all for retirement of numbers, but make it reasonable on time. There's no doubt these players should be honored, but let's try not to take 45 minutes to do the thing, on opening night no less. Suffice to say that the Ottawa Senators weren't hurt, as they beat the Maple Leafs 4-1. Andrew Raycroft, though he made 33 saves, didn't look all that sharp. Patrick Eaves is earning his first line status putting up a goal and assist in the win.

The most exciting game had to be the last one. The Colorado Avalanche and the Dallas Stars looked like a lopsided one when the Avs scored 2 PPGs in a matter of a minute. However, the third was all Stars with former Captain Mike Modano and rookie Loui Eriksson scoring. In OT, after killing penalty, Marty Turco made an INSANE outlet pass to Darryl Sydor who was coming out of the box, and Sydor went roof-daddy on Jose Theodore (who looked solid through the game) and the game was over.

It was little on games, but high on excitement, that's for sure.

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Well, it appears the Pittsburgh Penguins have been sold....again. Canadian businessman Jim Balsillie, CEO of Research in Motion; maker of the Blackberry, has reportedly purchased the team for between $160M and $175M. This is after Sam Fingold's bid to buy the team fell through.

The interesting part is that it seems that Balsillie has a vested interest in the Copps Coliseum in Hamilton. Reports have said that Balsillie is willing to pump a whole lot of money to renovate the Coliseum. However, with the partner that is the Isle of Capri to build a new arena should they get a slots license. We'll see how far that goes.

Wherever they end up, the Pens will have a good young core that people would want to see. Fact of the matter is that wherever they end up, they'll get the utmost attention.