- Goods news, everyone! Tonight is the season opener. After so long off, we take on the Columbus Blue Jackets. [Detroit Free Press]
- Due to injuries, the Blue Jackets will skate tonight with just over $100,000 in cap space. Not a bad position to be in if you are winless. [Cap Geek]
- The Wings are happy with their third pairing of Jonathan Ericsson and Jakub Kindl. While some may see this as a confidence booster, I think it is bad news for Mike Commodore who was fighting for playing time to begin with. I think Kindl is continuing to prove to everyone that he is not a 7th defenseman. [MLive]
- The Wings now have another off-time activity to play in the catacombs of the Joe – ping pong. Much like soccer before it, the Wings are apparently obsessed with it. [Detroit Free Press]
- Valtteri Filppula has finally gotten the message: he is fifth on the team in shots, with 20 through the first four games. [Red Wings Front]
- Puck Daddy’s weekly “The 7 Players” segment landed on “The 7 Players we’d pay to watch in a shootout” and Pavel Datsyuk is their number one choice — and I have to agree. [Puck Daddy]
- Sidney Crosby wants someone to hit him — and hit him hard — and JJ is really hoping it is Niklas Kronwall. [NBC Sports]
- The Wall Street Journal Wonders if goalies have become too dominant in today’s game. Honestly, they were far more dominant pre-lockout, in my eyes. [Wall Street Journal]
- Oh, look at that. Alex Ovechkin finally ‘broke’ out with a multi-goal game last night as the Capitals remained unbeaten with a 5-2 win over the Flyers. [Japers Rink]
- Despite pissing me off with a Wings quip in the first bullet point, The Cannon does an admirable job defending their team’s rocky start. Granted, if they weren’t just $100k under the cap and 0-5-1 to start the season, they wouldn’t have to even be on the defensive (well, maybe they would since James Wisniewski is their top defenseman). [The Cannon]
- Nucks Misconduct has come up with a great song to sing while blaming Roberto Luongo for their terrible start. [Nucks Misconduct]
- Speaking of Luongo, a Vancouver sports writer is demanding that he be traded for Vincent Lecavlier. Someone forgot to mention to him how much loyalty and sticking to one team for your career means to Stevie Y. [Puck Daddy]
- Ever wonder what it takes to get a goalie interference call without wearing #96 and a goal being scored? Read no further than this great explanation. [Defending Big D]
- Wayne Gretzky says that he has had front office job offers from both the Oilers and Kings, both of whom would like to be bottom feeders owned by the league like his previous team. [TSN]
- Bill Simmons, one of the better sports writers out there, has traded in his LA Clippers season tickets for Kings season ticket due to the lockout. He provides amazing insight in how he is converting to hockey and how he has never once not enjoyed a hockey game. A great read from Sports Guy that I highly recommend. [Grant Land]
- Bad news, DirecTV users. It’s looking like the satellite service will be dropping Fox — and, consequently, FSD — from its lineup on November 1. [Puck the Media]
- If you’re following Brendan Smith and Cory Emmerton on Twitter, you’ll definitely appreciate this drawing from TPL’s Stevie. If not, the drawing should teach you everything you need to know [The Production Line]
Discussion of the Day: Have goalies become too dominant as the Wall Street Journal writes?
