Thoughts

Life is good.

Last night I met up with some friends at a sports bar to watch some opening day hockey. Let me first say, "Welcome back, NHL." That year off was tough for me, but I feel things picking back up. Watching my Red Wings trounce the St. Louis Blues with a cold Canadian brew just felt right.

I could not believe how empty the SPORTS bar was considering the following factors:

1) Bar in Metro Detroit and hockey is back.
2) Playoff baseball was on.

In any case, there weren't many people at the bar, but it was nice to be out in public and able to cheer in a crowd as Patrick Lalime was shamed on the first game of the season.

A few notes on the game:
I am so excited that the Wings were able to resign Pavel Datsyuk, and he made his presence felt immediately with two points in the first game of the season. Brendan Shanahan, though he almost has his AARP card, played enforcer last night (as he often does). This Detroit team unfortunately has no go-to "goon" when things get a little confrontational on the ice, but Shanny is always in the thick of things when it happens. That is good to see. I applaud the 10 minute misconduct he got for instigating a fight. In fact it was the best kind of fight. The gloves dropped with the puck at face-off. In no way does it compare to years ago when 6 Red Wings fought 6 Avalanche as the puck dropped (yes that includes goalies skating to center ice), but it signaled that hockey was back. Manny Legace played well enough. He only faced some 13 shots in total which has to be tough on some goaltenders who expect to keep on their toes and not grow complacent wondering when the puck will next come their way. I would like to see him finally win the starting job in Detroit. He has been a solid backup over the past few years as the Wings have brought in big name goalies. I feel he has paid his dues, but even I won't hand it to him, he has to out-play Chris Osgood all season long.