CFN – It’s Saturday night in Canada which means Hockey Night in Canada for nearly 9 months of the year! The Habs don’t play until Sunday when they visit the Jets for their first game back after moving from Atlanta.
The Habs were shut out 2-0 in Toronto in their first rumble for the year losing new D man Chris Campoli. The Canadiens look to be in for a rough ride this year. The defense core has more questions than answers at this point and while Hab fans are hoping that Erik Cole and a healthy MaxPacioretty are the solutions to revitalizing Scott Gomez it remains to be seen if they can spend enough time out of their zone to draw penalties and put some pucks in opposing nets?
Meanwhile Hockey has a back war going on. With Bell asserting its hockey position via TSN one of their up and coming announcers, former Hab Chris Nilan called out Don Cherry for remarks made about fighting in the NHL. While on the surface it’s for some interesting reading from where I sit it’s a big corporate attack to take away CBC’s most commercial Hockey element giving Bell a further advantage and potential control of Hockey viewing in Canada.
Right now for instance I’m watching streaming of the Toronto Ottawa game for free via the CBC on the internet. My only other alternative would be to buy the package from the NHL for $159 for the season, or on cable or satellite.
With the death of analog young Canadian boys and girls are being forced essentially to have to pay to watch Hockey whether on TV or the net.
Don and Knuckles can take care of themselves. Their scrap and the continuing debate about fighting in hockey aren’t going to go away anytime soon ( I think fighting has a place in hockey btw).
Speaking of Toronto; they actually are looking good. I think rookie Goalie James Reimer is the real deal and they have a plentiful and deep defensive core. They are two top six forwards away from making things interesting.
Ottawa on the other hand is a miserable mess. The only goal for the team this year is last place to get the best draft pick possible and to max out what they can get for their marketable vets. I still see Jason Spezza not lasting the season and with a little big of luck they might even get something for Philip Kuba!
What do you think Hockey fans? You can post your comments below.
The game I would love to see today is the Detroit Colorado game.A rivalry from the days of Joe Sakic and Stevie Y. Tonight the Avalanche retires Peter Forsberg’s Jersey to the rafters of the Pepsi Center. I think the changes made by Colorado in the off season should place them better than 29th place The Sens are more than welcome to take Colorados place at the bottom I wonder if Milan Hejduk can stay in the Avs lineup or will a deal for a younger player be made.