Someday I'm A Saturday Nite.....

Yes indeed, I have further expanded my horizons...and headed straight to The War Room. With trademark cider in hand,
I bring an East Coast view from the West Coast and all the way back again. So what do we have this week??? Simple,
the first week of preseason action is pretty much in the books. So what teams are looking good? I can tell you one
thing...it doesn't matter. Players are trying to get in shape. However, I noticed with the growing trend of strange injuries during this preseason....that some of the guys are inconspicuously absent so far.

One such player is Martin Brodeur. He has not played a minute this preseason. Now, don't worry Devil fans....Marty is not hurt. AS a matter of fact, he has been seen in numerous practices. According to Coach Sutter, Marty has been looking better and has trimmed off about 5 to 10 pounds from last year's frame. I didn't think he would be in better shape but hey, this is a good thing. Expect him to see some action Monday night....against the hated Flyers. If he doesn't, hell I might even start wondering what in the blue Hades is going on.

In other news....yes I am going to touch the schedule change anticipated for next season....with one simple point.....IT'S ABOUT TIME!!! This was a worse kept secret than Gomez signing with the Rangers...worse than Kevin Lowe using offer sheets this offseason. Now hopefully they come to a schedule that everyone can agree on. This is an awful lot to ask given everything but something along the lines of 6 meetings within the division...4 meetings within the conference...1 time thru the entire Western Conference and then 3 wildcard matchups...could be any team outside that team's division. Not a bad plan..alas I doubt the NHL will come up with that because it's too obvious.

Has everyone seen their team's new jerseys yet? I have to say I was pleasantly pleased by the Devils new uniform...it has the kept the same basic traditions that the old jersey had. Hell, I may even buy a replica when they come out in the hockey catalogs. Some jerseys have not gone over so well...like the Canucks and Stars jerseys. At least to me, the Canucks jersey just looks dreadful...I am not sure what they were thinking. The new Stars jerseys at least aren't as bad as the old bovine jerseys which may have been worse than the late 70's, early 80's Canuckistan jerseys. Scary to think how far this has come and yet how many ugly or nice direction hockey jerseys can go.

Finally, this is just the beginning. Next week, who knows what will be in store as it's just another Saturday way out west. Have a great weekend and next Saturday, there will be some regular season hockey to talk about and a Loren sighting perhaps at the Ducks-Kings game.

~ Stevens8204

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