Opening Night And The Days That Follow

The waiting is over. That schedule I was moaning about on Sunday has finally arrived. Well, all 30 schedules, that is.

The league released the 2005-06 calendar which includes 15 games to be played on opening night. October 5 will see all 30 clubs in action, an unprecedented event. The people at ESPN.com are going to be busy that night. Not only that, but I'd be surprised to discover the NHL actually employs 120 referees and linesmen.

Who knew?

Still, it's opening night and you know what that means. The Lightning finally get to unveil and hang their one-year-old Stanley Cup championship banner in the Ice Palace. (Don't even think about correcting me. As long as I'm alive I'm calling it the Ice Palace!) Motivationless tantrums aside, I should point out that when the banner does go up, it will have been 484 days since they actually skated the Cup around the ice.

Then, in an ironic (or fitting, depending on how you look at it) twist of fate, Tampa could possibly be facing hurricanes on multiple fronts. There is of course the ordinary noun version, which is merely a possibility — albeit a good one. Then there's the proper noun — the Hurricanes from North Carolina.

If you found that difficult to follow, I can clarify only by saying that the Lightning's first game of the season will be against the Carolina Hurricanes on October 5. The date being relevant because, if last year was any indication, we may be looking at another very active hurricane season in the next few months.

If you disliked my pun, tough.

So I've been perusing the schedule this afternoon, taking notice of the large gap in the middle of February. The league is giving the players a breather from the 13th through the 27th to allow the better ones to take part in the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin.

But more importantly, it's the Lightning schedule that has me intrigued. The NHL wasn't kidding when it announced that the new format would heavily favor division rivalries.

Tampa Bay's first three games are against Southeast Division opponents. And get this, 10 of our last 11 games of the year will be within our division. Three against the Panthers, three against the Thrashers, three against the Hurricanes, and as luck would have it, a finale against the Caps.

To be quite honest, I'm looking forward to it. With several of our big names not yet accounted for by way of binding contracts, we're not quite yet the Stanley Cup winning team we were two years ago. That said, I have faith in Jay Feaster. He'll get the job done and with any luck, we'll be back on top of the Southeast Division for the third consecutive time.

And as for those rabble-rousing local TV news outlets saying things like "Khabibulin may sign elsewhere," you'll be getting a piece of my mind later in the week. Nik, Vinny, Marty, and Boyle will all be donning Tampa Bay uniforms on October 5.

Or let me be struck by Lightning.

Matter of fact, I'll take the Lightning either way.




The Next Gretzky: It's more than likely and one might almost say it's a given that Pittsburgh will select Sidney Crosby with the first overall pick in Saturday's draft. But you know what happens when an 18-year-old kid gets too much hype. Yep, everyone's left disappointed. Let's see what happens when he and the Pens play New Jersey on opening night.