Dawn Of The New NHL

It is now officially offical. The new NHL is here (complete with a new web site and everything).

The Penguins lucked out this afternoon in getting the first overall pick in next week's entry draft. Nothing's set in stone but there's no way they pass up Sidney Crosby. Especially when he can have Mario as a mentor.

As expected, the Lightning ended up with the 30th (and final) pick in the draft. We did, after all, win the most recent Stanley Cup. What's strange is where the Stinkin' Panthers ended up on the list. Florida, a team that hasn't been to the playoffs something like a decade, got stuck with the 29th pick overall — a spot generally held for real playoff contenders.

Check out the NHL's official site for a complete list of the draft order.

But aside from all this draft talk and the new NHL logo, there's even bigger hockey news that was announced today. Many rule changes have been made, not the least of which is that shootouts will now keep ties from every happening again.

If the game is tied at the end of regulation, a four-on-four five-minute sudden death overtime is played. In the past, the result of that was the final. From now on, if the score is still tied, a six-shot shootout will take place. If the score is still tied after each team has had its three shots, the shootout will continue — in sudden death.

That will be exciting to see. According to the league, about 15 percent of games in the 2003-04 season ended in a tie. If that stat holds, we'll see about 15 percent of the games go to shootout. By the way, the shootout rule only applies for regular season games. Playoff games still get their continuing 20-minute overtime periods until somebody puts the puck in a net.

One new rule I like is the Instigator Rule. If a player is given an instigator penalty in the final five minutes of a game, he's suspended for one game and his coach is fined $10,000. In other words, if you cost your coach that kind of cash, do you really think one game is all you'll be missing?

There were also a lot of changes made to how goaltenders can handle the puck, how icings will be dealt with, and the dimensions of the lines on the ice. If you want to read about all the rule changes in detail, you can find them at the newly redesigned NHL.com.

To sum up, I'm thrilled to see the new NHL. And all those bitter so-called "fans" can sit down and shut up or get their heads screwed on straight and just enjoy the fact that hockey's back.

I have one last thing. Wednesday. October. Fifth. 2005. The Tampa Bay Lightning raise their first championship banner to the rafters. Nothing will stop me from being there.




Balls In The Air: This was the machine used for the 2005 NHL Draft Lottery in New York this afternoon. Pittsburgh won the first overall pick and, most likely, Sidney Crosby.

Reborn In Silver: Part of the NHL's new marketing campaign to get fans back (and make some new ones) involves this new logo. It does away with the old orange and replaces it with silver. You might also notice that the letters "NHL" are now more stylized and in a different position.

Personally, I like it. It's not going to change the world, but it's not bad. What do you think?

Opening Faceoff

This isn't so much a hockey update as an introductory post for my new hockey blog. Tomorrow is the big NHL Draft Lottery wherein we get to find out the order of next Saturday's entry draft. The league will probably also announce rule changes that will take effect when the new season starts in October.

But that will be tomorrow's post. Tonight, I'm just writing a little about how this blog is going to work. Oh, and before I go on, I should note that I've been a Tampa Bay Lightning fan for 13 years.

As soon as the season actually starts, I'll be posting after every Lightning game — naturally. Until then, I'll just be posting whenever there is a league event or big news (for example, tomorrow's draft lottery).

But first thing's first. For a couple of weeks now I have been racking my brain to come up with a good title for this blog. Unfortunately, none have come. That said, I've decided to use some sort of commercial logo and create a goofy, hockey-related spin-off.

Take this current one for example. If you are a movie-goer or really are alive in any way, surely you've seen the DreamWorks SKG logo. If not, it's the movie studio founded by Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen (the men whose last initials lead to the SKG in the company name).

So for now, the site will be titled RinkWorks SKL, the SKL standing for Lightning Stanley Cup heroes Martin St. Louis, Nikolai Khabibulin and Vincent Lecavalier, three people without whom Tampa Bay would never have seen a hockey championship.

I'm sorry if you don't like the current title. Please drop me a line (via comments) if you have any better ideas. Plus, like I said, I plan to change it every few months. Speaking of which, if you have any cool ideas for future blog titles, let me know. I'd be happy to hear it. (If it's stupid, I'll definitely let you know.)

The last thing is that every post will have a photo of the day. And here it is...




Remembered Forever: The names of the 2004 Stanley Cup Champions as they are engraved on the side of the Stanley Cup. How cool is that!