Recap Time

Thanks to work and night class I've missed two of the three Red Wings games thus far - and thanks to Charter extreme demonstration of failure, I still don't have the necessary Center Ice to watch anyone else's games, either. Needless to say, I'm feeling rather restless and hockey-deprived. A lot, however, has still been going on in the league:

• The Wings started off the season with a shootout win against the Anaheim Ducks which I did see - if I had to hear "the Ducks are just tired from their trip overseas" one more time I might have puked. They followed this up with a a shootout loss against the Blackhawks, and an regulation victory against the Oilers this evening. Henrik Zetterberg leads the team with seven points already. Meanwhile, the first injury of the year has struck, as Johan Franzen is out three to four weeks with a knee injury.
  

• This evening's game against the Oilers was interesting in that both Oilers goals came from former students of Michigan Colleges. Shawn Horcoff, who went to Michigan State University notched the first one, and Andrew Cogliano, whose U of M boys played my Western Michigan Broncos quite a few times last year and whom I yelled many an expletive at, potted the second.

• On the topic of players returning to old homesteads, Saturday night Jason Smith returned to Edmonton for the first and only time this year. The Oilers, the fans, and Craig MacTavish himself gave him a warm welcome in the form of a really nice tribute and a standing ovation that definitely had the gritty ex-captain sniffling. We miss you, Gator.
  

• This Sunday afternoon I was subjecting myself to the Lions game when the announcers happened to make a comment to the extent of "Look at the injury reports per week after three or so hockey games and compare it to the injury report after just one football game" - the goal seems to have been to insist that football is indeed the rougher sport withthe more devastating injuries. Perhaps the NFL doesn't much appreciate those Dallas Stars billboards?

• NHL.com's frozen moment today is one of those really beautiful shots of Roberto Luongo in the stands from last season.

• The Oilers' new roster photos are up - and a 300% improvement on last year's. Even my favorite chronically far from photogenic Ales Hemsky looks adorable this year! The Wings, however, have yet to get on the ball, except with....Dan Cleary? Huh.

• The Grand Rapids Griffins faced off with the Erie Monsters this past Saturday as well, facing off against NHL goalie Jose Theodore on a rehab assignment. The Griffins managed to win 3-2 which...well, I'll let that speak for itself. (I'd also like to point out the cheesy inclusion of "Jose, can you see" as the tagline for the event on the Griffins website.)
  

And that, everyone, is that. I'm looking forward to catching the Flames play the Wings - this early in the season it shouldn't even put too much stress on my friendship with HG. Here's to the Yankees failing (which they did!) and Charter getting their act together.