Welcome back, hockey!

Another year of NHL hockey is upon us! Strictly speaking, the season started already, but since both Colorado and Detroit have their first games tonight, who really cares what happened yesterday?

The Avalanche, of course, have their big change behind the bench, as Patrick Roy takes over. While I'm not optimistic this was the best choice for the team, at least it's a new start. One reason I preferred an experienced NHL coach to Roy is because if the Avs fail under Roy, we still won't have really learned all that much. If they respond and grow into a winning team, then we will know that Sacco and/or youth was the problem the last few seasons, and our questions are answered and everybody's happy. But if they continue to underachieve under Roy, we won't know if it's the players or yet another unproven coach that is the root of the problem... and without understanding the problem, how can they hope to fix it?

They have plenty of talent, but it never quite came together for Sacco. I like the forwards and I'm a supporter of Varlamov, but the defense looks like an accident waiting to happen, and I'm not so sure that a change of "system" is going to solve their problems. But that's half the fun of the beginning of the season: wondering how it will go and then finding out.

The Red Wings' biggest change is that they're now in the Eastern conference. It will take a while before I break the habit of looking at the Western Conference standings for them. It will also take a while for me to be comfortable saying anything about the "Metropolitan" division. Central, Pacific, Atlantic, etc. were bland and unimaginative, but at least they weren't just silly. How is Carolina more "metropolitan" than Boston? The person in charge of realignment should have thought a bit harder for about the fourth name. For that matter, they could just have as easily gone back to honoring some of the builders of the game, and named them Norris, Smythe, Adams, and Patrick, as there was absolutely nothing wrong with those names in the first place.

I do like having Detroit in the Eastern Conference now, if only because it will give me a reason to pay closer attention to that conference. Basically, an excuse to watch even more hockey, and that's a good thing. And now, I'm going to get started on that very thing.