Hockey, my how I’ve missed thee.

Look out, NHL.

Flyers sign Forsberg to two-year deal

I think Forsberg is the best player in the world. There, I said it. Yes, he’s been hampered by injuries. Everybody knows that. I don’t care. What’s Eric Lindros done in his career? *smirks* Yeah, cheap shot. It’s a pity a clean Scott Stevens body check knocked the career out of Lindros. Was that Game 7 or 6? I can’t remember.

I went at least three directions in the last paragraph. I never said I was a sports writer. Then again, if look at sports columns, most paragraphs aren’t longer than two or three sentences. Quite fascinating.

I’m hardly a dedicated Flyers fan (hello, Devils), but I’m kind of excited to watch the Flyers this coming season. (Nevermind that I don’t even have cable.) If the Flyers can get up and shaking, the media will cover it. The salary cap only further solidifies the Ranger’s place outside of the playoffs. It’s a pity Jagr has fallen from grace. He really wasn’t playing that badly in Washington. But the Rangers have a tendency to just zap the life out of hockey players.

As for my beloved Devils, well. I look at the lineup and mutter to myself, “Who the hell are these people?” Daneyko’s retired, Stevens has head problems. No more Sykora-Arnott-Elias. That was magic to watch. Elias and Gomez can’t carry the entire fucking team. After Holik went money-hungry, McKay was traded.

I like Colin White. And, can’t help but love John Madden. But again, I don’t recognize half the time. If Niedermayer doesn’t resign, there’s going to be a dramatic drop in team quality. Probably will make the playoffs, but Niedermayer’s 30 minutes a game will be missed. Rafalski’s good, but not that good; Stevens was Rafalski’s partner.

Ultimately, as it’s been since he was drafted, it’s all about Martin Brodeur. Brodeur’s stayed because of the team in front of him. If the team deteriorates, it wouldn’t surprise me if Marty goes to a better team, or Montreal. As long as it’s not the Rangers, I’ll root for him. Then again, that’s kind of my rule with everybody.

Lou may be a damn good GM, but if Brodeur leaves, consider that the Devils’ ticket to the basement of the Eastern Conference.

I like the new schedule format, which calls for 8 games between divisional teams, 4 games between the rest of the conference and two games between .. Yeah, that’s where it gets weird. The previous schedule had opposite conference games down to one or two. Now, entire divisions don’t see each other every year.

The inspiration is good, trying to make games matter more. Games between divisional teams matter the most. But the logical flaw is that.. just because teams are geographically next to each other doesn’t mean they hate each other. Detroit and Colorada are not in the same division, so they’ll be playing each other four times, when they should probably be playing each other six or eight times.

There should be at least four games between the previous teams who reached the Stanley Cup Finals. This coming year, Calgary and Tampa won’t even see each other! If the league wanted to have more rivalries, or more games that matter, they missed the point.

(For those that aren’t aware, the Calgary Flames lost to the Tampa Bay Lightning in the last Stanley Cup Finals. Yes, that still seems strange, even to me. I still wish Calgary had won. Yay for Canadia.)

With Carolyn now living a couple states away, I’m going to need a new hockey buddy. Sure, I could go with my sister, but… I wonder if I could talk my friends into going. Thing is, none of them are hockey people, let alone into sports of any nature. Eh, we’ll see.