Ahhh, Hockey!

So, it's been quite a while since my last blog entry, which I'm going to blame school work on. Being immersed in 3D Schrödinger's equations for the past few weeks has been semi-taxing. But, telling you that would sort of be a lie. Yes, I've been doing school work, but I've been far to busy with other things, including but not limited to, Wolfpack Football. I love my collegiate team, but after a few frustrating failures and lack of discipline, I thought I'd return to my blog and focus solely on hockey. Which is a second lie, because as long as there’s football season, I will be out there in the Fairgrounds Lot tailgating no less than 4 hours before kickoff (the Chapel Hill game was at 12 pm mind you ;-) ).

Before I get to my hockey blabber, I'd like to commemorate the return of Ice Age on NHL.com. The author, Phil Coffey, was a mentor for a hockey project of mine that I did for high school. We've since kept in correspondence and kept each other entertained with amusing volleys of email this past summer, while both of us were stuck at work with nothing to do. Ice Age had always been one of my favorite sections; so, as a fan and friend, I'm giving him free face time to my constituency of exactly three readers.

So, I've been to a handful of preseason games and I've made a few postings on message boards and shot off a few emails about my perceptions. I suppose I'll summarize what exactly I felt about the game.

In short, I love it. I don’t really remember much about the 80's (event wise), because I turned four in 1990, but from what I've heard, this is close to the 80's style of scoring. That extra four feet in the attacking zone is quite an advantageous tool, when used properly. It gives much more room to contain the puck, keep passing simple, and it forces the defenseman to spread out from such a tightly knit box/diamond. Combining all of these factors, your team will HATE being on the penalty kill. In the games that I've seen, the calling of penalties has been very tight to not so tight at all. I love it when it’s called tight. It brings a focus to play making. It’s almost like watching women’s' ice hockey, but at a faster pace. They can't make contact like the men do, so they've resorted to play making and finesse. The NHL still allows contact, but only of the bone crunching variety. I also like the removal of the two line pass. I've seen guys come out of the box and receive a pass from a man in the defensive zone. Then, you've got a breakaway.

I probably could put a little more deliberation about how I feel about the rules, but I'm more eager to talk about my 'Canes. This team is under-rated. They don’t look too great on paper, but let me assure you, there's much more to this team. Something seems to be clicking, guys are passing well, making plays, we've got Cam Fricken Ward... The list goes on. I know that 90% of you will disagree with this, but that 90% probably hasn’t seen them play. I just hope the 'Canes read my blog and help me out by producing ;-). In all seriousness, I'm not being biased toward my team. They have the talent; the question is whether or not they can harness that talent and stay disciplined. If they can stay out of the box, I think that this team could potentially be playoff bound.

I didn't really get into as much depth as I wanted to, but it's late.