I found this sooooo interesting.
ESPN.com's John Buccigross weighed in on OLN's NHL coverage. It's sort of a delicate thing, but Buccigross discussed the NHL's new network with class:

All in all, the OLN game was excellent. Good replays, good intermissions. For me, it was a good night of hockey watching.

He had some suggestions for OLN, too, but nothing out of the ordinary.
Now, if we could just him to drop the gratuitous late-90s-indie rock references. It's just like I was telling my friend Stephin Merritt of the Magnetic Fields while we were listening to Guided by Voices.
Also, from the Mighty Matt Law: The Hockey Name Generator.
If we were on MySpace (or LiveJournal), I'd probably have my hockey name listed on my profile page.
But we're not on MySpace (or LiveJournal).

I'm really, really loving all of the rookie goalies who are getting hot.
I can't think of anything more depressing than watching a goalie struggle.
Seriously. Like that thing in Atlanta, where they're just keeping the net open, like it's the last minute of a game they're losing by one goal (login info.)
That's painful to me.
But out in LA, Jason LaBarbera is doing a nice job for the Kings (login info.).
As far as I know, the Kings have no starting goalie. For a team based in Hollywood, they sure do seem to like to use character actors in the nets, instead of stars.
But LaBarbera has had a nice three games or so.
And it shocks me because while he tore up the AHL last season (13 regular season shutouts), when he was called up to New York to play for the Rangers, he looked awful. I only saw him play a handful of games but he alternated between confused and disoriented with terribly disturbing regularity. I would have bet money he was a solid AHL goalie who would never make the jump to the NHL.
I guess that's why I run a blog and the Kings run a hockey team.
FULL DISCLOSURE: I was GM/manager of the WHA's Quebec Nordiks for six days last season.

If you have Center Ice, I highly recommend staying up to watch Blackhawks-Canucks tonight.
The Canucks blew my mind Sunday night against Dallas. Their forecheck is so aggressive, even the Dallas powerplays looked like penalty kills. I found myself counting players to make sure there were only five skaters on the ice. It seemed like at least seven.
I caught a little bit of Colorado-Chicago last week and made a note that the Blackhawks were way more uptempo and aggressive than I ever would have dreamed. Don't ask me to name any of their forwards, though. All I've got is Matthew Barnaby. But trust me. The Blackhawks looked great Friday night.
They're only 2 and 4, but they could be a sleeper team.
And again, I've only watched them play for about 22 minutes, so I could be way off base. As I mentioned before, I don't actually run a hockey team.
Anymore.

Sad news about Brett Hull retiring. You have to wonder if he would have stuck it out a little longer if he wasn't on an injury-ravaged team, with a new coach, and an ambiguous goaltending situation.
I mean, I could see any of those Coyotes thinking about retirement. Mike Comrie is 25 and I hear he's looking into some sort of assisted-living deal to get him off of the Arizona ice.

People are always talking about the keys to success in the new NHL.
Things like speed.
Things like balanced lines.
I think, at least for this season, the key is going to be goalie depth.
As I'm sure you've noticed, goalies are dropping like flies.
I think it's because of the one-season layoff.
I've heard people blame all of the action goalies are suddenly seeing, which is forcing them into more acrobatic (and groin-straining) saves.
Devils goalie Martin Brodeur blames the refs for not calling goalie interference (login info.).
It's hard to say exactly why the goalies are getting messed up. It could just be coincidence. But whatever the cause, if your organization isn't three-goalies deep, you're going to have problems this season. The days of an organization riding one goalie (cough...Columbus...cough...Chicago...cough...New Jersey) are over for now. I'm very curious if you'll see goalies play 50 or 60 games a season anymore.

How great was Edmonton-Calgary Saturday night? You've got to love the Battle of Alberta. And there are seven to go. Calgary won 3-0, but it was still a great game. Especially Jarome Iginla's beautiful goal, where he was able to break in sqaure to the goalie, a defender right behind him, and get off a perfect wristshot, barely lifting the blade of his stick off the ice.
Did I mention it was beautiful?
The rest of those battles need to be earlier, so people in the east actually have a chance of staying awake to see them.
Also, Eric Francis has a look at why this year's Flames are better than the 2003-04 version. He talks about how their slow start is just a matter of people getting used to playing with each other.
Watching Atlanta a few times last week, I had the same feeling. A really good team made up of total strangers.
Chemistry is a tough thing. You have to hope it kicks in before the despondence over losing does.