Sports are universal.
College rivalries? Not so much.
How about the Wings winning nine in a row, though? Imagine if they still had Brendan Shanahan?
As of last night, there were four teams with just one regulation loss in their last 10 games. That's pretty impressive. Gotta love that NHL parity.

Say hello to the Mark Messier Leadership Award:

Messier, with input from the league, will select a player in each month who best exemplifies leadership qualities on and off the ice. Preference will be given to captains who leave their teams for more money but then come back. Preference will also be given to captains who remain with their teams long past the point of usefulness and take valuable ice time from prospects. Also, it will really help if you have a super-obvious nickname. The Captain is taken, but something like Mon Capitaine would be very cool.

Yeah. Messier was a lot of fun here.

I haven't watched much Islanders hockey this season because the team seemed like such a trainwreck from the off-season. And with 7-6-2 record, I don't know that anyone is going to pick them to win the Cup, but the team isn't as bad as say, the Flyers or the Coyotes. And part of that record seems to be due to the rebirth of Alexei Yashin. He's physical and engaged like he's never been on the Island. To be honest, I never thought he could top the intensity and focus he showed sitting out in Ottawa. Yashin's agent is quick to not credit coach Ted Nolan with Yashin's awakening but I really can't think of another reason Yashin would be playing well. There have been like 25 Islander coaches since he came to the Isles. Surely he might have gotten going because of one of them. Or not because of one of them.
Also, goalie Rick DiPietro got into a fight with his team's own enforcer, Arron Asham, during a practice. I mention this because Larry Brooks recently mentioned the shootout has already gotten old, which I also kind of noticed. But don't worry. There's an alternative. If regulation ends in a tie, and overtime ends in a tie, the game is settled by a goalie fight. Because there is truly nothing in the world more exciting than a goalie fight.