Its that time of the year again, Thank God!!! Its about this time of the year when I start getting really excited about the upcoming hockey year, both locally, and nationally. My Spokane Chiefs have a new head Coach, and I am hoping and expecting big things for Spokane in the Western Hockey League. I haven't had much of a chance yet to see to many NHL picks, but I did read a column on NHL.com about who should make the Conference finals. For the west, this sounds familiar, you can expect Dallas, St. Louis, Detroit, and Colorado to be there, but as far as the east is concerned, its pretty much wide open. Will the Canes make another run this season? Will Montreal and Ottawa make some more noise again? What do you guys think??
Let the puck drop.....soon!!

Today is the annual Kings golf tournament for charity, where all healthy members of the Kings take a day off from training. I have had the pleasure of putting in enough money to play for each of the last four years and find it a good way to get the skinny on how the players--especially the second-stringers--think the team will do. I'll let you know what I hear tomorrow.

~Adam

ADam,

you should get some pics of you and the players and post them for us to see. Espeically if you can get them shirtless!

Trevor

I knew we could count on you to get a pre-season hockey thread going, puckman! Thanks!

The pre-season NHL games could be a little more interesting than usual this year; it seems to me that a lot of medium-to-big-name players have switched teams over the off-season, so it'll be fun to see who they line-up with, how they get along with their new coaches and teammates and, especially, how hot they look in their new uniforms.

I think it's a little early to start making predictions , but I do know that the Habs already look better than they did last year, having added Mariusz Czerkawski, Randy McKay and hot rookie blue-liner Ron Hainsey to their line-up – and seeing captain Saku Koivu 100% cancer-free.

Panthers @ Habs tomorrow night! Woohoo!

And Flyers at Caps tomorrow.

I don't think the preseason games will be all that interesting. That's why I won't bother making the trip to DC tomorrow...I'll save it for 11/9 when it counts.

Let us know how the Caps look in preseason against the Flyers, Trevor....even though Cassidy is now the youngest head coach in the league (and no, it's not Shawn or David Cassidy coaching the Caps but Bruce, former head man of the Red Wings top farm club) he appears to have implemented a MUCH more offensive minded system than Ron Wilson did....I'm hoping for a return to form from Jeff Halpern and Jagr and look forward to seeing plenty of exciting action at MCI this season.

Just got tics to the Leafs vs. Senators for the Sunday pre-season opener from my work...WahHoo!!!! Also got the Calender that came with our company's season tickets....

Gotta love the game......

The Blues are $83 bucks a tic....and our Platinum Seats are $210.00...hows that for an expensive night out?

[ September 20, 2002: Message edited by: rickinto ]

At the golf tournament, our foursome included King Kip Brennan, who stressed that Andy Murray (coach) was going to let the defense be tougher this season. He said Murray was not pleased with the team's overall toughness as last season went on & that Murray had definite questions about the defensemen. Brennan thinks thay will be asked to prove that the Kings are not to be taken lightly early in the season (remember, last December, Murray took down the sign "aiming to the playoffs" from the locker room) and build from there.

~Adam

Hey Adam, down here in Anaheim for a big aids convention. I see where the Kings beat San Jose in an exhibition hockey game the other night. Damn, I wish I would have had a chance to know about this and then see it. Congrats to the Kings!

Hey, puckman, I didn't get to the game between my Kings and the Sharks, but many of the big guns played sparingly--that's what the exhibition season's for--but will be in Bakersfield for the rookie game between Kings & Ducks. Love seeing the young guns strut their stuff & it gives me a good chance to learn all their names and numbers--and try to figure out how they're going to fit into the bigger scheme of the team.

~Adam

[ September 21, 2002: Message edited by: Adam ]

While the Caps have absolutely SUCKED in the preseason, at the Thurs game, I saw several of the young players behind me. WOOF! I had something nice to look at for the game!

Trevor