Blah. From ecstasy to devastation in a mere four hours. I’d waited only a year and a half for the return of NHL hockey, last night I was all excited and it was terrible. I don’t like much about the rules changes so far, particularly the so-called “new standards of rules enforcement” and restricting the movement of the goalies behind the goal line - but mostly the new standards of rule enforcement. Then my teams all lost. My hometown team, the Thrashers, got shut out by the Panthers. My beloved Blues embarrassed themselves losing 5-1 in Detroit - I want Coach Q back, dammit all to hell! Why can’t we get a decent netminder? After giving up 4 goals on 24 shots, they yanked Lalime and replaced him with Divas, oh yay. Shades of Brent Johnson and Fred Braithwaite. Shades of crap, in other words. Chris Osgood was decent, and we kept him for what, less than a hundred games? Before that, well, if you ask me, we haven’t had a competent goalie since Roman Turek and haven’t had a great one since...oh, Grant Fuhr I guess. We should never have given Cujo away. My last hope was for a win from my favorite Canadian team, my brother’s hallowed Maple Leafs but they lost a heartbreaking shootout to the Senators. But wait it gets worse.

Sprocket’s favorite team, the Penguins, also lost. The Great One lost his coaching debut. The stinking Habs won. And worst of the worst, Mats Sundin played for about 7 minutes before he got hit in the eye by a puck, dropped to the ice bleeding and had to leave the game. Pat Quinn said he's not sure when he’ll be back.

I’m disheartened. My favorite team looked like crap, the Leafs lost a game AND Mats, the rules have improved the sport about as much as the latest rules changes improved Formula One - notice how much I’ve written about F-1 this year? Yeah. Oh well, at least I have football. Manchester United doesn't let me down. Roy Keane and Ryan Giggs are still there - so far, anyway. *sigh*