Is it just me, or did you expect more from Steven Stamkos? I’m not a scout, so I only saw clips of him before this season. However, with all the hype, I expected more of a Sidney Crosby than just your average rookie. In 8 games, Stamkos has 1 point. That’s worse than 17 of the other rookies (including Jakub Voracek of the Columbus Blue Jackets). I’m not saying that Voracek is facing even close to the pressure that has been placed on Stamkos this season. In fact, none of the other rookies this season have to deal with the pressure he’s faced. Crosby dealt with more pressure (he was on a team without a lot of scoring talent and was immediately revered as the savior of the franchise, part 2) and many rookies have been under the same amount of pressure as Stamkos without having the talent that Tampa Bay has assembled. Granted, Tampa Bay is doing about as well as I predicted, not as many seemed to think they’d do. However, Kopitar was on a worse Kings team and he did great in his rookie season.

I’ve only seen Stamkos play in 4 complete games and a bunch of partial games, but I’m still pretty surprised by his lack of impact on the Lightning. Stamkos was supposed to be the rookie to watch this season and he’s just part of a group that includes 8 other rookies (6 of whom have played in fewer games than he).

On the topic of Tampa Bay… a lot of people predicted that the Lightning would be a great team this season. They were supposed to have the biggest turn-around season by many accounts. I never saw that as likely. I thought Tampa Bay would be a mess. One of my friends asked if I was as upset as he would be if his team did nothing instead of doing what Tampa Bay did (referring to the LA Kings). I laughed and said that I’d much rather be a fan of a team that cares about the future than one that is overpaying a bunch of guys who will have no sense of being part of the same team. The Kings didn’t make a big splash and sell out their future and they’re a fun team to watch this season. They will be able to make an impact in the future and have a good team that is sustainable. I don’t think the same thing can be said about Tampa Bay at this point, though I realize it’s early in the season. Right now, Tampa Bay has the same number of points as Los Angeles, but fewer wins. Both teams are doing better (relative to the rest of the league) than they did last season, but Tampa Bay wanted more out of this season. The expectations for the Kings are much lower, so if they ended the season where they are today, everyone would be happy about the improvement they made and realize their future looks bright. If the Lightning finish where they are now, I have a feeling the fans will be disappointed that they didn’t improve as much as they should have.

It’s been a dream of mine to get to all hockey arenas in the NHL (all 30+ of them, since I’ve been to both arenas in Phoenix, Pittsburgh is getting a new arena, etc.) someday. Last season, I wasn’t able to cross any off my list, but this season my cousin’s wedding (this Saturday in Lansing, MI) was perfectly planned, since the Red Wings are in town. Naturally, I flew in a day earlier than most so I could attend a Red Wings game.

The Joe Louis Arena is clearly an iconic hockey building and I’m glad I’ve finally got to cross it off my list of arenas to visit. I haven’t been to that many arenas, but somehow I’ve managed to get to most of the oldest arenas. The fact that the three oldest are all in the Atlantic division and I’m from the northeast and have friends and family in NYC, Pittsburgh, and Philadelphia definitely helps. The only arena I haven’t visited in the Atlantic division is the new Devils arena (Prudential Center). I thought I might be able to get there this season, but the arena isn’t going anywhere, so I’m not too upset that it didn’t work out this year. There will be plenty of time to visit it. Getting back to the Igloo again is much more important.

Fortunately, the game tonight was very exciting. The Canucks ended it 27 seconds into overtime after the score went back and forth in regulation. I sat with some great fans and had a lot of fun discussing hockey with them. It was just the kind of game one would want to experience at any arena they were visiting. I wish I could see a game this interesting at all arenas I visit. It’d be a lot easier to compare the atmospheres then.

The prices at the Joe Louis Arena are a mystery to me. The tickets are incredibly expensive (I paid $25 for a seat near the top (very near) of the arena in the corner. The only higher seats were the press box & the luxury boxes (which tend to be up high in older arenas). However, once inside, the prices for food and merchandise were less expensive than most arenas I’ve visited. Of course, I realize that everything is relative. Just as I was text messaging a friend about the low costs of food there, the guy behind me said something to his girlfriend about how they knew the prices would be insanely expensive there. If you’re from a place like LA or New York, where food tends to be expensive (especially at arenas and amusement parks), the food prices at the Joe Louis Arena seem low. Compared to other prices around here, they’re clearly high. When I was in the elevator on my way back to my room, the guy in the elevator commented on the inexpensive merchandise at the arena, but clearly he’s from out of town, like me.

I’m still not sure how I feel about them calling Detroit Hockey Town when they can’t fill an arena during the playoffs or the first couple games the season after they won the Stanley Cup (tonight’s game was only the second home game of the season), but the atmosphere at the Joe Louis Arena was great for hockey and I would definitely come back for a game if it worked out with my schedule again.

I didn’t attend the Ducks home opener in Anaheim tonight, though I did record it (one of the 10 games the Ducks will have aired in HD on FSN HD this season). Unfortunately, it’s the only game airing in HD for the Kings or the Ducks this season that I won’t be attending. I wish they had chosen to do some of their away games in HD. Most people don’t record the games they attend as I do, they seem to be punishing fans who attend all the home games of their team, which doesn’t make sense to me.

The Kings hadn’t lost a home opener in regulation since 1993 against Vancouver, though they did lose their first game in Staples Center last year (their home opener was technically in London that season). Overall, the Kings played a lot better tonight than they did last night in San Jose. They were definitely shooting the puck more and playing better defense. They cut down the shots San Jose had (more than in half) and almost doubled their own shots. Clearly, this was a huge improvement.

In more good news for Kings fans tonight, the Kings only lost by one goal and only had one goal score against them. In bad news, they’ve only scored one goal in their first two games. Typically the offense is not the issue with the Kings. I think this is a result of the concentration on their defense, though. I’d be surprised if they didn’t bounce back offensively soon. It was good to see a major improvement in their defense tonight. The Kings have been perfect on the penalty kill so far. It’s only two games, but that’s definitely a great start.

The most shocking thing that happened in tonight’s game (for me) was Anze Kopitar getting a 10 minute misconduct penalty. I saw him break his stick, but hadn’t seen him arguing a lot with the refs or anything. What I missed from the press box is that when Kopi broke his stick, the glass broke, too. No one I talked to upstairs understood exactly what had happened, so we had to wait for Kopi to explain the situation. Kopitar is clearly annoyed with himself for losing his cool and said he knows something like that can’t happen again.

I can understand his frustration at that point. The Kings had two goals disallowed in the 2nd period after the Sharks had scored their goal. Though both of the rulings were called correctly, it was a very unfortunate situation and I can understand why the Kings would all be frustrated at that point.

Jason LaBarbera only let one puck get by him in the 19 shots he faced. That’s a 94.7% save percentage, which is great. Now, the Kings just need the offense and defense working at the same time and they’ll start winning a few games.

Since the Ducks play the Kings at Staples Center on Tuesday, one of the two southern California teams will break their season starting losing streak tomorrow. Both teams are without a point in their first two games, but there aren’t ties in hockey any more, so one of them will win on Tuesday.

I’ve been watching Penn State football since before I can remember. My dad’s whole family is Penn State oriented, so I was raised a Penn State fan. JoePa (Joe Paterno) has been a part of that experience since before I was born. When I was volunteering at a college fair earlier this month, JoePa came up a lot. Clearly, everyone knows that Penn State football is doing very well this year and almost everyone who follows sports at all seems to be fond of JoePa. It’s easy to understand why JoePa is so popular. He works hard to ensure that his guys spend enough time on their studies (I found the whole program very interesting when a friend of mine was a tutor for someone on the team). Many asked when I thought Joe would retire. That concept is completely foreign to me. I don’t think Joe will retire. He’ll die at some point, surely – he can’t live forever. I was worried when JoePa’s younger brother (George) died, but fortunately JoePa has been healthy. He’s certainly had some problems with his knees and hasn’t been down on the field as much as he’d like this season, I’m sure. However, JoePa is still going strong and doing an amazing job.

Paterno is the coach who has won the most games in college football history and (not surprisingly) the most bowl games. He has two National Championships under his belt, but clearly wants that third.

The announcers for today’s Penn State game in Wisconsin kept saying they hoped that JoePa would leave the Penn State football program of his own accord. Though I realize that Paterno’s contract is up this season, I simply can’t imagine that Penn State would consider not renewing his contract (assuming he’s interested). I’ve never heard of another football coach who has been better with recruiting players and schmoozing parents. JoePa takes good care of his players. Wouldn’t you prefer to hand your son over to JoePa and his program than one of the many coaches with bad reputations? I would.

Penn State is now 7-0 this season and is sure to move up from 6th in the rankings, since Oklahoma (1), Missouri (3), & LSU (4) all lost today. I’m sure USC will still be ranked higher than they should, but at least Penn State will break into the top 5.

I am so happy that the NHL Network finally used their HD capabilities for the start of the season. It’s great to start out the season with HD hockey.

Marc Crawford’s comment about the Kings’ season opener in London being the highlight of the season for the team and that being the reason he was there as an announcer was priceless. What a way to start out the broadcast. Crow is clearly not used to being a color commentator and he said “uh” a few times at the beginning of the broadcast, but he improved as the game continued and it’ll be interesting to hear his thoughts about the games as the season progresses.

The fact that there’s no longer a TV timeout when a team ices the puck should make the game a bit faster this season. Since the team icing the puck can’t change up and they don’t get the break of the TV timeout, teams will probably try harder not to ice the puck.

One of the other rules that should make an impact on the game this year is the puck dropping in the offensive zone for teams on the power play, no matter where the penalty occurs. They had a bit of confusion with this rule in the second game of the season, but I’m sure the finer points will be discussed and all the refs will have the same understanding of the rule soon.

Since today’s games were technically the Lightning & Senators’ home games, I was surprised to see the Lightning and the Senators wearing their home jerseys. The NHL went back to home teams wearing white this season and I thought the first two games of the year in Europe would follow this. I’m glad to see the NHL returning to the home team wearing white jerseys. Since most team’s white jerseys look very similar, I think it’s better to see the visiting team wearing their dark jerseys. Though many teams have switched to mostly black away jerseys (like the Kings, the Flyers, etc.) instead of using their colors and have used their other color in their third jerseys or just trim colors, a lot of teams (including the Senators and the Rangers) still have much more colorful jerseys. The home team wearing white makes things more colorful for the fans as their team plays different teams throughout the season and I appreciate that. Once you’ve seen one white jersey, you’ve seen ‘em all.

Tampa Bay Lightning vs. New York Rangers in Prague, Czech Republic

Fortunately, there were no problems with the arena lights or any other problems, as the opener in London experienced last season.

I expected the Rangers to win the first game against the Lightning. The Lightning definitely looked out of sync quite a few times during the game (especially on the power play, but they looked better than I expected them to look in their first game this season. I still don’t expect much of them this season, but they’re not as much of a “hot mess” (as my sister would say) as I thought they would be in the first game of the NHL season.

The Rangers’ only power play goal ended up being the game winning goal and they won in Jagr’s home country without Jagr. As someone who’s not a fan of Jagr’s, the comment about the Rangers using “Ding Dong, the Witch is Dead” as their theme song this year, since they got rid of Jagr made me smile. Mike Milbury seemed very happy that the Rangers got rid of Jagr and I’m sure everyone on the Rangers is happy about it, too.

Ottawa Senators vs. Pittsburgh Penguins in Stockholm, Sweden

When Kennedy scored the first goal for the Penguins just 40 seconds into the game, I had a feeling the Pens/Sens game would be interesting. They didn’t let me down. This game went back and forth, in spite of the many penalties the Senators had and power play chances the Penguins got as a result. The Penguins are definitely missing Gonchar and Whitney on the power play. They’re clearly still adjusting their power play and working on figuring out how to be effective. With any luck, they’ll figure that one out soon. Fortunately, the fact that they don’t have their power play back up to their normal standards made the 2nd game of the NHL season much more interesting.

Both teams scored shorthanded goals (including a breakaway by Malkin and a goal by Spezza in a 2-on-1).

If you had told me Tyler Kennedy would score the first and last goal of this game (considering that he got 10 goals in the 55 games he played last season), I would have thought you were nuts. What a way for Kennedy to start the season. His overtime goal where he stole the puck was great to watch.

Gerber definitely let in a few weak goals, but I have to agree with the minority opinion that keeping Gerber as a number one goalie is better than picking up Khabibulin. Martin Gerber had a slightly better save percentage last season and seems to be a bit more consistent lately. There’s a reason the Blackhawks went out and got Cristobol Huet. Of course, what I think doesn’t matter and it seems pretty clear that the Senators are going to end up with Khabibulin on their team. Maybe they’ll get lucky and it’ll work out well for them.

If today’s games are any indication, tomorrow’s games from the Czech Republic and Sweden will be very interesting. It’s great to see the hockey season get off to such an exciting start.