Where I've Been and What I've Been Doing

I guess it looks like I've been asleep at the wheel.

I can almost hear the other blogs snickering behind my back: "He says he's a hockey blogger, but he hasn't posted anything on the start of the season, or the first five Lightning games." Bah. I'll live with your disdain. I've been occupied.

Several ongoing plumbing disasters through the start of the month have crippled my time for blogging. The fact that I'm having to move out by the end of this month (lest we cost ourselves our sanity) means I've have more important things to think about. Like how to avoid homelessness.

Amid disasters I listened to a few minutes of the first game and caught Lecavalier's goal. Cool, I thought, and then I had to direct my attention elsewhere.

I also listened to a few minutes of the Bruins game and caught the Peverly goal. "Shit," I thought. "That's probably the game right there."

I saw the scores and read the recaps of the Capitals and Islanders games. Too bad. But what can you say about a recap? Do I have time for this right now?

I just watched the video recap of the Panthers game. Hell of a performance from Marc-Andre Bergeron. Two tying goals in the third period? That's clutch. Offensively thinking, the guy is a nice weapon to have. Maybe they should have let him try in the shootout. He seemed to have it tonight. Maybe he doesn't really "do" shootouts. He could just skate in and blast it.

But outside of that, what can you say about a recap? Boy, I wish we were getting better goaltending on the nights we're scoring and better scoring on the nights with good goaltending. Or maybe they can't score on nights when they're being defensively responsible. I don't know. How could I? I haven't watched or heard any of the games.

And on Monday, the Lightning will have their home opener. They're writing letters to fans, inviting them to come and get to know the improvements made to the arena. Everything seems so super-positive. They sound like winners, like they are the same winners that skated to the Eastern Conference Final last season, and completely ignoring the fact that they've been spanked to the tune of one win in five games on their season opening (and thankfully the season's longest) road trip.

How do the numbers add up for this group? Dwayne Roloson's goals against average is 4.34. That's ridiculous. Mathieu Garon's GAA is nearly half that, but Roloson has the only win. And he'll probably start against the Panthers on Big Monday.

Steven Stamkos and Vincent Lecavalier each have only one goal through the first five games. On the other hand, twelve players have already chipped in with goals. Still. We could have more goals from the stars, but maybe if we kept a few more out we would have more wins.

It's not like we're falling dangerously behind, but Washington is four and oh. We have to at least keep pace with the leader, if not lead ourselves. We can't fall behind early. Even if the guys are still figuring themselves out, they still need to find ways to scratch out victories.

Anyway. We try again on Monday. Notice how I say "we" try? They will try. I'll be busy.

On to the realignment gossip: I don't think the league would use such a bandaid maneuver as to just swap Winnipeg to the Central and Detroit to the Southeast, but wouldn't it be awesome if they did? It would be amazing to develop a serious, ongoing rivalry with such a first class steam engine team like that. Rivalries with great teams like Detroit become legendary. That's what I want. Wins aren't enough. I want legends.