Back from Canada

I wanted to thank Jane Doe again for watching over The Hockey Report, and also welcome The Owl to The Furnace. As I mentioned before, keep an eye out for a few more contributors to The Furnace very soon.

A few things worth commenting on while I was away:

OLN
I am so excited that a network is willing to bring the NHL back to cable. I believe they will do a terrific job as they did with the Tour De France. It doesn't hurt that the network owns a hockey team, but let's all hope that it does not turn into the Flyers network. Don't worry that the first broadcast is the Flyers Rangers on opening night...It's not like it's Sidney Crosby's first game or anything.

John Leclair
Is there enough pucks to go around in Pittsburgh? With Palffy, Gonchar, Lemieux, Recchi, Crosby, and now Leclair, will everyone be satisfied with potentially reduced ice time (especially the 1st pp unit)? I say yes because, let's face it, Mario and John are not going to play everynight.

Stumpel
Ya know, the Panthers are putting together a nice little team this year. They signed 1st rounder Olesz, along with the free agent signings of Nieuwendyk, Stumpel and Roberts this team could make the Southeast race a bit more interesting.

That's all for this morning. I will post again tonight.

The Furnace