A COOL OPENING NIGHT
October 6, 2005
TWO CENTS WORTH
•Welcome back to the NHL. The diehard fans seemed happy, but were the rest of us watching OLN and the Wings or "Lost" on ABC?
BACK ON ICE
Highlights of the NHL's debut in 15 cities around North America:
•From coast to coast, the words "Thank You, Fans!" were stenciled into NHL rinks.
•Down in Florida, Lightning fans got to celebrate just as they did over a year ago as the Stanley Cup title banner was raised (much later than anyone anticipated).
•Ottawa and former Wings goalie Dominik Hasek won the first shootout over Toronto.
•It was too early to tell if new rules benefiting offenses helped. But the results were good for one night. Through 13 games Wednesday, the average goals scored per game was 6.3. The 2003-04 regular season average was 5.1. Goals scored were reportedly up 20% in exhibitions this season compared to the 2003-04 exhibitions.
CROSBY REPORT
•Sidney Crosby, the 18-year-old Pittsburgh Penguins phenom, had a late-game assist in his debut that drew as much attention in his native Canada as a Stanley Cup final. Crosby wasn't happy after his team lost, 5-1, to the New Jersey Devils, but he felt OK with his debut, saying he didn't feel out of his element "for even one second."
•When the Devils went up big, the crowd chanted, "Overrated!"
•More than 200 out-of-town media members showed up to watch Crosby's debut.
•Crosby was stopped by Devils star goaltender Martin Brodeur in the game's first 80 seconds. So much for matching Mario Lemieux's 1984 feat of scoring on the first shot of his first NHL shift. "The kid's going to be a great player in this league for a long time," said Lemiuex, who played at times with the youngster.
•And while the game at New Jersey would have sold out any Canadian arena, it was a surprisingly less-than-full house at Continental Airlines Arena. But most teams sold out or came close.
•But two other rookies had great debuts. New Jersey's Zach Parise scored a power-play goal and assisted on two others. Washington's Alexander Ovechkin, drafted No. 1 overall in 2004 (Crosby was No. 1 in 2005), scored twice in his debut in a 3-2 victory over Columbus. On his first shift, the 20-year-old Russian slammed Radoslav Suchy into the boards with such force that a beam along the boards fell to the ice.