[Corey Crawford]

Echoing the praise, he was a lot of fun to watch and was outstanding in some big time moments.  The dude also had one of the better all-time cup celebration speeches:

 

 

[How are everyone's favourite teams shaping up?]

4 hours ago, James said:

- I've seen each of the Pens' three goalies play once now (although I'm still only halfway through watching Murray's game).  Murray does NOT look confident.  He's obviously got talent, and he's got the most experience, but there's just something about him that looks shaky to me.  Casey DeSmith looked really good in his start... and that was with a terrible Pens lineup against a stacked Buffalo lineup.  He's super confident, extremely athletic, and sees the puck really well.  Jarry gave up a hideous rebound for the game-tying goal, and wayyyy over-committed on the OT winner.  He's AHL-bound anyway since he's waivers-exempt and DeSmith isn't.  Given Murray's health history, and the lack of confidence he seems to be playing with (not to mention his .907 last year), DeSmith is a real interesting player to keep an eye on in fantasy.

 

Any talk of Murray's subpar play (by his own standards) last season being attributed to the Bales departure in June 2017?  

[Yzerman steps down as Lightening GM (Wow)]

1 hour ago, Salros said:

Are not the Tampa Bay Lighting almost good enough to win a Cup? I guess when you've won a Cup, you don't need to stick around and win another. If he does go back to Detroit, maybe he likes to rebuild a franchise instead of enjoying the fruits of his labour.

 

1 hour ago, James said:

Maybe yzerman just couldn't stand living in Florida any longer

 

Yzerman evidently sold his condo in Tampa last winter and he's had the same residence in Bloomfield Hills (suburb of Detroit) since he left for the TBay job.  I'm pretty sure his daughters are done with school and he and his wife are extremely close to their aging parents who are a few hours away from Detroit in the west Toronto suburbs.

 

The theory for a desperate Wings fan (me) is that he'll join the Wings organization as Holland's successor (Holland's contract is up in April 2020) next summer before Ken hands over the keys for good (for the love, please).

[Yzerman steps down as Lightening GM (Wow)]

Stevie as Obi.  Devellano as R2D2.  The ghost of Mike Illitch appears.

[Empty seats in Hockeytown]

I agree with aesthetics playing a role with seat occupancy, however, they're definitely having issues filling the place for Wings games this inaugural season. 

 

Having lived through the recent golden Bowman-era of the Wings, there's been a decreasing lack of buzz around the franchise with each passing season since Scotty left the Wings front office to begin advising his son in Chicago and his adopted son down in TBay.  

 

My guess is that tickets (which have gone up on average between 50-100% over last year at the JLA) aren't helping their case as well.   As with the past 5 or 6 years at Joe Louis, you can purchase standard tickets for virtually every game this season and resale tickets are always available under face value on game days.

 

Devoted fans that are non-season ticket holders and casual fans who are curious about the new building can spend considerably less to get in by seeing the Pistons or picking up resale tickets for concerts or circus acts.