Hockey is back!!

 The NHL finally returned last night. 3 games were played and all of them were amazing. Ok, I honestly didn't watch the blues avs but I did watch the highlights this morning. Quick side comment, I don't like the blue trim on the avs uniforms and helmets and gloves. I don't know just doesn't look right. Ok, back to business. Tonight there is 16 games scheduled to be played and if anyone reads this and knows me, well you know ill really only be watching one game and just checking in on the others. Lets get to that game. The Bruins are finally back. They start tonight against the Devils. This will be the first time in 14 years that the Bruins defense is a legit question mark on the season. I know for the last few years everyone was on Chara for being old or slow. Me included. But it was always a small comfort knowing that he will at least able to move people from in front of the net. Now the longest tenured defenseman the bruins have is Kevan Miller. He has not played in a game since the 2018-2019 season. When he did play he was a solid player who brought more then enough physicality to the back end. But leaving most of your defense up to a guy who hasn't played a game in that long is a very risky move. The rest of the defense is made up of some very good up and coming talent that also has Charlie McAvoy. Tuukka and Halak will have their work cut out for them early on i think with the relative inexperience in front of them. The offense for the bruins stayed pretty much in tact. They lost some role players from 3rd and 4th line, but they can be replaced. The Bruins will start the year however without David Pastrnak. From what I've been reading and hearing he will be out until maybe February. Marchand is still recovering from his off season surgery but I've read he is a go for tonight. The bruins are giving Jack Studnika another shot on the top line while pasta is out. He did decent last year but at times he showed his young age. He will be good and he is a good option to bridge the gap until pasta is back. The rest of the bruins lines seem to be set up for success. Krejci is anchoring the second line, and after what we saw last year I think they have finally fund their 3rd line center in Coyle. They will only play 56 games 1 of those games being outdoors at Lake Tahoe and all of those games will be in a new division for this crazy season. They play each team 8 times and have quite a few back to backs. Those divisions however are really interesting. One division is just the teams in Canada. So 8 times this season we will get to see the battle of Alberta. which in my opinion is the best rivalry going right now. Yea there's Vegas and the sharks but that's new and might not even be a thing if Evander Kane sits out the season. I wanna talk about that for a minute. Kane has filed Chapter 7 bankruptcy. Now I don't know all the different forms of bankruptcy but i know the basic idea is that you owe more money then you have and you want creditors to leave you alone. Well from what i dug up on this whole thing is that Kane took out loans secured by his contracts and the team was required to pay the bank based on an agreement. Well they didn't and now Kane is on the hook for right around 26 million. In order to file bankruptcy, Kane needs to show that de does not have the income required to make these payments. Which means that he might have to sit out the season and not be paid in order for the filing to go through. So the sharks lose Thornton to free agency and now are losing probable their second best player left behind Brent Burns. If I'm San Jose I cut Kane, just for the embarrassment he has caused. 

Couple more things I want to mention since hockey is back. I saw more then a few people on social media complain about the ads on the ice and the ads on the helmets. First the ads on the inside of the blue lines are just on TV they don't exist on the actual ice. Second they help the NHL recoup some of the money lost by last season. The ads on the helmets do the same thing and lets be totally honest right now, If those ads weren't there could the average fan tell me what was there before? times up, it was the team name. So it doesn't matter that they have these tiny little ads on their helmets. it could be worse. Have you veer seen a European game? Those poor bastards are billboards on ice. 

My last point I saved for last because it is a slightly hot topic, but hear me out before you judge me.

On February 18th the bruins are going to retire number 22 in honor of Willie O'ree. i think that is a great thing and a very big honor for him. The man was the first black person to play in the NHL and no doubt shaped the careers of countless young kids. But here is my issue. in his entire bruins career he scored 4 goals. He was not that great of a player, mainly due to an eye injury he suffered. When a team retires a number it should be someone who had a major impact on the individual team. I think what should really be done is for the NHL to retire 22 league wide like baseball did for Jackie Robinson. The man broke the color barrier in hockey. He has his own day for the NHL. His number should be retired league wide. They did it for Gretzky. Why not someone who had more of a cultural impact rather then an impact on the ice. That is just my opinion. I'm not saying the bruins shouldn't be doing it I'm saying the NHL missed the chance to do it when they put him in the hall of fame.