Thursday, September 23, 2010

Hockey Previews? I'm Still Reading.



The beauty of the Internet age is the abundances of opinions, many free, on how your team and the rest of the NHL will shape up when we hit early April. And I am busy plowing through all of them.

Funny thing is that by the spring, most of us will not remember what was said or written over the summer and the next few weeks. Every website that is tied to a television network has their series of team previews, a hot topics list and a preview of junior prospects to watch for the next draft.

And then there are the blogger previews, which range from good to just plain uninformed. Funny thing is, that is the same range for those previews generated in print, and online, from newspapers.

In fact, most newspaper previews border absolutely worthless. There are one or two newspapers out there doing a great job of covering the league on a daily basis. (Thank you, Canada!) The rest? Get off the bus. You don't have a ticket to ride.

As for the preview magazines, many of them try to give you hope even as your team is rated as worthy of a ticket refund. They trade in optimism and the promise of another day. Fine, but the Lounge doesn't see life that way.

Starting this weekend, I will take a different approach toward the NHL season. I'll tell you why I don't like your team. On some level, your team is bound to have the odious stench of failure lurking. The question is whether your team keep the trouble spots in check until the Stanley Cup is awarded in June.

That's how I'll sweet talk you into the new season. That starts Saturday.

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