Working Out the Kinks This Season

The last remnants of vacation have been put away. The trip to Honduras and Mexico is done (The pilot on the snorkeling boat in Cozumel was wearing an old Winnipeg Jets hat). Two days in Miami Beach, also history. Jostling for luggage at JFK, a cab ride across Queens and a lot of hostile faces on the road and the sidewalks. Back in New York.

Time for hockey.

And that I why I go back to the Kinks to start another hockey season in the Lounge. The Michigan State Spartans of the mid- to late 1980s used to come out to "Do It Again." They were fresh off the 1986 NCAA championship and gunning for a second one. They would get close, but North Dakota and Tony Hrkac, the Hrkac Circus, as it was billed, would steal the show and the NCAA title with a 5-3 victory over the Spartans at the Joe.

Getting up and doing it again. It's what we do, and it's what we'll do again this season. Just finished watching Vermont defeat Minnesota, 5-4, on the big ice in Minneapolis. In about three hours, Phoenix at Anaheim will light up the screen in the Lounge.

Until then, I'm trying to run through a mailbox filled with video clips of the past week in the NHL. Managed to listen to two games on the flight from South Florida; note to Lounge fans, JetBlue has Sirius/XM feeds of all the games as well as the NHL talk radio station.

The Lounge has a full roster of screens, big, medium and small. It also stands at the ready to bring in radio feeds of every game in the NHL as well as games in the AHL, QMJHL, OHL, WHL, USHL and NCAA Division I men's hockey. (It was a real treat to work late at the office and have the Moncton-Saint John game on the radio to open the season in the Q.)

I think I have the right link for the Minnesota boy's high school hockey season, and I know I have the pass to watch all of the state tournament games on the Web. Highlights from the KHL? Got 'em.

The NHL Center Ice package gets us nearly every game. MSG, MSG Plus, MSG2 and MSG Plus2 delivers the Rangers, Devils and Islanders. Versus, NBC and the NHL Network completes the full umbrella of NHL coverage. We also have a NHL Game Center Live package, just for fun on the Web.

The three Fox College Sports channels, ESPNU, CBS College Sports and the Big Ten network give us access to a large number of college games. And WE WILL see Hockey Day Minnesota (a mix of high school and college games) when it rolls around.

In the Lounge, back where I started. Here we go 'round again.