So It Begins

Tonight marks the start of the Bruins season for me, as I'll be attending the Bruins "State of the Union" (BrUnion?) at the Garden tonight at 7pm.  If you have any questions I should ask (if there even is an opportunity) leave them in the comments.  

If I had an iPhone, you better believe I'd be live-blogging the event.  Unfortunately, I'll just have to take notes and get back to you.  The Bruins also never got back to me about my press pass application.  Maybe my lack of an editor is to blame, maybe they just don't know what they're missing. 

Some links to tide you over:

• Better-than-being-the-leafs Dept:  Here Comes the Bruins! lays out why the Thornton trade wasn't that bad.  Let me cut to the chase for you:

Average games played last season: 52.8
Average points scored last season: 28.4 (not counting goalies)


Yikes. Put that roster on the ice today and you've got yourself a lottery draft pick. About half a dozen of these guys will not start the season on an NHL squad. Only Thornton, Rolston and Knuble have avoided career collapse of some sort... and they're not exactly what you'd consider the core of a dynasty.

• Weight-Gain-3000 Dept:  Tukka Rask, Mark Stuart, and David Krecji all bulked up over the offseason.
• Real-Journalists Dept: Fluto gives us a killer Depth Chart.
• I'm extremely jealous that Chris over at Icethetics has time during the day to hold a live blog, but I'm happy that he is able to let me know that the Hurricanes are going to be unveiling their new third jersey today, and showing it live on their web site.
• Amazon.com sold out of NHL 09, continuing to give them a horrendous track record when it comes to day-of-release sales with me.  I'll have to wait until next week to start my EASHL career.

And from the Wild branch office:

• Franchise-deciding-years Dept: Marion Gaborik is negotiating with the Wild front office.
• Can't-wait-til-the-season-starts Dept: Wild puck banter is counting down the top 10 players of the Minnesota Wild.  Number 6 is Nick Schultz.