Red Wings 5, Senators 3: Post Game Snipes...

• How great did it feel to drop the puck on the new season? Birds were singing, there were rainbows, and unicorns frolicked in my living room. Actually, that's a lie. It was pouring outside and I was trying to clean pizza sauce off of the couch when the game started, but that's how I felt in my mind.
• I pretty much love Budd Lynch. His voice makes me happy. Sometimes I wonder if the players slip him cash to mispronounce their buddies' names as a joke. That's what I'd do if I was a hockey player, anyway. Either way, I love it.
• I think Ozzie's officially the most beloved goaltending coach of all time, judging by his introduction tonight.
• The pre-game ceremony with Brad McCrimmon's family was nice. It was super sweet (and a little heartbreaking) when his son put on the jersey that he was presented.
• If I had to predict which one of the Wings would give the most awkward hugs, I'd choose Pavel Datsyuk.
• It's a good thing that they switched to those low-energy goal lights at the Joe before the opener what with the Wings scoring five goals and all.
• I know some people want to panic about the three goals that the Wings gave up towards the end of the game, but I'd like them to take a deep breath and a chill pill (yeah, I actually used that phrase). They let up on a big lead late in the game against a lousy team. Of course, in an ideal world, the team would be absolutely flying for every minute of every game, but that would only be realistic if they were all robots. Nick Lidstrom aside, that's just not the case. Let's wait and see for a few more games before we start hyperventilating, ok?
• Speaking of Lidstrom, Datsyuk's apparently been teaching some of his dangling tricks. He pulled a nice move waltzing in on Anderson for his goal.
• Cory Emmerton is evidently the first Red Wing in possession of a Twitter account to score a goal in an NHL game. Because you needed to know that.
• I liked pretty much everything about Bert's goal.
• So how about those special teams, eh?
• We're only one game in, but consider me sold on the Ian White signing. He was impressive all night. I will, however, continue to call him Not-Kirk-Maltby until further notice because I don't handle change very well. That's what happens when you take over the number of one of my childhood icons.
• Please, pretty please let Hudler continue doing what he did tonight all season long.

Final Thought:
There is nothing worse than spending the hockey off-season in Florida. I'd take a never-ending Michigan winter with permanent hockey season over four hockey-less months in this live-in oven.

Red Wings 2, Sharks 5: Post Game Snipes...

• I got a last minute invite to the game, so I headed down to the Joe straight from work. Unfortunately, I was wearing a shade of blue that was dangerously close to the Sharks' colors. Fortunately, I was also wearing an ugly, old man cardigan that covered most of it.
• Tonight was the quietest I've ever seen the Joe. Even during the first when things were going smoothly, it was quiet.
• During warmups, someone set their pop on the boards. Jiri Hudler noticed and shot the puck at it, knocking it off and spilling it all over. That was about the only good thing he did all night.
• Poor Budd Lynch must be coming down with a cold. His voice sounded awful, and kept getting worse as the game went on. He barely made it through the post-game announcements. Someone really should've gotten the man a cough drop. Feel better, Budd.
• San Jose's powerplay in the first period looked like it was moving in slow motion.
• I was pretty optimistic after the first period. The Wings looked pretty good and looked like they were getting ready to cruise to a win. Apparently they thought so too, as they proceeded to fall asleep.
• The Sharks' goals eight seconds apart just killed everything. What little crowd energy there was was gone, and even though the Wings were only down by one, it didn't seem like there was anything going.
• Why was there a dude in a Rangers jersey sitting behind the Wings' bench?
• I'm not sure if this ended up on the broadcast, but at one point, Homer took a pass at center ice right in front of the penalty boxes, and promptly fell flat on his back. The puck was scooped up by a Shark and returned to the Wings' zone. This is the conversation that ensued: “Was that Homer?” “Of course it was Homer. Who else would it be?”
• There was a trivia question posted on the big screen in which Sid Abel's name was spelled wrong. It's not like his last name is displayed prominently somewhere in the building that could be used for a spelling reference or anything.
• Hudler just isn't working. He makes me angry nearly every time he's on the ice and contributes nothing postive.
• Zetterberg was an impressive -4 on the night. I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that he hasn't had many games like that in his career.
• Stop being a baby when you get hit. Just because someone nailed you doesn't mean you need to fight them. Try keeping your head up next time.

Hero: Mike Babcock
“Cute-fest.” I love it. It reminds me of how I like to say, “Awww, you're so cute,” in a baby talk voice to my dad. He usually snarls and says, “There's nothing cute about me,” and tries to do something macho like pretend to be Rocky.

Villain: Dany Heatley
As this debacle was going down, I thought to myself, “well, at least Heatley's on my fantasy team.” Of course, then I realized that since I went to the game straight from work, I hadn't had a chance to set my lineup and Heatley was benched. Thanks for nothing.

Final Thought:
Bert winked and did a finger gun at some guys standing near us during warmups. There's no word on whether or not they made it home alive.