You Know Its Hockey Season When...

I get very little accomplished between the hours of 7:00 and 10:00. I resisted the temptation to stop working and go watch the Sabres/Habs game all the way through the first period but eventually broke down and made my way to my fraternity house to watch the game on the NHL Network. The Sabres lost 3-2 but here are my thoughts based on the two periods of play I watched, in no particular order. Please take these all with a grain of salt because it is still the preseason and lineups are changing everyday:

• The Power Play needs some work. Its given up 3 short-handed goals in 2 games and has one lucky goal for. It may just be a matter of finding the right guys to man the points but its a point of some concern for me.
• Derek Roy looks good. He is playing confidently and the puck seems to follow him. He looked solid on the half-wall and is in control when leading the rush. I saw very few errant passes from him and his shot selection was good. He scored one of the goals on a rush by just out-muscling the goalie after faking the pass. Roy just might live up to his contract this year.
• Nathan Paetsch looked pretty bad. I was a big Paetsch supporter last year but he did not impress me tonight. He's a guy whose on the bubble for the 7th D-man and right now he is being outplayed by his counterparts from Portland. Nathan pinched at bad times and was just generally out of position more often than I would have liked to have seen (that is, never, especially from a guy with a significant amount of NHL experience).
• Tim Connolly was wearing the "C" tonight for white and looked comfortable with it. He did his best with the power play and will be a huge asset once again this year on the PK. Tim looks to be in good shape and moving well, lets just hope he can stay healthy.
• Jason Pominville looked average to me tonight. Nothing dazzling, nothing special. He was manning the point for one of the short handed goals but the play was not on his side and Paetsch pinched inadvisably. Pominville did not have a single shortie scored on him last season when he was working the point on the PP so I'm not too worried about him. He was also lacking his favorite center, Jochen Hecht.
• Gragnani is not ready for the NHL yet.
• Lalime looked ok. He was the victim of a bad bounce in the first and was hung out to dry for the other two short handed goals he gave up. Positionally he looked pretty good with the exception of a few plays. He will be a much more reliable backup than Thibault was last season.
• Maxim Afinogenov looks like the 2006-07 Maxim Afinogenov. He has ditched that extra move that always seemed to cause him to give up the puck. He was quick as ever and looked decent on the backcheck as well as distributing the puck well and realizing when it was time to pass. Funny how things fall into place in a contract year, huh?
• Mike Weber looked very solid on the blue line. Very few mistakes out of the kid, don't be surprised to see him playing in Buffalo in October.
• Kennedy looked good as well, he might be a mid-season call up.
• Lydman and Tallinder looked their usual selves
• Stafford looked decent as did Clarke MacArthur.
• Finally, on to Nate Gerbe. Gerbe already possesses NHL speed, which was on display tonight. He also looked stronger than I expected and his timing looked good too. He plays a bigger game in the corners than most people would guess as well. He scored the other goal for the Sabres on a slapper from the circle tops that went top cheddar on the far side, a beautiful goal. For equipment junkies like me, it looks like Gerbe is planning on making the bigs with his custom colored Sabres sticks. To be honest, I would love to see him jump straight to the pros but I don't see it happening. That doesn't mean we wont see him later in the year though.

Thats it except for the fact that Stamkos scored another dirty goal, this one in regulation against the Rangers. It was a wrist shot from the low left circle that caught the far upper corner. I have no doubt that he will play on one of the top two lines for the Lightning this season.

Until next time, keep those sticks on the ice.