Why I Love DirecTV

So, as I was watching the Red Wings game tonight, I found out that DirecTV is giving its viewers the NHL CenterIce package free for the first week of the season. This is the best news I've gotten all week. I was looking forward to seeing the new look Wings and maybe a little bit of the Flyers-Rangers game. Instead I got to channel surf during stoppages and catch Zach Parise's first goal, Sidney Crosby's first point, the first real shootout in NHL history and Wayne Gretzky's coaching debut. Life is good.

On the Wings:

-Lebda is going to be ok as a replacement for Kronwall. I'm wondering how I was never aware of this kid at Notre Dame because he is pretty good for a rookie.

-The Red Wings have an excessive number of Swedes all of a sudden (Franzen, Holmstrom, Zetterberg, Samuelsson, Lidstrom, Lilja and Kronwall). And more are on the way if this year's draft was any indication. How long until they throw together a "Swedish 5" in honor of the old Russian 5, what with Larionov (the final member) now gone?

-Datsyuk is great and this team went from good to great with his return. Robert Lang is also a superior player that too many analysts forget about.

-Daniel Cleary is a nice addition to this team. He really tore up St. Louis tonight in the neutral zone with his speed.

-On an unrelated note, TSN just announced that people shouldn't write Washington off because they won tonight. Isn't it a little early to start extrapolating good things out of a 3-2 win at home against an unproven Columbus team?

Just some thoughts. Keep your stick on the ice.