A lot has changed since the Tampa Bay Lightning hoisted the Stanley Cup at the end of the 2003-04 NHL season. Several big stars have retired, like Mark Messier and Scott Stevens, and others have landed on new teams, like Eric Lindros with the Toronto Maple Leafs and Peters Forsberg with the Philadelphia Flyers. And many new rules have been adopted to make hockey the high-scoring and exciting sport it used to be back in the 1980s and early 1990s when it was nothing for Wayne Gretzky or Mario Lemieux to score 60 goals or more. (Remember when Gretzky scored 92 goals in one season?)
Now Gretzky is the coach of the Phoenix Coyotes, and hockey has a new star that many say could fill the void left by The Great One. Drafted #1 by the Pittsburgh Penguins, Sidney Crosby will have the benefit of learning from Lemieux, who still has something left in the tank as the elder statesman of the Penguins.
If you’ve only watched the NHL on TV, you are really missing out on the speed and excitement that can only be experienced in person at the arena. That probably holds true for all sports, but even more so for hockey. So how are you going to see the best NHL hockey games?
Now that hockey is back on the ice, some of the sport’s best rivalries will get fired up again – the Red Wings and Avalanche always bring out the best in both teams, and anytime the Rangers play the Devils, Flyers or Islanders, you can bet on an exciting game. You can also bet it’s going to be hard to get