I caught most of the Flyers/Rangers game last night. it was a pretty exciting game, even though Jagr took over down the stretch and the Flyers lost. The NHL is cracking down on obstruction alright, there were penalties everywhere, and a penalty shot to boot. How many times do you see a penatly shot on opening night? I saw a graphich on ESPN that said attendance was 98% capacity versus 93% in the 2003 season. Pretty impressive. It was also the first time in league history that every team played on the same day.
Did anyone else catch the new commercials for the NHL. I really liked the one where the girl is home alone, the phone rings, and they show a guy in a hockey mask outside her house. I wasn't sure what it was, kind of a Halloween/Jason feel to it. All of a sudden, a goalie appears and she says something like "I'm so happy hockey is back". It was unexpected, since there are tons of Halloween commercials flying around. The NHL is really doing a nice job promoting the league, hopefully they can attract more fans this way.
As an aside, I just got tickets three rows off of the ice for a game in November, can't wait. By then the Flyboys should be comfortably in first place and I can really enjoy the show!