Season opener

Well, last night's game certainly didn't lack for entertainment, although I'm sure that neither coach is particularily pleased with his team's defensive play or goaltending.

There were 19 rookies in the lineups last night - basically half the players in the game - and I thought inexperience was evident on both sides. There were a lot of defensive breakdowns and some pretty shoddy goaltending at times at both ends as well. It's not a game that Adam Brown or especially Jamie Tucker are going to want on their highlight films.

Stepan Novotny had four goals for the Rockets, which means this is the 2nd year in a row that a player has scored four goals in the season-opening game on Shaw. Last year Michael Stickland did it for the Ice against the Chiefs. Hopefully Novotny's stick doesn't go cold the way Stickland's did after his big night - Stickland only managed 2 goals in his next 19 games last year after his big opener.

Eight more games on the slate tonight, with four other teams waiting until tomorrow to get the season started....

And with all the references flying around to Novotny being on pace for 288 goals this year, I thought I would offer up this projection of the final standings in the West:

	GP	W	L	OTL	SOL	PTS
Vancouver	72	72	0	0	0	144
Kelowna	72	0	0	0	72	72
Chilliwack	0	0	0	0	0	0
Everett	0	0	0	0	0	0
Kamloops	0	0	0	0	0	0
Portland	0	0	0	0	0	0
Prince George	0	0	0	0	0	0
Seattle	0	0	0	0	0	0
Spokane	0	0	0	0	0	0
Tri-Cities	0	0	0	0	0	0