Pens Points Tuesday: Hockey, Uninterrupted

Good morning Pens fans everywhere,

Finally the calendar turns to Hocktober! The new season dawns and the slate is clean and the new stories begin to be written. We all know that few fanbases in sports are as fortunate at this point in time as we are, getting to watch the best players of this generation on a nightly basis. Let's go and get that 2009 ring a partner, shall we? So here are the hopes and dreams for the new season for all of our Pens, as written up beautifully by Meesh over at PensNation. For a comprehensive preview of each and every team, SBN has you covered.

You've all seen the moves Ray Shero made Monday afternoon to trim the roster down to 23 and get the payroll under the $64.3M cap. Andrew Ebbett and Simon Despres were re-assigned to WBS; Beau Bennett was re-assigned to the Wheeling Nailers (a temporary move so don't despair); Derrick Pouliot re-assigned to the Portland Winterhawks; Kris Letang and Tomas Vokoun placed on injured reserve; and Harrison Ruopp recalled from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. Mostly people on Twitter were panicking about the Beau Bennett move. It's just a maneuver, similar to what happened in 2010 with Eric Tangradi. It's probably worth revisiting a Mike Colligan classic for a refresher. He is the best.

Seth Rorabaugh from EmptyNetters takes a closer look at the Penguins roster as it's currently shaped up, player by player. For all the roster moves and most specifically salary cap implications, though, Mike Colligan's latest analysis is a must-read. If you only have time for one article, this is the one. Also, Hockey Prospectus offers a glimpse into their great body of work, and here is a Penguins excerpt.

The NHLPA voted Monday to approve hybrid icing for the 2013-14 season. The visor rule was also approved, meaning all incoming players must wear visors. I saw so many arguments on Twitter about this already, old-school vs. new school etc. Bottom line, both rules WILL prevent injuries and that ought to be a good thing in and of itself.

Douglas Murray will miss the start of the Habs season. He will miss 4-6 weeks with an upper-body injury sustained in practice on Sunday. Tough break for Crankshaft. Good luck in your recovery, big guy.

Still in Canada, the Maple Leafs are something to marvel at. If anyone needed just another reminder why Dave Nonis is rivaled by few NHL GMs in his inability to do his job, the Leafs will be spending $5.45M in cap space and ~$9.7M in salary for players not on roster. This isn't even to mention that D'Artagnan Phil Kessel still needs signing, his monetary demands expected to reside in the $7.5-8.5M orbit is about to sign the richest contract in Maple Leafs history at 8 years, $8M per year.

Some completely unrelated, random thoughts about videos from West Point: Sid is a lefty in hockey, as well as when swinging a baseball bat and golf cub. He throws right-handed, though, and is pretty darn good at it. Check out this TD from Sid to Beau. James Neal played football barefoot.

And just to get you in the right mood, let's go Radioactive! Happy hockey season, everyone! And good luck today Buccos!