After a long 3 months off, the NHL gets rolling in earnest and our TV viewing is set for the next 9 months. There are 4 season openers tonite, and we can see most of them. Versus has Maple Leafs @ Red Wings where Def Leppard will play to kick off the season and the Red Wings will raise their Stanley Cup banner. Versus will follow that up with Bruins @ Avalanche. NHL.com starts a free preview of NHL Gamecenter Live and tonite you can watch Ducks @ Sharks via the internet! A free preview of NHL Center Ice is also available for the next week if your cable or satellite company carries it.

Move on to Saturday when NHL Network will be broadcasting Hockey Night in Canada starting @ 5:30 CST with a pregame, then Canadiens @ Maple Leafs followed by Canucks @ Flames, then Hockey Night in Canada After Hours. If you’ve never experienced Hockey Night in Canada make sure you catch some of it Saturday nite. HNIC is truly like no other hockey television experience.

And to top all of that off, Saturday nite is also the Wild season opener v. Boston Bruins. They’ll be raising our 1st banner to the rafters @ Xcel Energy Center for last year’s Northwest Division title in a pregame ceremony starting around 7:15 CST. The game will be on FSN North and is scheduled to be in HD so it’ll be the next best thing to being there for me.

So hunker down, because life is good again. Hockey is back!