I am impressed.

“I’ve seen a lot of things in my life…..But that…..was…..Awesome!!!” – Tommy Boy

There were 15 games played in the National Hockey League on opening night. If the best game of the bunch wasn’t played in Dallas, Texas, then I would love to see the game that beat it. The Stars 5-4 victory over the Los Angeles Kings promised plenty to fans of the sport of hockey. Not the least of which is that falling behind by 4 goals on your home ice is no longer completely out of the question. That’s right. Before the game was 5 minutes old, Jeremy Roenick had 2 goals, and Sean Avery had another. Before the game was 20 minutes old, Dustin Brown had turned a John Erskine fumble into a 4th Los Angeles goal. And the American Airlines Center, which had sat empty as a hockey facility for 18 months or so, turned into a pretty impressive chorus of boos.

In the second, the Stars received power play after power play and with the help of tighter calls and larger offensive zones, this will generally be a recipe of success for this squad. With a top Power Play Unit of Mike Modano, Sergei Zubov, Bill Guerin, Jason Arnott, and Martin Skoula the Stars can certainly assemble a unit that has plenty of everything out there. Arnott scored the first, then Zubov made it 4-2, and then 4-3 after 2 periods.

10 minutes into the third, Bill Guerin scored off a deflection and the game was finally all the way back to tied at 4-4. Finally, the game winner came when Phillipe Boucher took an Arnott face off win and shot from a poor angle. Kings goaltender Mathieu Garon, who may be the biggest question mark on a Kings roster that is much improved, allowed his 5th goal of the night after the shot bounced off a defenseman and past the goal line.

So, now, we are to believe that a 4-0 deficit is no longer a reason to head to the exit? I guess in “My NHL” (as the sideboard advertisement assures me) this thing is possible. Look, I consider myself a world-class cynic, but after experiencing the new product for 60 minutes and seeing the end to end action that never seemed to stop, I am a temporary believer in what the league has promised. The product was amazing last night. So much action and very little clutching and grabbing was allowed.

If you read my comments regularly, one of my main questions was “will the intimidation and physicality of the sport I love still be there if you place all these new rules in the game?” Again, if one game is any indication, yes. There were plenty of big hits thanks to Brendan Morrow, Sean Avery, Steve Ott, and others. And there was a fair amount of bad feelings between the teams after whistles, which I endorse.

It is only one game. We should wait and see before we pronounce this sport healed beyond anyone’s wildest aspirations, but I cannot tell you how amazing I found the product on Opening Night in Dallas.

By the way, the crowd was a sellout, and frankly behaved like a playoff crowd. Any existing grudge between the sport and its existing fans seems minimal. So, what about the new fans? If they watched 5 minutes of the game last night, they will be back for more. There is no doubt in my mind about that.

Kings wondering about blown lead; penalties …

"When you don't knock people off the puck … " Murray began saying after the game, then stopped to compose himself. "Tonight was an indication that if we're not able to play physical, it doesn't matter how much skill we have added to our team."

The Kings added a bushel of skill, bringing in Jeremy Roenick, Pavol Demitra and others. The NHL, though, added a few wrinkles as well, promising to call a tighter game to allow players offensive freedom and downsizing goaltender's equipment.

Those changes gave Wednesday's game wild mood swings, so wild that the Stars were booed off the ice after the first period and cheered after the second period.

The Stars scored three second-period goals, two on the power play, then tied the score midway through the third period on a goal by Bill Guerin just after the Kings' Dustin Brown stepped out of the penalty box.

That left Murray seething, as he seemed to divide his anger between how the Kings played and how the officials made calls.

"We took all those penalties because we didn't knock someone off the puck initially," Murray said.

Still, Murray said, "They were grabbing and pulling guys down at the end of the game. It was interesting how [the officials] were calling it."

Crowds are back in full force …

All 30 teams played Wednesday, the first time the NHL has had a full schedule on opening night since 1928, and the fans responded.

Eleven of the 15 games were sellouts and every arena was filled to more than 98% capacity.

In St. Paul, Minn., where the Wild opened its fifth season, 19,398 fans flocked to the Xcel Energy Center, the largest crowd ever to see a Wild game.

In Toronto, where the Maple Leafs began their 88th season, an above-capacity crowd of 19,452 filled the Air Canada Centre and saw the Ottawa Senators defeat the Maple Leafs, 3-2, in the first tie-breaking shootout in NHL history.

In Tampa, 22,120 fans watched the Lightning raise a banner to commemorate its 2003-04 Stanley Cup championship, a joyful moment that had been delayed by the lockout. The Lightning went on to beat the Carolina Hurricanes, 5-2.

New Hockey Rules ...

Bohls reminds Mack win versus OU is all he needs …

Mack Brown (mak broun) 1951-current; 1. a college football head coach at the University of Texas at Austin 2. Big 12's winningest active coach (Division I games only) 3. a coach often and wrongly accused of not being able to win big games 4. a coach without a single conference championship in 18 years, including a fourth-place finish in the Southern Conference at Appalachian State (darn those Furman Paladins) 5. nicest guy in the business 6. someone who thinks everything about college football is "a neat deal" 7. Sally's husband 8. a coach who drops Darrell Royal's name in every setting 9. a son whose daddy is Bob Stoops.

But in earnest, the eighth-year Longhorns coach has been unfairly defined almost universally by an inability to win an Atlantic Coast or Big 12 conference title and a failure to beat Oklahoma.

There's more to the man than that.

In 18 seasons -- Tulane was an independent in his six years there -- Mack's teams have finished second in their leagues just five times. So it's not just because Florida State went 107-14-1 during Mack's 10 seasons at North Carolina and Oklahoma has gone 69-14 under Bob Stoops.

Brown did beat the Sooners twice, but no one counts those because the overmatched John Blake was patrolling the OU sidelines the first year and Stoops was a rookie head coach who barely knew how to blow his whistle.

In reality, the OU game does define the 54-year-old Brown because that's the nature of sports in today's world. And he doesn't object, because he has a good grip on what's important in life. Not that an occasional victory over the Sooners wouldn't be nice, or neat, but he knows that's one line in his obit. And of course, the epitaph on his tombstone.

Ah yes, a Thursday tradition returns, The Jimmy Burch Big 12 Insider …

After losing by 60 last year in Lubbock, Nebraska is looking forward to Saturday …


Texas wants the tunnel …

FC Dallas’ Eddie Johnson shut down for the season …


P1 Peter takes on the Rangers GM Move …

Rare Hockey hater sorry to see hockey back …how clever…

Very cool baseball blog …

And, here is another Hicks email:

Bob:

Just listened to Hicks during the John Hart press conference, and he once again said baseball is proving that high payroll is not very important in baseball success. Again, he is not going by facts.

Of the eight teams in the playoffs, all but the Padres are in the top half of payroll (top 15 out of 30). The Padres (who also have the worst record of all the playoff teams) are at #16, Rangers at #21. Of the top six in payroll, four made the playoffs (Yankees, Red Sox, Angels and Cardinals). Five of the eight playoff teams are in the top ten. Here are the rankings for the playoff teams.

Yankees #1
Red Sox #2
Angels #4
Cardinals #6
Braves #10
Astros # 12
White Sox #13
Padres #16

So, as much as Hicks praised Mark Shapiro and Billy Beane, the fact is quite clear that those that spend money have a much better chance of going to the playoffs. Don't spend monay, and the chances are you'll be sitting at home.

Who knew? Tom Hicks is wrong?