Hockey Returns, Life Complete Again

Entire nation to be transfixed by millionaires chasing a piece of rubber on ice.

The National Hockey League Season begins its 2011-12 season tonight with three games, a new team, new rules, but not Sidney Crosby. The Montreal Canadiens head to Toronto to take on the rival Maple Leafs tonight, while the Crosby-less Penguins are off to the West Coast to face the Western Conference champion Vancouver Canucks, who begin a season-long quest to redeem themselves – and their city – for their collapse in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals. And the winners of that game, the Boston Bruins, open up their season on home ice, where they'll raise the new championship banner before taking on the much-revamped Philadelphia Flyers, who added noted mullet-wearer Jarmoir Jagr in the offseason. These three games will be the first regular season games to feature new rules on hits to the head and from behind, as new discipline chief Brendan Shanahan attempts to lower the number of serious injuries in the sport. Come Sunday, the Winnipeg Jets will open the first NHL season in the Manitoba capital in 15 years after being relocated from Atlanta in June.