WHL Regular Season = Sam is Even Shinier and Happier

The game: Season opener between WHL's Seattle Thunderbirds and Portland Winterhawks.

OOOHHHH and it comes with this: Cutie pie referee/lawyer Matt Kirk is refereeing. I really must get on board with the WHL's officials' schedule and trek to all games where said ref is present and accounted for.

Why I chose it: Duh.

The distraction: Trying to keep track of the various Hawks who are still with their NHL teams. Tonight, they include Brett Ponich (St. Louis), Ryan Johansen (Columbus), Nino Niederreiter (Islanders), Oliver Gabriel (Columbus), Luke Walker (Colorado), Riley Boychuk (Buffalo).

Speaking of the NHL and reality: I will now take the time to worship executives at HBO, which will begin running a documentary about Pittsburgh and the Capitals in the month or so leading up to the Winter Classic. Even picture perfect wonder boy Sidney Crosby has already admitted he's human and you may see some less than perfect behavior. If you watch the DVD thingy about him and you watch the Winter Classic against Buffalo, I can assure you the boy knows how to drop the f-bomb. And may I just say, thank god. Because if he behaved himself on the ice too, then even I, loyal card carrying Crosby fan, would have to rethink some things.

The late evening moral of the story: I love game day. I mean I freakin' love it. Anything is still possible, it's anyone's game and you can feel the earth move. Especially season-opening night. No matter what else is wrong with your life, no matter how bad things might be, it makes it all ok. What I'm trying to figure out is how to live every day of my life like that, because that's how it should be. We should get up, go forth and conquer and not come home until we've howled at the moon, burned every bridge and danced on every bar. It should all be like draft day and game day and Stanley Cup final day. Monday is the Hawks home opener. I will therefore avow to get up, go forth and do more than make paper clip forts and read the Winterhawks' Twitter feed all day long. At the very least, I will build a very serious paper clip fort that will protect all my tacky Hawks promo gear from being burgled.

Next up: Back to topic with the Collective Bargaining Agreement.