Game Day Morning Coffee: Welcome Back, Old Fr... Hey, Who Are You?

From the hills of (British) Columbia, it's another season of NHL hockey, as the Vancouver Canucks are in Calgary to take on the last team they played, the Flames. We'll take a look at some of the important stuff from that matchup a little later. First, we gotta get to the

MORNING LINKS!!!

- The Washington Post thinks the Canucks are morphing into a 'hard working team', but as is typical of an outsider, the article fails for no appearance of the phrase "pretty good"

- I don't know who these guys are, but I want to put this one here, just so we can either go back and laugh when the smoke clears, or marvel at them being the only guys who were right.

- VanCity Buzz's Omar Canuck dragged out his trusty Magic 8 Ball to ask it 6 Questions...

- Bo thinks this is the perfect place to start the season

- Are the Canucks really stronger at Center? We'll see how this plays out...

- While we're all anxiously awaiting the first edition of The Provies tonight, The White Towel has a look at what has to happen for the Canucks to make the playoffs.

- Friend of the blog Thomas Drance with a nice stats-laden piece on the new kids

- It's time to play our favorite new game show: Dumpster Fire Or 100 Points!

Around The League...

- Sportsnet's new guy Steve Dangle (and congrats on the gig, man!) reminding Leafs fans that this is what they wanted

- Some interesting thoughts on which NHL coach is on a short leash this season

- The guys over at CSN Philly with their season predictions...

- And here's some from USA Today's Kevin Allen

GAME DAY THOUGHTS

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/VanCanucks">@VanCanucks</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/NHLFlames">@NHLFlames</a> open up the season in Calgary tonight, Here are the opening night rosters <a href="http://t.co/vYouNcMibt">pic.twitter.com/vYouNcMibt</a></p>&mdash; Gino Reda (@GinoRedaTSN) <a href="https://twitter.com/GinoRedaTSN/status/651767841054662657">October 7, 2015</a></blockquote>

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A double header on Sportsnet to start off the season, with Toronto and Montreal renewing their rivalry at 4pm, followed by the Canucks in Calgary to take on the Flames. Here's your Game Day Checklist:

- Theo Fleury will get on twitter to troll Canucks fans because he legitimately has nothing better to do.

- There will be shock and anger when Michael Ferland actually gets called for charging tonight.

- Someone's gonna remind us how old Sam Bennett is, right? RIGHT???

- They're also gonna remind us how old the Sedins are...

- Even if Ryan Miller is lights out, twitter will be awash with a) calls for Markstrom to be #1 and b) lamentations for Eddie Lack

- Luca Sbisa gonna Luca Sbisa...

Gonna be a total crap shoot over the first few games as we see how the Canucks adjust with new lines and pairings, so a win or a loss tonight might not tell us much. There will be some things to watch for, and I am calling it now: The Canucks will be the first team to use the new Coach's challenge rule to dispute a non-call on goalie interference (hello, Ferkland...).

Overall, despite the team having to make some tough choices (and some that don't seem to make a lot of sense) I am looking forward to this season simply to see how all this plays out. It may not always be pretty, and chances are this team isn't gonna make the playoffs. But if you look through the layers of ugliness, you will see the seeds of the future being planted. Getting to watch Horvat, McCann, Virtanen and Hutton as well as the new guys like Brandons Sutter and Prust will be fun to watch, as well as Jacob Markstrom's quest to prove he can play at this level.

Finally, remember: It's just a game. Let's keep that in mind, both in how we watch and interact here at NM. We're opening the doors on a new season, and want to welcome you all.

GAME DAY BATTLE HYMN

Germany's old school beer-obsessed thrashers Tankard aren't just about the fermented malt beverage love songs, as they show with this Mad Max-esque glimpse into an apocalyptic future. From the album 'Thirst', here's Octane Warriors...