Death by hockey deprivation...

I don't think I've ever pined for hockey so much as I am right now.

I think it might be because the weather in Appalachia is slightly cooler than what I'm used to in the Triangle, so the change in temperature that I associate with late October (and hockey season) is already occurring now - with no hockey. Perhaps it's because I'm nowhere near the Canes now - is the distance making the heart grow fonder? Maybe. Either way I still grimace whenever I see someone on this campus wearing a Pittsburgh Penguins shirt (I think I've seen more here then when I was in Pittsburgh... go figure...)

On the other side of things, this year was the first year I actually didn't care what the Canes TV schedule looked like, considering I am firmly planted in the Comcast Sports area of the nation now and I don't think the TVs here have seen anything that is named Versus (in similar news, DirecTV dropped Versus earlier this week. In my opinion, you don't get DirecTV for hockey, you get it for the Sunday Ticket and the Green Bay Packers...). Although the whole Versus thing doesn't matter for me or for other Caniacs because there's no Canes games on national TV this year anyways.

Is an ESPN contract not looking better and better by the minute?

Getting off the topic of the TV schedule, Cam Ward is scaring me a little with these back spasms that were flaring up at the Canadian Olympic team camp. Hopefully it's nothing to worry about, but I think it's something to keep an eye on.

30 days until the season starts... I'm restraining myself from counting the minutes...