[youtalkfunny]

Stunned.

That's how I felt when I saw the lines for Opening Night in the NHL.

Didn't these oddsmakers hear about the new rules? Especially the "no more ties, we're staying until we put another goal on the board" rule?

Fifteen games. Half the games had a 6, and the other half had totals of 5½. They even put up a 5 on the Pit/NJ game.

My first thought was, "I thought scoring was supposed to be way up? I haven't followed the sport, but when I see the scores on the bottom of my tv screen, I've seen a lot of 6-4's, and not too many 2-1's.

Maybe the new rules haven't been effective. Let's look at the numbers.

I printed out the final pre-season standings. I added each teams GF and GA, and divided that by Games Played.

Out of thirty NHL teams, how many do you think saw an average of less than 5½ total goals scored in their preseason games? FIVE. Five out of thirty.

Look at the Flyers. They played 7 pre-season games. They scored 32, and allowed 25. That's a total of 57 goals in 7 games, or just over 8 goals per game. I know they're not gonna score 8 goals every night. But I like my chances to see their games go over 6.

ESPECIALLY SINCE A GAME CAN NO LONGER END IN A 3-3 TIE! Shouldn't that count for something? Like, a LOT? A tie at the end of regulation shouldn't be too scarce in HOCKEY, should it?

I ended up betting four games over, and splitting. Somehow the Caps and BlueJ's got 5 second-period goals, but couldn't get the game over 5½ (come on guys! a PPG? an EN goal? anything?), and the Habs-B's didn't come close.

Overs went 8-6-1 tonight. No fewer than four of those six unders ended in a final score of 3-2. An empty-netter in any of them would've changed a loss into a win or a push. And if the extra attacker could've tied it up, then forget about pushes, you'd be guaranteed OT/shoot-out.

The lines are already out for tomorrow. All 6's, no 5½'s.

I hope they're not gone for good.

Salami, anyone?