Welcome Back Hockey [J. Mark English]

LET THE TALK BEGIN

• Howard Fendrich tells us why Captials' Alex Ovechkin is looking forward to year II.
• Terry Frei thinks that a chance of scenery for Eric Lindros in Dallas is just what he needs.
• Scott Burnside with the good and bad of being Cup Champs if your the Carolina Hurricanes.
• Canadian businessman, Jim Balsillie, whose company founded the blackberry, has agreed to buy the Pittsburgh Penguins.
• How the New York Rangers help make a boy's dream come true in Lake George.
• Chris Russell on the image of the NHL one year removed from the lock out.
• Helene Elliott on why from TV Deal to Schedule...the NHL still has a lot of work cut out for itself.
• Evan Weiner takes a different approaching...arguing that the NHL is thriving: It's too early to gauge by ticket sales, but NBC has added a number of games to its hockey package and the Peacock may shortly announce that it will extend its broadcast agreement with the league beyond 2007. The NHL's cable partner, Versus, now reaches 70 million homes in America. So the league figures to increase its national exposure in America.Versus is not at ESPN subscriber levels, but a cable TV network — even one that is as branded as the self-described "World Wide Leader" ESPN — is not the sole source of hockey or sports on TV, the Internet, video on-demand, or other technology. A number of Versus cablecasts will be shown on Yahoo! Sports on a weekly basis, and the NHL will be given prominent space on the new NBCSports Web site when the network begins its 2007 broadcast package.