It seems the vocal majority feels the NHL preseason is too long and the ticket prices are too high. While I won't touch on the latter I do not see how anything less than eight games is fair, especially in the case of the Canucks.
Last night marked the preseason debut of the Twins, Dan Hamhuis, Lou and Mikael Samuelson. Does this mean the past five games without them have been useless? If the team didn't have eight (or more) preseason games then when would we get to see what we've got in our group of budding young prospects? Without extra games to put the young guns through the paces there would be no system of evaluation. If there were say four preseason games there would be little to no room for rookies as vets would need to skate in all of them.
I think real fans are excited to follow the story lines that emerge through the offseason and training camp. A true Canuck fan would be eagerly following the battle for available fourth line positions. They would be as excited as a kid on Christmas to see if management managed to land a gem in the late first rounds in Nicklas Jensen. They would be giddy with anticipation to see if Cody Hodgson can play up to expectation. They would already be questioning Roberto Luongo.
Maybe I'm an anomaly but if the NHL expanded the preseason I wouldn't be too disappointed. As it sits I hope they don't shorten it, I like what I've seen.
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