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Around The Rink - Thursday, October 14th

You can look at today as being “old faces in new places” day in the NHL. While Simon Gagne makes his joyous return to Philadelphia as a member of the Lightning, don’t expect the reception to be quite as warm for Mike Modano when he shows up in Dallas as a member of the Detroit Red Wings. That’s a rather rude way to crash the Stars’ home opener, wouldn’t you say? Here’s tonight’s schedule and, as always, all times listed are Eastern.

7:00 pm

Tampa Bay @ Philadelphia

Simon Gagne makes his return to Philly and will get a warm reception from fans just so long as he doesn’t skate out on the ice dressed as Michael Irvin or Santa Claus. Brian Boucher is expected to start for Philly while Twitter’s favorite goalie Dan Ellis goes for Tampa Bay.

Carolina @ Ottawa

Daniel Alfredsson will play in this one for Ottawa while Sergei Samsonov may be in the lineup for Carolina. Ottawa has to start turning things around or else things will start getting especially ugly there. Not so much from a fan anger point of view, but in a “holy crap we need to sell tickets” kind of way.

8:00 pm

St. Louis @ Nashville

Anders Lindback and Joel Ward helped the Preds steal one on the road in Chicago last night and now get to deal with a Blues team playing very well, backed by the outstanding play of Jaroslav Halak. I don’t suppose they’re taking notice of him in Montreal, do you?

8:30 pm

Detroit @ Dallas

It’s Dallas’ home opener and Mike Modano will be in attendance for it... As a member of the Detroit Red Wings. Don’t suppose that things could be more bittersweet there. Luckily for Dallas, they’ll get to deal with Chris Osgood in goal for the Red Wings.

Edmonton @ Minnesota

Hey it’s the home opener that Mike Modano could’ve been a part of if he decided he wanted to be a member of the Wild. Well then... So much for that. Edmonton looks to continue their solid start while Minnesota plays their first game since returning from Europe.

9:30 pm

Florida @ Calgary

One of a handful of times we can call a game the “Olli Jokinen Bowl” as the Panthers pay a visit to Jokinen in his new-old digs in Calgary. Which Calgary team shows up to play will be interesting to see. Florida has been snake bitten by bad luck to start the year. With Miikka Kiprusoff in goal, things only figure to be that much harder for the Panthers.