Zach Parise

The Flyers travel to North Jersey where they hope to slow down a hot Devils team. A win here is two big points closer to the top of the Atlantic Division.

The Philadelphia Flyers announced that they extended Kimmo Timonen's contract by one year at a cap hit of $6 million. Many may not be happy about it, but the Flyers had to do it. It's really as simple as that.

What else were they going to do? If they lost Timonen, arguably their best defenseman and most capable puck mover, where would this team be in the standings? They most certainly would not be a playoff team. The roster only shows one other capable puck moving defenseman in Braydon Coburn.

After one week of play, the Minnesota Wild sit at a pedestrian 2-2-1 record. Zach Parise has set the standard in the early season with 9 points including 5 goals. The top line of Parise-Mikko Koivu-Dany Heatley has combined for 21 points and has scored 10 of the Wild's 13 goals.

They've been great. The supporting cast has not. That goes without saying when three players account for 75% of a team's goal output.

It's still early, but early ,to paraphrase Yogi Berra, is a lot later in this 48 ...

The 2012-13 NHL season commences today, with 13 games in total taking place. More importantly, the New York Islanders will have their fourth consecutive home-opener against last season's Eastern Conference Champions, the New Jersey Devils.

Unfortunately, the Isles haven't won on opening night since 2007. Last October, they gave the new Winnipeg Jets their first win in 2-0 shutout. (Photo Credit: IslesPunkFan/Flickr)