The NHL preseason begins in Chicago on Saturday, and I’m sure the United Center will be packed. Oh wait, I’m sorry. I said NHL, not NFL, didn’t I? And it’s the Blackhawks playing, not the Bulls, right? So maybe it’s safe to say that the United Center won’t be sold out, but I am nevertheless glad that the NHL is back in business.

Preseason hockey may even be fun to watch this season. Or it could be horrible. It all depends on your take of watching a bunch of players who just met each other yesterday try and play as a cohesive unit. With nine new players and a new head coach on the Blackhawks’ roster, I guarantee they are glad their sweaters have their names on the back.

Come Saturday’s game, the Hawks will have been together for less than a week and not even the vets on the team have seen much of each other over the lockout year. Unfortunately, hockey isn’t a sport that lends itself well to learning players’ names from the back of their jerseys. New Hawks goaltender Nikolai Khabibulin’s name isn’t exactly pronounced phonetically.

After all the kinks are worked out in the preseason, and the numerous teams with scores of new players start getting a feel for each other, I can honestly say that I am excited to watch hockey again when the regular season begins Oct. 5.

Hockey is a fun game to watch. It combines hard hitting with loads of finesse and athleticism. And name a cooler piece of sporting equipment than a goalie’s mask.

The game should also be even more exciting this year with the reductions made in the legal size of the goalie’s equipment and the termination of the two-line pass rule.

I am also glad the NHL is back for another reason. It would have been a shame if Mark Messier had been forced to retire while the league was still in the dumpster and the media and public’s focus was on everything else besides hockey. Messier is one of the greatest athletes of all time and deserved the sports world’s attention when he decided to end his career. That’s one of the perks that sports superstars get after long, hard-fought careers. Messier deserved to be able to say goodbye and actually have people there to hear it.

I still think the NHL is going to be in a bit of a predicament trying to regain its fans, though. With the retirements of Messier and other long-time NHL stars, and the insane amount of movement of other stars (curse you Peter Bondra), fans – especially casual fans – are going to be coming back to teams where they won’t recognize more than a couple names. The layout of the league is going to be completely different than at the end of the 2003-04 season, and it is going to be another bump in the road to getting fans back to the games. Fans who already feel betrayed by a league who just let a full season slip away aren’t going to pay premium ticket prices to see unfamiliar players and teams led by unknown rookies.

Regardless of what’s left to be done, the NHL is back and all that’s left is for me to retrain my tongue to gracefully wrap around all the multi-syllabic strings of consonants that make up the names of so many of the NHL’s top players. Until then, adieu.

Josh George is senior in communications. He can be reached at [email protected].