Anaheim Ducks (0-0-0) at Buffalo Sabres (0-0-0), 10 am
Anaheim Calling and Die By The Blade -- Hell's Linky.

As you all know I've been doing a late summer series re-designing logos for SBN's hockey blogs, and I've purposefully left the Buffalo Sabres and the New York Rangers blogs off the to-do list.  Not because I had any incredible ideas for them or anything, but I figured with back-to-back morning starts it'd give me something usable to post for the first two gamedays. 

So to kick of this Finnish season-starter, here's the logo I drew up for SBN's Sabres blog:

This logo's gimmick could have been better, but I was pretty determined to feature Buffalo's lingering (and rightful) anger about Brett Hull's skate somewhere in the logo, so I had the blade-wielder go on an angry message-carving rampage.  I like the idea that he scratched cartoon-swear marks instead of actually swearing, though -- that's some solid self-control right there.  :)

Once again, the blog name lettering is the strongest part of this one.  There's an old-school buffalo-head logo for the "D", a new-school Buffaslug for the "B", and then it even the referenced sabre-blade is incorporated.

Overall, satisfactory!  But you know what?  I could have drawn a better Buffaslug.  In fact, I did.  A bonus cartoon after the jump!

Hooray!  :)

Now I don't want to overstate the importance of Game One of an 82-game schedule, but check out how the Ducks have fared in their last five season openers, plus what their end result has been:

Seems like an eerily strong correlation to me.  :)

Prediction: Nobody's making me watch this game delayed, so I'll be around for comments this morning -- should be fun.  Ducks 4, Sabres 3.  Sprinkles of salt by Lucamir Sbisnovsky (both of them), Smellypants, and Koivu.

Go Ducks.