The last three seasons our third Saturday home game has been played against Tampa. Tonight our ticket sales revenues will be up almost 25 percent for the same game compared to last season.

 We have more season tickets holders. We are selling more groups. We don

I think our coaching staff has done a very good job of transitioning Nicklas Backstrom into the new NHL. He had to get comfortable with the smaller ice; with a new environment, city and language; and with playing against NHL-caliber D men and forwards.

I think our coaching staff has done a very good job of transitioning Nicklas Backstrom into the new NHL. He had to get comfortable with the smaller ice; with a new environment, city and language; and with playing against NHL-caliber D men and forwards. He has been mentored by the staff and by Michael Nylander and Alex Ovechkin and now he is ready to play significant minutes at center. This move should allow us now – when healthy – to roll three scoring, offensive-based lines and make us tougher to match up against. Backstrom is a special player. He is still very young but he has great thought processing on the ice and he is a playmaker first. He is very responsible in the defensive zone and is another cornerstone upon which we have been developing our team.