I want us as a franchise to be respected.

I want for the media to believe in our team and for our fans to be able to hope and dream of big success.
After being on Comcast SportsNet tonight and hearing the local resident experts’ positive predictions and seeing some of the national media picks for the new season, I am starting to get very nervous.

The last time we were picked this highly and with this much expectation, we didn’t even qualify for the playoffs.

So I think I liked it better when we were underdogs. Now we have the weight of expectations on our shoulders. I am hoping our shoulders are broad enough to carry these heightened expectations. There are so many great teams in the NHL. I would hate to give any team bulletin board fodder as motivation. We must remain hungry and very humble.

As I have said, “Don’t believe the hype.” We have to play every shift of every period of every game to win enough games to qualify for the playoffs. It is a long season and anything can happen. We can’t believe our press clippings. We have to execute. Drop the damn puck already! Let’s see what we got.