Tonight, the NHL pre-season opens with Washington and Winnipeg playing a pre-season game, which will be televised on NHLNet at 7PM EST. Edmonton and Calgary will play two games against each other at the same time, starting at 9 and 10 PM EST. Sunday night, the Leafs will play the Flyers starting at 6 PM - we'll have Game Day Threads and even a recap, though I only promise a pre-season quality performance.

Here's some interesting reading to hold you over for the last 9 hours of the offseason:

Normal Goaltender Development, part 3: By draft round - Raw Charge
This has been an interesting series on drafting and developing goalies. Check out parts 1 and 2 linked at the top.

Predicting Playoff Save Percentage - The Copper & Blue
if you're good enough to be a starting goalie in the NHL, you're good enough to play really well over a short sample but not so good that you couldn't be terrible.

Patrick Kane wows with stickhandling brilliance
Insane video of Kane stickhandling.

Rich Peverley Undergoes Procedure for Irregular Heartbeat, Expected to Miss Three Weeks - Defending Big D
The Stars will have to do without Rich Peverley in the early going of the season.

Blues, Alex Pietrangelo agree to seven-year extension, avoid lengthy holdout - Yahoo Sports
$5 million, $5.5, $6.5, $7, $7, $7, $7.5, for a 45.5M total, and a 6.5M average. Great deal for the Blues.

1,000 words of praise for Erik Karlsson - Eyes On The Prize
Theactivestick pays up for a charity contribution. Let's all remember the time she wrote nice things about Erik Karlsson.

Chris Pronger's life in two worlds
You can't really be both a player and a staff member, apparently, so Chris Pronger survives in a strange blind spot.

From The Branches