This is it. It’s been a long summer of existential dread, self-doubt and humbling insecurity; meaningless interactions with loved ones about what color to paint the bathroom and playing games with children we can barely bring ourselves to love; reading stories about Ilya Kovalchuk and CBA politics that look like they were written by an escaped gorilla on the back of a napkin; thinking about taking up model ship building and working on that spy novel while fantasizing about all that dead weight we’re gonna shave off the cap next off season and whether we should go after Brad Richards.

It all comes down to this: back-to-back games, Friday and Saturday night, as the Sens open their season against the pathetically boring Buffalo Sabres and the hated Leaves, who stabbed all of our eyeballs last night with yet another 45-minute opening ceremony designed to celebrate their putrid history.

I have 9 beers in my fridge (Mill Street Organic and St. Ambroise Apricot Wheat. REAL MAN’S BEERS.) and my television isn’t HD and this will be the greatest night. Remember the lockout? How the hell did we survive that?