September 21st or February 21st?

Here's a trick.

Grab a hockey fan. No. Grab 20 of 'em.

Doesn't matter if they are casual or rabid, as long as these people know the history between the Flyers and Devils. Show the box score of last night's Flyers-Devils game, doing your best not to tip off the time or date, or year in which the game took place.

See if they can guess if the game is preseason or regular season, and if it's from this year or any year since 1995.

I bet a bunch of them couldn't guess any of the above correctly.

How do I know this?

Because I watched the game, and, resting stars aside, couldn't tell if it was an exhibition contest or a late February snooze fest where both teams are trying to wring every point from every game they can.

I switched channels frequently between commercials, and lulls in the action. Found last season's final rerun episode of "Grey's Anatomy" to be more compelling. Found the season premiere of "ER" packing more punch and featuring more collisions, explosions, and violence than half a season's worth of games last year. I think the NHL should sponsor re-enactments of television's dramatic scenes at your favorite local arena, just to cover the bases. Having Linda Cardellini recreate her final scene in last night's 10 PM NBC show would have given the proper punctuation the Flyers game desperately needed.

Don't give me "it's only the preseason," or "the Devils were playing their third game in three nights."

It was all of seven years ago the Flyers and Devils once had a 10-2 preseason game. Jersey used to wait until the season actually began to put the brakes on the offense. Wouldn't you expect a tired team that's undermanned to give up a couple, 5, 6 goals? Wouldn't you expect the Flyers to not only turn on the juice for their first home game, but to work at converting more chances, and maybe taking more chances on the rush or the backcheck?

Guess not, because I saw a system already being played. Endless cycling followed by ordered line changes and mechanic puck movement (when there weren't fumbles or missed chances), followed by more endless cycling followed by rote by-the-numbers power play and penalty kill situations. I saw neither team taking advantage of the two-line pass, or making creative plays with more open ice. I did see two teams playing a looser game of Ice Chess than they would in the regular season - and this without both teams skating some of their top talent.

Of 30 teams welcomed back for the first season of the New NHL, the Flyers and Devils made my top five list of "Teams Who Won't Take Full Advantage of the New Rules." They're still in my top five, and it doesn't look like things will change. I already suspect goal scoring will be down by about three-tenths of a goal from last year because coaches have had a year to figure out how to circumvent the rules, but to have a 2-1 game where one team hasn't unloaded on another, or where the game is so sloppy and listless, is ridiculous.

Let it all hang out boys. An 8-6 preseason game may draw more interest than you'd expect.