Congrats to the Florida Panthers [again] on their 2nd Stanley Cup victory, putting them into a rare group of now 9 teams who’ve won the Cup in back-to-back years. They now try to become the 4th team in NHL history to win back-to-back-to-back titles, which would put them in company with Montreal, Toronto and the NY Islanders.
Things to know:
The season starts on October 7. End date is TBA.
The New York Rangers celebrate their 100th anniversary this season. If last year was any sign, it’ll be occasional glimmers of joy in a season of despair and dreadfulness.
The Winnipeg JetsPhoenix CoyotesArizona Coyotes Utah Hockey Club is now the Utah Mammoth. Same franchise, tweaked jerseys, … will be the same results as usual?
8 new coaches already, with a 9th to be named yet in Dallas.
Two arena name changes, unless you’re a purist and like using the original arena names.
Pittsburgh and Nashville go play two overseas games in November in Stockholm, Sweden. Given their performance last year, they should probably play somewhere out in the distant woods in Sweden to protect hockey fans everywhere.
The Winter Classic goes off in an area known for its prodigious amounts of cold and snow, Miami Florida, as the Panthers take on the Rangers.
The other outdoor game goes off the next day in Tampa as the Lightning play the Bruins.
No All-Star Game, since we have the Winter Olympics this year. No clue what we’ll have, other than some vague mention of a “send off” event. Maybe we can have the players do celebratory laps and irrelevant skills stuff so no one gets hurt.
And yes, Corey Perry goes for that 6th Finals loss in 7th years. Good side of having him on your roster: that Finals appearance and all that sweet, sweet home playoff revenue. Bad side: you’ll spend weeks telling people “no, we’re not going to have a Cup parade, prepare for disappointment.”
Turning point was when the Leafs were up two games to nil and had the lead in game three. When Panthers came back to win that game the Leafs blew their chance.
Let’s resurrect this, because Opening Night is tomorrow night and there’s a lot to cover from the offseason.
Quick note before we kick off the season: your betting favorite for losing in the Finals is the Los Angeles Kings, who scooped up good luck charm [for 3 rounds] / bad luck charm [for that 4th round that really, really counts] Corey Perry.
Suspensions handed out for the Saturday Night fracas between Tampa Bay and Florida, which saw 312 PIM and Florida go 6-for-19 on the power play in a 7-0 game that also saw an 8th goal rescinded after Niko Mikkola - who’d been kicked out early in the 3rd period - on the ice for what would have been a 7th PP goal just inside of 5 minutes to play.
It’s an Opening Day/Night tripleheader, which sees such marquee games as Chicago vs. Florida [4pm] and Pittsburgh vs. NY Rangers [7pm] before a much more interesting game in Colorado vs. Los Angeles [9:30pm]. [All times CT].
Florida raises a banner, gets rings with “We Apologize for Nothing” engraved on them, then go out and start the quest for the threepeat with a 3-2 win over Chicago. Pittsburgh spoils the New York Rangers debut of former coach Mike Sullivan with a 3-0 shutout [2 ENGs], Colorado spoils the home opener for Los Angeles 4-1.
The old Chinese curse: “May you watch an interesting game.” Up 1-3 on the road day after a home game, LAK lose lead, go down 5-3 vs VGK only to come back 5-5 (including a short-hander), win the shootout.
Toronto opens up the 58th year of trying to win its 14th Stanley Cup with a 5-2 win over Montreal that looks worse than it really was courtesy of 2 ENGs late.
Only 7 games into the season, but road teams are 5-2. Or, if you’re a purist and hate the shootout, road teams are 3-2-2. Either way, early returns on betting for the home team aren’t good.
14 games tonight, and then the league takes a night off. I’m guessing it’s partially because everyone will be exhausted from having played at least once in the first 3 days, but mostly to help make sure there’s time later in the year to accommodate the Olympic break by having stretches of something like 7 games in 12 days or 12 games in 21 days.
Buffalo.