Storylines? Yes We’ve Got Storylines
By Scott Burnside
The NHL’s 2021-22 regular season is a week away. Storylines? Oh you know we’ve got the storylines.
A Return To The Olympics
Owners will always get a sour look on their face when discussing NHL participation. I get it, but don’t really understand the mindset. Boo hoo. You have to shut down for three weeks, while the best players in the world gather to play for their countries. Get over it. Embrace it maybe. Regardless, it is incumbent on the league and the teams to promote the hell out of the 2022 Olympics in Beijing as the NHL returns after taking a pass in 2018. It’ll be a bit more challenging with new broadcast partners ESPN and Turner not actually broadcasting the games (former partner NBC is the U.S. based broadcaster). If they get it – and we’re not convinced they do – they’ll promote the hell out of it, too. As for the tournament, who can’t wait to see Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, Auston Matthews, Andrei Vasilevskiy, Nikita Kucherov, Aleksander Barkov and others playing in their first-ever true best-on-best tournament? Both Canada and the U.S. will be leaving top-end talent at home and that will make for great debate leading up to and through the tournament. The fact the games will be played on NHL-sized ice should ensure an elite competition. Canada will be going for a third straight gold medal in Olympic tournaments featuring NHL players, but we’ll say this now, watch out for Team Finland.
Calling The Standard Redux
Sigh. So, this year the league is mandating that on-ice officials crack down on the epidemic of cross-checks which had become a standard defensive strategy for the past few seasons. Of course it’s dangerous. Of course it’s already in the rulebook. But this is the NHL where it’s news if officials actually call the rules that are, well, laid out in the rulebook. It happens every few years. Too much obstruction? Okay. Call that. Slashes to the wrist? Better get on top of that. Now it’s cross-checking in the crosshairs. Wouldn’t it be nice if it wasn’t news that the NHL actually called the rules so the game can be played to its fullest potential by its most skilled players? Seems simple. But for years the NHL seems incapable of this most basic tenet of the game. The worst part is that come playoff time NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman will insist all is well just as the game is about to degenerate into a foul-fest as it does every playoff year. Sigh.
Welcome Seattle
Which jersey do you think is a better look for @Shaq?
Kraken or his Alexei Ponikarovsky @NJDevils jersey?
📸@SeattleKraken
Reply below 👇 pic.twitter.com/VR3mRoUJVY
Poor Seattle. Ownership shells out $650 million to join the NHL club and they’ll hit the ice knowing it’ll be almost impossible to live up to the standard set by expansion cousins Vegas in 2017-18, when the Golden Knights went to a Stanley Cup Final. GM Ron Francis has built the Kraken in a different, slightly more conservative way, but they should be competitive in a soft Pacific Division. So the playoffs won’t be out of the question. And from the get-go the Kraken have marched to their own drum, hiring outside the box and breaking barriers with their personnel decisions. Plus their jerseys and logos are fire. So in many ways the wins have come long before the puck will drop on their first-ever regular-season game. For the record we have the Kraken fourth and in the playoffs. So there.
Battle Of New York (Area)
The New York Islanders, under the tutelage of head coach Barry Trotz and GM Lou Lamoriello, have been the cream of the greater New York City area crop. Twice in a row they have lost in the conference final round to eventual Cup champion Tampa Bay and should be poised to make another deep run this season. But is it possible we could be on the dawn of a new reality when it comes to the three area New York-area teams the Islanders, Rangers and Devils? The Rangers went through a dramatic overhaul late last season and into the offseason, with Chris Drury taking over as GM and Gerard Gallant coming to guide this team into the playoffs. Alexis Lafrenière and Kaapo Kakko will be better, there is defending Norris Trophy winner Adam Fox on the back end and now more grit with Ryan Reaves and Barclay Goodrow in the house. Then there are the Devils, who likewise beefed up with star defender Dougie Hamilton inking a monster seven-year, $63-million deal. New Jersey also brought in Ryan Graves from the Colorado Avalanche to bolster the back end. The Devils have lots of terrific pieces. We’re also confident Jack Hughes will round into form and provide a nice one-two punch down the middle with another first overall pick Nico Hischier. Not room in all likelihood for all three of these teams in the postseason, but the chances are ripe for some Big Apple drama down the stretch.
COVID-19
We put this further down the list because, well, who’s not sick of the pandemic? But the reality is that the NHL, like the rest of the world, will still have to confront a host of COVID-related issues in getting through this season. The league has done an admirable job and Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly has said he believes there will only be a handful of players unvaccinated by the start of the season. Those who do not will rightfully find their continued employment in jeopardy. But the one aspect of a return to normalcy (more or less) for fully vaccinated teams is that we can expect to see many players bounce back from disappointing seasons as a result. Not that the pandemic was the sole contributor to Carter Hart’s disappointing season, but for young players like Hart who struggled finding a routine that involves spending time with teammates and friends, a return to normal will be critical to overall mental health and, by extension, improved on-ice performance. That’s a good thing. And while there are always possibilities for games to be rescheduled, we won’t see anything like the chaos that was created by outbreaks in Dallas, Vancouver, Buffalo and so on. At least here’s hoping we don’t.
Shanking For Shane
As in rhymes with tanking and as in Shane Wright, the early consensus number one pick in the 2022 NHL Draft next summer in Montréal. There will be lots of competition for this highly-skille center, who currently plays for Kingston of the Ontario Hockey League. Have to like Arizona’s chances given its paper-thin lineup and its move to the Central Division, where the Coyotes are going to be out-skilled every single night. Buffalo, sans the erstwhile Jack Eichel, decided it would be best for the 2021 first overall pick Owen Power to continue his development at the University of Michigan, which will also give the woeful Sabres another crack at the top pick, given they will almost certainly finish last in the tough Atlantic Division. How bad will dysfunctional San Jose be? Bad, but maybe not bad enough to get into the lottery picture for the first pick. Anaheim? Maybe. Our money is on the ‘Yotes.
Have These Ships Sailed
The Pittsburgh Penguins are a remarkable franchise. After missing the playoffs in Sidney Crosby’s rookie season, 2005-06, the Pens have qualified for the playoffs in 15 straight seasons and won three Stanley Cups along the way. Their arch rivals in Washington have made the playoffs in seven straight seasons and 13 of the last 14 years, and in 2018 won its first Stanley Cup. Led by their respective captains and future first-ballot Hall of Famers Crosby and Alex Ovechkin, the two franchises have become the standard bearers for success on almost every level, and their playoff tilts starting in 2009 have meant their fortunes are inexorably linked. But postseason success has been difficult to come by since the Penguins won their second of back-to-back Cups in 2017 and the Caps won their Cup a year later. Now the Pens will begin the season without future Hall of Famer Evgeni Malkin, who will miss considerable time with an ongoing knee issue, although it does look like captain Crosby will be ready to roll after recovering from a wrist procedure. The Caps may be without cornerstone center Nicklas Backstrom thanks to a nagging hip injury. Could the NHL playoffs be without Crosby and Ovechkin for the first time since ’06? Philadelphia is better. The Rangers are going to be in the mix. Carolina and the Islanders are virtual locks to make the playoffs. What about New Jersey? Certainly the narrative for the Pens and Caps has changed dramatically.
Three Times Lucky (Unlikely Definitely Lucky)
We keep saying how difficult it is to go back-to-back as Stanley Cup champions, even though it’s happened twice in recent memory, with Pittsburgh winning it all in 2016 and 2017, and of course, Tampa Bay riding a two-Cup streak. Detroit did it in 1997 and 1998. Pittsburgh did it early in the 90s in ’91 and ’92. But what does it take to win three in a row? Well, the New York Islanders were the last team to do that when they won four straight between 1980 and 1983. We toss around terms like dynasty or dynastic, willy nilly. Chicago was as close as we’ve gotten since the 2004-05 lockout with three Cup wins in six years but if Tampa Bay somehow manages a three-peat, it will rightfully ascend to that level of greatness, and we would argue take their place as one of the greatest teams of all-time given the salary cap, COVID-19, et al. But, with all due respect to the mighty Bolts, I just don’t see it happening, not with Florida, Toronto, Boston and Montréal all standing in their way in the Atlantic Division alone.
Crease Wars
Goalies are always the story in the same pitchers and quarterbacks are always the story in baseball and football. But this offseason saw a seismic change in the goaltending world. Two dozen goalies changed jerseys and by our count at least 15 of the NHL’s 32 teams will have a different starting goalie. Or at the very least will be confronting a meaningful goaltending competition for the starting role this season. That includes Dallas, where four NHL caliber netminders — Ben Bishop, Jake Oettinger, Anton Khudobin and newcomer Braden Holtby — were looking for work in the Stars’ net during training camp. Funny thing is that for all the talk of tandems and workload and how the game is different than when Martin Brodeur or Henrik Lundqvist or Patrick Roy ruled the crease, two-time Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay is old school in that it rolls out Andrei Vasilevskiy night after night, without a care in the world, leading us to wonder if we overemphasize the tandem dynamic.
Too Early Trade Talks – Or Maybe Not
Yes, Jack Eichel’s future is the story that will keep giving throughout the season but there are a bevy of elite players in their contract seasons whose future is all but certain. What are Pittsburgh’s plans vis a vis the injured future Hall of Famer Evgeni Malkin? Or teammate Kris Letang? Johnny Gaudreau is emblematic, fair or not, of repeated disappointment in Calgary. Is his future elsewhere? Hard to imagine P.K. Subban remaining in New Jersey with Dougie Hamilton in house. Marc-Andre Fleury, Joe Pavelski, Claude Giroux and the list goes on of top players who are now months away from free agency. For us, the most fascinating team to watch will be Nashville, where Filip Forsberg and Mattias Ekholm are in contract years. Both are cornerstone players for the Preds, but with underachieving Matt Duchene and Ryan Johansen sucking up a combined $16 million in cap space how do the Preds keep either Forsberg or Ekholm let alone both?