The NHL gave up its short 56-game season on Wednesday, and one thing became clear: the next 115 nights – which will be crowded with 863 games – will be doozies. The opening night brought us a little of everything: a high banner without fans, a extremely dramatic puck drop, a fight, overtime, a dizzying amount of commercials and 37 combined goals.
Here are our main dishes:
1. Montreal Canadiens should be players in the Northern Division
Taking the Toronto Maple Leafs – the team everyone predicts will run away with the division – to overtime, Habs made a statement. Don’t count Montreal. There are many things he likes about general manager Marc Bergevin’s off-season. He added depth in every position, from goalkeeper (Jake Allen) to defense (Joel Edmundson, as well as the arrival of top prospect Alexander Romanov, who looked great playing 22:49 in his debut) to offense (Tyler Toffoli was great free agent get, but Josh Anderson was the first to love the fans with full effort, including two goals).
The timeline is clearly accelerated, especially with Jesperi Kotkaniemi, 20, and Nick Suzuki, 21, ready to contribute. A game like Wednesday shows that the Canadiens have a brag.
“We were the best team there,” Anderson said afterward.
Message received!
2. Things look different, but we will adapt
The NHL summer balloon has taught us that empty hockey arenas translate well into a TV product. The lack of fans never felt distracting; the network that covers the seats at level 100 certainly helps and the transmissions have largely perfected the ambient noise of the crowd. But a lot has changed since the summer. The NHL has calculated its losses from the interruption of its normal program, and Commissioner Gary Bettman said the league and its clubs will lose billions – not millions – to even host a 2021 season. about 50% of the league’s revenue and, for now, only the Coyotes, Panthers and Stars intend to have fans, with limited capacity).
So the NHL is getting a little more aggressive in tracking revenue. For the first time, the league sold naming rights to the name of its division. You won’t hear me call it MassMutual NHL East Division often, but you’ll hear it in your shows a lot. The league also allowed teams to advertise on their headphones for the first time; however, they are so discreet that I did not notice (or realized) them too much. Ads in the arena, though? Holy cow, it felt like an overload. The most visible were the advertisements that surrounded the glass above the boards. In Tampa, there were small Adidas logos. In Edmonton, the words “Rogers 5G” were printed again and again around the glass. It was a lot. But, perspective: we keep people engaged and have fun.
3. It will be a long season in Chicago
A game against the defending champions may not be the best barometer, but on Wednesday, with a 5-1 score by Fulger, it felt as brutal as it was inevitable for the Blackhawks. Chicago has gone from franchise legend Corey Crawford (the only player in the history of the team to win several Stanley Cups) to an unproven trio. Malcolm Subban, the starter of game 1, had a few notable saves, but if this is the best defensive effort you can trot, yes.
The blue line, leaking all last season, often left Subban up and dry. It was difficult for the Blackhawks to generate any preliminary verification. It’s not a problem for Crawford, Brandon Saad, Alex Nylander, Kirby Dach and Jonathan Toews – without inspired substitutes. The Blackhawks finally recognized what was becoming clearer and clearer through their transactions: they were in a reconstruction.
“We don’t have enough top-down players to compete with the top teams,” GM Stan Bowman told me in October. “We have a lot of good players, we have a pretty good start in terms of the model of a good team, but we still have a way to go and I accept that.”
Chicago is using this season as a chance to give to youth representatives. Although it’s great to have a plan, you have to feel for Patrick Kane and Duncan Keith, who are still giving their all at a high level, but just don’t have the support role around them to see another championship soon.
4. Bring the crime
There has been a gradual trend in the NHL over the past five seasons, with goal averages slowing slowly (peaking at 3.02 goals per game / team last season) and the average goal-scoring save percentage falling to .910 in 2019 -20). Only the first three games of the Eastern Conference brought us 24 goals (on average four goals per team). A few goalkeepers I spoke to out of season – especially with teams that hadn’t played since March – said that the long stretch without game situations would be a challenge and could take a slight period of adjustment. If you’re wondering how the lack of a proper training camp and pre-season exhibitions might manifest, expect some careless and wide-open games – at least to start the campaign.
5. It’s not easy to be the favorite
I remember talking to Nathan MacKinnon before last season and he said it was the first time in his career in the Colorado Avalanche, feeling that his team could actually win. The price is high this year due to the fact that MacKinnon is constantly playing as an MVP and GM Joe Sakic has continued to change smart moves to make this team stronger. Colorado has opened as a Stanley Cup favorite in Las Vegas this season. But it was a slow start for Avs in their opener. They were too careless with the puck, which you can’t afford to do against the big, tough St. Louis Blues. I was looking forward to seeing Gabriel Landeskog, Nazem Kadri and Brandon Saad line up, but they didn’t look good together and it wasn’t long before coach Jared Bednar started blending his lines. Colorado’s usual high-running offense had difficulty generating pressure. Do you think St. Louis for a strong team game. And yes, it’s just game 1. But the bull’s eyes are now in Colorado and will get the best results of each team, every night.
On Wednesday, Patrick settled into his first NHL game in 652 days. (And you thought 2020 was long!) Then he scored in the first period, in the power play (Achilles’ heel in Philadelphia in the summer balloon). Choice no. 2 of the 2019 draft missed the whole last season with a debilitating migraine disorder. It was a persistent story for Philly all season; GM Chuck Fletcher said in January last year that Patrick was making progress, and the Flyers were optimistic he could play in the playoffs. Philly stocked up with deep centers at last year’s trading deadline to make up for it, but now they’re in much better shape, with Patrick taking on the third line behind Sean Couturier and Kevin Hayes.
Meanwhile, Lindblom played for the first time since being diagnosed with cancer in December 2019. Lindblom, who had a bursting season at the time of diagnosis, finished her final chemotherapy treatment in July.
“He’s a guy when you see him in the locker room, you want to go fight him,” Hayes said. “He’s a warrior. He didn’t show up.”
Even sweeter: Flyers’ fifth goal, originally awarded to Travis Konecny, was awarded to Lindblom a few hours after the match.
The Flyers offense broke out for six goals – including three straight to close out the third – to take down rival Pittsburgh Penguins in their opening, showing why a lot of hockey people expect the Flyers to fight this year. This game really flexed Philly’s depth. I buy the Cup hype from this team.
7. A few young players watching the rest of the season
Nils Hoglander, the striking star of the Canucks training camp, will be the latest Swedish obsession in Vancouver. Without much competition behind him on the right wing, Hoglander could stay in the top six for a while. A goal in Hoglander’s first game means that his hype will increase at the Canadian median speed. Ditto for Alexander Romanov, who, as I mentioned earlier, will play an important role in Montreal, watching only Shea Weber during the ice period on Wednesday. The defender played with a ton of confidence and have you seen this stretch stretch ??
That praiseworthy perspective system that the Flyers built? It is fully realized now, Joel Farabee from the first round of 2018 shining with one goal and three assists. Farabee, 20, seems about to take a big step forward. And it will be good to see Kailer Yamamoto of Oilers get a full season after scoring 11 goals in 27 games last season (and one in the game against Canucks on Wednesday). Looking at the top power play and Leon Draisaitl’s wing will only improve Yamamoto’s stock.
Jordan Kyrou was buzzing in the Blues opening and could be a reliable depth scoring option. He said he gained 10 pounds this summer, but does not appear to have compromised his speed.
And I’m not sure how much Cal Foote, a Tampa Bay debutant defender, will play, but consider me intrigued. Coach Jon Cooper sheltered Foote’s minutes in his NHL debut against Chicago (he recorded just 10:47), as he certainly showed some nervousness in the first game, but Foote has promises. We’ll see if he gets back on the taxi crew once the Lightning gets rid of their pay hell.
The 23-year-old American skater had the chance to be the first player in NHL history to score in five consecutive season openers. The first four happened in Matthews’ first four NHL seasons. It didn’t happen to him on Wednesday against the Habs, although he hit a crossbar in the third. I still predict that Matthews will follow Alex Ovechkin for this season’s goal crown; he will only have to make several recoveries.