NHL Season Preview

It’s hockey season. I’ll give you a minute to celebrate and take that in…

…

We good? Ok, good.

I’m not going to make the ridiculous claim that this NHL season is more “highly-anticipated” than any other season; but it should be.

The NHL is always parity-heavy and mostly unpredictable. But this year it may be even more so. There are 26 teams with a very realistic chance to make the playoffs. Aside from Buffalo, Florida, Nashville and Calgary, every team has a shot to make it and perhaps even advance. And even those teams have prospects (or Brian Burke) to be excited about.

So this season will be interesting to say the least. At least three-four good teams will probably miss the playoffs. Despite this uncertainty, I’ll trudge bravely forward with a few predictions.

1.       The New Jersey Devils won’t be as bad as you think: It seems somewhat obvious. The Devils were bad last year, Ilya Kovalchuk unexpectedly retired in the offseason, now they’ll be even worse. But they’re probably better. If coach Peter DeBoer has the intestinal fortitude to play Cory Schneider over Martin Brodeur, this team has a legitimate chance to contend for a playoff spot. Last year the Devils suffered from a combination of terrible goaltending and the perils of small-sample due to the shortened season. They were third in the league in Fenwick (which measures possession).They have some potential stars in Adam Henrique and Adam Larsson and Schneider should be a substantial upgrade over Brodeur. If everything breaks right for New Jersey, they could compete for a playoff spot.

2.      Carolina will be better than last year: The Canes were 13^th in the Eastern Conference last year but things aren’t as bad as they seem in Raleigh. The Canes were 13^th in Fenwick last year (11 of the top 12 teams made the playoffs) and like the Devils, suffered from poor goaltending when starter Cam Ward went down with an injury. This year they should have a healthy Ward and a much better chance at the playoffs. The defense isn’t perfect but the top-six is incredibly potent, featuring Jeff Skinner, the Staal brothers and Alexander Semin.

3.      This is the year Edmonton cracks the top-eight: The roster is still kind of oddly put together, the defense isn’t very good and two guys named Devan Dubnuk and Jason LaBarbera will attempt to patrol the crease. But it’s only a matter of time before they become one of the league’s most dangerous scoring teams. Taylor Hall is already one of the league’s most dangerous forwards and he’s joined by Jordan Eberle, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Sam Gagner and Nail Yakupov. And as far veteran presences go, they could do worse than Andrew Ference and Ryan Smythe. The defense might only slightly improve and the goaltending is obviously a huge question. But they should be able to score enough to get themselves into the playoffs.

4.      The Chicago Blackhawks will not repeat as Stanley Cup Champs: This is not a shot against Chicago; teams just don’t win consecutive Stanley Cups. It’s only happened once in the past 20 seasons and it’s just not fair or realistic to hold mortal NHL teams to the same standard as Detroit.

5.      The Los Angeles Kings will win the Stanley Cup…again: The Kings possess the puck better and more often than any team in the NHL. They play excellent defense, have one of the World’s best goalies in Jonathan Quick and have as much playoff experience as any team. The Kings struggled to score during last year’s playoffs and still managed to get all the way to the conference finals. Anze Kopitar is a perennial Selke candidate, Dustin Brown is one of the toughest (dirtiest?) players to play against and Slava Voynov is a rising star. If anyone’s capable of shutting down Chicago’s impossibly pretty (and effective) offense, it’s Los Angeles.

Other predictions:

Eastern Conference playoff seeding: 1. Pittsburgh 2. Boston 3. Ottawa 4. New York Rangers 5. Detroit 6. Washington 7. Carolina 8. New York Islanders

Western Conference: 1. Chicago 2. Los Angeles 3. St. Louis 4. San Jose 5. Vancouver 6. Dallas 7. Edmonton 8. Minnesota

Hart Trophy: Sidney Crosby – This one’s pretty simple : Crosby’s the best player in the league by a substantial margin and there’s no reason to think he won’t be healthy this year.

Vezina: Jimmy Howard – The 29-year-old net-minder finished the last two seasons with at least a .920 save percentage and 2.12 goals against average. Then, to finish off an excellent 2013 season, he stonewalled the Blackhawks and nearly led Detroit to an upset of the eventual Stanley Cup Champions.

Enjoy hockey season, peeps. Stay hungry, my friends.