The NHL is back on its regular schedule after two straight pandemic-curtailed seasons, and that means it kicks off right now, even though it still doesn’t feel like hockey season outside in most of North America.
If you’re a little bit taken aback by the return of the boys of winter, don’t worry, getting caught up is a cinch.
After a decade and a half on OLN/Versus/NBCSN, the NHL is back on ESPN — and yes, they’re bringing back one of the great theme songs in sports. (Ed. note: Heck. Yes. — Rich O.)
Turner Sports also has a piece of the national broadcast deal, and the two broadcasters, who already split NBA coverage, will alternate years broadcasting the Stanley Cup Final — this season, it’ll be ESPN’s turn.
You probably won’t miss NBCSN that much, given that Turner essentially brought their crew over, while also adding Wayne Gretzky as a studio analyst, and also for some reason Paul Bissonnette, because it’s impossible for this stupid league to not trip over itself trying to be cool by being Barstool adjacent. Ah well, at least it’s not Mike Milbury.
Four new coaches take the helm this season, including two in their first NHL gigs: Andre Tourigny with the Coyotes and Brad Larsen with the Blue Jackets. The expansion Kraken will debut with former Flyers coach Dave Hakstol coaching, while the first coach of the last expansion team, Gerard Gallant, is tasked with getting the Rangers through the next step of their rebuild.
Jon Cooper of the two-time defending champion Lightning remains the longest-tenured head coach in the league. The bench bosses directly behind him in seniority — Paul Maurice in Winnipeg and Jeff Blashill in Detroit — are in that zone where you have to start wondering how long they get to make it work. The other hottest seats in the league? Always look at where expectations don’t align with reality. That means Travis Green (Vancouver) and Alain Vigneault (Philadelphia), in particular. If all four of those guys are still in their jobs at the end of the season, it’ll be a bigger shock than the Kraken making a Cup run.
Alex Ovechkin, at the age of 36, is 164 goals away from tying Wayne Gretzky for the NHL record of 894 goals. That’s still a couple of years away, but Ovechkin’s first goal of this season will tie him for fifth all-time with Marcel Dionne at 731. After that come Brett Hull at 741 and Jaromir Jagr at 766, with only Gordie Howe (801) and Gretzky after that. If Ovechkin isn’t third all-time by the end of the season, it’s bad news for the Capitals.
Meanwhile, Sidney Crosby is 14 goals away from becoming the 46th member of the 500 club, and Joe Thornton, now with the Panthers, has an outside shot at breaking the top 10 on the NHL’s all-time scoring list. Thornton enters the season at 1,529 points, in 14th place, with Phil Esposito’s 1,590 as the number to match for 10th place. The last time Thornton had 61 points in a season was 2015-16, so he’s unlikely to get to Esposito, but Paul Coffey (1,531) and Mark Recchi (1,533) are legends that Thornton will pass quickly, with Ray Bourque sitting in 11th place at 1,579.
The Arizona Coyotes have seven players signed beyond this season, and only four with contracts that extend past 2022-23. The city of Glendale has canceled the team’s lease once this season is over, and while there’s a proposal for a new arena in Tempe, well, there are existing arenas in other places that have been salivating for years over the possibility of getting the Coyotes out of the desert.
Plus, the Coyotes have been stockpiling draft picks: they’ll have eight in the first two rounds next June. With several players on the current roster who should be rental candidates at the deadline — so long as Arizona can stay over the salary floor (a gymnastics routine the Coyotes have mastered over the years) — that number of picks figures to go even higher. Bringing back the Peyote Coyote as the primary logo this year doesn’t exactly make it seem like they’re in this for the long haul, either. How long until that bit of kitsch goes stale?
The Lightning, on paper, remain the best team in the NHL, but nobody has won the Cup three seasons in a row since the Islanders’ four-peat from 1980-83. It’s ludicrously difficult to get through the playoff gauntlet repeatedly, and that’s before you consider that the Lightning won one Cup in September, another in July, and now will try to win a third in a 21-month span.
Colorado is the betting favorite, but also just signed Jack Johnson, which, even on a one-year deal for less than a million bucks is… holy cow, they’ve also got Darren Helm now? He’s still in the league?
Vegas over the Islanders is the pick.