The NHL season got underway on Oct. 10 when the defending Stanley Cup champion Vegas Golden Knights hosted the Seattle Kraken. Vegas was able to bring home Lord Stanley in just their sixth season in existence. They will look to go back – back for the first time since Tampa Bay did it in the 2019-20 and 2020-21 season.
The biggest headline for the upcoming season will be the play of rookie first overall pick Connor Bedard of the Chicago Blackhawk. Bedard has been one of the most highly touted prospects of all time. At the age of 15, he was just the 7th player to ever be granted “Exemption Status,” which allowed him to play in the CHL reserved for players aged 16 to 20. The other players granted this status were John Tavares, Aaron Ekblad, Connor McDavid, Sean Day, Joe Veleno and Shane Wright.
The Boston Bruins will look to pick up where they left off at the end of the last regular season, where they broke the NHL record for wins (65) and points (135). They will have to do it without their captain Patrice Bergeron, who retired this past summer after 19 seasons in Boston. The B’s will rely on their goaltending tandem of Jeremy Swayman, and Linus Ullmark who won the Vezina Trophy as the league’s top goaltender. Even after their record-breaking season, The Bruins are just 18-1 to win the cup.
They will be up against some hefty competition within their own division. The Toronto Maple Leafs and their loaded roster look to take another step forward this season. After not winning a playoff series since 2004, they were finally able to get the monkey off their back last season when they defeated the Tampa Bay Lightning in six games. Goaltending will be the biggest question mark again as the Leafs look to bring the cup back to Toronto for the first time since 1967 and be the first Canadian team since 1993.
The young Buffalo Sabres also look to make a major step forward this season. Buffalo currently holds the longest playoff drought in the NHL at 16 seasons. The Sabres nearly broke that streak last season but narrowly missed by just one point. Buffalo has steadily been improving the past few years, and as the youngest team in the league averaging just 25.8 years old, they look poised to make the next step. The Sabres are yet to win the cup since their inception in 1970 and are currently 40-1 to raise their first Cup.
The tight Atlantic division also features the Detroit Red Wings and Ottawa Senators who both made offseason improvements and look to compete for a playoff spot. Also in the Eastern Conference are the aging Pittsburgh Penguins who up until last season amassed a 16-year playoff streak, however, any team with Sidney Crosby remains dangerous and the Pens are currently 28-1. The current favorite is the Colorado Avalanche at 8-1 who are just one year removed from their last title. With so many question marks in the NHL, this season there is only one thing fans can be sure of: this is going to be a fun one.
Cal Thompson can be contacted at
cthompson@kscequinox.com
