The Wait Is Over!
The NHL season begins tonight! An entire off-season of anticipation finally comes to an end as hockey fans finally find something to do with their evenings.
The season kicks off at 12:00p.m. Eastern time as the Minnesota Wild faceoff against the Carolina Hurricanes in Helsinki Finland in the NHL’s 6th year of opening the season in Europe. The Hurricanes and Wild played only twice against each other last year, splitting the series one a piece. Both teams come off of forgettable seasons and will look to rebound significantly. The Hurricanes are very much in a re-building mode, but with young prospects such as Zac Dalpe, Drayson Bowman, Jeff Skinner, Jamie McBain and Bobby Sanguinetti having made the roster, this team should be interesting every night. Both Cam Ward and Niklas Backstrom have looked strong, and will be duking it out against eachother tonight. The pre-season hasn’t been kind to the Wild as they’ve gone 0-6 in the pre-season, winning their first game Monday against Ilves Tampere of Finland's SM-Liiga. A pair of defensemen are questionable for tonight’s game in Minnesota’s Marek Zidlicky, and Caolina’s Joe Corvo. Cal Clutterbuck is a player to watch for Minnesota as he scored a hat trick against Ilves Tampere on Monday, and Jeff Skinner, 2010 7th overall draft pick, will be one to watch all season long as he is a likely contender for this year’s Calder trophy with his elite set of hands at the young age of 18.
The hockey continues at 7:00p.m. Eastern time in a battle between Canadian original-six clubs, Toronto and Montreal. The division rivals will play six times this season, after splitting the series last year with five of the six games requiring overtime or a shootout. The new-look Leafs will be sporting Kris Versteeg for the first time in regular season play as the Maple Leafs top line of Kessel, Versteeg, and Bozak was one of the best looking in pre-season. Kessel led the Leafs and the league in goals (6) and points (10) in pre-season play. The Montreal Canadien’s will be missing their pre-season top scorer, Tomas Plekanec, who tied Kessel in goals but trailed him by three assists. Plekanec was suspended by the NHL for a dirty slash and battering of Islanders’ prospect Nino Niederreiter. It’s a big loss for the Canadiens after Plekanec led the league in goals in the post season with 13. Roman Hamrlik and Andre Markov will be absent from the line-up as they continue to heal. Carey Price was questionable with the flu, but the goalie in which the Habs have placed their faith will in fact be on the ice.
The battle of Pennsylvania commences at 7:00p.m. Eastern time as well as division rivals Pittsburgh Penguins and Philadelphia Flyers take on each other for the first time of six this year. Everyone is aware of what the Flyers accomplished last season, as they made it all the way to the Stanley Cup Finals against the Chicago Blackhawks. The Flyers will be sporting newcomer Nikolai Zherdev, who skipped out on the NHL last season and played in the KHL. Zherdev’s last year in the league (2008-09) was spent with the Rangers where he racked up 23 goals for 58 points. Another player to watch will be Ville Leino, who set a rookie record for playoff points (21) with the Flyers in last season. Both teams will be missing some key names as Jordan Staal and newly acquired Arron Asham are still recovering. The Flyers will carry on without the services of Leighton for a month and penalty-killing specialist Ian Laperriere for the foreseeable future. Flyers powerhouse defenseman Chris Pronger is questionable for tonights’ game.
At 10:00p.m. Easter time the defending Stanley Cup champion Chicago Blackhawks will debut their revamped roster against the Colorado Avalanche after a serious off-season shake-up. This should be one of the best games of the night as the young Colorado Avalanche were defeated three of four times last year by the ‘Hawks, but only one of the decisions didn’t require a shootout. Despite the new look, Cup hero Patrick Kane, Conn Smythe winner Jonathan Toews, and James Norris winner Duncan Keith all will be returning for the Blackhawks against the very young and energetic Avalanche squad. The injury list is short as Brian Campbell sustained a bruised knee last week in pre-season, and Peter Mueller is still out indefinitely for the Avs’ after sustaining a concussion last season. All eyes will be on Marty Turco as he makes his Blackhawks debut, one which many think will be the beginning of a title fight for the veteran goaltender.
The final game of the night, also at 10:00p.m. will be the first of six games in the ‘Battle of Alberta’ as the Calgary Flame stake on the Edmonton Oilers. It’s no surprise that Calgary won all six of the divisional matchups against the struggling Oilers last year, but this year could be seriously different. Neither team made the playoffs last season, and will be fighting to make up for it all year long. The big story of the night will be the debut of the 2010 NHL Entry Draft fisrt overall draft pick of the Edmonton Oilers, Taylor Hall. Hall will debut with fellow rookie sensations Jordan Eberle and Magnus Paajarvi. These three kids were on fire in the pre-season, and will be a delight to watch, and a threat for the Calder Trophy this season. Calgary was 2nd worst in the NHL last year in terms of goals scored, and looks to prove their decision right to the fans of the Flames in their decision to re-sign Olli Jokinen, Alex Tanguay, and Craig Conroy after a serious lack of production last year. The Flames will be missing some big names tonight with Jokinen and Pardy questionable, while forwards Daymond Langkow, Matt Stajan, David Moss, and Ales Kotalik are all out indefinitely. They will be sporting recent acquisition Brendan Morrison, who they recently signed in the absence of all these top forwards.
For the full 2010-2011 NHL schedule Click Here.
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- Kendall Grubbs
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