Thankfully for hockey fans, the NHL is back and rolling, and there’s plenty to look forward to as we head into the unknown of the new season. Here are some more storylines to watch as the 2015-16 season begins:
Can Detroit make the playoffs again this year?
It’s the longest continuous run of playoff appearances in North America, but is this the year that the Detroit Red Wings start to book tee times for early May? Of course, long-time head coach Mike Babcock is gone, off to try and restore glory to Toronto. In his place is Jeff Blashill, the guy responsible for nurturing a lot of Red Wing talent at the AHL level.
What I love about the Red Wings is their front office. If there’s a better GM in the league than Ken Holland, I’d like to know who. Detroit’s hockey operations is the best there is, and they’ve had a long run of turning mid-range draft picks – the kind you get when you make the playoffs every year for two decades plus – into really handy players.
Importantly, Holland has beefed up his defence’s scoring ability with Mike Green, coming in from Washington. Green never quite became a superstar with the Capitals, so maybe a change of scenery will do him the world of good? He’s going to play big minutes, and figure pretty prominently on the power play.
I’ve got some concern about the age and health of Henrik Zetterberg and Pavel Datsyuk. The former didn’t do much in the way of scoring late in the season, and the latter will miss the start of the season due to ankle surgery. Detroit is going to rely more than ever on the younger corps of players, guys like Gustav Nyquist, Thomas Tatar and Riley Sheahan, all the guys that Blashill tutored at Grand Rapids.
There’s every chance that Zetterberg and Datsyuk will fire, and with support from the above young group, plus veteran Nicklas Kronwall and Brad Richards, who comes in with a Blackhawk Stanley Cup ring on his finger, there’s every chance that the Red Wings will make the playoffs. At this point, you wouldn’t count them out!
How good will Edmonton be?
It’s the age-old question – or, at least the decades-old question, in hockey. The Oilers have the incredibly uncanny ability to receive incredible junior talent via the draft – Taylor Hall, Jordan Eberle, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Nail Yakupov – and either fail miserably in developing that talent, or else get only limited production, turning can’t-miss superstars into journeyman-type players.
This year, there might be some change in the air. Former Boston GM Peter Chiarelli was hired, as was new CEO Bob Nicholson, and Chiarelli immediately brought in ousted San Jose coach Todd McLellan. That’s a nice duo right there, and, since then, Chiarelli has made some other good moves, including signing in-demand Rangers back-up goalie Cam Talbot. Although he’s seen only limited NHL action, Talbot has the makings of a very good goalie, but Edmonton’s oft-flaky defence is going to have to help him out.
All eyes will be on the maturation of Connor McDavid, the first overall pick in last year’s NHL Entry Draft, but we should be cautious in expecting too much from the youngster too soon. I like the support group around McDavid, and think McLellan is a good guy to be teaching the young core of Oilers players how to survive and prosper in the NHL.
There’s a lot of hype surrounding Edmonton this year. But that isn’t new. The question in 2015 is, will it be justified? I don’t have the Oilers in the playoffs, but they’ll be knocking on the door, and probably be really dangerous in the next 3-4 seasons, now that they have the right organisational structure in place.
Will Los Angeles bounce back?
In a word, yes. We’ll see that last year was an aberration and nothing more. On las season: the Kings became the first defending Stanley Cup champions to not make the playoffs since Carolina in 2006-07, and if that isn’t motivation for a team to get back to the top of the NHL tree, I don’t know what is.
There’ve been a few off-season changes in LA. Milan Lucic was brought in, and will make a formidable first line combination with Anze Kopitar and Marian Gaborik if they click as a unit. Justin Williams and Jarret Stoll are gone, two guys who played big roles in recent Stanley Cup championships, there’s still plenty of offensive talent: Jeff Carter, Tyler Toffoli and others, all with experience.
You can rest assured that the defence, led by Drew Doughty, will be solid. That’s the only way Doughty knows. I like the addition of veteran D-man Christian Erhoff, and the underrated Jake Muzzin will see top-pairing minutes with Doughty. He’s overlooked because of who he skates with, but Muzzin is very, very good. And, of course, there’s Jonathan Quick in goal, and he’s as good as there is in the league.
Watch out – the Kings are going to make noise this year. Their battle with Anaheim in the Pacific Division will be fascinating.
Can Tampa Bay go one step further and clinch the Stanley Cup?
There’s a lot to like about the Lighting as we head into 2015-16. Their roster is as good as there is in the East, led by Steven Stamkos up front and dependable goalie Ben Bishop. Of course, there’s the much-discussed triplets line of Tyler Johnson, Ondrej Palat and Nikita Kucherov who look set to continue their brilliant form – they scored a combined 199 points a year ago. We shouldn’t forget the gritty Ryan Callahan, or Valtteri Filppula. The Lightning had four 20-goal scorers last year. They can score on any line they ice, and that makes them particularly dangerous.
On top of that, Tampa’s defence is as good as there is in the East (and maybe the entire NHL), with the Swedish pairing of Viktor Hedman and Anton Stralman scoring their fair share of goals as well as locking down on the opposition’s best players. The second-line defensive pairing of Jason Garrison and Braydon Coburn really came of age during the playoff run last year.
Whilst it’s very early to be naming the likely Stanley Cup Final participants in a very wide-open league, the Lightning have a very good chance at being there, and at winning. There aren’t many weaknesses on this squad.
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