“Enough about last year. Enough about last year!” said Edmonton Oilers captain Connor McDavid earlier this month, politely but firmly interrupting a reporter who was in the middle of a question about Edmonton’s crushing Game 7 loss in the Stanley Cup final last season. “It’s about this year,” McDavid said. “We’ve talked a lot about last year. Lotta questions about it … I’ve answered all of them.” He did have a point. ’Tis the season for a clean start, a blank page, a freshly Zamboni’d sheet of ice—and a challenging new slate of NHL competition. And McDavid isn’t the only player who’s trying to free his mind from the past and keep his eyes on the prize.
“Everyone is eager to get back into playing,” said New Jersey Devils goalie Jacob Markstrom, who was traded from Calgary in June to shore up the Devils’ previously abysmal goaltending. “We’re tired of taking moral victories at this point,” remarked Chicago Blackhawks defenseman Seth Jones after a recent preseason loss. “We need to win hockey games.” Tampa Bay Lightning defenseman Victor Hedman called it a “sad day” this summer when his longtime teammate Steven Stamkos departed for Nashville in free agency. “You just have to look forward,” Hedman added. “It’s going to take a while.”
Meanwhile, Barry Trotz, the general manager of the Predators, downplayed the hype about his team’s ambitious offseason moves. “As I told the players, it’s fantasy hockey until we become a good team,” he said. The mildly embattled New York Rangers captain Jacob Trouba was frank in his assessment of the road ahead. The “opportunity that we have in front of us,” he told reporters, “in all likelihood will probably be the last crack for this core.” (Well, with that attitude, it might be!) And even NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, whose league reached new attendance and revenue highs last season, spoke of staying dialed in on what’s next. “You’ve got to do it again, and you’ve got to do it better,” he told the Associated Press. “If you take anything for granted, if you’re satisfied with the status quo, no matter how good it is, you will slide backwards, so we’ve got to keep pushing.”
Over the past seven months, a team from sunny South Florida won a title, a team from Arizona packed up and headed to Utah, a shipment of bobbleheads was stolen somewhere between Hong Kong and Pittsburgh, and all of these updates had to do with ice hockey. A 30th straight Stanley Cup final came and went without any of the seven teams from Canada winning. Eighteen-year-old Macklin Celebrini was drafted no. 1 overall by the San Jose Sharks, while Joe Pavelski retired after 18 seasons. In late August, the hockey community was rocked to its core by the deaths of Columbus Blue Jackets forward Johnny Gaudreau and his brother and Boston College teammate, Matty. And in the weeks since then, that same community has become a rock all its own. On Tuesday night, Gaudreau’s best friend Sean Monahan scored a goal in Columbus’s home opener and immediately pointed up toward a memorial banner for the late no. 13.
The NHL world may be small, but it’s in constant motion, careening like an iced puck around the corners of the cosmos. With a new season comes new discoveries, and over the next few months the stars will reveal themselves and the truths will emerge and puck luck will provide answers. While I wait for all that, I have some questions, a baker’s dozen of ’em, about another NHL new year: how it’s gone over the first week and where it might be going.
First things first: It’s been a little over a week now. Who ought to start panicking?
This past spring, the last four Western Conference teams in the playoffs were the Dallas Stars, Colorado Avalanche, Vancouver Canucks, and Edmonton Oilers. But enough about last year! It’s all about this year, as McDavid said, and this year, the Dallas Stars are a cool 4-0—while those other three teams are an ice-cold 1-8-2 combined. Brrr.
Overreacting to one hectic opening week in a seven-month-long hockey season is a sporting tradition as stubborn and as predictably awkward as the wave: Everyone rolls their eyes and goes through the motions because it’s just what they’re expected to do. Three losses to start Vancouver’s season may not be what you want, but come on, it’s also not the end of the world, right? Two of those three losses came in OT, after all, and hey: On Tuesday night, Edmonton finally won a game!
But the Canucks are hoping to ride out a few weeks without goalie Thatcher Demko—it’s not great when your starter has a muscle injury that’s described as “rare” and “unique”—and the team’s early struggles have made things much trickier. And for the Avs, things are even worse: In Colorado’s first four games, all losses in regulation, the team has allowed 25 goals against. (Starting goalie Alexandar Georgiev has already been yanked twice.) If that’s your favorite team, you can have a little first-week panic—as a treat.
Which player looks the most jarring in their new uniform?
It’s gotta be Stamkos, who made his Tampa Bay Lightning debut when he was just a lad of 18; played in four Stanley Cup finals with the Bolts, lifting the championship chalice twice; set just about every franchise record you can imagine while wearing blue and white … and is now a 34-year-old Nashville Predator. Stamkos is just one of several new additions for Nashville this offseason; other free agents who joined the roster include Jonathan Marchessault and Brady Skjei, supplementing a squad that already included Juuse Saros and Filip Forsberg. But even with all those new faces, it’s Stammer in yellow that draws the double take—and the realization that few things last forever. To see him in Nashville, with that familiar shooting form in an unfamiliar package, is to pine for a bygone era while also hoping for the dawn of something new.
How’s the Great Chase going?
Earlier this month, ESPN’s Greg Wyshynski brought a particularly enthusiastic Alex Ovechkin superfan to everyone’s attention. “GR8 CHASE” read the back of the guy’s jersey, above the number 853—which is how many regular-season NHL goals Ovechkin has scored so far in his career, second only to Wayne Gretzky’s 894. A “jersey foul,” Wyshynski deemed this garment, and understandably so, even if personally, I found it in harmony with Ovi’s own blocky dynamism and love for abbreviations. (While I’m sure the Washington captain is not the only silver fox driving a matte Bentley around our nation’s capital, he’s definitely the only one with the license plate “AO GR8.”)
Anyway, the Caps have played only two games so far this season, and Ovechkin’s number remains at 853. If he continues on the gently declining (though still wildly productive) offensive trajectory he’s been on over the past several years—50 goals in 2021-22, then 42 goals in 2022-23, then most recently 31—it will take the Great 8, who just turned 39, at least another couple of seasons to approach the Great One. It’s not every day you get to watch a pursuit of excellence in such slow motion, a gr8 chase that idles at every red light.
What is a great goalie worth?
Bruins general manager Cam Neely’s recent reaction to goalie Jeremy Swayman’s contract negotiations reminded me a little of Sea Bass getting hit by a salt shaker in Dumb and Dumber and retaliating by hocking a loogie into a sandwich. “I have 64 million reasons why I’d be playing right now,” Neely all but spat when asked about Swayman’s absence from training camp. Uncouth, yes, but it also got the point across! A week later, Swayman had re-signed with the team—for eight years and $66 million, making him just one of five active NHL goalies who earn an average of more than $6.4 million per season.
It’s not a matter of whether New York Rangers goalie Igor Shesterkin will join that fraternity—it’s only a matter of when. Earlier this month, the terrific Shesterkin was reported to have turned down an offer in the ballpark of eight years for $88 million, and for now he plays under a contract that will be up at the end of this season. Should the Rangers seek to keep him around longer—and they almost certainly should—it will likely take a number that’s equal to or greater than what the team’s highest-paid player, Artemi Panarin, currently earns (an average of $11.6 million annually.) Is this a risky allocation of resources for a position that has a short window of peak performance? Sure! But it’s a privilege to be able to work with such a known quantity.
Speaking of goalies: goalie goal??!
Goalie goal … goalie goal … GOALIE. GOAL!!!
Which front office leads the league in bloggishness/60?
I sure wish Carolina weren’t a rival team to my New York Rangers because the Hurricanes franchise is now run by an elite squad of formerly extremely online individuals who all speak directly to my poster’s soul. Eric Tulsky, who was recently promoted to general manager, had a previous life as a chemist … and also wrote about the Flyers for the Broad Street Hockey blog on the side, as one does. Joining him this season as assistant GM is Tyler Dellow, a former charter member of the Oilogosphere and talented Twitter shit stirrer (and, naturally, a lawyer) who has worked for the Oilers and the Devils in recent years. And one of the team’s more inspired hires is Ellen Etchingham, who used to write brilliant literary essays about hockey and beauty and philosophy back in the day and is now a Canes scout. All of this is a little bit like if Wes Anderson did a spin on Moneyball. (On that note, I’m just going to float this into the ether: Jason Schwartzman as Brent Burns? Luke Wilson as Rod Brind’Amour?!)
Who are a few Calder Trophy favorites?
This should be a fun year to follow the award that’s given to the league’s best rookie because, for starters, the very definition of “rookie” could be up for debate. Over here you have 18-year-old Celebrini, the son of a Golden State Warriors sports medicine guy who was picked first overall by another Bay Area team, the San Jose Sharks. Already he recorded a goal and an assist in his NHL debut—“It was cool to get the firsts for both in my career, but we lost, so it sucks,” Celebrini said—and already he has been sidelined by a lower-body injury; they grow up so fast!
And over there is someone like the Stars’ Logan Stankoven: Last season, he scored 14 points in 24 NHL games with Dallas, then added another eight points over the course of 19 playoff games. This season? He’s still considered an NHL rookie because he hasn’t yet played 25 regular-season games. (He’s already racked up five points in four appearances this season.)
There are a couple of other fun stories in the mix, like Montreal’s Lane Hutson, whom fans are already pleading to see on the top power play unit. And there’s also the Flyers’ Matvei Michkov, who scored two goals in a loss to Edmonton the other night (and might even have won the heart of John Tortorella). “Never seen that many jerseys with my name on it,” Michkov said through a translator during training camp. He hasn’t seen anything yet.
Who are a few Con(n)[e/o]r Trophy favorites?
The NHL has a Conor Geekie and a Conor Sheary and a Connor Zary. There is a Connor McMichael and a Connor McDavid, a Drew O’Connor and a Connor Dewar and a Connor Bedard. And that’s not even the half of it! For simplicity’s sake, and with apologies to cusp guys like Connor Brown, we’ll stick to ranking the league’s top three Connors in this space:
3. Connor Bedard: It won’t be long before this kid is challenging the ranks of this little short list. Last season, the first overall pick from the 2023 draft missed 14 games with a fractured jaw—then returned and put up 28 points in his last 29 games, helping him become the youngest player to win the Calder Trophy.
2. Connor Hellebuyck: I am ranking the Winnipeg Jets goalie and good American boy second here because I just read an article asserting that the 31-year-old is “the most underappreciated goalie of his generation.” Well, not in this space he’s not!! The four-time All-Star and two-time Vezina Trophy winner has gotten off to quite a start this season, with a .976 save percentage and 0.66 goals against average in his three starts, all of them wins.
1. Connor McDavid: The über-Connor for the foreseeable future. The man who has everything—except that one Game 7 win that would have gotten his name on the Cup. Be afraid, be very afraid.
Which teams are off to the hottest start?
It’s nice to see the new Utah team thriving, but to be honest, I can’t really shake how bad I feel for Coyotes fans who were jerked around by weird owners for the better part of a decade, only to see the team leave right when things were gettin’ good.
In the past five seasons, the Dallas Stars have lost a Stanley Cup final in six games and fallen in the Western Conference final twice. Now, with a 4-0 start, an experienced and balanced roster, and one of the league’s top goalies in Jake Oettinger, they look like a franchise that’s on a mission to finally get over the hump. They’re joined at 4-0 by the Calgary Flames, who have moved on from Markstrom via goalie Dustin Wolf (who is, it gives me joy to report, from a California town called “Tustin”).
The Golden Knights aren’t undefeated, but watch out: In the Eastern Conference, the New Jersey Devils are already well on their way to banishing the memories of last year’s freakishly bad season and returning to the ascent they were on in 2022-23. (What’s most scary for me as a fan of a Devils rival is that many of the shots they’ve been getting off haven’t even been going in; I don’t want to see what it looks like when the bounces start helping them.) And don’t look now, but the Maple Leafs have won three straight games …
The “4 Nations” tournament: What is it for, and who’s not invited?
In the 16-year stretch spanning from the Nagano Winter Games in 1998 to Sochi in 2014, NHL players competed in five straight “best-on-best” Olympic hockey competitions. What resulted were some of the sport’s biggest modern memories: Sidney Crosby’s golden goal in Vancouver, Henrik Lundqvist’s heroics in Torino, the USA-Russia shoot-out spectacular in Sochi, Jeremy Roenick’s hotel room in Japan. Over the past decade, though, all’s been pretty quiet on the international front.
That’s starting to change. The NHL plans to allow its players to return to the Olympics at the Milan Games in 2026, and it’s also hosting a “4 Nations Tournament” as something of a stage setter this season in lieu of an All-Star Game.
It won’t be true best-on-best action: USA, Canada, Sweden, and Finland are the four titular nations, while Russia is specifically NOT welcome and places like Czechia are kinda just out of luck, nothing personal. But looking at prospective rosters is exciting all the same. A Team Canada squad that has the Connors McDavid and Bedard and Nathan MacKinnon AND SIDNEY CROSBY? (And Alexis Lafreniere?) Have mercy! A U.S. squad with a pair of Tkachuks and multiple Hughesbois, backed up by a top-two-tier Connor in net? Giddyup.
Could this be the year the non-championship belt changes hands?
Poor Mike Yeo! The Senators assistant coach remains saddled with an unfortunate distinction: He’s the most recent NHL head coach to get fired midseason, then watch helplessly as his former team—in Yeo’s case, the 2018-19 St. Louis Blues—wins a Cup a few months later. (Last year, Jay Woodcroft’s plank walk off the Edmonton Oilers’ sinking ship very nearly earned him the ignominious honor, but the Oilers lost the Cup in Game 7.)
Might someone new take the belt off Yeo’s hands this year? While it’s unlikely, there are two teams that seem poised to find that precise alchemy between “this early-season slump needs an easy scapegoat” and “turns out this team actually has enough sheer talent to go all the way!” One of them is the Predators: When you have a splashy new-look roster but no wins to show for it, you can’t spell “still-fledgling head coach Andrew Brunette” without D-A-N-G-E-R!
And the other is the Avalanche. It was only a few seasons ago that coach Jared Bednar was personally hoisting the Stanley Cup, but time has a way of getting warped in this world. Now, he’s one of just four (4) coaches in the whole league who were hired before the year 2022 (!), a wild stat that suggests if the wins don’t come soon, he might be the one getting going.
Who has the best headshot in the game?
You can stay seated, Mr. Trouba: This is blessedly not a category involving NHL Player Safety. No, this is a tribute to the Seattle Kraken’s Brandon Tanev, a wide-eyed visionary who has been mastering his craft for so long that his photos were already a meme among the teens years ago.
Runner-up: Everyone adores Marc-Andre Fleury, the soon-to-be-retired goalie whose career dates all the way back to the pre-lockout era! Gaze upon this peerless Flower, who in all those years somehow never lost his bloom.
Who won Faceoff: Inside the NHL?
On the one hand, I guess “the winner” of Amazon’s six-part NHL docuseries might not be McDavid, considering that so many of the show’s most talked-about scenes—the “Dig the fuck in! Right fuckin’ now!” screams, the locker room weeping—all take place when he’s in the middle of losing. But on the other hand, holy moly does that guy ever lose like a champion, and I mean that sincerely!
In the end, I think this is a tie between Matthew Tkachuk, a man who’s constantly shown to be living life right, and William Nylander, a guy who is forever irritated by his teammates and his franchise and is right to feel that way. In one scene, Nylander comes home after he scored two goals in Game 6 of the playoffs and celebrates by walking his dogs. “I love the dogs because you know, you come home, you had a big game, but it’s time to take them out for a walk and that’s all they care about,” he says in the show. “It’s a nice little reset coming home.” Hockey dogs are like hockey players, it turns out—focused not on the past, but on the long path ahead.
