And so begins the latest season of the NHL tonight. My favorite teams aren’t playing though, that will be tomorrow.
Here are my predictions too.
Flyers: Although I’m stoked about them coming to Dallas this season (March 2007), they are going to be mediocre all season as the matters I’ve griped about will remain a problem. They will be knocked out in the first round of the playoffs.
Coyotes: My other favorite team, long before Gretzky and JR joined them. There was some more serious rebuilding over the Summer. They’re a bit long in the tooth with the veterans and their farm team in the AHL, the San Antonio Rampage, isn’t very good when I’ve watched them play. However, the goal for them this year is to stay healthy, score more goals and make the first round of the playoffs. Anything more is gravy. My other hope will be Roenick fitting in really well with them and regaining his lead over Dallas Stars’ Mike Modano on beating Joey Mullen’s 502 goal record.
The Divisions: The Atlantic will go to New Jersey again, Southeast I don’t know nor do I care but there will be no Carolina two-peat and the Northeast seems like a sure thing for Buffalo with Boston making it close. For the Pacific I think San José can do it because the others are weaker, Nashville will only take the Central due to Detroit’s aging and finally the Northwest is probably going to Calgary due to the decay of the other contenders and Edmonton’s liquidation. In the end, I won’t predict the Stanley Cup match up since the division winners felt pretty cloudy on half of them. Check with me again at the All-Star Break in Dallas.
I’m not taking any chances though, I’ll still put down $10 on the Flyers to win it all since the Venetian will probably give me higher than 2004’s 14-1 against odds.