Training camps are open and the preseason is just around the corner. While many sports fans may be talking about the NFL's first week, true puckheads are gearing up for the baby steps that will ultimately turn into the Stanley Cup marathon. Have you been hibernating all summer while dreaming of slap shots and hip checks? Here are the top five stories you'll need to watch for as we head to the opening face-off:
5. Beginnings and Endings
2009 saw the retirement of several NHL greats, including long-time Avalanche captain Joe Sakic and long-time microphone fodder Jeremy Roenick, while Sergei Zubov and Sergei Fedorov ended their magnificent NHL careers by signing with the Russian teams. On the other hand, a new era begins for teams in rebuild mode. Most notably, all eyes will be on No. 1 overall pick John Tavares. If we've learned anything from last year's Steven Stamkos debacle, it's that not every highly-touted rookie can come flying out of the gate, but a strong second half can redeem a miserable first half and provide flashes of what you'll see for years to come.
4. Does History Repeat Itself?
People love a good story, so whenever a team or a player can draw parallels to the past, it'll be dubbed the "Second Coming" before anything has really happened. There have been enough observers who, perhaps prematurely, have looked at the Pittsburgh Penguins Stanley Cup win as a parallel to the 1980s Edmonton Oilers — they lost their first Cup final, they beat an established "dynasty," and they have a dynamic young team. While there's no denying the long-term potential of the Penguins, drawing Oilers parallels is stretching it a bit. Instead of comparing and contrasting, it's best to let the Penguins write their own story as Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin pursue Cup No. 2.
3. Catch Olympic Fever While You Can
Enjoy your favorite NHL stars as Olympians this winter in Vancouver, because it might be the last time you see it. It sounds like the NHLPA is firmly behind Olympic participation, but the league is semi-diplomatically trying to preach a wait-and-see approach for 2014. What does that actually mean? It's all about dollars and cents, as a North America-based Olympics is easy to capitalize on, meaning that Nagano and Torino were just warm-ups for Salt Lake City and Vancouver. After that, it's up in the air, so enjoy it while you can.
2. New Faces in New Places
Major moves in the offseason include Dany Heatley to San Jose (and if you've been asleep, you've missed a hell of a soap opera with that one), Marian Hossa to the Blackhawks, Chris Pronger to Philadelphia, Marian Gaborik to the Rangers, Montreal retooling with Scott Gomez and Michael Cammalleri, and a bunch of guys decided to give the KHL a try (Sergei Fedorov, Viktor Kozlov, Richard Zednik, and Sergei Zubov). It's appropriate to look at the new rosters and think that the balance of power has shifted a little bit. Western powers either lost players (Detroit, Anaheim) or shuffled the deck (San Jose), while the East looks to be about the state of Pennsylvania and the nation's capital.
1. Battle in the Desert
If you've tuned out hockey news all summer, you've missed out (probably fortunately) on an ugly, bitter battle over the future of the Phoenix Coyotes. Long story short, Canadian billionaire has worked out a deal to take the Coyotes into bankruptcy so he could cut-and-paste them into Hamilton, Ontario ... except he did all of this without NHL approval. Thus, Balsillie and the league entered into a war of words that culminated in a U.S. Bankruptcy Court auction over the past weekend.
What happens next, regardless of the result, will most certainly be a lengthy appeal process that will suck the life out of whatever die-hard Coyotes fans remain, and who knows where the team will ultimately end up playing? (If the NHL wins control of the team, it will try to sell it to local investors before holding its own relocation auction.) For those fans, their best hope is to re-watch the movie "Major League" to see how Charlie Sheen and Wesley Snipes could turn ownership squabbles into a playoff appearance.
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