We’re two weeks into the season, and it’s too early to know anything. But it’s not too early to know what you don’t know. Or at least, what you’re pretty sure you know. That you don’t know.
You know?
Cool, glad we’re all on the same page. Here are five early-season storylines that I’m not buying. Or at least, not yet.
Our fake trophy case needs some new additions. The last time we came up with a new award to retroactively hand out, we were waiting on the puck to drop on a Western Conference final we all knew the Avalanche would easily win, and the Sabres had just pumped eight goals past a Canadiens team that was on its heels heading into game seven. Oops.
That fake award was the Maruk Trophy, given to each year’s playoff MVP among teams that were eliminated in round one. It joined previous pretend honors like the Jimmy Carson Trophy (for best sophomore season), the Ray Bourque Trophy (for best final season) and the Teemu Selanne Trophy (for best combined season and Olympics). None of these actually exist, but they should, and they will once I'm elected commissioner.
So yeah, we need some new blood. And that’s going to be the theme of today’s award, as we present the Marcel Dionne Trophy for best season by a player who’s about to switch teams in the offseason. We’re not worried about how the change happens – trades, free agency, and expansion drafts are all in play. To qualify, a player simply has to have been on one team’s roster for their final game of the season in question, and a different one on opening night of the following one. And we’re only worried about what they did in that last year with their old team; if they were great that year but then stunk on their new team, that’s fine.
We’re barely a week into the NHL season, and you’ve already seen my team tiers, my oddly specific predictions, my most intriguing players, and my first batch of power rankings. Oh, and hopefully you’ve signed up for the newsletter.
Are you sick of me yet? You should be. So I’m taking the day off.
Instead, this post is about you, and what you think. Specifically, it’s about the 1,258 of you who entered this year’s prediction contest. That number was the highest in the contest’s seven year history, by the way, so thanks to everyone who spread the word.
It’s obviously way too early to start keeping score. It’s only been a week, and history tells us that most of your entries won’t be completely dead in the water until it’s been two weeks. But one of my favorite things about the contest is that it doubles as an informal survey of what hockey fans are expecting. There are usually some interesting insights to be found in there.
So today, we’re going to dive into those 1,258 entries and see what they tell us about what expectations look like among the smartest hockey fans out there. And also you.
Welcome back to the Weekend Rankings. How was your summer? Go anywhere interesting? Do anything fun? Demand any trades? Cool, cool, let’s get back to business.
It’s time to build my annual all-intrigue team – the names and stories I’m most interested in following as we head into the new season. Some of them will be obvious picks. Others might feel off the board. But each has a reason for some extra attention over the next (remembers the schedule is longer this year) 14 months or whatever it is now.
As always, we’ll do this roster style – two goalies, six defensemen and 12 forwards, plus a coach and a GM and a handful of honorable mentions. The two ground rules are that we can only use one name per team, and we can’t repeat anyone from last year’s list.
And of course, we build from the net out...
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The Athletic Hockey Show runs four days a week during the season, and will feature me with Other Sean Gentille on Wednesdays.
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