THEY’RE BACK! Leafs promise to be younger, faster, more competitive,
MONTREAL— Better late, one supposes, than never.
So the NHL season that some firmly believed would never happen is happening, and early indications are the fans are going to be more than happy to welcome back 30 teams and 700 players with open arms.
Might as well schedule that next lockout for Sept. 15, 2020. There will be, it seems, no repercussions for the league or the players union for holding the game hostage while they bickered.
Fair enough. Apparently both sides know their clientele well. Not much has changed on the surface for the business, although Henrik Lundqvist returns with Ingrid Bergman and Greta Garbo on his goalie mask, and new rules did allow Scott Gomez and Wade Redden to escape the prisons created by their dream contracts.
Within a matter of less than two weeks, all the bitterness and anger created by the 113-day standoff has seemingly evaporated, replaced by excitement about free practices and team giveaways, a shortened and unpredictable 48-game season, a hectic race to the finish line, changes on teams around the league and a squadron of new and exciting teenagers.
One of those prized youngsters will be on display Saturday night when the Maple Leafs visit the Canadiens, who have decided to keep Sarnia junior Alex Galchenyuk for at least the start of the new season.
The Habs, you’ll remember, were the worst team in the Eastern Conference last season, and probably needed something to take the minds of their fans off the fact that flamboyant blueliner P.K. Subban remains unsigned. Galchenyuk is the new saviour in town, and putting him on display buys a little time for new GM Marc Bergevin and head coach Michel Therrien, back for another stint behind the bench.
Season openers don’t usually come with this much attention or this much pressure to win.
The loser, at least in some quadrants of their sizeable fan bases, will suddenly be in crisis, the winner seen to suddenly be full of possibilities.
The reality, of course, is that the Habs and Leafs are both rebuilding clubs without any chance of capturing the Stanley Cup. That shouldn’t change the anticipation for the home opener, just what’s read into the result. Still, Don Cherry should be happy with Nazem Kadri beginning the season as a Leaf, not a Marlie, and a team dying for change got it with three new blueliners in Mark Fraser, Korbinian Holzer and Mike Kostka and new forwards James van Riemsdyk and Leo Komarov.
Galchenyuk, meanwhile, won’t be joined as an under-20 newcomer in the NHL by Maple Leaf defence prospect Morgan Rielly, who is headed back to junior in a sensible move by a franchise that has so often rushed young defencemen.
But the Habs did keep another greenhorn in 2010 draftee Brendan Gallagher. Also sticking for now are: Mikhail Grigorenko (Buffalo), Scott Laughton (Philly), Matt Dumba (Minnesota), Stephane Matteau (New Jersey), Mark Scheifele (Winnipeg), Jonathan Huberdeau (Florida), Dougie Hamilton (Boston), Nail Yakupov (Edmonton) and Rickard Rackell (Anaheim). When we left the NHL, the Los Angeles Kings had battered their way to the Cup, upending New Jersey in the final. The Kings come back with no new faces but an injured Anze Kopitar to start the season, while the Devils lost Zach Parise to Minnesota via free agency and haven’t really tried to replace him. With seven different champions in seven years of salary cap competition, the chances of either the Kings or Devils getting back to the final are small. The chances of seeing the same kind of blocked shot-dominated hockey we saw before however, are great, as unlike the last lockout, the game isn’t coming back with a host of new rules to fix the game. That said, early play is likely to be ragged and uneven and probably filled with injuries. Perhaps Philly and Boston, with 14 players each returning having played during the lockout, will be quicker out of the gate than most. Or perhaps Edmonton will be, and how much fun it will be to see the Oilers, having seen most of their key players skate in the AHL for Oklahoma City in the first half of the season, take on Vancouver Sunday night in what looms as an early must-see tussle. The Canucks started trying to trade Roberto Luongo last June and still haven’t been able to do so. Fans seem willing to wait and see GM Mike Gillis convert the former starter into assets. But with key forwards David Booth and Ryan Kesler out to start the season, a sluggish start by the 2011 Cup finalists could change the conversation inside Nucks Nation quickly. The big story of the off-season before the lockout began was the Minnesota Wild, and the Wild are hoping they’ll be the big story of the season as that franchise attempts to become one of the league’s marquee teams after signing Parise and Ryan Suter to identical 13-year, $98-million (U.S.) contracts that wouldn’t even be legal under the new collective bargaining agreement.
And if Leafs fans are wondering what life will be like without Brian Burke — quieter, probably — Ranger fans are surely just as intrigued to see if Rick Nash can be the superstar in Manhattan he had ceased to be in Columbus.
So lots of variables, lots of new, fresh faces and little resentment.
As always, this remarkable game appears set to defy the attempts of short-sighted owners and players to wreck it.
A resilient thing, this NHL.