The NHL season officially started this past Thursday but likely the most anticipated game of the weekend is todays matchup between the Montreal Canadians and the Winnipeg Jets. The Jets are back in the league after a 15 year break, after the team was moved to Phoenix in 1996. This summer however, when the league was looking to find a buyer for the Atlanta Thrashers, a group from Manitoba got together and purchased the Thrashers, on the agreement that the team would move back to Winnipeg. The deal was announced on May 31 and approved by the league owners on June 21; sparking the start of a very exciting summer of anticipation for this new team.
I am very excited to see this team play this year. They have a strong group of forwards led by Andrew Ladd, Bryan Little and 18 year old Mark Scheifele, the first player drafted by the new Jets team this past June, and the player who led the league in scoring this preseason with 4 goals and 8 assists. Their young starting goalie Ondreji Pavelic has the potential to be a star and with Zach Bogosian, Tobias Enstrom and Dustin Byfuglien on the back end, this team will certainly find success in their new home.
Of course there has been other news this past week and with the new season starting again I will be returning to these weekly updates every Sunday.
This past season began with the annual NHL Premiere in Europe with the New York Rangers, Anaheim Ducks, LA Kings and Buffalo Sabers playing games in Berlin Germany, Helsinki Finland and Stockholm Sweden. This continues the positive relationship between the NHL and the European professional hockey leagues as they continue to grow the game around the world.
There was also some controversy on Don Cherry's Thursday night Coaches Corner. Cherry has always been known for his vibrant opinions but he was a little to excited on Thursday. He criticized Brendan Shanahan and his strict new way of handing out suspensions on head shots. He showed former New Jersey defenceman Scott Stevens throw some huge hits, many that would be forbidden now and many that caused injuries to the players being hit. Cherry said "these hits are gone from our game", hits that I don't think represent how fun hockey is anyway. Finally he called out three former fighters who no longer support fighting after the deaths of Bob Probert, Rick Rypien, Derek Boogard and Wade Belak, all former fighters. In my opinion, hockey is better with more skating, passing and scoring. Hitting and fighting may sell tickets, but they don't really improve the quality of the sport. That is why I am glad Shanahan is taking a stand to try to eliminate as many head injuries as possible and it is sad to see prominent hockey figures like Don Cherry criticizing him for it.
This weekend has been an exciting start to the season. It seems like such a long time ago since the Boston Bruins won the Stanley Cup and already the battles are heating up. I can't wait to watch and read about hockey for the next 10 months of playing and I hope you keep reading my blog again this year. For more up to date hockey news, you can follow me on Twitter at @jbenny15. Thanks for reading.
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