The NHL regular season was supposed to start Thursday night with a quartet of games.
As you have no doubt noticed that won't happen because of the latest lockout, which is now nearly one month old, has wiped out the first 82 regular-season games. Given the stunning lack of progress in the CBA negotiations, more games being lost appears inevitable.
That, of course, is a shame because there were a lot of interesting games and storylines to watch over the opening weekend.
Here were five of the better ones:
1) New York Rangers at Los Angeles Kings (Friday)
Los Angeles Kings fans had to wait more than 40 years to see their team win its first championship. Now they can't even see their Stanley Cup banner get raised to the rafters on time. The Kings were supposed to begin their title defense on Friday night at home against the New York Rangers.
Not only were the Kings getting set to open as champions, it also would have been Rick Nash's debut with the Rangers. After months of speculation and rumors, the Blue Jackets finally traded the perennial all-star to New York over the summer. It also would have been a game that featured two of the best goaltenders. Reigning Conn Smythe Trophy winner Jonathan Quick would have taken the crease opposite Henrik Lundqvist, who just won his first Vezina Trophy.
Instead, Nash will be spending his weekend playing alongside Joe Thornton with HC Davos in Switzerland, while players like Anze Kopitar of the Kings rack up points in a second division Swedish league.
2) Boston Bruins at Philadelphia Flyers (Thursday)
There's really not much of an intriguing storyline here other than the fact it would have been an awesome matchup to open the season. They've met in the playoffs in two of the past three years. They even opened the regular season against each other last year, a game that ended in a 2-1 Flyers victory thanks to a pair of late first-period goals.
It was also probably one of the high points for Ilya Bryzgalov in his debut season in Philadelphia.
3) Nashville Predators at Detroit Red Wings (Friday)
Some pretty major changes are in store for these Central Division rivals whenever the season finally starts. Both have major holes on their blue lines that they must overcome. (And it's probably a little easier to call this a true rivaly now that the Predators were finally able to knock off the Red Wings in a playoff series last year -- before that it had been pretty one-sided.)
The Predators have to find a way to deal with the loss of Ryan Suter, one of their homegrown stars, in free agency to the Minnesota Wild. Shea Weber will have a new partner.
The Red Wings, meanwhile, will have to open a season for the first time since the 1990-91 campaign without Nicklas Lidstrom leading their defense. The Detroit defense has undergone a huge overhaul in recent years with the retirements of Lidstrom and Brian Rafalski and the free-agent loss of Brad Stuart. That puts a lot of pressure on Niklas Kronwall, Jonathan Ericsson and incoming free-agent Carlo Colaiacovo.
4) Colorado Avalanche at Minnesota Wild (Saturday)
For most of their existence, the Minnesota Wild have been pretty irrelevant in the Western Conference playoff race. Management did whatever it could this summer to change that by adding the two biggest free agents on the market in Suter and Zach Parise.
Saturday was supposed to be their home debut against the Colorado Avalanche.
For two months last season, the Wild gave their fans some hope by posting the best record in the league through early December. They then fell off a cliff and finished as one of the worst teams in the league. But the additions of Suter and Parise had to have sent a jolt through the fan base. And even though those two weren't going to be enough to turn the Wild into true contenders overnight, they were no doubt going to be improved and perhaps could even earn a playoff berth (even if it's just a No. 8 seed) for the first time since 2007-08.
Wild fans are also missing out on the chance to see talented top prospect Mikael Granlund in action.
5) Dallas Stars at Phoenix Coyotes (Saturday)
The Dallas Stars roster, at least as far as their forwards are concerned, might be one of the more intriguing ones in the NHL this season. Louii Eriksson and Jamie Benn are outstanding young players getting ready to enter the prime of their careers. The Stars added to their offense in free agency by signing two of the more experienced (aka, older) players that were available in Jaromir Jagr (from Philadelphia) and Ray Whitney (from Phoenix).
Jagr's point production slowed down considerably in the second half of last season, but he's still strong on the puck and still has some magical hands that can keep the play moving up the ice. For Whitney, his debut would have come against the team that he led in scoring just last season.
Having to replace a key player is nothing new for the Coyotes. The duo of general manager Don Maloney and coach Dave Tippett always seems to find a way to get the job done. The biggest question in Phoenix on opening night this season would have to be whether goaltender Mike Smith could come close to duplicating what he did a year ago.
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