NHL Season Set for Return
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October 6, 2011 TheFreshOutlook  |
The 2011/2012 NHL season begins Thursday with the Boston Bruins looking to make a positive defence of the Stanley Cup.
Bruins fans will still have fond memories fresh for recollection of that night in Vancouver in June when their victory in the deciding game brought the Canadian city to a standstill through violent rioting.
Many journalists are tipping them to repeat that feat this season, but what do they think of their chances?
“It’s a good challenge for us,” center Patrice Bergeron says. “Yes, last year was a dream come true for everyone. But that being said, it’s over, and now we’ve got to keep going. We’re the defending champ and we should take pride in that.”
And that they should. With the salary cap and player draft system firmly in place in the modern game it is very difficult for a winning team to repeat that feat the following season. The 2009-10 winners Chicago Blackhawks faced huge salary cap problems the following season and had to discard eight first-team regulars to be eligible to compete.
They barely made the post-season play-offs, and were eliminated in the first round.
“I think if you ask anyone who’s won a championship, you do need a little bit of luck on your side,” Bergeron’s team-mate Chris Kelly said. “You need those bounces to [go] your way at key times - and hope the team you’re playing against doesn’t get them.”
A lot of clamour seems to have been made about the San Jose Sharks as many feel that coach Todd McLellan has put together a side capable of defeating the other franchises around them.
But Sharks star Logan Couture believes that the added pressure put on his team could be the biggest obstacle they face this coming season.
“I think there might be a little bit of extra pressure on us,” he said. “People in the off-season pick us to win the Cup – I don’t know how many years it’s been – and we’ve disappointed obviously not getting there [over recent seasons].”
He, McLellan and the fans will be hoping that changes this time around.
The Sharks are one of only two teams to make the play-offs every season since the 2004-05 lock-out, the other being the Detroit Red Wings.
The Red Wings themselves seem a little unsure of their prospects for the season ahead. As owner Mike Ilitch said: “The best way to analyse the Red Wings is, they’re good, but I don’t know how good.”
Nicklas Lidstrom, Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg still form a good spine to the team but with Lidstrom now 41 and his partner in crime Brian Rafalski retired many are questioning whether he will be able to continue the form of recent years.
Then you have the Pittsburgh Penguins, last season’s losing Stanley Cup finalists the Vancouver Canucks, the Washington Capitals, the Los Angeles Kings, the Philadelphia Flyers and the Tampa Bay Lightning who could all push for the chance to etch their name on the famous trophy.
It all starts tonight, and a year of excitement, passion, tension and drama is guaranteed to unfold on the ice.
By Leigh Gruffydd Sanders
[Image courtesy of Dan4th]