Will Cup come back home?
Published Wednesday September 30th, 2009
A Stanley Cup parade in Calgary or Vancouver? It could happen
THE CANADIAN PRESS
How about a Stanley Cup parade down Robson Street? Or maybe a championship celebration on the Red Mile?
The Canadian Press' hockey writers have pulled out a crystal ball to make some predictions about the upcoming NHL season and see Vancouver and Calgary as the teams most likely to end the country's 17-year Stanley Cup drought.
Roberto Luongo continues to be the cornerstone of the Canucks and has a revamped blue-line working in front of him. In Calgary, the arrival of defenceman Jay Bouwmeester should provide a major boost to a 98-point team from a year ago.
Ultimately, though, we think the champion will again come from an American city and it should be one heck of a final between two resurgent hockey markets in Boston and Chicago.
Can you imagine the excitement surrounding an Original Six matchup?
We see a Bruins team that has skill and depth at every position coming out on top of that one. That means hulking Bruins captain Zdeno Chara will lift the Stanley Cup after first helping his team win the Presidents' Trophy with the best record in the regular season.
It's bound to be a much longer year in Denver, where the Avalanche look like they could slide to last place in the 30-team league. Our biggest concern comes from the retirement of Joe Sakic and loss of Ryan Smyth, along with the lack of top-notch goaltending.
Don't be surprised to see better things from the Dallas Stars.
Everything went sour in a hurry last season, but we expect a healthy Brendan Morrow and Brad Richards to turn Marc Crawford's squad back into a playoff contender in the Western Conference.
In the East, the Carolina Hurricanes seem most likely to take a step back -- continuing their strange good-year, bad-year trend. They made it to the final four last spring but should find it tough to qualify for the post-season this year.
That could leave coach Paul Maurice in a vulnerable position and a candidate to become the first man replaced behind the bench. However, he's far from alone in that category judging by the number of coaching changes that were made last season (recall Chicago's Denis Savard getting replaced less than two weeks into the season).
There isn't any compelling reason to believe the league's major offensive awards will go to anyone outside of the Big Three -- Sidney Crosby, Alex Ovechkin and Evgeni Malkin. Those players have shown they're in a league of their own, prompting us to believe the awards gala in Las Vegas will have a similar feel to last year.
We're predicting Ovechkin scores 70 goals, capturing the Rocket Richard Trophy and Hart Trophy as league MVP for the third straight year. However, Malkin should win another scoring title, taking the Art Ross Trophy largely based on his assists.
Other players will obviously make impacts.
Philadelphia's addition of defenceman Chris Pronger over the summer made headlines, but we believe another blue-liner will make an even bigger impact on his new team. Don't be surprised if Matthias Ohlund's arrival in Tampa turns out to be an important move -- particularly because he'll play with rookie Viktor Hedman, who we're installing as the Calder Trophy favourite.
The free-agent signing we see as being the biggest flop was Marian Gaborik, the oft-injured forward who's been given US$37.5 over five years from the New York Rangers. It won't be a surprise to see him collecting a big chunk of that money from the trainers' room.
The biggest hockey event of the coming months will happen with the NHL season on hiatus, when the world descends on Vancouver for the Winter Olympics. There are five or six countries that will enter that tournament with gold medal aspirations and we don't think the home side will be the one that emerges victorious.
Instead, we think Sweden will win a second straight Olympic gold.
Of course, making predictions comes with the same danger as chasing the latest trend. Eight months from now, we'll likely look back and wonder what we were thinking.