Written by Chris Wassel | 27 September 2008

So the regular season in the NHL is just around the corner. Thank God. I’m torn however, as I’m going on vacation until October 10th and will miss the start of the regular season unless I can find a bar in Mexico with a great satellite system. Either way, I want to touch on four teams of interest to me before the season starts and I guess today is my last chance for that because of my time off, so here we go.


The Pittsburgh Penguins

They made the Stanley Cup finials last year only to go through a large change of players in the off season this year. The most notable of course being the fact the team was unable to retain the services of Marion Hossa. Through the summer I believed that the Penguins would still be a force in the East with the players they did sign, to this day I think they will still make the playoffs, but key injuries to Ryan Whitney and now Sergei Gonchar have me wondering if this team is now set for a step back from "Cup Contender". Not having 9 million worth of blue line in the lineup may really hurt this young team. I watch with interest.


The Tampa Bay Lightning

New owners, new players, new coach. Anyone’s guess as to just what kind of team the Lightning will be. They had some good forwards to begin with, they signed some solid depth forwards during the summer, and drafted Steven Stamkos with appears to be the real deal so far in the preseason. The questions is if the Bolts don’t score 5+ goals a game will they still lose hockey games because of the teams defense and question mark in net? The jury is out.


The Chicago Blackhawks

Aside from Crosby and Malkin, the Hawks may have the best young gun pair in the NHL in Toews and Kane. The team rounds out with Dustin Byfuglien, Martin Havlat, Brent Seabrook and Patrcik Sharp. Add newcomers Brain Campbell on the blue line, and Huet in the net, and the team looks poised to take the step back into the playoff picture. To me, the scary part is that the Hawks have more young guns in their system that will only make the team a deeper and more dangerous in the near future, maybe this year. This might be the team I’m most excited to see how things turn out other then my Oilers.


The Edmonton Oilers

Now way I could talk about what interests me about the upcoming regular season without mentioning the home team. The Oilers have plenty to be excited about, but many pitfalls could still lie ahead. The season hinges on a line of 2nd year players. Gagner, Cogliano, and Nilsson have to have the same years they did last year for the Oilers to step forward. That assumes the first line stays healthy, or the pressure on the kids to be even better then last year grows. I’m fine with the Oilers blue line, but the question as to if Garon is a true number 1 goalie is still out there. The Oilers not making the playoffs this year would be a disappointment.



The Montreal Canadiens will come out of the East this year, while the Wings will be the team from the West. This will also be the season we see one of the hardest things to do in professional sports, wining the Stanley Cup back to back. The Wings take it all.



Then again, this is just a damned opinion.

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