Face it: Notwithstanding all those Philadelphia Flyers suspensions early in the season and the pesky matter of William (Boots) Del Biaggio trying to buy the Nashville Predators with someone else's money, the 2007-08 season proved to be a respectable one for the NHL.
It saw the emergence of Alexander Ovechkin as the most valuable player, in a year when a high ankle sprain limited Sidney Crosby to 53 regular-season games.
Crosby's Pittsburgh Penguins made a stirring playoff run, advancing to the Stanley Cup final against the Detroit Red Wings, only two years removed from a dismal 58-point season. The Red Wings, who went wire-to-wire in the regular season, cruised to the championship, with skill and verve — and along the way, buried all those stereotypes that you can't win with Europeans.
The Montreal Canadiens came to life and were the only Canadian-based team left standing after the first playoff round. Even the soap opera that was the Toronto Maple Leafs proved entertaining in a train-wreck sort of way.
So now, after a 111-day off-season, training camps for the 2008-09 season are about to get under way. The four teams that will open the season in Europe in the fall (Pittsburgh, the Ottawa Senators, New York Rangers and Tampa Bay Lightning) will start early next week; the rest of the league will follow on Friday. What's new? What's worth monitoring? Lots, but no storylines are more compelling than these 10.
1. The Lightning soap opera. Not since the days of Harold Ballard has an ownership group so captivated the NHL as those two wild and craaaaazy guys in Tampa, Oren Koules and Len Barrie. In less than six months on the job, they're more well-known than two dozen of the corporate types who own the other teams in the league. The Lightning committed almost $200-million (all currency U.S.) in salaries to players over the summer, half of it to new guys, in a spending spree that would make even George Steinbrenner blush. Will it pay off? Who knows? But it'll sure be fun to watch and the best news is that, after finishing 30th in the league, there is only way go anyway — and that's up.
2. All Montreal, all the time. In this, the 100th anniversary of the storied Canadiens franchise, the bars and bistros of Montreal will do a booming season-long business, as reporters descend for the all-star game, the Patrick Roy retirement ceremony, the entry draft and the as-yet-to-be announced outdoor game at the Big Owe. And if the Canadiens' surge last season, from 10th in the conference to first place, is no mirage, there may even be a playoff round or four. No Canadian-based team has won the Stanley Cup since the Canadiens' miracle run of 1993; in this historic season for the franchise, maybe the karma will be right again.
3. The Alex and Sid Show. In the same way that Magic and Larry Bird revitalized the NBA all those years ago, the NHL could not have hoped for a better marketing punch than the one Ovechkin and Crosby provide. They entered the league just three years ago, and ever since have been duelling in a how-do-you-solve-a-problem-like-Maria sort of way. You know: "Anything you can do, I can do better." Each has won an MVP award already; Crosby took his team to the playoffs in each of the past two years; the Washington Capitals dramatically rode Ovechkin's coattails to the postseason last season after a dismal start. The good news: Crosby is only 21; Ovechkin will turn 23 on Wednesday. You'd have to think the best is still to come.
4. The effect of Crazy Money. The lockout of 2004-05 was supposed to rein in NHL spending on player salaries; and it did, for about a week in the summer of 2005. Ever since, though, any player with desirable credentials prepared to test unrestricted free agency has been rewarded with staggering sums of money (see Brian Campbell and Wade Redden for the most recent examples). The net result is two-fold: Six clubs are currently over the $56.7-million salary cap, which has jumped more than $17-million in four years — and all six will need to get their payrolls in line before rosters are completed in early October. Moreover, the spending spree means some experienced journeymen are in limbo without a contract (Martin Gelinas and Mark Parrish) or will attend training camps without a contract (Bryan Berard and Jeff O'Neill), trying to find honest work.
