Most and Least Exciting Things About NHL Season

With NHL training camps and the preseason underway, let's highlight some of the most and least exciting things to come in the upcoming hockey season.

By Dan Heaning, Sports Talk Philly staff writer 

A new NHL season is here. Well, sort of. The preseason counts, right?

With any given season, there are things that fans should be waiting for with great anticipation and other aspects that make them wonder why is that still a thing. The 2017-18 NHL campaign is no different so, with that in mind, let’s run down five things hockey fans should be excited about and five things they shouldn’t be all that happy to see.

Not-so-excited

5. China preseason games – The NHL seems pretty excited for these preseason tilts in China. Too bad no one else is. The issue here is two-fold. One, these outings will be played at 7:30 a.m. and 3:30 a.m. EST. You know, ideal hours for watching hockey games. Two, they’re preseason contests between two teams that you probably don’t care all that much about: the Vancouver Canucks and Los Angeles Kings. That matchup doesn’t scream must-see TV even during the regular 82-game season let alone an early morning preseason affair.

4. Rivalry Night still lacks actual rivalries – To use baseball lingo, the lead-off batter for the weekly NBC Wednesday night game is the tilt between the St. Louis Blues and Pittsburgh Penguins. OK, so they’re not off to a great start. Two weeks later, the Columbus Blue Jackets square off against the Buffalo Sabres. I missed the memo when those two teams started to hate each other. A week after that, NBC continues to milk the 2010 Stanley Cup Final as a legitimate rivalry seven plus years after the fact. Of the 23 Wednesday Night Rivalry games, I counted eight that were actual rivalries. Detroit vs. St. Louis could have bumped it up to nine, but since the Red Wings have been in an entirely different conference for four seasons now, counting that as a “rivalry” doesn’t seem genuine. I mean, this isn’t basketball.

3. The Winter Classic matchup – Ugh, I know at this point NBC is the one who dictates the matchups, but seriously? The Buffalo Sabres and New York Rangers? Could they have picked any two teams in the same conference who have less of a rivalry? How about next season they pit the Carolina Hurricanes against the New Jersey Devils? Oh wait, no one would watch that. At least this game has the Buffalo fanbase and the New York market to plug the event. It just seems they could have done better with any number of matchups involving one of these two teams: Buffalo-Boston, Rangers-Penguins, Sabres-Leafs, New York-Washington, and a host of others. Oh well, at least the Caps-Leafs Stadium Series tilt in Annapolis seems interesting.

2. There’s still an All-Star Game – Ah, the All-Star Game. Is there anything in sports more pointless, boring and genuinely uninteresting? While the NHL version might be the best variation of the dreaded All-Star contest, that’s like being the thinnest kid at fat camp. While every sports league attempts to alter the tilt in some fashion to make it enjoyable, there’s just no cleaning up this trash heap. It’s a shame really because the All-Star Game is usually canceled for the far superior Winter Olympics but since the NHL isn’t sending their players, this game sadly must go on. Furthermore, the All-Star Game is a few weeks before the Olympics start and there aren’t any college games scheduled on that day so maybe DVR a Big Ten outing from the night before and watch it then.

1. The three-point game is still a thing – Do you like mediocre to bad teams hanging around the playoff race inexplicably? The NHL does. That’s why it continues to cling to the three-point system which rewards teams for shutting it down late in the third period and forcing the contest to go into overtime. While some would argue this keeps fan interest high because no team is out of it, most fans know their team is cooked long before they’re mathematically eliminated. This just keeps games going on longer, makes the three-on-three overtime way too frequent to have the same appeal it once had and increases the likelihood of a game ending in a shootout, which is another thing to be not-so-excited about.

Excited

5. No league shutdown plus Olympics equals hockey overload – The 2018 Winter Olympics means international hockey is back on its biggest stage. Since the NHL won’t be allowing its players to compete in the tournament, players from around the world and college ranks will be assembling the squads. Therefore, once the dog days of the NHL season hit, you can tune out a bit and watch USA-Russia or Sweden-Finland or…OK, who’s kidding who, you’ll probably just watch the USA games but it’s nice to have options even if they’re on tape delay.

4. There’s a team in Las Vegas now – Are you a compulsive gambler that has always wanted to bet on hockey but felt that was a new low? Now you’re in luck as the unfortunately named Vegas Golden Knights play their inaugural season, so too can you take a trip to Vegas and lose all of your money as you bet on the other team only to find Marc-Andre Fleury stood on his head and stole the game or maybe you bet on Vegas and he let in a complete garbage goal at the end. You never know with that guy.

3. Canadian team revivals – Unless something unforeseen occurs, the Edmonton Oilers, Calgary Flames and Toronto Maple Leafs should all be pretty good this season. This means the revival of some great rivalries like the “Battle of Alberta” and the clash between Toronto and Montreal. It’d be neat if Detroit was going to be halfway decent too since that would rekindle the old Leafs-Wings rivalry. Some expect the Winnipeg Jets to be competitive this year. If they could horn in on a rivalry with the Oilers and Flames as well as the Minnesota Wild that be fantastic. The more Canadian teams that are good the less hockey fans have to see of uninteresting Sun Belt squads that the league keeps around for some reason.

2. Remember the 90s? – Players that 30-something-year-olds will remember like Eric Lindros, Paul Kariya, and Patrik Elias will be honored this season. So put on your flannel shirt, turn on Pearl Jam’s “No Code” and get ready for some nostalgia as you harken back to a time when some of the best players the game has ever seen had to compete in unwatchable slogs because teams like the New Jersey Devils and Ottawa Senators abused the Neutral Zone Trap to its extreme and nearly killed the sport and the league. Fun!

1. The NHL playoffs are still the best – Complain all you want about the format, the NHL playoffs are still the best out there. It’s what every hockey fan strives to see live. The atmosphere in the building is ramped up to 11, the players hit a level of intensity unseen in the prior 82 games and every moment is that much more significant. Plus, it’s not a predictable eye roll like the other three leagues. Oh, the Cavaliers and Warriors are in the NBA Finals? What a surprise! Hey, the Patriots won the Super Bowl again. Ugh. OK, the Major League Baseball playoffs are good. They’re second.