It may still be early, but prior to every new NHL season, a whole host of predictions are made before the puck drops. Naturally, many of these predictions, by both experts and fans alike, come up short. Quite often, not only do our Magic 8-balls fail us, but several surprises come out of nowhere, ultimately blowing our predictions out of the water. Here are a few of those early-season surprises.
Phil Kessel’s Hot Start
Phil Kessel is a good hockey player. Toronto Maple Leafs GM Brian Burke knew that when he traded away a first-round pick in the 2010 NHL draft (which ended up being Tyler Seguin) to the Boston Bruins in exchange for Kessel.
Peter Forsberg, arguably the second greatest player to ever wear a Colorado Avalanche sweater behind Joe Sakic, was honored Saturday night when the Avs retired his No. 21 prior to the season opener against the Detroit Red Wings.
The team also raised a banner with his name and number to the Pepsi Center rafters Saturday night, where it will hang alongside those of Joe Sakic (19), Patrick Roy (33) and Ray Bourque (77).
After Craig Anderson surprised everyone in 2009 with his remarkable play in net for the Colorado Avalanche, he came back down to Earth last season. As a result, he was dealt at the trade deadline to the Ottawa Senators. In exchange, the Avs received netminder Brian Elliott, but neither he nor backup Peter Budjai could stop the bleeding in Denver. As a result, the Avs’ goaltending imploded and the team was forced to rebuild in the offseason.
Vancouver Canucks President and General Manager Mike Gillis announced today that centre Ryan Kesler had successful hip labral surgery.
“After consultation with our team physicians following the playoffs, it was deemed that Ryan would require a procedure on his hip,” said Gillis. “We expect a full recovery and determined this procedure would best serve both Ryan and the team’s long term goals.”
Kesler, who was tied for the team lead in goals scored last season with 41, is expected to not be ready for the start of the of the 2011-12 season.
Peter Stastny sent shock waves through the NHL community last season when he called out Colorado Avalanche management and criticized them trading Chris Stewart, Kevin Shattenkirk and a second-round pick to St. Louis for Jay McClement, Erik Johnson and a first-round pick.
“This young team was ready to challenge, almost, for a Stanley Cup this season. All they needed was some more chemistry, and some synergies. Instead, they destroyed the team,” Stastny told St. Louis radio station KMOX.
Did Stastny have a point? Here are a few Avs players that could prove him wrong.
Before Sunday, former Colorado Avalanche star Joe Sakic admitted that he had never even come close to hitting a hole-in-one.
Not anymore.
Sakic won $1 million on Sunday by making a hole-in-one on the par-3 17th at the American Century Celebrity Golf Championship at Lake Tahoe in Stateline, Nev.
The former NHL MVP and two-time Stanley Cup winner will take home half the check, with the other $500,000 going to Lance Armstrong’s Livestrong Foundation for cancer research.
Semyon Varlamov and Jean-Sebastien Giguere and now the men behind the mask for the Colorado Avalanche. The acquisitions of the two netminders were made in order to replace Peter Budaj and Brian Elliott.
The Avalanche knew that a serious change needed to be made between the pipes when their goaltenders combined for league-worst 3.45 goals-against average and .890 save percentage last season. Now with a couple of new faces in the crease, the Avs are hoping that their goaltending situation can do nothing but improve heading into the 2011-12 season.
I am happy to announce a new promotion here at Hockey Tickets Online. Beginning in October 2011, we will giving away way two tickets each month to a regular season NHL game.
To enter, simply leave your name and email address below. Once you are entered into the contest, your will be eligible to win tickets every month.
Congratulations to Eric who is our October ticket winner. Eric gets two tickets to the Panthers v Penguins game in November.
The Los Angeles Kings were able to extend their winning streak to three games over the weekend, but it came at a costly price.
Anze Kopitar, the Kings leading scorer, broke his right ankle in the second period of the Kings 4-1 victory over the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday. Although Kopitar writhed in pain on the ice after after getting tangled up with Colorado defenseman Ryan O’Byrne in the corner, it is the Kings who were hurting after hearing about the timetable for Kopitar’s return: six weeks. This puts his return towards the end of the second round of the playoffs, and that’s only if the Kings can make it that far without him.
Just when it seems like things can’t get any worse in Colorado, then Matt Duchene goes down.
The Avalanche have lost eight straight and have fallen all the way down to 14th place in the Western Conference. Their latest defeat, an embarrassing 9-1 loss to the Calgary Flames, came on the same day that Peter Forsberg announced his retirement. And with the way the Avs luck has been going, it was during that game that Duchene, the teams leading scorer, injured his hand.
The 20-year-old center was hit with a shot puck in the second period Monday. The exact nature of the problem has not been disclosed.
It may still be early, but prior to every new NHL season, a whole host of predictions are made before the puck drops. Naturally, many of these predictions, by both experts and fans alike, come up short. Quite often, not only do our Magic 8-balls fail us, but several surprises come out of nowhere, ultimately blowing our predictions out of the water. Here are a few of those early-season surprises.
