It's the Most Wonderful Time of The Year! NHL Previews and Predictions

Few seasons bring as much excitement as the fall. Leaves are changing, pumpkin spice lattes blah blah blah. That's a load of crap. What really brings excitement? The start of the coolest game on earth (throwback!): NHL hockey! Coming off of last years frustrating lockout and subsequent 48-game shortened season (which seemed to fly by in no time), hockey fans are more then ready for a full, 82 game campaign, offering much more stick and puck to enjoy. So without further adieu, I offer you the 5G1B NHL season guide. We'll discuss rule changes, introduce the new divisions after realignment, and make some predictions for the coming year.

Rule changes

There are quite a few rule changes, so let's delve into some of the more important ones:

1: Smaller Leg Pads for Goalies

In an effort to increase scoring (again), the NHL has decided to shrink goalie's leg pads by a few inches (exact amount depends on goalies height). This is seemingly a small and ineffective change, but a total of 26 goals in last night's first 3 games of the season might suggest otherwise.

2: Hybrid Icing

This one is a little tricky to explain, but essentially icing will now be more of a judgement call. Players will race down to touch up or negate an icing, however, the ref will deem whether to call an icing or negate it based upon which player crosses an imaginary line extending across the face-off dots in that zone. It will essentially be a race to the dots with a linesmans judgement call, rather than a race to the end boards. From a safety standpoint this is a very smart idea, as it will give players much more space to stop or brace themselves and will surely dwindle the large number of awful injuries that have occurred as players tangle up and smash into the end boards while trying to touch up or negate an icing (see: Joni Pitkanen). However, there is some grey area as to how well this rule can and will be called by officials, so for now, the jury is out.

3: Smaller Nets (depth-wise)

Again, in an effort to increase scoring (see a pattern here?) the NHL has altered the size if the nets, by esentially removing the wide extended area on the side of the nets, and bringing the back of the net in. This will provide more space behind the net for players to maneuver and make passes. Here's a picture showing the difference:

4: No Fighting

Okay, that's not literally the rule, but it's certainly what the NHL is trying to accomplish. There is a new rule that states that if you take your helmet off during a fight, you get an extra 2-minute penalty. Understandable, considering the dangers of head injuries should a helmet-less head hit the ice. However, the mandatory use of visors is also being grandfathered in to the NHL. So as more and more players are forced into using visors, fighters will either have to 

a) accept their extra 2-minute pentacle for removing their helmet,

b) punch a visor and probably injure their hand, or 

c) just not fight.

Pretty crappy situation for a fan of fighting in the game of hockey.

Realignment

The NHL took the hard way yet again in attempting to realign the league (mainly to get Winnipeg out of the Southeast division). Would simply switching Winnipeg into the Central division and either Columbus, Detroit or even Nashville into the Southeast division have made sense? Sure! Would the NHL ever do something so logical and simple? No friggin way! So here's the new setup for this year:

Division A is called the "Pacific Division"

Division B is the "Central Division"

Division C is the "Atlantic Division"

Division D is the "Metropolitan Divison"

PREDICTION TIME!

We've all made our predictions on which teams will make the playoffs, Stanley Cup Finals matchup and winner, Hart, Vezina, Norris and Calder Trophy recipients, and one BOLD prediction. So here it goes:

* = conference winner 

Brandon:

East

Metro: Pitt*, NYR, Wash

Atlantic: Bos, Ott, Mtl

Wild Card: Det, Cbj

West

Central: Chi*, Stl, Dal

Pacific: LA, Edm, Phx

Wild Card: SJ, Ana

Cup finals: Blues over Penguins

Hart: Jonathan Towes

Norris: Erik Karlsson

Vezina: Henrik Lundqvist

Calder: Valeri Nichushkin

BOLD Prediction: Taylor Hall finishes top 7 in the league in scoring and the Oilers finish top 3 in the Pacific Division.

Dave "Davy Glide" 

East

Metro: Pitt*, NYR, Wash

Atlantic: Bos, Det, Ott

Wild Card: NYI, Tor

West

Central: Chi*, Minn, Stl

Pacific: SJ, Van, LA

Wild Card: Wpg, Ana

Cup finals: Sharks over Penguins

Hart: John Tavares

Norris: Keith Yandle

Vezina: Craig Anderson 

Calder: Aleksander Barkov

BOLD Prediction: Islanders make the playoffs and win a series.

Sam "Sammer"

East

Metro: Pitt*, NYR, NYI

Atlantic: Det, Bos, Ott

Wild Card: Mtl, Cbj

West

Central: Chi*, Nsh, Stl

Pacific: Ana, Van, SJ

Wild Card: Minn, Phx

Cup finals: Rangers over Wild

Hart: Sidney Crosby

Norris: Shea Webber

Vezina: Henrik Lundqvist

Calder: Seth Jones

BOLD Prediction: Capitals miss the playoffs.

Jonathan

East

Metro: Pitt*, NYR, Wash

Atlantic: Bos, Det, Mtl

Wild Card: Ott, Tor

West

Central: Chi, Nsh, Stl

Pacific: LA*, Ana, Van

Wild Card: SJ, Edm

Cup finals: Red Wings over Blackhawks

Hart: Evgeni Malkin

Norris: Ryan McDonagh

Vezina: Henrik Lundqvist

Calder: Seth Jones

BOLD Prediction: Islanders finish last in the East.

So that's it, you're now set for the NHL season. Happy hockey!!!!

(Editors Note: Davy Glide also thinks Lindsay: James Neal, Masterson: George Parros, Selke: Ryan Callahan, Jennings: Craig Anderson, King Clancy: Jack Johnson, Rocket Richard: John Tavaras, General Manager: Jim Nill, and the most important Steven Mcdonald extra effort: Dab Girardi.)