The National Hockey League's regular season is upon us, and with it, so many compelling storylines. Here's what's top of mind as the puck gets set to drop on Wednesday:
Cut the captain some slack
On Oct. 5, Connor McDavid was named captain of the Edmonton Oilers, making him the youngest NHL captain ever. I have no problem with the assignment. McDavid is a rare talent, to be sure. But I also seem to be in the minority in believing that it's a little over the top to suggest that McDavid, who is only 19 and just 45 games into his NHL career, is already poised to challenge for a scoring title.
I didn't see him as that kind of player before he was named captain, and I don't see it now. Even if McDavid is a point-a-game guy this season -- and finishes with say, 82-85 points, assuming he stays healthy -- it will somehow be disappointing given the preseason prognostications. And that is just wrong. Good on him if he's a 95- to 100-point player. He's bound to get there sooner or later. But having to answer for the sins of the NHL's worst franchise on a nightly basis will add a kind of burden that can't help but impact his on-ice performance, at least at the beginning. How about we cut the kid some slack?
Time to double down on discipline
The league has once again embarrassed itself with its handling of supplemental discipline, and we haven't even had a meaningful puck drop yet. But we're not going to batter the NHL Department of Player Safety, even though it is laughable that -- until Radko Gudas was suspended for the first six games of the NHL regular season for his late, high hit on Bruins prospect Austin Czarnik in a preseason game -- the dangerous, reckless play of Gudas, Niklas Hjalmarsson, Tanner Pearson and Andrew Shaw somehow managed to net a total of just three regular-season games in suspensions.
Watch them in sequence and ask yourself if they are the kinds of hits that make the game better. Better yet, why aren't NHL GMs watching those games and breaking into a cold sweat? They allege, as a group, to be the caretakers of the game. So take care of it. Demand at the fall meeting that the Department of Player Safety stop making the league the subject of regular ridicule for its flaccid approach to supplemental discipline for on-ice infractions. Start with a five-game ban for a first offense on a dangerous hit to the head or boarding from behind and go from there.
Oh, and by the way, where is the NHL Players' Association on this? It should be in lockstep with the GMs on this, demanding greater suspensions so players can play the game the way it should be played without worrying about morons like Shaw (who is fast becoming the least likable player in the league, especially after his suspension last season for being caught uttering a homophobic slur) potentially ending their career. Not that we're holding our breath on that one.
Will the Islanders bolt Brooklyn?
Speaking of embarrassing, the NHL has to hope that the festering situation in Brooklyn comes to some sort of resolution -- and sooner rather than later. The New York Islanders' first season at Barclays Center was, to put it charitably, an up-and-down one. On the ice, the Isles won a playoff round for the first time since 1993, but the experience for fans was subpar, as transit to the arena often stunk, sight lines were marred and the ice was the worst in the NHL for most of the season.
And, in spite of platitudes uttered from both sides, it appears that the Barclays brass and Islanders ownership don't really get along. Maybe it's leverage on the part of the Islanders, who are trying to squeeze Barclays to do a better job of making this a hockey-friendly home, but the repeated reports that the team is looking for a new home somewhere in the New York area must be hard for fans and the league to take after all the hoopla of a year ago amid the move off Long Island.
Maybe it will all get worked out, Barclays and the Islanders will become best buds, and the Islanders will settle in for a long, successful run in Brooklyn. It doesn't look likely, though, and the longer the threat of moving somewhere else goes on, the bigger the embarrassment for the league ... which had hoped to leave all that nonsense on Long Island.
The Jets knew he was Trouba when he walked in
This is crunch time for the Winnipeg Jets and GM Kevin Cheveldayoff. Defenseman Jacob Trouba wants out (or apparently, at the very least, wants to stay on the right side of the Jets' defense). Boohoo for the Rochester, Michigan, native. But like Steve Yzerman in Tampa -- who last season had to deal with the trade demands of an unproven youngster in Jonathan Drouin -- Cheveldayoff is in the spotlight.
Yzerman's decision to send Drouin home and wait out the situation before ultimately welcoming Drouin back into the fold late last season was easier because the Lightning were a good team that didn't really need the young player. The Jets aren't that good and are fast becoming the Atlanta Thrashers without the humidity. This will be the team's fifth season in Winnipeg after relocating from downtown Atlanta. The Jets have won exactly the same number of playoff games that the Thrashers did: zero. They have the same number of playoff appearances too: one.
Are the Jets a playoff team with Trouba? Maybe. Are they one without him or without a player of similar age and skill set? Even less likely. It hard enough to get players to come to Winnipeg, but if Cheveldayoff knuckles and doesn't get market value for a disgruntled 22-year-old whose development has been only so-so, the Jets are doomed.
Will Boudreau bring winning ways to Wild?
It will be interesting to monitor several coaching performances as the season moves along. I love the fit of Bruce Boudreau with the Minnesota Wild. Never mind his playoff record (38-35), Boudreau gets great value out of his teams during the regular season and that'll be a welcome tonic for Wild fans, who have suffered through regular-season upheaval the past three or four seasons.
We're also going to find out if the Colorado Avalanche just stink or whether it was their coach -- Hall of Famer Patrick Roy, who up and quit in late summer -- who stunk. Either way, it's a pretty important season for rookie bench boss Jared Bednar. Don't be fooled by the Avs' glossy preseason record. There's lots of work to do in Denver.
Sabres on edge this season
It's a big season for the Buffalo Sabres, who made significant strides last season after their tank-a-thon netted them Jack Eichel with the second overall pick in the 2015 draft. Adding Kyle Okposo was a huge get for GM Tim Murray and we're going to find out whether Robin Lehner can be the guy in net. But the biggest question mark is Evander Kane, who has found himself at the center of a series of off-ice legal problems. It's difficult to assess from afar, but there doesn't seem to be all that much in the way of contrition from the former fourth overall pick. He has the potential to be a big piece of the solution in hockey-mad Buffalo. Right now he's simply the problem.
Vesey has plenty to prove
I have to admit that the whole Jimmy Vesey drama -- and the collective hand-wringing over where the collegiate star would end up -- left me a little cold. But Vesey and his people used the system to their benefit and now he's a member of the New York Rangers. If he's as good as his press clippings, no one will remember the celebrity endorsements and the hurt feelings of teams like the Sabres, Bruins, Nashville Predators and Toronto Maple Leafs But if Vesey struggles -- and if those struggles can be attributed to playing under a spotlight that might not otherwise have shone as bright and hot -- there will be some real soul-searching about how this all went down.
End the Olympic gamesmanship
And finally, with word that the NHL and presumably the NHLPA will be visiting PyeongChang, South Korea, for a site inspection ahead of the mid-January deadline to confirm NHL participation in the 2018 Olympics, here's hoping someone finds a way to keep the NHL/Olympic train rolling. As we saw at the World Cup of Hockey, nothing else quite compares to the Olympics, and to see NHL participation in the Games go away would be a grand shame. And let's not even abide any talk about opting out of 2018 and returning to China four years later. Shame on the NHL if it starts cherry-picking Olympic Games that suit its needs.