The Night that most of us hockey fans have finally arrived as the NHL has kicked off the 2010-2001 NHL Season. There has been a lot that has gone down in hockey since the Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup in June. The big surprise in the off season was the fire sale the Champion Hawks had during the summer. The team traded away the likes of Dustin Buflygin Ben Eager and Brent Sopel to Atlanta then sent Kris Versteeg to Toronto and walked away from goalie Antti Niemi in salary arbitration and Niemi went on to sign with the San Jose Sharks after the Sharks bought out Evgani Nabak0v.
The 2 biggest signings during the off season had to be the Ottawa Senators snagging Sergi Gonchar for 3 years at $16.5 million and then Ilya Kovalchuck signed a 15 year $100 Million contract with the Devils. Both signings made major waves in the league and were a shake up to hockey epically the Kovalchuck signing. Here are some more notable moves. New Jersey Signing Anton Volchenkov and Henrik Tallinder Andy Sutton signing with Anaheim, Jordan Leopold and Rob Neidermeyer in Buffalo, Oli Jokinen and Alex Tanguay in Calgary Mike Modano with Detroit Paul Martin in Pittsburgh Jaroslav Halak in St Louis. Other than that it was major resignings to teams.
Now its time for predictions in the divisions:
Atlantic:
1-Flyers
2-Penguins
3-Devils
4-Rangers
5-Islanders
Northeast:
1- Buffalo
2-Boston
3-Ottawa
4-Montreal
5-Toronto
Southeast:
1-Washington
2-Carolina
3-Atlanta
4-Tampa Bay
5- Florida
Central:
1-Chicago
2-Detroit
3-St Louis
4-Nashville
5-Columbus
Northwest:
1-Vancouver
2-Calgary
3-Minnesota
4-Colorado
5-Edmonton
Pacific:
1-San Jose
2-Los Angeles
3-Dallas
4-Anaheim
5- Phoenix
So there you have it. The season preview in a nutshell. Keep checking the website for updates every week and for all things NHL
