The Hockey News Season Preview 2018-19

THERE’S A DEBATE IN our newsroom about spoilers, specifically whether they should apply to sports events. (I know, first-world problems.) One camp argues technology has gifted us the resources to watch what we want, when we want, and that a true friend will first ask if you’ve seen the game before opening a conversation about it. The other side says if you’re so emotionally tied to a given match, you would have arranged to see it live. The onus is on the non-viewer, not the doer. Either way, it underscores the diehard sports fan’s reverence for ignorance. The waiting is not only the hardest part, it’s the best part. The good news is, we now know less than ever. Yes, the staff at The Hockey News predicts the future with regularity.…

Dear readers, In 1972, I entered Grade 8 at Marymount High School in Montreal, and after making the football team, coach Lee Maybe welcomed me in a way I’ve never forgotten. “You are now a member of the team,” he said. I had made hockey, football and baseball teams before, but this was the first time I was embraced as a “member” of a team, and it had a profound effect on me. I started that year as an offensive tackle, moved to center my second year, then to linebacker and backup quarterback in Years 3 and 4. My dedication and compete level for coach Maybe and my teammates were always going to be strong, but they multiplied due to my membership status. And that’s what The Hockey News is now giving…

Erik Karlsson signs a big extension with Ottawa so he can afford to buy the team and trade himself to Tampa Bay. – @continuous_ot Chicago lose both Cam Ward and Corey Crawford, and run with Scott Foster for last half of season. Make playoffs. Foster hottest UFA of 2019. – Curtis Wilson John Tortorella convinces Blue Jackets management to bring in Larry Brooks as director of media relations. – @NathanH_9 Connor McDavid puts up 150 points, but Oilers still miss the playoffs. In frustrated confusion, PHWA members can’t decide whether or not he’s deserving of the Hart, so they award him the Norris instead. – Eric Walker Marian Hossa, Pavel Datsyuk and Chris Pronger in the lineup for Arizona on opening night. – @Starbuckqc We get a written-in-stone definition of what goalie interference is. –…

THE COMPARISONS WERE inescapable. Patrik Laine was big, powerful, brash and armed with a devastating, heavy, freakishly accurate shot he could unleash from anywhere. The kid may as well have showed up at the 2016 draft screaming “I’m the next Alex Ovechkin!” into a megaphone. So it was only natural to juxtapose Laine’s numbers with Ovechkin’s the minute Laine stepped onto the ice as a Winnipeg Jets rookie in 2016-17. Laine was extremely impressive, sniping 36 goals in 73 games and finishing second in Calder Trophy voting. He followed up with 44 goals as a sophomore. Laine had emerged as an elite goal-scoring threat. But he wasn’t Ovechkin-good on paper. The Capitals superstar ripped off 98 goals across his first two seasons. If we adjust for era with help from hockey-reference.com,…

THE HOCKEY NEWS’ STAFFERS voted on their top five picks for major NHL awards, and these are the cumulative results. McDavid was a runaway winner for the Hart and Art Ross, as was Laine for the Rocket Richard. The other trophy races were much closer. The Calder and Jack Adams, for instance, were far from a consensus among our voters. HART TROPHY MOST VALUABLE PLAYER 1. Connor McDavid, Edm 2. Nikita Kucherov, TB 3. Mark Scheifele, Wpg 4. Sidney Crosby, Pit 5. John Tavares, Tor ART ROSS TROPHY MOST POINTS 1. Connor McDavid, Edm 2. Nikita Kucherov, TB 3. Nathan MacKinnon, Col 4. Claude Giroux, Phi 5. Mark Scheifele, Wpg ROCKET RICHARD TROPHY MOST GOALS 1. Patrik Laine, Wpg 2. Alex Ovechkin, Wsh 3. Auston Matthews, Tor 4. Nikita Kucherov, TB 5. John Tavares, Tor NORRIS TROPHY BEST DEFENSEMAN 1. Seth Jones, Clb 2. Victor Hedman, TB 3. Erik Karlsson, Ott 4. P.K. Subban, Nsh 5. Brent Burns,…

HARRY SINDEN | WHITBY DUNLOPS SWEATER Hall of Fame builder Harry Sinden didn’t play a single game in the NHL, but that doesn’t mean he didn’t play some important hockey games. The legendary coach-GM of the Boston Bruins was a standout defenseman for four seasons with the Oshawa Generals of the OHA in the early 1950s. And as a member of the Whitby Dunlops, Sinden captained the senior team to the Allan Cup in 1957. Then with the Dunlops representing Canada at the 1958 World Championship in Oslo, Norway, Sinden played the best hockey of his career en route to the title. From there it was on to the 1960 Olympics in Squaw Valley, Calif., where at age 27 he helped his Canadian team claim silver. The NHL came calling for Sinden…