Blues poised for tough fight to defend first Stanley Cup

LOS ANGELES - The St. Louis Blues will be looking for a Stanley Cup encore, while the Tampa Bay Lightning hopes to exorcise some playoff demons and the Toronto Maple Leafs seek to end a 52-year championship drought.

The NHL is set to raise the curtain on a new season as 31 teams have their sights set on winning the oldest trophy in professional sports - including the Blues, who capped a worst-to-first performance by delivering the first Stanley Cup in the franchise's 52-year history.

"It's the hunger that you want," said forward Alex Steen. "Before, you might not have really known what it's like to win, but you're really hungry to find out. Now that we've done it, it's addictive."

The Blues, who beat the Boston Bruins in seven games in the finals, get the regular season started with a banner-raising ceremony at home on Wednesday when they host Alex Ovechkin's Washington Capitals.

The Edmonton Oilers and Connor McDavid host the Vancouver Canucks, the San Jose Sharks travel to the Vegas Golden Knights and the Maple Leafs play the Ottawa Senators on opening day.

This season marks the arrival of rising stars Kaapo Kakko in New York and Jack Hughes in New Jersey, and several new managers, such as Ken Holland in Edmonton and Detroit's Steve Yzerman.

Some of the biggest offseason moves have been behind the bench, where NHL coaches have never been on a shorter leash.

Last season saw 13 teams change coaches and the trend has continued, with Joel Quenneville taking over in Florida, Dallas Eakins being hired in Anaheim and Dave Tippett joining Edmonton.

Changes were made off the ice, too. The league tweaked video review rules to ensure the kind of hand pass that led to San Jose's playoff goal in overtime against St. Louis won't happen again.

Owners and the players union settled their labor issue when the players decided not to reopen the collective bargaining agreement, which means there will be no work stoppage for at least three years.

After a record-breaking regular season in which it won 62 games, Tampa Bay was swept in the opening round of last spring's playoffs by the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Ovechkin eyes 700

The Lighting will have almost all of their major contributors back, including star forwards Nikita Kucherov and Steven Stamkos, along with Pat Maroon, who departed St. Louis on a lucrative free agent contract.

Meanwhile, Sidney Crosby's Pittsburgh Penguins are three years removed from winning the Stanley Cup, but are still one of the early favorites.

The 32-year old Canadian remains arguably the best player on the planet and doesn't appear to be slowing down after sniping 35 goals and 100 points last season.

It was the sixth 100-point season for Crosby, who is nursing a bruised foot after blocking a shot in a weekend preseason game and is listed as day-to-day ahead of Pittsburgh's home opener against the Buffalo Sabres on Thursday.

Of course for the Penguins to go on a long playoff run, they'll have to get past division rival Ovechkin and the Capitals.

Ovechkin will be motivated to score as the Russian needs 42 goals to become just the eighth player in NHL history to notch 700. He has one of the best offensive supporting casts in the league, including Nicklas Backstrom, TJ Oshie, Evgeny Kuznetsov and Lars Eller.

In Toronto, the Maple Leafs got a major jolt last week with the news that rising star Auston Matthews is facing disorderly conduct charges in his hometown of Phoenix, Arizona.

Toronto fans have been planning a Stanley Cup parade ever since Mike Babcock rode into town four years ago, but there is no hiding the fact the Leafs remain the team with the longest Stanley Cup drought, dating back to 1967..

The Chicago Blackhawks still have one of the best one-two punches in the league, with American Patrick Kane and Canadian Jonathan Toews who, like Crosby, enjoyed a resurgence last season with 35 goals and 81 points.

The big question mark for the Blackhawks is on defense, where Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook aren't getting any younger, and in goal with Corey Crawford, who won just 14 games last season.

In the Western Conference, McDavid's Oilers and the Nathan MacKinnon-led Colorado Avalanche will be in the spotlight all season.

The 22-year-old McDavid, the highest-paid player in NHL history at $13.2 million annually, will hope to lead Edmonton to its first playoff berth in five years, while MacKinnon, 24, will be aiming to top his career-high 99-point season from a year ago.

Agence France - presse

(China Daily Global 10/02/2019 page10)