The NHL season opened early Wednesday morning, and ice hockey fans from all over the world are biting their nails in anticipation of a particularly fascinating season.
Unlike the last two years, where the competition was hit and cut short due to the Corona plague, this time it will once again be spread over 82 games - grueling, challenging and thrilling as only ice hockey can be.
Tampa Bay Lightning, the winner of the championship in the previous two seasons, is aiming to achieve the third Centale Cup in a row. Her victories spawned a new tradition: instead of traveling around the city on an open bus, the coveted trophy is presented to cheering fans in a spectacular boat parade, befitting Florida. The last time the enthusiastic players celebrated the win, the trophy slipped from the hands of one of them, Patrick Maron, fell and was injured. Maron excused the abortion with a storm of lightning and thunder that occurred at the time with such a symbolic timing for the group that its name is "Lightning". Either way, Maron and his teammates are confident they will continue to hold the refurbished trophy.
Their chances are not negligible.
The Tampa "Lightning" retained most of the winning roster.
Team goalkeeper Andrei Vasilevsky was named last season's playoff MVP and is one of the biggest assets.
The "big cat", as it is known to all, has already won the ranks of the Russian national team in a gold medal and two bronze medals at the World Ice Hockey Championships.
To many, he is today the best goalkeeper in the world, and it is no coincidence that the team owners made sure to sign him until 2028. As for the field players, Tampa scored a ball in the selection of another Russian player, who joined in 2012 - Nikita Kochrov (28).
He plays on the right side of the offense, and brought Tampa with his own hands the championship in 2020 when he led the league in both goals and assists.
Towards the start of the previous season, Kochrov underwent complex surgery and was forced to lose the entire regular season, but returned to the field just for the playoffs, and again scored the most of all.
Nikita Kochrov.
Tampa Bay's Leading Lightning, Photo: AP
Danger of slipping
In the unofficial assessment of NHL players, only one player is ranked higher today than Kochrov - the captain of the Edmonton Oilers (they will play tonight against the Vancouver Canaks), Conor McDavid, who plays in the central striker position.
He was voted the best player in the league three times by the players themselves.
He was twice awarded the regular season MVP trophy, and once again won the title of all members of the Hockey Journalists Association, unanimously.
Only once in history has an NHL player been honored - Wayne Gretzky, the greatest player of all time.
The NHL is not short of other glittering stars tearing up nets, but unlike Kochrov and McDavid, despite their personal numbers, they have a hard time leading their teams to the coveted title of all.
To their credit it can be said that ice hockey is probably the most team industry in all industries.
If in football the team stars stay on the field throughout the game, and even in basketball the stars play for most of the minutes - with a short rest and sometimes without it - in hockey this is not possible because of the crazy pace that characterizes the tough game.
Conor McDavid.
MVP, Photo: AP
The high speeds (sometimes more than 40 km / h!), The physical struggle of opponents and collisions, and even the basic position of a player, where his legs are bent and his back is bent - all exert a tremendous load on the muscles and require frequent exchanges. At the moment of rest, except for stopping the game in the hands of a referee. Conceived when games the big stars will not be wasted at they are resting.
You can gamble
The roster compares three main competitors to Tampa Bay: Colorado Ablanche, Toronto Maple Leaves and Vegas Golden Knights.
The young and pretentious club from the gambling city, which was founded only three years ago, promised to fight for the title from its earliest days, and kept its word.
Last season he was stopped in the semi-finals, which only increased his appetite.
However, Toronto is much hungrier - it has not won a Stanley Cup since the 1960s.
Still, if anyone is able to interrupt the Tampa Cup streak, it's Colorado.
No team shows a wonderful combination of experience, talent and daring, as Ablanche has, and no one will be surprised if the 2022 Stanley Cup is actually hoisted in Denver.
