October Means Hockey Season

The long wait is finally over and hockey fans around the world can rest easy. Opening day for regular season hockey was Wednesday October 8th.

The regular season opened with games from the defending Stanley Cup champions the Los Angeles Kings who played the San Jose Sharks. Additional games that day included the Philadelphia Flyers vs. Boston Bruins, the Vancouver Canucks vs. Calgary Flames, and the Montreal Canadiens vs. Toronto Maple Leafs.

With the first week of hockey season completed the National Hockey League board already has its predictions about where the Stanley Cup will end up at the end of the 2014-2015 season. The board predicts that the Cup will stay in the west for its fourth consecutive season.

Seven members of the board picked the Stanley Cup champions of 2013 the Chicago Blackhawks. The Boston Bruins were the only East Coast team to be picked by the board as a contender.

Four members have picked the Los Angeles Kings to be repeat Stanley Cup champions. If the Kings could pull it off they would be the first to repeat since the Detroit Red Wings in 1997 and 1998.

For the defending Stanley Cup champions, the Los Angeles Kings, the season has not started the way they would have liked it to.

The Kings dropped their season home opener to the San Jose sharks in a 4-0 loss.

In an interview with reporters after the game, the Kings Captain Dustin Brown commented on the teams performance by saying, “We weren’t very sharp moving the puck or coming in and out of our zone. We struggled moving it quickly, tape-to-tape, that makes it really hard to get up the ice.”

Their next game was not any better, ending with an overtime loss to the Arizona Coyotes 2-3.