Hockey season arrives just in time to give New York fans something to hope for
Rangers center Mika Zibanejad, left, congratulates Artemi Panarin after Panarin's goal against the Islanders. Credit: AP/John Munson
It has been a rite of early autumn for decades. Hockey season begins, and hockey fans and non-hockey fans alike say, “I can’t believe it’s hockey season already!”
Fair enough. The NHL season is like a marathon – if marathons were 26.2 weeks rather than 26.2 miles. And that’s just the regular season!
But something feels different this October as the NHL opens on Tuesday night, followed by the Rangers on Thursday and Islanders on Saturday.
At this point, we were supposed to be distracted by the Mets and Yankees in the playoffs and the Jets and Giants in the thick of things in the NFL. Hockey should have been far off the radar.
Then things happened.
So no, this time hockey season does not seem like it has come too early. It feels like it has come just in time.
And perhaps unlike those baseball and football teams, the icers will do their jobs competently.
The Rangers seem to have the best chance to be the first NHL, NBA, NFL or MLB team around here to win a championship since the Giants in Super Bowl XLVI. (Unless the Devils, our under-the-radar neighbors to the west, beat them to it.)
This is a loaded, talented roster with elite goaltending in Igor Shesterkin, an elite defenseman in Jericho’s own Adam Fox and big names with big games among its top forwards.
Artemi Panarin shaved his famous curly locks of hair, which could make him more aerodynamic come playoff time. Hey, it’s a theory.
Perhaps most important is that the Rangers are in the process of getting a swift collective kick in the hockey pants from new coach Peter Laviolette.
His predecessor, Gerard Gallant, basically trusted his star-studded squad to self-motivate. That did not work out. Laviolette will not make the same mistake.
So what if he is a quick fix not built for the long haul? The Rangers only need to concern themselves with the short haul.
Remember: Their only Stanley Cup since 1940 was won by a one-and-done coach, Mike Keenan.
No sports entity outside the New York Football Giants goes through coaches as rapidly as the NHL does. Even winning ones, like Gallant and Barry Trotz.
Speaking of Trotz’s former team . . . The Islanders made the playoffs last season thanks to a gift from the fading Penguins, but that did not mask their problems.
GM-for-life Lou Lamoriello responded by running it back again with a core group now so familiar they are part of the sports furniture on Long Island.
The fact Josh Bailey has left the building should seem like a natural turn of events, but when it comes to the Islanders it is a shock when anyone leaves.
In some ways, the roster stability is a welcome thing in our ever-changing sports environment. These guys seem like family to many fans.
Mathew Barzal’s path to stardom has been as complicated and circuitous as one of his famous skating tours around the offensive zone, but at least everyone has gotten to follow it from the start.
Still, stagnant rosters generally are not the way one goes about winning sports trophies.
Might the Islanders be competitive and relevant through winter? Sure, why not? Might they be a legitimate Cup contender? That would be a great story but is a great reach.
But feel free to get excited. Why not? It’s all we got from the baseball and football seasons, until the games started. So enjoy it while you can.
Hockey is back, ready or not. It’s early, as always, but it’s also right on schedule.
Neil Best first worked at Newsday in 1982, returned in 1985 after a detour to Alaska and has been here since, specializing in high schools, college basketball, the NFL and most recently sports media and business.
