The National Hockey League season gets underway Wednesday night. It will be the 100th anniversary of the founding of the league and the 50th anniversary of the NHL’s expansion from a six-team league. Against that backdrop, ESPN Stats & Information takes a look at the key storylines.
Can the Penguins repeat?
No team has repeated as Stanley Cup champion since the Red Wings did so in 1997-98, so the Pittsburgh Penguins have history going against them. The NHL has the longest active drought without a repeat champion among the four major North American pro sports.
The most recent repeat champions in other sports are the New York Yankees (2000), the New England Patriots (2004) and the Miami Heat (2012-13 season).
The 1999-2000 Dallas Stars, 2000-01 New Jersey Devils and the 2008-09 Detroit Red Wings are the only reigning NHL champions since then to make the Stanley Cup final the following season.
Here’s how the reigning Cup champions of the past five seasons have fared:
• 2015-16: Chicago Blackhawks lost in the first round; Penguins won the Cup
• 2014-15: Los Angeles Kings did not qualify for the playoffs; Blackhawks won the Cup
• 2013-14: Blackhawks lost in conference finals; Kings won the Cup
• 2012-13: Kings lost in conference quarterfinals; Blackhawks won the Cup
• 2011-12: Boston Bruins lost in conference finals; Kings won the Cup
The Penguins are already dealing with injuries before the regular season. Sidney Crosby is out indefinitely with a concussion he sustained after colliding with a teammate in practice. Crosby missed 108 games (including playoff games) during the 2010-11 and 2011-12 seasons because of concussions. Goalie Matt Murray, who won 15 playoff games during the team’s run to the title, is also out to start the season with a broken hand that he injured in the World Cup of Hockey.
Milestones in sight
A handful of players are closing in on 1,000 career points, including three former Hart Trophy winners (MVP): Henrik Sedin, Alex Ovechkin and Crosby.
Crosby is on pace to score his 1,000th career point in his 754th game, which would be the 12th-fewest games to reach 1,000 points in history. At that pace, Crosby would also be the fastest player to reach 1,000 points in the past 20 seasons and the fastest among active players.
The fastest to reach 1,000 among active players is Jaromir Jagr, who reached the milestone in his 763rd game.
Crosby would also become the third player in franchise history to score 1,000 points with the Penguins. Pittsburgh could become the fourth post-1967 expansion team to have at least three players with 1,000 points (Mario Lemieux, 1,723; Jagr, 1,079), joining the Kings, Edmonton Oilers and New York Islanders.
Can Red Wings keep playoff streak alive in final season in the Joe?
The Red Wings have made the playoffs for 25 successive seasons, the longest active streak in any of the four major pro sports. However, they have been eliminated in the first round in each of their past three appearances.
The Red Wings are playing their final season at Joe Louis Arena, which opened midway through the 1979-80 season. The Joe is the second-oldest arena in the NHL, trailing Madison Square Garden (1968), but MSG has undergone extensive renovations in recent years. The Red Wings will move into Little Caesars Arena next season.
This marks the third straight season we’ll say goodbye to a venerable NHL arena, after the Oilers’ Rexall Place last season and the Islanders’ Nassau Coliseum the season before.
Year 2 for Connor McDavid; Year 1 for the next McDavid?
As a rookie in 2015-16, top draft pick Connor McDavid missed 37 games because of a fractured clavicle, but he still had 48 points (16 goals, 32 assists) in 45 games, which ranked fourth among rookies. McDavid was the only rookie to average more than a point per game, among rookies who played at least 45 games in 2015-16 . He finished third in voting for the Calder Trophy (rookie of the year).
After returning to the Oilers’ lineup from injury Feb. 2, McDavid recorded 36 points in 32 games. Only three other players had more points from that point to the end of the regular season than McDavid (Crosby, Joe Thornton and Mark Scheifele) and only Thornton had more assists (31) than McDavid (25) during that span.
On Oct. 5, McDavid was named captain of the Oilers. At 19 years, 266 days at the time, McDavid became the youngest captain in NHL history. The previous youngest was the Colorado Avalanche’s Gabriel Landeskog (19 years, 286 days at the time he was appointed).
At the 2016 draft, the Toronto Maple Leafs selected Auston Matthews with the top pick. Matthews spent the 2015-16 season playing for Switzerland’s top-tier league, leading the team in goals (24) and finishing second on the club in points (46). He was the seventh U.S.-born player to be chosen first in an NHL draft.
Can Carey Price regain his pre-injury form?
On Nov. 25, 2015, when Canadiens goalie Carey Price played what turned out to be his last game of the season due to a knee injury, the Montreal Canadiens held a league best record of 17-4-2.
The Canadiens finished the season with the NHL’s worst record from that date to the end of the season (21-34-4), and they missed the playoffs.
Price's performance this fall may be a sign he has recovered. Price was 5-0 with a 1.40 goals-against average and a .957 save percentage during Canada’s run to the 2016 World Cup of Hockey title.