NHL 2011-12: Highs and Lows

Image via Wikipedia As the Boston Bruins hoist their Stanley Cup championship banner to the rafters of TD Garden and the Vancouver Canucks still wondering why they lost Game 7 last spring, the National Hockey League opens another season with reasons to celebrate and reasons to give pause.

• The return of the Winnipeg Jets after a decade-and-a-half absence, caused by the Atlanta Thrashers deciding to migrate north.  However, this will result in a complicated realignment setup for next season (the Jets will spend this one in the Eastern Conference), in which the possibility exists that the whole East-West thing might be blown up.  And the fate of the Phoenix Coyotes, for whom the league is still trying to find a buyer, could complicate things even more if the team decides to move.
• Sidney Crosby of the Pittsburgh Penguins, the face of the NHL, has not played a game since a concussion injury in January.  If Crosby ever plays again, will he be as effective?
• Three players died over the summer:  Derek Boogaard (drug and alcohol overdose), Rick Rypien (suicide) and Pavol Demitra (plane crash in Russia which also killed his teammates).  How the NHL deals with the issues that caused these tragedies remains to be seen.
• A new 10-year TV deal with NBC and Versus (soon to be renamed NBC Sports Network), kicking off a spate of similar long-term deals that so far include the Olympics, "Monday Night Football" and the pro golf tour.  Could the NFL and Major League Baseball be next?

And now, our playoff Top Eights . . .

EAST:  Washington Capitals, Pittsburgh Penguins, Philadelphia Flyers, Boston Bruins, Tampa Bay Lightning, Carolina Hurricanes, New York Rangers and Buffalo Sabres.

WEST:  Detroit Red Wings, Vancouver Canucks, Chicago Blackhawks, Los Angeles Kings, San Jose Sharks, Nashville Predators, Calgary Flames and Colorado Avalanche.
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The Minnesota Wild and San Jose Sharks made a couple of headline-making deals over the summer, with the Wild getting Dany Heatley and Devin Setoguchi while the Sharks got Brent Burns and Martin Havlat.

This reminds us of all the trades the New York Yankees made with the old Kansas City Athletics in the late 1950s.  The net result was that the Yankees continued to win championships while the A's got worse.  Likewise, the Sharks will continue to be Stanley Cup contenders while the Wild continue to struggle, missing the playoffs for the fourth year in a row.

Under new coach Mike Yeo (promoted from the Houston Aeros of the AHL), and with many of the same players who haven't left via trade or free agency, the Wild might be a better team this season.  But still not enough to alleviate the doldrums other Minnesota sports teams are currently facing.