Taking you back to 2002 when Mark Brender gave us 101 reasons to be excited for the start of the 2002-03 season.
From this edition of the Archive, we look back at 101 reasons to be excited for the start of the 2002-03 season. Be on the look out for a reason on two different reasons that relate to the Minnesota Wild.
SEP 6, 2002 / VOL. 56, ISSUE 1
1. Nobody will whine about the Olympic break being too long.
2. Nobody will whine about Olympic preparation being too short.
3. With the regular season starting a week later and ending a week earlier than usual, there will be an average of 6.8 NHL games per night for 180 nights.
4. Peter Forsberg is back for a full year after an unbelievable playoff.
5. Saku Koivu is back for a full year after an unbelievable fight.
6. Mario Lemieux is back for whatever his back (and hip) can give.
7. Jaromir Jagr is back from his sabbatical in the Amazon rainforest.
8. This time, the Rangers are going to make the playoffs before they self-destruct.
9. Philadelphia cronies gather to roast Bob Clarke. But, like, what will they have to talk about?
10. Michael Peca has three more months to plan his revenge on Darcy Tucker and Tucker couldn’t care less.
11. Theoren Fleury and the San Jose Sharkie, in the same conference.
12. With Ken Hitchcock in Philadelphia, the next Flyer who complains about coaching won’t be allowed over center ice. In practice.
13. Bill Guerin and Mike Modano will prove to be a much better combination than Pierre Turgeon and Ken Hitchcock.
14. Pat Quinn is healthy. He stopped smoking cigars, started exercising and lost weight. Here’s hoping some of the shedded pounds removed the chip on his shoulder.
15. Fredrik Olausson is back in Anaheim. Environmentalists are thrilled a Duck has returned to his natural habitat.
16. Todd Bertuzzi has learned that serving a 10-game suspension for leaving the bench to join a fight can cost him the scoring title.
17. Brian Burke won’t have to point out to officials which team Bertuzzi plays for, having already done so last spring.
18. In Year 2, Ilya Kovalchuk’s scoring celebrations will be the best since Tiger Williams’s.
19. Tommy Salo won’t get scored on from center by a Belarussian.
20. Dan Cloutier won’t get scored on from center by a Nicklas Lidstromian.
21. Arturs Irbe is getting new pads.
22. Detroit is getting a new coach who is not a control freak when dealing with the media.
23. Jere Karalahti is getting help.
24. The hurry-up faceoff rule will send after-the-whistle facewashers to the cleaners.
25. We get to see Erik Cole without a shag carpet on his face. Be honest, you don’t have a clue what he looks like.
26. The great French Canadian first overall pick of the 1980s with his counterpart from the 1990s: Mario Lemieux and Alexandre Daigle, together at last (at least for training camp).
27. Pat Burns is back as a Devil. Casting director Lou Lamoriello is up for an Oscar.
28. Patrick Roy will save his fancy, lookie-here glove save theatrics for the regular season.
29. Jose Theodore will again lead the 20-something crowd against Roy, Burke et al in a battle for control of the Vezina Trophy.
30. Goal-scoring can’t be as low as it was a year ago.
31. Vincent Lecavalier can’t be as bad as he was a year ago.
32. Someone will score 100 points.
33. Bill Muckalt will score.
34. The Sedin twins will score at a pace that suggests they are in fact two players using two separate sticks, with separate entries on the scoresheet.
35. The NHL insists it has successfully been through IA-Interference Anonymous-and is serious about cracking down on obstruction. “We can’t blame the media for not believing,” Phoenix GM Mike Barnett told THN. “It’s show us, don’t tell us.” That shows us something right there. Any good 12-stepper knows admitting past screw-ups is part of the problem.
36. Florida ownership handed Mike Keenan a two-year contract extension plus two club options that could keep him in Florida through 2007-08. Six years! Keenan hasn’t stayed with the same breakfast cereal for that long.
37. In other news, Stephane Matteau signed the same deal.
38. Bruce Cassidy gets to coach Jaromir Jagr, the kickboxing kid.
39. Jarome Iginla will prove he’s more than a one-hit wonder by finishing in the top five in the scoring race-provided he’s under contract by opening night.
40. Security won’t be nearly as tight in St. Louis or San Jose as it was in Salt Lake City.
41. Henrik Zetterberg will win the Calder Trophy as top rookie while falling just short of being named the best NHLer with a last name beginning with ‘Z.’ He’ll finish a close third behind Richard Zednik and champion Alexei Zhamnov (but ahead of the rising Dainius Zubrus).
42. New Jersey’s transition game, with Oleg Tverdovsky joining Scott Niedermayer and Brian Rafalski on the blueline, will be a thing of beauty.
43. Pavel Bure will win the Rocket Richard Award for the third time in five years.
44. From now until Sept. 1, 2003, Martin Straka will get hurt just once more. His annual quota on season-threatening injuries is two. One down, one to go.
45. Peter Worrell will fight less, but not by much.
46. Detroit will become the first team to win back-to-back Cups with an average roster age of…
47. Mark Messier, seeking his seventh Stanley Cup in his final NHL season, will be traded to Detroit at the deadline and push the Wings’ average age to…
48. Can Ed Belfour really have his GAA climb six straight seasons? Leaf fans most definitely say…uh…Cujo? Cujo? Here, Cuuuujohhh!
49. Hartford rejoice! Andrew Cassels, Geoff Sanderson and Kevin Dineen are together again! Columbus is a mere 660 miles away!
50. One of Mike Babcock, Bruce Cassidy or Dave Tippet will turn out to be as good a quote as Ron Wilson.
51. Steve Yzerman’s downtime will let Pavel Datsyuk showcase his dynamite skills.
52. Battle of Ontario, Part XIV As of press time, new Leaf and Senator players were finalizing their home purchases, one in each city.
53. Tony Amonte and Teemu Selanne are in Phoenix and San Jose for all the right reasons.
54. Wayne Gretzky is not coming back for all the wrong reasons.
55. Doug Weight will have a bounce-back season.
56. Netting at the end of NHL rinks may save a fan’s life.
57. Newly developed soft-cap elbow and shoulder pads-to be mandatory for the 2003-04 season-may save a player’s career.
58. To say nothing of more flexible board and glass systems.
59. In Boston, Steve Shields and John Grahame will wage the hottest battle this side of Mike Moffat and John Blue.
60. In Atlanta, Milan Hnilicka and Pasi Nurminen will live up to the memory of Phil Myre and Pat Riggin.
61. In Dallas, Marty Turco and Ron Tugnutt will form the most underrated tandem this side of former Ranger net-minder Mike-Jon VanRichterbrouck.
62. Carolina, with all due respect, will not be in the Stanley Cup final.
63. In Buffalo, the NHL can show the rest of the league how to run a tight ship. Sabre watchers are already extremely nervous about again missing the playoffs.
64. It will be another three years until Slovakian and Latvian players can complain about getting shafted.
65. Agent Don Meehan is giving away two season tickets to two lucky fans in every rink in the league. Or he should be, after a summer of representing free agents Iginla, Theodore, Evgeni Nabokov, Curtis Joseph…
66. The Life of Byron Dafoe can only get better.
67. Columbus can’t get any worse.
68. This is the last season before the last season before the collective bargaining agreement expires.
69. With another (relatively) concussion-free year, Eric Lindros will be back to being just another (darn good) hockey player.
70. The entire Lindros clan has been invited to the Bob Clarke roast.
71. Just kidding.
72. Remember, David Legwand is still only 22.
73. Igor Larionov turns 42 in December. Can you believe it?
74. Kelly Buchberger will selflessly throw his body in front of shots for his fourth NHL team.
75. Marian Gaborik, the NHL’s best-kept secret, will stay that way. It’s good to have secrets.
76. Some goalie buried deep in the minors will make a huge splash with less than 15 games to go in the season.
77. There will be no more juvenile scoreboard features at Air Canada Centre. (Right, guys? Right?)
78. Even if he doesn’t score on Dan Cloutier from center, Nicklas Lidstrom will still be Nicklas Lidstrom.
79. Two teams from the Southeast Division-Carolina and Washington-will actually make the playoffs.
80. When Colorado and Vancouver face off on Oct. 31, Adam Foote and Ed Jovanovski can dress up as hit men.
81. Patrick Lalime will sparkle in the playoffs. Not sure if it will do Ottawa any good.
82. In Adam Oates, Paul Kariya has a playmaking center for the first time in his career. Petr Sykora will help, too; hockey geometry tells us a one-line team is better than one that skates in circles.
83. Left wingers Kariya, Jagr, Keith Tkachuk, Alexei Kovalev and Markus Naslund will all finish in the top 10 in scoring and make left wing the NHL’s dominant offensive position.
84. There is a pre-season game between Vancouver and Edmonton in Winnipeg. For those of you in Winnipeg, this is huge.
85. Dangerous low hits will finally get the attention they deserve.
86. San Jose will not improve on its point total for the seventh straight year. It will do something better-reach the Western Conference final for the first time in franchise history.
87. Phoenix is one year closer to the new arena that everyone is already tired of hearing about.
88. Best Bruins rookie handle: Ivan Huml, as in rhymes with pummel.
89. This really will be Doug Gilmour’s last year. Enjoy it.
90. Marty McSorley will teach Phoenix’s minor league prospects everything he knows about hockey.
91. Pittsburgh will be offering a new car every home game to the fan who can name four home-side defensemen. Fortunately for the Pens, they’ll never have to pay up.
92. At some point in the playoffs the Flyers will score two goals in five minutes-a marked improvement on two goals in five games.
93. Adios, Sergei Krivokrasov, we hardly knew ye.
94. Minnesota and Florida won’t go 0-15-22 in OT.
95. Full seasons coming for gritty Caps Steve Konowalchuk and Jeff Halpern.
96. Jay Bouwmeester.
97. The IHL won’t fold.
98. Ted Nolan might find a job.
99. Sergei Gonchar will be recognized as a true star.
100. Chances are Roman Cechmanek possibly might not show up teammates when he’s getting shelled. Maybe.
101. Forty-one issues of THN, better than last year, better than ever.