Opening night is here for my beloved Flyers, and that once again means the birth of a brand new hockey season, filled with excitement, hope, and perhaps for my fellow Flyers fans, fear, trepidation, and thank God the Eagles are 5-0 at the time of this blog post!

But it’s still exciting to see the return of NHL hockey, and for the first time since October 2019, we’re back to a normal, (hopefully) non-COVID interrupted season schedule. Once again, the regular season starts in mid-October and ends in early April. Once again, thirty-two teams will slug it out for nine long months for the right to hoist Lord Stanley’s Cup. 

Once again, and alas, for the final time, I’ve already scouted out my arena trips. It’s crazy to think that in six short months this wild, incredible Tour will reach its conclusion. And if the 2022-23 season is anything like 2021-22 was, we’re in for one hell of a ride! Last season, we crossed 6 cities and 1,452 miles off the bucket list. I spent some amazing trips with friends old and new, ate some incredible food, remarkably lost less than $10 at the blackjack tables on the Strip, and golfed in the desert. And most inspiringly, we raised another $3,909 for cancer research: $1,654 for Hockey Fights Cancer and $2,255 for the 11 Day Power Play. To everyone who made last season so special, I thank you and let’s keep up the good fight against cancer!

Now this time last season, I made some predictions for the state of the NHL. I predicted each division’s standings, key award winners, and the Stanley Cup Finals. Let’s see how that went…

2021-2022 Projections	Comment
Atlantic Division Standings	2/8 Correct
Metro Division Standings	1/8 Correct
Central Division Standings	2/8 Correct
Pacific Division Standings	1/8 Correct
Awards	2/6 Correct
Stanley Cup Finals / Champion	0/3 Correct
Overall	8/41 Correct

The verdict: it went poorly. Like, almost “I got tripped up on a breakaway and slammed into the end boards shoulder first at full speed” poorly. Emphasis on almost, though. That whole ordeal REALLY sucked. LOTTA sleepless nights in a lot of pain and/or with painkiller-induced dreams which were…….rather interesting. 

Anywho, I made up for my shortcomings in the 2022 NHL Bracket Challenge, correctly predicting the winners of 14 out of 15 playoff series, including the 2022 Stanley Cup Champion Colorado Avalanche. Had Calgary actually shown up against Edmonton, I’d have perfected my bracket. 

But no matter, we leave the treasures of the past and turn to the future. And this season, to save me from further self-published embarrassment, we’re going to limit our predictions to playoff teams, award winners, and the Stanley Cup Finals. And to make matters even more fun, noted Tour fan and current clubhouse leader in the “Most Frequent Guest” sweepstakes (with 8 appearances to date) “Boston Drew” Kennedy has agreed to join me in predicting this season. We’ve also agreed to a friendly bet of a beer to the “more correct” prognosticator of the season. Winner gets a beer from the loser at Middle James Brewing, a lovely beer pub in South Charlotte with the Golf Village driving range and par 3 course attached. Beer, golf, hockey bets, what more could you ask for?? Try the tater tots!

So without further ado, and with “understanding” that Boston Drew has “agreed” to subject himself to my written torment and ridicule over his questionable picks, here’s how we think the 2022-23 NHL season will go:

Editor’s Note for gambling purposes: ½ point for correctly guessing the team, an extra ½ point if their place in the standings is correct.

Eastern Conference Playoff Predictions
Atlantic Division	Denis	Boston Drew
1	Toronto	Tampa Bay
2	Florida	Toronto
3	Tampa Bay	Florida
Metro Division	Denis	Boston Drew
1	NY Rangers	NY Rangers
2	Carolina	Carolina
3	Washington	Pittsburgh
East Wild Cards	Denis	Boston Drew
1	Pittsburgh	Detroit
2	Ottawa	Boston

Well looks like we’re largely on the same page in the East. Both of us have the Atlantic’s top three teams from last season remaining on top, although not in last season’s order (Florida, Toronto, Tampa Bay). All three teams are LOADED with top end offensive talent, and Tampa Bay has plenty of playoff pedigree, winning two of the last three Cups and running up last season. 

In the Metro, Drew bewilderingly has Pittsburgh in the top 3, while I stick with Washington because no friggin way I’m picking the Penguins to succeed that much! 

The wild card is interesting: I’ve got Ottawa improving drastically with several key offseason additions (including former Flyers captain Claude Giroux), while Drew has Detroit improving, which also makes sense. To absolutely nobody’s surprise, he also picked Boston. In a non-playoff note, I’ve got the Flyers at the bottom of the Metro Division standings. Hoooooooooboy are they gonna suck!

Western Conference Playoff Predictions
Central Division	Denis	Boston Drew
1	Colorado	Colorado
2	St Louis	Nashville
3	Dallas	St Louis
Pacific Division	Denis	Boston Drew
1	Edmonton	Calgary
2	Calgary	Edmonton
3	Los Angeles	Vegas
West Wild Cards	Denis	Boston Drew
1	Minnesota	Minnesota
2	Vancouver	Vancouver

Colorado is a WAGON! It was awesome to see them in person during their Cup championship season, and they absolutely deserved it. They should run away with the Central again, though we differ on Dallas vs. Nashville. It will certainly be a deep and difficult division to project. (Remember when I picked Chicago to finish 2^nd last year and they finished 6^th-worst in the NHL? Yeeeeeeeeeesh!)

Calgary and Edmonton both figure to be Pacific Division contenders, and I’d love to see another Battle of Alberta playoff series. The only real difference between the Pacific and Wild Card teams is the 3^rd spot in the Pacific: I’m sticking with Los Angeles, who took a huge step forward last season to snag the third spot. Drew’s rolling with Vegas, and let’s just hope his luck in this contest is better than his luck at the Planet Hollywood roulette tables. Oof!

NHL Awards Predictions
Awards	Denis	Boston Drew
Art Ross Trophy (Most Points)	Connor McDavid	Jack Eichel
Calder Trophy (Top Rookie)	Matty Beniers	Logan Thompson
Selke Trophy (Defensive Forward)	Alexander Barkov	Anze Kopitar
Norris Trophy (Top Defenseman)	Cale Makar	Cale Makar
Vezina Trophy (Top Goalie)	Jacob Markstrom	Andrei Vasilevskiy
Hart Trophy (League MVP)	Connor McDavid	Connor McDavid
Prince of Wales Trophy (East Champion)	NY Rangers	NY Rangers
Campbell Bowl (West Champion)	Edmonton	Edmonton
Stanley Cup (well….duh!)	NY Rangers	NY Rangers

Well it looks like this is where the money in this contest is gonna be made. We’ve got some unique picks here. Most puzzlingly, Drew’s riding that Vegas train with picks for Golden Knights Jack Eichel and Logan Thompson right off the back. I’m rolling with Connor McDavid to once again put up a truckload of points, and Seattle rookie Matty Beniers to impress for the second-year franchise. 

We’re both ordering a dose of Cale salad as the best defenseman in the NHL, an honor he earned last season. But we differ on two other awards: I’m rolling with Florida’s Barkov to win his second Selke trophy, while Drew like’s LA’s Kopitar to win his third. And Drew’s got Tampa netminder Anderi Vasilevskiy winning the top goalie honors again, while I’m going with 2022 runner-up Jacob Markstrom from Calgary. 

And rather anti-climactically, Drew blatantly copied my Stanley Cup Finals picks, including the Cup Champion New York Rangers. I see their Eastern Conference Finals run last season as a precursor for more success. They’ve got a solid roster top-to-bottom, one of the best goalies in the game between the pipes in Igor Shesterkin, and two young stars in Alexis Lafrenière and Kaapo Kakko. New York has the making of a top contender for years to come, and we both think they will erase a 28-year drought to once again hoist the Stanley Cup.

Hope everybody enjoys this season – we’ve got five final episodes of this wacky, wonderful Tour to go. See you in Seattle to kick off the new year!