Reviewing Opening Day of the 2023-24 NHL Season

It's back, baby!

The 2023-24 NHL season has arrived, and it started with a huge bang. First off, some important dates. The annual Heritage Classic will take place on October 29, 2023 in Edmonton's Commonwealth Stadium, home of the CFL's Edmonton Elks. The Edmonton Oilers will host the Calgary Flames on that evening. The annual Winter Classic will take place on New Year's Day 2024, and will feature the Vegas Golden Knights and the Seattle Kraken at T-Mobile Arena, the home of MLB's Seattle Mariners. Also, for the first time since 2016, two Stadium Series game will take place in the same season, with both of them emanating from MetLife Stadium. First off, the New Jersey Devils will face the Philadelphia Flyers on February 17, 2024, and on the following day, the New York Rangers and the New York Islanders will face each other. As announced many months ago, the 2024 NHL All-Star Game will take place in Toronto on February 3, 2024.

As for Opening Day, the season began with a tripleheader of games that all aired on ESPN, and they were as follows:

The first game of this season pitted the Tampa Bay Lightning against the Nashville Predators, and this was a test for the Bolts. The main reason: the news weeks prior to the season opener that Andrei Vasilevskiy would be out for the first two months of the regular season. That's a killer for the Bolts. They are coming off a first-round exit in last year's playoffs, and now they have to play their first two months without their reliable goaltender. Jonas Johansson was in net for the Bolts, and so far, he had an easy start. The scoring was opened by Tampa Bay, and of course, it was Nikita Kucherov from Victor Hedman and Brayden Point. It was 1-0 Bolts after 20 minutes, and Johansson only faced two Nashville shots.

Nashville started shooting more as the second period progressed, while it was Tampa's turn to have a SOG drought. It led to the game being tied by Ryan O'Reilly, who was playing his first game with Nashville, and that score stood after 40 minutes. The third was crazy. Nashville took their first lead, Roman Josi thought he made it 3-1, but goaltender interference kiboshed that. Tampa later took over with two goals from Nicholas Paul, and with the Preds down one, they pulled the goalie, only for Kucherov to seal it. The Lightning won, 5-3, behind two goals each from Kucherov and Paul.

Game #2 of the tripleheader was the anticipated clash between one generational talent, and a potential one. The Pittsburgh Penguins hosted the Chicago Blackhawks, and for the former, it was a chance at payback. It was a stunning loss to the Blackhawks near the end of last season that ended up resulting in the Penguins missing the playoffs for the first time since the 2005-06 season, which was Sidney Crosby's rookie year. Amazing, isn't it? Seems like yesterday that Crosby was the subject of huge buzz after the Pens drafted him, yet on this night, Crosby began his 19th season in the league.

That was the centerpiece of this game: Crosby vs Chicago's #1 overall draft pick, 18-year-old Connor Bedard. Pittsburgh opened the scoring when Bryan Rust put one in, and the officials missed it until they took a look at it and saw it went in. 1-0 Pens after 20, and then it became 2-0 in the second because of (who else?) Crosby. The Blackhawks got on the board later on, and the primary assist was provided by Bedard, marking his first NHL point. Now I figured that would be all the Blackhawks would get. Nope. Chicago suddenly poured it on with three goals in the third period, and in a shocker, the Blackhawks actually won, 4-2, over the Penguins.

Now, let's talk more about Bedard. While everyone's talking about his assist, the fact that he was going against Crosby, and what a sensation he could turn out to be, one thing they are not talking about is how he disrespected the U.S. National Anthem. Bedard was just bobbing his head, up and down, like he couldn't be bothered with it. Him being Canadian doesn't matter; the NHL is full of Canadians, and they respect our anthem just like we respect theirs. So yeah, nobody said "boo" about Bedard's disrespect, yet people are still bitching about Colin Kaepernick kneeling to protest against police brutality. White privilege is a helluva drug.

The third game of the tripleheader saw the defending Stanley Cup Champions, the Vegas Golden Knights, celebrate their Cup and raise their banner before facing off against the Seattle Kraken. Still amazes me that Vegas finally won the Cup. They spent their entire existence complaining about how they "should have won." Well, now they have. Now, they have to do the most difficult thing to do in the NHL: keep it.

The Seattle Kraken were coming off quite the sophomore season, nearly reaching the Conference Finals. It's Year Three for them, and fans are wondering how they'll fare this year. Vegas got off to a hot start; Chandler Stephenson and Jonathan Marchessault (the latter winning the Conn Smythe last year) opened the scoring, resulting in a 2-0 Vegas lead after 20. Ivan Barbashev (a two-time Stanley Cup Champion) put one in during the second period to make it 3-0, but Jared McCann (the Kraken's first-ever 40-goal scorer) put Seattle on the board. Adin Hill shut the door the rest of the way, and Jack Eichel's empty-netter sealed it. The Golden Knights won, 4-1.

What an opening day in the NHL, the best one I've ever seen! The entire tripleheader aired on ESPN; this is the third year of the NHL's relationship with ESPN and Turner Sports. The All-Star Game will air on ABC once again, while the Winter Classic will air on TNT. As for the playoffs, both networks will have the first two rounds covered per usual, and regarding this year's Conference Finals, ESPN will air the East, while TNT will air the West. The Stanley Cup Final will air on ABC this season, their second time airing the Final as part of their rotation with TNT.

The greatest sport in the world is back in action. It will be a grueling, chaotic, and insane six-month ride, which will be followed by an even more crazy Stanley Cup Playoffs between April and June. All I can say is this: just sit back and enjoy this wild rollercoaster known as the NHL season!