Each of the past four years I've made my predictions for that upcoming NHL season and kept them within a Google Sheets doc. I'd break out each division and where I thought each team would finish in the standings. I'd then list out who my top ten picks were for each of the individual player awards. And finally, I'd make my picks for who I believed would be the Conference Finalists, Stanley Cup finalists, Stanley Cup champions, and Conn Smythe winner (that's playoff MVP for those that are unfamiliar). The first year I did it was my most successful as far as predictions go. The overall divisional standings and player awards were hit or miss, but when it came to my finalists predictions, I had everything right except for one team. Now I'm not a betting man, but if I had put some money down at the beginning of the season on the Tampa Bay Lighting beating the Dallas Stars, with Victor Hedman taking home the Conn Smythe, I'd have a lot more money in my bank account than what's currently sitting there.
Anyway, since that season I would make my predictions around this time and see how they panned out by the end of June when a champion had been crowned. I haven't been nearly as right since that first season, but that's the fun in it and what is so great about the sport. Anyone can win. Anyone can be great and shock the world.
This year I'm expanding on my Google Sheets predictions and will be doing a complete breakdown of each team leading up to the opening night of the season. 32 teams in 32 days. Technically the season starts on the 7th of October with the Nashville Predators facing off against the San Jose Sharks in Prague, but the games taking place in North American don't start until the 11th so let's pretend that that is when the season actually starts. In this series of blog posts I'll go through each team (starting from the bottom of last year's overall standings to the top), their success or lack thereof in the 21-22 season, offseason acquisitions/departures, and how I think they will fare in this upcoming campaign.
I've wanted to start a blog for some time now, but didn't know where to start, what to write about, or how to keep up with it as time passed. I thought of this 32 in 32 idea just this morning and told myself to just go for it. So here it goes. I hope you enjoy!
I will also be including a Spotify link to a song I feel is appropriate for each post so here is today's.
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