The best are (all) out west: 2014/15 NHL season preview

Rob McKenzie surveys the NHL landscape ahead of Wednesday night's start to the 2014/15 season, and finds that the grass is definitely greener on the western side.

The Chicago Blackhawks (red) and LA Kings (white) faced off in the Western Conference finals last season. The two teams are expected among the powers in the NHL again for 2014/15. Nam Y Huh / AP

The 2013/14 hockey season ended 117 days ago with the Los Angeles Kings lifting the Stanley Cup. The 2014/15 season starts on Wednesday night (or, here in the UAE, early Thursday morning) with the Montreal Canadiens visiting the Toronto Maple Leafs.

The off-season brought six new coaches, several richer players, a banned move, a name change and a passel of player movements. Here’s a recap:

The Florida Panthers hired Gerard Gallant as their coach. He had been an assistant for Montreal and played more than 600 NHL games. “I like to score goals,” he said.

The Vancouver Canucks hired Willie Desjardins as their coach. He had been coach of the year in the American Hockey League, one rung below the NHL. “I want us to play hard every night,” the native of Climax, Saskatchewan said.

The Pittsburgh Penguins hired Mike Johnston, ex of the Portland Winterhawks, as their coach. He didn’t say much.

The other new coaches are Bill Peters in Carolina, Barry Trotz in Washington and Peter Laviolette, who succeeds Trotz in Nashville.

The Phoenix Coyotes changed their name to the Arizona Coyotes, thereby extending their geographic reach to yet more people who don’t care about hockey.

The Florida Panthers chose Aaron Ekblad, a big defenceman with a scoring touch, first overall in the draft. Last player chosen: Jacob Middleton, a defender from Wainwright, Alberta who went to the Los Angeles Kings.

Chicago locked up Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane with contract extensions running through the 2022/23 season for $84 million (Dh308.5m). That's $84 mill each.

Montreal avoided an arbitration hearing with the team’s talismanic defenceman, PK Subban, by signing him to an eight-year deal for $72m.

At the other end of the scale, Dany Heatley, ex of Atlanta, Ottawa, San Jose and, most recently, Minnesota, signed with Anaheim for one year for $1 million dollars.

Sidney Crosby decided not to get wrist surgery. He had jammed his right wrist when a St Louis Blue hit him in a March 23 game. The injury explains why Crosby was so-so in the play-offs. Crosby says the wrist is back to “100 per cent”.

The Winter Classic site was announced: the outdoor game will feature Chicago at Washington in Nationals Park, a baseball stadium, on the afternoon of January 1.

After 18 seasons, Saku Koivu called it quits. Teemu Selanne did the same, after 21 seasons.

And in an attack on fun, the league banned players from doing the “spin-o-rama” move during shootouts or penalty shots.

The off-season’s most important changes involved neither coaches nor rules but, of course, players. And these moves had a uniform direction: towards the western United States.

The league’s three best teams are in the US west: Anaheim, Chicago, Los Angeles. This has led to an arms race as the big three try to surpass one another, and the teams around them run hard just to stay close.

In the east, it’s different. No team is supreme and anybody (well, not Buffalo) can picture themselves going deep in the play-offs.

To further break it down, within the west there is a class divide, with the Canadian teams on the wrong side of the tracks.

Calgary and Edmonton are gestating. And while Vancouver plugged their hole in net by signing Ryan Miller away from St Louis, the Canucks made the off-season’s biggest move by sending the talented two-way centre Ryan Kesler to Anaheim for youngsters.

And then, when free agency kicked in on July 1, a flurry: Thomas Vanek to Minnesota from Montreal; Jarome Iginla to Colorado from Boston; Brad Richards to Chicago from the Rangers; and, in a trade, Jason Spezza to Dallas from Ottawa for a bag of magic beans.

LA stood pat in the off-season. The Kings had struck during their play-off run, signing Marian Gaborik (obtained in a trade with the east’s Columbus two months earlier) to a seven-year deal worth $34.1m.

There were zero significant moves from west to east in the off-season.

Now let’s have some predictions.

The finalists in the west will be two of the conference’s big three – Anaheim, Chicago, Los Angeles.

For the eastern finalists, it will be among Boston, Montreal and – let’s try an upstart – the New York Islanders, who finally have a decent goalie in Jaro Halak.

Stanley Cup prediction: Anaheim over Montreal.

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