2023-12-31 05:03:46
There are promises that are thrown into the air, with the desire that they be fulfilled, but with the insecurity of everything that does not depend entirely on oneself. No one knows except the protagonist, with what confidence he said Bill Foley, owner of the Vegas Golden Knights, that his team would, within a period of six years, Stanley Cup to the heart of the desert in Nevada, but the thing is that in June 2023, that promise became a reality.
But 2023 has given us much more, happy and sad, like life itself, because hockey, like life, is made by the actions of the people who participate in it.
Los Golden Knights and the Panthers reached the grand final for the highest trophy in professional hockey and one of the two would become champion for the first time. AND It was those from Nevada who took the lead culminating a great season by overwhelming Sunrise with a resounding 4-1 overall score in the series.
After a year in which injuries wreaked havoc on the team, depriving them of being able to compete in the postseason, they did not give up and the team showed that the previous season was something punctual and that they still had the potential to be candidates for anything.
With sure step, they eliminated playoff With tough bones to crack, Winnipeg, Edmonton and Dallas could not stop them from winning the conference title, much less Florida in the grand final, being unanimously recognized as legitimate champions.
Boston Bruins, regular season winning record
Photo: NHL.com
The golden knights took the league’s grand prize, but until then, the great protagonist of the 2022-23 season was Boston Bruins. They played by far the most efficient and striking game of the regular season, which led them to break the record for games won in the regular season (65) and points (135), breaking the previous ones established by Tampa Bay Lightning in 2019 (62 wins and 128 points).
But just as happened with the Bolts on that occasion, those of New England were unable to transfer that domain to the playoff falling in the first round against Florida Panthers, leaving a too bitter aftertaste to a season that deserved more at the decisive moment and continuing that kind of curse that very habitually distances the winner of the Presidents’ Trophy from the Stanley Cup.
Since the campaign for the 2023 draft began, there was no doubt that Connor Bedard It would be the first choice regardless of which franchise was awarded in the lottery with the first choice in the selection of players.
Considered at the end of his youth stage, as a player who can mark a generation, more than one team in reconstruction let himself go hoping to be the one who could choose his name to incorporate him into their ranks. Even without having reached professionalism at that time, the IIHF even named him men’s player of the year in 2023.
Although the highest percentage of possibilities was for the Anaheim Ducks, The little ball had the anagram of the Chicago Blackhawks, and those from Illinois did not waver in their decision in the month of July. In fact, Hawks fans were already buying jerseys with the young player’s name and his number 98 long before the decision was official.
And there’s still a long way to go, but the North Vancouver native is shining in his debut season and is far ahead of the odds to take the Calder Trophy for rookie of the year in its next edition.
His adaptation to the game among the greats is not only expressed in his movements on the ice, playing with judgment and with efficient as well as spectacular actions. He is the top scorer among rookies at the end of the year (32 points with 15 goals and 17 assists) over the 22 of other great promises such as Marco Rossi y Adam Fantilli but he also belongs to his own team.
Canada double at the men’s world championships
Photo: IIHF
The year began with the men’s youth world championship, and after the title won in August due to the postponement due to COVID-19, just four months later, Canada renewed its title of champion, defeating a tough team on this occasion Czech Republic in a final in which the protagonist was not the omnipresent Connor Bedard if not his teammate Dylan Guenther, reaffirming the dominance of the maple leaf among the U20s.
The seniors endorsed the Canadian dominance in international hockey, accompanied on the podium by the surprising Germany (silver) and Latvia (bronze), causing this third place to be a true celebration madness in the Baltic country.
The absolute men’s team, star of the national teams
If the girls have been the leaders of Spanish hockey on the international stage in recent times, her male colleagues have stepped up and they have had a year that can be considered more than good, since together with the promotion to the IB Division of the World Cup tournament achieved at the Ice Palace in Madrid, they add the passage to the round in the pre-Olympic tournament this time in foreign territory, the Netherlands.
Smell of sweat and victory in the national team’s locker room | Photo: RFEDH
The youth teams, far from equaling that goal, ended up being relegated to Division IIB, victims of a comprehensive defeat against China on the first day of the tournament.
The women’s team also tried to attack the IB in Mexico, but Latvia was too much for all the other participants and Spain had to settle for second place which only guaranteed its permanence in the division.
CH Jaca, the great monopolist of national competitions
Double for the Jaca boys | Photo: RFEDH
Three titles out of fourdouble for the men’s team, scoring the LNHH Iberdrola and the Copa del Rey, and the Iberdrola League for the girls who couldn’t beat Majadahonda in the final of the Queen’s Cup, vindicating those who have been the queens of women’s hockey in recent seasons.
Girls also know how to win | Photo: jaca.com
A new era for safety in hockey
Hockey is one of the sports in which contact is a major protagonist, with the consequent risk for those who practice it, and after those principles in which “war wounds” were a source of pride, today it is sought that the ice ice is a space in which players risk their health and integrity as little as possible.
Fights have always been accepted as part of the game on the North American stage, but in the medium term their days may be numbered. The Quebec youth league, one of the main leagues in Canadian youth hockey, has decided to ban fighting, expelling the players involved in them from the game. A first step that one day promises to reach the professional ranks.
But without a doubt one of the measures that sooner or later will also reach all levels of hockey, is lIIHF imposition of neck protection in all international tournaments apart from the sub 20 and sub 18 in which it was already. The fateful death of the former player of Pittsburgh Penguins, Adam Johnson, in a British league game after receiving a skate cut on his neck, has been the trigger for a measure that has every sign of becoming as popular as the arrival of helmets and visors previously.
End of themed jerseys
Ivan Provorov made the hare jump last January tol refusing to wear the jersey commemorating “Pride Night” at Flyers Stadium. It was just the beginning, later other players took the same option when it was their turn. An unwanted controversy in which the NHL found itself involved since in the USA, Both freedom of expression and religious freedom are established as supreme values and any action on their part was sure to cause headaches.
Themed jerseys disappear from the NHL | Photo: dailyhive.com
So from the direction of the league, they let the season finish without getting into puddles, and in the month of June they took the middle path by prohibiting the elements of the kit dedicated to theme nights, in all of them trying to nip the controversy in the bud.
But despite everything, the controversy has not been completely quelled, and somehow he had to back down when recognizing the individual right of each player to be able to put ribbons on the stick blade with colors dedicated to supporting causes, although he maintains his veto to the warm-up jerseys.
Withdrawals
Every year new races begin, and others come to an end, and this year notable names hang up their skates and direct their lives toward new challenges.
Two of them responsible and protagonists of last season with Los Boston Bruins. Patrice Bergeron leave the Boston Bruins from the captaincy of the team and the maximum contribution with his sixth Selke Trophy in the bag, a contribution to defense from the attack that the Bruins will miss.
Patrice Bergeron | Photo: stanleycupofchowder.com
Came back from Czech Republic to offer one last year to its lifelong franchise, David Krejci He was another of the mainstays of some Bruins who had a record but did not get the Stanley Cup. Retired from the NHL with 16 seasons behind him, he will still render one last service to his team at the next IIHF World Cup in 2024.
He does not have the record of the previous ones, but he does have his charisma, Craig Anderson signed a one-day contract to retire as a player Ottawa Senators.
The list is completed with other notables such as Paul Stastny, Carl Hagelin, Andrew Ladd, Corey Schneider, Derek Stepan o Patric Hornqvist.
Obituary
If the future of the Blackhawks promises a lot with the arrival of Connor Bedard, He will be able to continue that legacy thanks to the work of two people who have preceded him in the history of the franchise who have left us in 2023.
Bobby Hull, The Hawks’ top scorer died last January at the age of 84. At the end of July, the owner of the team and factotum of the team’s last glorious era would do so. Rocky Wirtz, mourning a franchise that promises a lot in the future.
Bobby Hull | Photo: AP
True legends that escape the knowledge of recent fans such as Bob Baun, Rick Jeanneret, Gino Odjick and Henry Boucha also said goodbye forever.
To close this obituary, apart from the shocking and tragic death of Adam Johnson mentioned above, we remember the young Rodion Amirov, a brain tumor prevented this 21-year-old hockey promise from becoming a reality. May they all rest in peace.
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