Penton: Black cloud hovers over start of NHL season

By Bruce Penton

It’s going to be a sad beginning to the 2024-25 National Hockey League season as the Aug. 29 death of all-star winger Johnny Gaudreau is going to overshadow the traditional start-of-season thrills.

The 31-year-old Gaudreau, who racked up 743 points in 11 seasons and was one of the most popular players in the league because of his diminutive stature, electric skating and deft moves, was killed when mowed down by an alleged drunk driver while Gaudreau and his brother Matthew, were out cycling the night before their sister’s wedding. Matthew died, too.

So when Columbus opens its new season at home on Oct. 15 against Florida Panthers, it will be a solemn occasion. Tributes will be made; a video presentation of Gaudreau’s life and hockey career will be shown. Tears will flow. Such a tragic ending to a life with so much promise.

The sentiment won't get any more pleasant on Nov. 29 and Dec. 3 when the Blue Jackets meet the Calgary Flames in a home-and-home series. Gaudreau played the first nine seasons of his career with the Flames, joining Columbus in the summer of 2022 as a free agent. Both cities lay claim to Gaudreau, and for good reason. He had five 20-plus goal seasons with the Flames and was their undisputed team leader. Columbus was where he chose to continue his career so he could be closer to his family in New Jersey.

But while the dark cloud surrounding the death of Gaudreau will put a damper on the start to the new season, life and hockey season must go on. And the action starts this Friday, when the first two regular-season games are played in Prague, Czech Republic. New Jersey Devils and Buffalo Sabres play twice in the European city before the rest of the ‘real’ season begins the following Tuesday, Oct. 8, with three games.

Oddly, the first of those Tuesday games is an afternoon tilt in Seattle where the Kraken take on St. Louis. Normally, games on the West Coast are the final contests of the day, but the Kraken have a unique 1:30 p.m. game to open the season, followed by the Bruins at Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers and then another west region game, Connor Bedard and the Blackhawks playing the first NHL game in Salt Lake City. In case you weren’t taking notes in the offseason, the Arizona Coyotes were sold and moved to Utah, where they will be known by the inspiring name of ‘Utah Hockey Club’. Almost certainly, headline writers across North America will shorten the name to Utah HC in no time.

Those three Oct. 8 games are scheduled as they are so that ESPN, which has the NHL rights in the U.S., can televise an NHL tripleheader to start the season. They don’t have Connor McDavid on opening night, but they’ve got the next best thing, Bedard, and the defending Cup champs on the schedule.

And even though Columbus is not playing on opening night, Johnny Gaudreau will almost certainly be properly memorialized.

  • Unnamed Chicago White Sox fan, staring at thousands of empty seats at a recent game at Guaranteed Rate Field, texted a buddy and said: “I’ve seen livelier wakes on a Monday night.”

  • Comedy guy Torben Rolfsen of Vancouver: “The Blue Jays need to buy a bullpen in the offseason.”

  • fark.com headline: “Broadcaster Joe Buck drives a golf ball into his wife hard enough to break her ankle. With that kind of driving, he should lose his licence.”

  • Jack Finarelli at sportscurmudgeon.com, after another sexual assault allegation against Cleveland QB Deshaun Watson surfaced: “Deshaun Watson needs a bridge over troubled waters again.”

  • Bruce Arthur of the Toronto Star, after New Orleans beat Dallas Cowboys 44-19: “In such fractious times, I am always grateful when we can come together and enjoy the Dallas Cowboys getting absolutely pantsed.”

  • Super 70s Sports, after New York Jets beat New England 24-3: “The Jets were obviously prepared in all phases of the game tonight because their coaching staff used a multi-colour pen to write each phase in a different colour like a 7th grader from 1986.”

  • Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel: “Did you see Saquon Barkley drop that easy catch on a swing pass that would have secured the victory for the Eagles over the Falcons on Monday night? It just goes to show you can take the player off of the Giants, but you can’t take the Giants out of the player.”

  • Bianchi again: “Five words best describe the quarterbacking crisis in the NFL:  Andy Dalton vs. Gardner Minshew.”

  • Baseball stats from Steve Simmons of the Toronto Sun: “Blue Jays have the fourth highest payroll in the American League and the fourth highest number of losses this season.”

  • RJ Currie of sportsdeke.com: “After claiming the baseball hit his foot, Jose Altuve of the Astros took off his shoe and sock to let the umpire see his tootsies: “To prove he had toed the truth.”

Care to comment? Email brucepenton2003@yahoo.ca

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