Countdown to the Premiere Games

The Carolina Hurricanes and Minnesota Wild will open the entire NHL schedule in Helsinki on Thursday with their match-up at the Hartwell Arena.  Helsinki was one of the sites for last year's NHL Premiere games and it proved to be a very solid success.

The Hurricanes are coming off a very disappointing season that was brought down by injuries and a resulting inconsistent line-up, while the Minnesota Wild just had a very inconsistent 2010 season as a whole, as both teams missed the playoffs.  Both teams have traveled on fairly similar off-season paths to get to this point, both building for the most part within their own organization, not venturing into the free agent market as much.

I think for these reasons, the teams were a little light on players in the draft this year, with both teams taking a few more of the safe picks, with very few of the sleepers or wild cards taken.  This game will likely be dominated by one team in the pool, can you guess which one it is?

Carolina Hurricanes			Minnesota Wild
Cam Ward, G	Dale B.		Antti Miettinen, F	Benson
Joni Pitkanen, D	Derek		Brent Burns, D	Chris
Joe Corvo, D	Don		Marek Zidlicky, D	Derek
Eric Staal, F	Kristy & Don		Andrew Brunette, F	Don
Jussi Jokinen, F	Larry		Mikko Koivu, F	Jani
Zach Boychuk, F	Stacey		Martin Havlat, F	Kristy & Don
Anton Babchuk, D	Stacey		Cam Barker, D	Kristy & Don
Jamie McBain, D	Wes		Gui Latendresse, F	Kristy & Don
			Niklas Backstrom, G	Peter

The draft tandem of Kristy & Don ended up picking four players that are on the roster for these two games in Finland, including Cam Barker, who may not be ready to go because of a hip injury. On the bright side, they have two of the projected top scorers from these two teams in Eric Staal and Martin Havlat, so there is a pretty good chance that they will be leading in the standings after the first game of the season on Thursday afternoon.

Unfortunately for Stacey, Zach Boychuk didn't make the European-bound Hurricanes, so he'll be short one player on this trip, which leaves the other Don in the pool, as the only other team with more than one player playing in these two games.

I wouldn't exactly call this a marquee match-up in Helsinki, but I suppose it isn't the worst way to start the season off.  These will be two teams that are desperate for some better results in 2011 and it all starts here.

The Blue Jackets and Sharks will open up their 2011 regular season in Stockholm this week, giving the people of Sweden another solid taste of some North American pro hockey.  The Sharks were Western Conference finalists in the playoffs last Spring, while the Blue Jackets were just outside of the playoffs, but have done a pretty good job retooling the team to make another run at the Spring dance.

This game will also be jam-packed with players in the draft this year, surprisingly with the same amount of Blue Jackets in the pool as there are Sharks.  I don't think that is necessarily a bad thing, rather it gives a good indication that the Blue Jackets might be going the right way for a playoff spot again this season.  Here's a look at the drafted players who will be taking part in this 2-game series.

Columbus Blue Jackets			San Jose Sharks
Antoine Vermette, F	Allan		Antti Niemi, G	Allan
R.J. Umberger, F	Benson		Ryane Clowe, F	Clayton
Jakub Voracek, F	Dale B.		Joe Thornton, F	Dale C.
Kristian Huselius, F	Don		Dany Heatley, F	Jani
Fedor Tyutin, D	Jani		Patrick Marleau, F	Larry
Anton Stralman, D	Jani		Antero Niittymaki, G	Neil
Rick Nash, F	Leon		Dan Boyle, D	Ryan
Mathieu Garon, G	Leon		Joe Pavelski, F	Stuart
Derrick Brassard, F	Peter		Devin Setoguchi, F	Wes
Kris Russell, D	Stuart		Thomas Greiss, G	Wes
Steve Mason, G	Wes		Jason Demers, D	Wes

Wes leads all teams in this game with four players on the roster, but I would imagine that Thomas Greiss likely won't see any action, barring injury to the other two goaltenders ahead of him on the chart. I do believe he'll be making the trip as insurance, but won't see much action.

Newcomer to the pool, Jani, will have three players between the two teams, a couple of defensemen for the Jackets and Dany Heatley for the Sharks. That should be a good starting point to the season for him.

The games in Stockholm should be a good start to the season for the pool alone.

Finally, it will be the Boston Bruins and the Phoenix Coyotes doing battle at the O2 Arena in Prague.  This 2-game series will feature two teams that are riding some high expectations into the 2011 season and should provide the good folks in the Czech Republic some entertaining games, North America style.

The Bruins will be boasting a pretty good back-end this season, with a quality goaltending tandem and strong blueline corps, but their offense is mildly banged up and will be the biggest question mark of their season.  The Coyotes want to prove that their trip to the playoffs last season was no fluke and they are going to be bringing in a couple faces into the starting line-up to help them do it.  Overall, this should be a pretty good match-up from the drop of the puck on.

This game boasts a good number of pool players as well, which gives you the impression that both teams should fare well in the season, both in the standings and in the scoring races.  It isn't as jam-packed as the Stockholm matches, but it should provide plenty of points.

Boston Bruins			Phoenix Coyotes
Tuukka Rask, G	Derek		Oliver Ekman-Larsson, D	Clayton
Zdeno Chara, D	Jani		Derek Morris, D	Dale C.
Marc Savard, F	Larry		Lee Stempniak, F	Derek
Nathan Horton, F	Peter		Ilya Bryzgalov, G	Jani
Tim Thomas, G	Peter		Keith Yandle, D	Kristy & Don
Milan Lucic, F	Ryan		Wojtek Wolski, F	Neil
Patrice Bergeron, F	Stuart		Ed Jovanovski, D	Neil
Dennis Seidenberg, d	Stuart		Scottie Upshall, F	Ryan
David Krejci, F	Wayne		Shane Doan, F	Stuart
Tyler Seguin, F	Wayne		Ray Whitney, F	Wayne

Stuart and Wayne lead the way in this match-up with three players each, both teams having two Bruins and a Coyote on their team. Most of the curiosity has to be centered around Tyler Seguin, who is on Wayne's team, since he is the number two overall pick in the entry draft this Summer.  With Marc Savard out of the Bruins line-up due to a concussion, Seguin should get plenty of time to shine in his NHL debut with the Bruins.

Derek, Jani, Peter, Neil and Ryan all have two players each going in this game, which should make it very interesting.  There is going to be a lot happening among these five teams when this game is going, I'm sure.

I like this match-up very much and will try and catch at least one game, if I can.  I think this series has the potential to be the most entertaining at the end of it all.

This might be a strange coincidence, but the only European person in the pool, Jani, has the most players heading over to the European Premiere games this time around, with six on his roster. Kristy & Don, Wes and Stuart all have five players taking part in these games, while Peter and Derek each have four players.  I think the question begs to be asked, does the flying and jet lag at the beginning of the season make a big difference on the end result?  I guess we'll see in 27 weeks.