Pre-Season Prep: NHL
Take a dive into the intricacies of the NHL 2022-2023 preseason, along with some commentary from a long-time Bruins fan.
With the summer coming to a close, the NHL pre-season has officially begun. The pre-season began on September 24th, with the first game being played by the Ottowa Senators and the Toronto Maple Leafs. Two teams are set to begin the regular season earlier than most of the other 30 teams this fall. The lucky fan bases of the San Jose Sharks and the Nashville Predators will get an early preview of what the NHL has in store for the year, with the first puck dropping on Saturday, October 8th, at 2pm EST. The rest of the league will begin their regular season on Tuesday, October 11th, following Indigenous People’s Day. The pre-season has gone well, with players getting back on the ice, getting their legs back under them, and seeing how people work together. It also helps coaches and staff trying to figure out which players they want on their rosters for the beginning of the season, in that it gives them a second chance to be evaluated by multiple sets of professional eyes in a high-intensity, high-pressure environment. Pre-season also gives some players that will be playing in the AHL a chance to be able to play in the big league and play against some of the best players in the world. The team I have watched the most in the pre-season is the Boston Bruins. They are the local team for me and a hometown favorite, so I have been keeping up with them the most frequently. The primary objective that their coaches have expressed is that they need to see how all of their players play and who works well together, so they know who to keep or who to let go of. A quote from Bruins coach Jim Montgomery on the team's bonding and what needs to happen “To be able to have the team and just be people around each other. If you do it early in camp, it’s 60 bodies and it’s not down to your group that’s going to be going through the journey together,” (Montgomery). Looking at the preliminary schedule for the season, as well as the successful pre-seasons that so many teams have had, it is no wonder that so many fans like me are waiting in anticipation for it to finally begin.
Resource: Dupont, Kevin Paul. “Bruins Coach Jim Montgomery Is Still Sorting through Job Candidates in Camp - the Boston Globe.” BostonGlobe.com, The Boston Globe, 1 Oct. 2022, https://www.bostonglobe.com/2022/09/30/sports/bruins-coach-jim-montgomery-is-still-sorting-through-job-candidates-camp/