Just when all hope was lost for this year’s NHL season, the millionaire owners and millionaire players have hugged out it like only real men can.

Sure, we’re kind of regretting that freshly-inked Hershey Bears tattoo now, but the AHL saw us through some dark times last autumn. And for that, we shall be forever grateful to Jeff Taffe’s magic hands.

We still mourn for the loss of the Winter Classic between the Detroit Red Wings and the Toronto Maple Leafs, if only for the big-boy language that we learn from the accompanying tv series, Hard Knocks. But that will all be forgotten the first time the gloves are thrown to the ice and the fists fly.

What we are left with is a 99-day season starting on January 19, with each team playing 48 matches – from famine to feast. But with all the uncertainty surrounding the season there are some unique circumstances that could come to define the year that almost never was.

Fat Players

It seems the Paddy Power Blog was not alone in thinking this season’s NHL was kaput. While the majority of the league’s players were keeping themselves fit and healthy, there’s always those that try to get away with doing the bear bare minimum. And that bare minimum seems to have included driving to Tim Hortons for another box of timbits. Coupled with the shortened pre-season, we could be seeing players shortening their ice time as they get back down to their fighting weights. We’re fully expecting these guys to start fights at every opportunity in order to avoid extra shifts.

Summer Jobs

While some players took the opportunity to enjoy a longer than expected summer break, others headed to some of hockey’s more exotic corners to find temporary employment. The cream of the NHL tended to head for Russia, Czech Republic and Sweden, while others found themselves in the more lukewarm hockey environments of Italy, Kazakhstan and the UK.  All the exports now have to jet back to North America to suit up for their chief employers and how the experience of playing on larger rinks and in different time zones takes its toll could be a key factor in the early matches.

The Harry Redknapp Factor

The shortened season has a huge impact on the ability of teams to wheel and deal. While some teams have reacted by sacking their general managers, there are still plenty of players who don’t know which logo they’ll be wearing this term. Players will be moving cities at the last minute and will have less time to settle into their new environments. This should help the more settled teams pick up some momentum early on.

THEY’RE OFF: Jordan Eberle, Taylor Hall and Ryan Nugent-Hopkin join the Oklahoma City Barons

Old Men

The compacted hockey season is likely to have a negative effect on the teams with older players. Less recovery time and busier travel schedules means the teams stacked with young bodies are likely to rise to the top as the season progresses. Teams with younger players have also used the lockout to blood them together in minor leagues. The most notable example is the Edmonton Oilers sending Jordan Eberle, Taylor Hall and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins to the Oklahoma City Barons. Thanks to some abject hockey in recent years, the Oilers have had a raft of top picks in the draft and having bonded in the Oklahoma, the trio who have been tearing up the AHL could hit the ground running on their return to the Great White North.

Familiar Foes

The revised schedule for the NHL sees a higher proportion of matches against division rivals than in previous years. Each team has 18 games against its divisional foes, which is an advantage for those teams in the weaker divisions. For example, of the nine teams that had 48 wins or more last season, four of them are in the Atlantic division. On the plus side for everyone involved, extra familiarity in hockey always leads to more fighting.

Play-offs are a Crapshoot

More than any other North American sport, the regular season in the NHL is simply about getting into the playoffs. From there anyone can win, as was shown by the Los Angeles Kings last season. The shortened season makes the playoffs even more unpredictable this time round, which should make them a lot of fun when they begin on April 30.

Hockey’s back, everyone! Let’s party!

• Betting: NHL

GET CARTER: The addition of Jeff Carter has made a huge difference to the LA Kings

By Jay Webster

It’s going on June, but over Stateside they are still playing ice hockey as the puck drops on the Stanley Cup Finals Wednesday night. If you saw the Los Angeles Kings and New Jersey Devils as the last two teams standing, put your hand up… Didn’t think so.

The NHL playoffs are always about getting hot at the right time, and having a goalie who is locked in, two traits epitomised by the Kings and Devils.

The Kings were a pre-season favorite to play for the Cup, but they suffered through a brutal season in which they struggled to score goals, fired their coach, and almost didn’t even make the playoffs.

Dead last in the NHL in scoring, despite a team loaded with offensive weapons, the Kings fired coach Terry Murray and replaced him on the bench with Darryl Sutter.

What really turned the corner for the Kings, however, was the acquisition of Jeff Carter in a go-for-broke move at the trade deadline in late February. The move paid off and the goals started to come, and Los Angeles was able nail down the eighth and final play-off spot in the Western Conference on the season’s final day.

Former Philly team-mates are on fire

Once the play-offs started, the Kings became a new team. They brushed off the No1 seed Vancouver Canucks in five games, then swept the second-seeded St Louis Blues, before taking down the Phoenix Coyotes in five games in the Western Conference Finals. It’s an incredible run that has seen the Kings outscoring their opponents 41-22 and win all eight play-off games on the road.

The top two lines for the Kings have been on fire. Anze Kopitar, Dustin Brown and Justin Williams have combined to post 15 goals and 42 points in the play-offs. On the second line, Carter has settled in nicely with former Philadelphia team-mate Mike Richards and ex-Anaheim Duck Dustin Penner.

After becoming a poster boy for the King’s regular season woes, Penner has rediscovered the form that helped him lift the Cup with the Ducks back in 2007. Fittingly, it was his over-time goal in Game 5 against Phoenix that sent the Kings into the Finals.

Three-time champ still has it

Jonathon Quick has been the personification of a hot goaltender, compiling a 1.54 goals-against-average and .946 save percentage throughout the playoffs.  The 26-year-old youngster will square off against a 40-year-old legend in New Jersey’s Martin Brodeur. The three-time Stanley Cup champion has showed that he’s still got it, leading the Devils to the Finals for the first time since 2003.

Like the Kings, the Devils weren’t expected to be here, but they have gotten contributions from all four of their forward lines, getting goals from 15 different players in the playoffs. Led by Ilya Kovalchuk, Zach Parise and Travis Zajac, the Devils will look to slow down the Los Angeles juggernaut.

The Kings have never won the Stanley Cup in their 44-year history, reaching the Stanley Cup Finals just once, back in 1993 when ‘The Great One’ Wayne Gretzky led a team that fell to the Montreal Canadiens. With their performance so far in the playoffs, this might just be the year the Stanley Cup comes to the City of Angels.

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