Morning Skate: So it begins

Our long, national nightmare of an offseason is over!

The 2021 NHL season begins tonight with a tripleheader turns out it’s only a tripleheader on NBCSN, and there are actually five games:

• Penguins vs. Flyers
• Canadiens vs. Maple Leafs
• Blackhawks vs. Lightning
• Canucks vs. Oilers
• Blues vs. Avalanche

Everyone’s undefeated! Everyone has a shot! Except maybe for the Red Wings. We do have to be realistic.

It will be interesting to see how this season “feels” in terms of general atmosphere. In watching the games last summer during the bubble, it was pretty easy to just be like “yeah, OK, this is weird, but it’s just short term anyways.”

The lack of crowds, the 11 PM beer league game atmosphere...it was weird, but it was temporary.

Now, we’re likely going to be faced with a full season of this. Will the intensity be there? Will it feel like regular hockey?

I guess we’re going to find out!

If nothing else, the compressed schedule and back-to-back sets of games should foster rivalries, but it may not be the same when, after a fight, a player goes to pump up an invisible crowd.

Today’s highlight

I miss The Bear.

Today’s discussion topic

The new season is here, so who’s your Cup favorite?