The other night, I experienced something that’s been missing for awhile.
The NHL season began on Tuesday with a busy opening day. Not only was there the usual banner-raising ceremony (followed by the championship Tampa Bay Lightning getting stomped by the Pittsburgh Penguins, naturally), but a double header saw the Seattle Kraken make their debut against the Vegas Golden Knights. All of that was topped off by the league returning to ESPN for the first time since 2004.
Watching both games on ESPN+ while following along on a rarely united Hockey Twitter, I realized I haven’t felt this good about a hockey season in too long.