There was of course immediate fear that Sports Illustrated jinxed the Blackhawks season that begins tomorrow night when they put Patrick Kane on the cover and proclaimed Chicago would repeat as Stanley Cup Champions. The 'Hawks will hear over and over again how no team has repeated since the 1997-98 Detroit Red Wings, although much like last year's defending champion Los Angeles Kings, there's good reason for optimism in the Windy City since (unlike the start to the 2010-11 season) many of the key players from last year's Cup run are still on the team. Oh, and as I recall it, the last time I posted a pre-season magazine issue with the Blackhawks on the cover, that was the previous year they won the Stanley Cup.
After winning the Cup in late June, the off-season certainly felt quite short. On top of that, this is also another year in which the regular season will have an asinine three week-or-so interruption because of the Olympics. Of course, the last time there was an Olympics interlude, that was also the season the Blackhawks won the Cup in 2010.
So there's certainly some encouraging signs on that front, but there's also a whole slew of other factors to consider—none of which I can say I'm adequately prepared for. While I actually paid attention to the NHL Draft this off-season, I've been fairly oblivious to other major moves and then there's the entire reshuffling and reorganizing of divisions that also affects the playoffs in ways that I'm not totally certain I completely understand yet.
Still, the puck drops on another NHL season tomorrow and I'll throw my half-assed picks out there, not that I think I'll be taking any tremendous risks.
Brit's jolly cry of approval / SUN 3-16-25 / Florentine artist known for
frescoes / Frodo's enchanting friend / 14-line poem with only two rhymes
across three stanzas / Subway commuters, informally / Not-so-joltin' joe? /
Dug through for digital analysis / Hawkeye's real first name in the
"Avengers" movies / German soccer legend Manuel who innovated the
"sweeper-keeper" role / Cote quote? / Girl who's "sweet as apple cider,"
per an old song
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Constructor: Paul Coulter
Relative difficulty: Easy
THEME: "Have It Both Ways" — two Across answers share a common Down
segment—that segment reads one wa...
3 hours ago