The right and mostly wrong (but maybe right?) of my Oddly Specific Predictions

Every year, just as the regular season is set to begin, I make Oddly Specific predictions for each NHL team. It’s one of my very favorite columns to write each year.

And then in the spring, I have to see if I actually got any right. That’s today’s column, and it is not one of my favorites.

But we have to do it because accountability matters, so here we go. If you’re new to the Oddly Specific prediction game, it’s exactly what it sounds like: A prediction for each team that gets a little too detailed. It’s not enough to say a team will have more points; we need an exact total. Don’t tell us something will happen; give us the specific game. Anyone can predict an Alexander Ovechkin goal; let’s see you plant the flag for Joel Hanley.

That last one, of course, is maybe our most memorable hit – in 2022, I didn’t just predict that defensive defenseman Hanley would finally score his first regular season goal, but also gave you the exact game it happened in. It was pretty amazing. I’ve been chasing that high ever since.

I’ll save you the suspense: This year’s predictions, which you can go back and read here, don’t have any Hanley-level miracle calls. At least… not yet. But we’ll get to that.

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