2022-23

• After being evicted from what was then known as Gila River Arena, the Arizona Coyotes take up temporary residence at Arizona State University's multipurpose arena, Mullett Arena. With a capacity of only 5,000, not only is it the smallest arena in the NHL by a very wide margin, but it would also be among the smallest in both the AHL and the ECHL.

• The NHL's Reverse Retro program returns after a one-season hiatus, with all teams breaking out new designs based on historical uniforms. They were all unveiled at once on October 20th. Most teams will wear their Reverse Retro uniforms around eight times during the season.

• An anomaly at the All-Star tournament: an Eastern Conference player representing a Western Conference team. Bo Horvat was selected to represent the Pacific Division while playing for the Vancouver Canucks. However, between his selection and the game itself, Horvat was traded to the New York Islanders. Horvat remained a member of the Pacific Division team while wearing the Islanders logo on his left shoulder.

• On March 14th, viewers in the U.S. got a treat as they saw a live animated version of an NHL game -- in this instance, a Rangers home game against the Capitals. Dubbed the "Big City Greens Classic," the animated game was held along Main Street in Big City, the setting for the Disney animated series, "Big City Greens." The game had various characters from the show skating along with the regular players. Cricket Green's game very closely resembled that of Rangers center Vincent Trocheck, registering two assists in the Blueshirts' 5-3 victory. And Gramma Green may be 79 years old, but she looked a lot like reigning Vezina Trophy winner Igor Shesterkin in net, making 28 saves and even getting an assist on Mika Zibanejad's second goal of the game.

• The Boston Bruins had a regular season for the ages. They broke the NHL record for most wins in a season with 65 (surpassing the 62 won by the 1995-96 Detroit Red Wings and the 2018-19 Tampa Bay Lightning) and for most points in a season with 135 (three better than the 132 racked up by the 1976-77 Montreal Canadiens). Along the way, they were the fastest team to both 100 points and 50 wins. They were so dominant that their road record of 31-8-2 was better than all other teams' home records. Even though it's not an official NHL statistic, the Bruins would fall just short of the highest points percentage; one more point would have done it.

• At the opposite end of the spectrum, the Anaheim Ducks ended the season by losing their last 13 games (2 in OT) to finish with the worst record in the NHL.

• As was the case with the Lightning four years earlier, the Bruins wasted no time in ruining their epic regular season by losing to the Panthers in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs, blowing a three games to one lead and losing two of the three clinching games in overtime.

• The Panthers would ride the momentum of that huge Bruins series victory all the way to the Stanley Cup Final, where their magic would run out. Making their second appearance in the Final in their six-season history, the Vegas Golden Knights beat the Panthers in five games to win the NHL's biggest prize.