The waiting is over! The race for a playoff spot in this season's NHL starts today in Finland. A record six teams are in Europe this week to open the NHL regular season (Carolina Hurricanes, Minnesota Wild, Columbus Blue Jackets, San Jose Sharks, Boston Bruins and Phoenix Coyotes.).

There are two interesting games on Thursday night: Minesota Wild vs  Carolina Hurricane and Toronto Maple Leafs vs Montreal Canadiens.

 
 Minnesota Wild vs Carolina Hurricanes

The first game this season takes place in Helsinki. After missing the playoffs for the second time in three years, the Hurricanes start this season with high hopes. Eric Staal will be a natural leader of the team once again. The advantage he has is he is a gifted player, so anything he says to his team, he is able to go on the ice and back it up. Moreover, the return of the goaltender  Cam Ward should provide a boost after injuries last year. "I'm comfortable with where we're at, but it's harder to gauge certain things when you're not in a normal environment," coach Paul Maurice said. "As far as the on-ice goes, the focus, the communication, all of the things we said at the beginning of camp we need to be good at they're good at. I believe we're where we should be right now."

Just like Carolina, the Wild are coming off a forgettable first season under the new coach.  They started slow and finished on a 13th place in the Western Conference.  "If you look back at last year our start, we were a team trying to find itself from the first drop of the puck and we didn't get there until about November," coach Todd Richards said. "It should be earlier rather than later, and really that's my focus." The Wild hope for a rise in production from their key players Martin Havlat and Andrew Brunette. The captain and leading scorer will be probably Mikko Koivu, who signed a seven-year contract. They need some leadership and character to win the games, especially when thing aren‘t going the way they want.

• The best pick is under 5,5 goals

 Toronto Maple Leafs vs Montreal Canadiens

One of  the NHL’s greatest rivalry is renewed once again in the new season as Toronto Maple Leafs and Montreal Canadiens clash on Thursday night. This will be the first of six games between the two Original Six rivals. The Maple Leafs are still trying to end the longest playoff drought in franchise history. The Stanley Cup champion Kris Versteeg came from the Blackhawks and he will play on a line with Phil Kessel. Their goaltending tandem (Giguere and Gustavsson) is one of the best in the Eastern Conference. "I think every team in the League, their goal is to make the playoffs and we're no different," the defenseman Phaneuf said. "We're a very good, young team. We've got a lot of really good, young players and it's an exciting team to be apart of because we get to grow together and get to learn together and I'm looking forward to starting that off.”

Although Montreal barely qualified for the playoffs, they shocked the Capitals and the Penguins before losing to the Flyers in the conference finals last season. After that, the biggest surprise in the summer was the trade of the goaltender Jaroslav Halak to the St. Louis Blues for forwards Lars Eller and Ian Schultz. So Carey Price will be the No. 1 goalie. There is a lot more experience with winning, and I think in a long season that’s what they need, But Andrei Markov’s knee injury is a huge blow to their defense. Moreover, Michael Cammalleri is suspended for a slashing incident in Saturday’s preseason game. He was the best scorer during last season’s playoffs (with 13 goals).

• The Maple Leafs will be strong at Air Canada Centre. Tonight they will win... home win.