The year 2024 promises to be full of emotions for sports fans. Here are ten questions that will be answered sooner or later in the next 12 months:
• Also read: Major sporting events in 2024, from Paris to Las Vegas, via… Montreal
Will CH make the playoffs?
This is inevitably THE question that concerns Quebec sports fans every year, even if the answer has become increasingly obvious in recent seasons. Since mid-December, we can already say that “if the trend continues,” the Montreal Canadiens will not participate in the playoffs in 2024. We are struggling to play for .500 and are more likely to struggle against the Pittsburgh Penguins. The Buffalo Sabres, Columbus Blue Jackets and Ottawa Senators were at the bottom of the Eastern Conference standings at the end of the regular season.
Photo Martin Chevalier
Success expected for the new women's hockey league?
The best ice hockey players in the world have been waiting for this moment for so long! It has already been announced that Marie-Philip Poulin and her teammates will benefit from a full house at the Verdun Auditorium for the Montreal club's first home game on January 13 against the Boston team. The 4,043 available places were sold quickly. We will see if the box office successes will be repeated as Montreal plays a total of 12 games in front of its fans in this first LPHF season, mainly in Verdun and at Place Bell in Laval.
MARTIN ALARIE / AGENCE QMI / JOURNAL DE MONTREAL
How many medals did Canada win at the Paris Olympics?
The sporting event of 2024 at international level will be the Summer Olympics in Paris from July 26th to August 11th. After Canada's haul of 24 medals in Tokyo, it will be interesting to see whether the Maple Leaf representatives will be equally successful. Twenty seems achievable, especially if the women's swimming team arrives in Paris in good shape. The last time the Canadian delegation won fewer than 20 medals at an edition of the Olympic Games was in London in 2012.
AFP
Will Félix Auger-Aliassime make it back into the ATP top 10?
Quebec's Félix Auger-Aliassime remains Canada's best hitter, but his 29th-place finish in the ATP singles rankings may not reflect his full potential. At the age of just 23, Auger-Aliassime had risen to sixth in the world rankings in November 2022 and held the same desired position last March after reaching the quarter-finals of the Indian tournament in Wells. His performance at the next Australian Open tennis tournament in January will greatly influence his ranking at the start of the season.
AFP
The Calder Trophy is awarded to Connor Bedard, but thanks to how many points?
Barring an injury, we can already expect young Connor Bedard of the Chicago Blackhawks to be awarded the Calder Trophy as National Hockey League Rookie of the Year next June. It remains to be seen how many points Bedard will achieve at the end of his first season on the Bettman circuit… Maintaining his current pace, it is logical to predict a harvest of 65-70 points. A production of 30 goals cannot be ruled out for this first pick in the last NHL draft.
Getty Images via AFP
When will Mikaël Kingsbury add another crystal ball to his collection?
We probably take freestyle skier Mikaël Kingsbury's success for granted. At 31, he may be the oldest worker in the World Cup, but he is still the most consistent. Swede Walter Wallberg occasionally manages to beat him, as was the case at the 2022 Olympics, but Kingsbury appears to be well on his way to adding a trophy to his collection, which already includes 24 crystal goblets. He will soon surpass the number of titles held by the Montreal Canadiens… The feat will undoubtedly help recognize that Kingsbury is among the best athletes in Quebec history. In March 2023, at the end of the final stage of the World Cup of the season in Kazakhstan, the skier confirmed his supremacy in the solo, parallel and overall rankings.
DIDIER DEBUS SCISSORS/JOURNAL DE QUEBEC
Will the next NHL draft be the event of the century?
Commissioner Gary Bettman is currently talking about the greatest invention since slicing bread. “We believe it will be pleasant, we believe it will be compelling and dramatic,” he said, anticipating the National Hockey League's next draft. The final details still need to be finalized, but we hope to host the auction in collaboration with the Golden Knights organization at the Sphere, a state-of-the-art venue in Las Vegas.
Getty Images via AFP
Can the Alouettes win the Gray Cup again?
The Montreal Alouettes surprised everyone in the Canadian Football League by winning the Gray Cup in 2023. It has already been announced that several key elements of the team will be back next season, particularly on defense. Head coach Jason Maas and the Alouettes are highly anticipated by other CFL teams. An old cliche goes that in the wonderful world of sports, defending a championship is even more difficult. The Alouettes did this not too long ago back in 2009 and 2010.
Photo agency QMI, JOEL LEMAY
Will Shohei Ohtani (finally) make the playoffs?
After receiving the most lucrative $700 million contract in professional sports history from the Los Angeles Dodgers, Japan's Shohei Ohtani is hoping to finally win in Major Baseball. If the Dodgers are used to making the playoffs, it should be noted that Ohtani will be limited to a hitting role in 2024. He's actually taking a break from the mound this season after undergoing surgery on his right arm last September. In six seasons with the Angels, from 2018 to 2023, Ohtani never made the season-ending playoffs.
MEGA/IF
Will the Coyotes remain the laughingstock of the NHL?
The answer to this question may seem as obvious as that of the Canadian's possible participation in the next playoffs. The reality, however, is that the Coyotes organization is in the process of finalizing the purchase of property in the Phoenix area to build a new arena. Since 2022, the Arizona team has made a fool of itself and damned other teams' governors by playing its local games at Mullett Arena, a 5,000-seat amphitheater on the grounds of Arizona State University in Tempe.
Archive photo, AFP