Tonight’s the night! It’s time to drop the puck on another National Hockey League season, although not before remembering two of hockey’s greatest coaches, both lost this summer.

Roger Neilson, who was most recently with the Ottawa Senators, lost his battle with cancer. Herb Brooks, who guided the US Olympic Hockey Team in the “Miracle of 1980” at Lake Placid, N.Y., was killed in a one-car accident in the Twin Cities area. They will be missed greatly.

But from tonight’s first faceoff on, this promises to be a wide open season, especially in the Western Conference.

A lot happened over the summer since the Eastern Conference champs New Jersey Devils won the Stanley Cup by beating the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim. There were a lot of trades and free agent signings, especially at Colorado.

Over in the East, New Jersey will have an excellent chance to get back to the Cup Finals. Martin Brodeur remains the Devils’ number one goaltender so, if he stays healthy, look for New Jersey to represent the East.

One team that will not make the playoffs, for the seventh straight time, will be the New York Rangers. I will admit that I’ve been a long-time die-hard Rangers fan for 17 years. But after last season, enough is enough, and I found a new team to cheer for. If you look up and down the Rangers’ roster from last season, you would think there’s no way they would miss the playoffs again. But there are some problems: The Rangers had a rash of major injuries, and, by the time they healed, there just wasn’t enough time to build any momentum to get to the playoffs, which the Rangers missed by five points.

In the Western Conference, look for the Colorado Avalanche and Detroit Red Wings to meet in the conference finals and for Detroit to come out on top. I say this on the basis of the goaltending situation. Colorado lost goalie Patrick Roy to retirement after being beat out by the Minnesota Wild last season. With an uncertain goaltending situation, the Avalanche will need to trade for a first-class goalie sometime this season to truly solidify their place in the playoffs.

But the big move that makes the Avalanche a heavy favorite is that they signed free agents Paul Kariya from the Ducks and Teemu Selanne from the San Jose Sharks this past summer. Put those two on a line with Joe Sakic, and you’ve got the No. 1 line in the NHL this season.

Colorado also has the top scorer in the league in Peter Forsberg, who had 106 points last season.

Detroit made some impressive off-season moves by acquiring defenseman Darien Hatcher from the Dallas Stars and by returning goaltender Dominic Hasek to the net.

Hasek helped lead the Red Wings to their last Stanley Cup two years ago. Detroit will be solid in the nets, unless current No. 1 goalie Curtis Joseph demands a trade. I predict Joseph might head for Colorado to fill that void in the Avalanche nets.

The Blues will be contenders if goalie Chris Osgood stays healthy along with defenseman Chris Pronger, who missed most of last season with injuries.

Two of last year’s playoff surprises, the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim and the Minnesota Wild, will again make a run in the post season. But this time they won’t go as far as they did last season.

The Ducks lost a lot of regulars via free agent signings, but they do have goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere, who was a stalwart performer in last year’s playoffs. The question remains if Giguere can improve upon last season’s accomplishments. The Ducks did sign free agents Sergei Fedorov from Detroit and Vaclav Prospal from Tampa Bay to help fill the void up front.

Minnesota could be in trouble if the Wild don’t re-sign their two top scorers from last season. Marian Gaborik is ready to play overseas unless he gets a new contract. He led the Wild with 65 points (30 goals, 35 assists). It’s the same deal for No. 2 scorer Pascal Dupuis (20 goals, 28 assists). Veteran Cliff Ronning became a free agent, and won’t be invited back. Oh, by the way, the Wild are the new team I have given my allegiance to.

My picks for the Cup final are Detroit in the West and New Jersey in the East; Detroit will win over the Devils in five.

One of the major highlights will be the very first outdoor game played in a football stadium. Montreal and Edmonton will play in Edmonton’s Commonwealth Stadium Nov. 22 on a special outdoor rink, likely before the largest crowd ever to witness an NHL game.

More than 50,000 fans are expected to attend. Enjoy the season, it will be another great one.