1. The Great eights nine goals: In just the first week of the season Alexander Ovechkin has 9 goals and one assist. Ovechkin is off to one of the hardest starts of his career and if he keeps his current pace could score over 150 points. A long way to go but it’s a good start for the Russian whose team is now 3-1-1 and has the second most goals for (21) in the Eastern conference.
2. Toronto kids putting up all kind of goals: The Leaf’s have the most goals in the east currently with 22. The Leaf’s are averaging 5 goals a game, the best in the league. Leading the way is Auston Matthews with 3 goals and 3 assists. The Maple Leaf’s have had the hottest start in the Eastern conference as far as team goal scoring goes, 13 different Leaf’s players have goals and 19 Leaf’s players have assists. Frederick Anderson hasn’t had the best start to the season however allowing 16 goals in 4 starts thus far. That can partially be blamed on a defense that allowed a 3 on 5 shorthanded goal against the Devils, how? It’s one of the craziest things you’ll ever see in hockey.
3. The Black Hawks of Stanley cup 2010s dynasty are back: Throw out a 5-2 loss to the Minnesota wild and the Blackhawks had the best first week of the NHL by far. The Hawks have a league high 23 goals and 10 of them came during a waxing of the Pittsburgh Penguins. Patrick Kane is playing some of the Best hockey of his Career right now. The Kanester gangsta has 7 points (2 goals 5 assists ) in 5 games. The Way he plays is so fast and precise look no farther than the spinorama assist to Nick Schmaltz or his beautiful no look backhand behind the net assist to Ryan Hartman and don’t forget his full speed beauty of a backhand snipe into the far-left corner from the bottom of the right faceoff dot. That was all in one game, against the penguins, come to think of it Patrick Kane loves the backhand.
4. Edmonton’s hot start and then collapse: The Oilers played their best game of the last two years against the flames in a 3-0 white wash. Then they collapsed, hard a bad 3-2 loss to the Canucks in which Cam Talbot was pulled in the early second when he let in the 3rd goal. A loss to the Jets where Nichola Ehlers scored a hat trick in a 5-2 win for Winnipeg was the nail in the coffin of an awful start for the Oilers. Side note here Connor Hellebuyck has played wonderfully for the Jets who were embarrassed by Steven Mason letting in 7 goals in the first game of the season. Hellebuyck has earned the Job in Winnipeg.
5. The Colorado Avalanche are out preforming expectations early: Former first overall pick and widely regarded draft bust Nail Yakupov is proving everyone wrong. Yakupov has 5 points in five games and along with Matt Duchesne the Aves have started 4-1 impressive for a team some didn’t expect to win even 30 games.
6. A great start for the Golden Knights and a great story for Vegas: After the awful tragedy earlier this month the Knight’s have played with an emotion of an entire city driving them forward and are 3-1. James Neal has been the driving force for Vegas as far as scoring is concerned with 6 goals in 4 games and Marc Andre Fluery has carried the Goaltending load starting every game thus far, as he may be asked to do this season wouldn’t shock me if he started 64 games, with a 92% save percentage and 2 goals against average. It’s an awesome story and hopefully the Knights can continue to be successful and bring their community together.
7. Top 5 teams of the week.
1. Chicago Blackhawks
2. Washington Capitals
3. Toronto Maple Leaf’s
4. Colorado Avalanche
5. New Jersey Devils
