|
First 48: Thoughts on a new NHL season |
|
|
 |
Ty Anderson
 Boston Bruins Blogger •Bruins Feature Columnist • RSS
• Archive
• CONTACT
|
|
|
The National Hockey League is back, and it's already become tough to keep up with the action.
And we're just 48 hours into the season....
This Vegas team is going to be a wagon, but the loss of Nate Schmidt could be a sneaky-big loss for Gerard Gallant’s squad. Taken out of Wednesday’s season opener after a knee-on-knee collision with the Sharks’ Logan Couture, Gallant has termed Schmidt’s injury “week to week.” Keep in mind that the Knights won just eight of the 20 games Schmidt missed during his 20-game suspension to open the 2018-19 season, and that the Knights moved on from defenseman Colin Miller this past summer.
Another note from Wednesday’s Knights-Sharks game: It feels borderline dangerous when these linesmen refuse to let two willing combatants go at it. I said as much on Twitter, and was alerted that Brian Burke had a similar take earlier in the week. Went back and watched it. He nailed it.
One thing’s for sure: These Knights-Sharks head-to-heads have become must-watch action.
I’ll dump on the Blues for the rest of my life. Partly because I enjoy the bit too much to ever let it go, but also because it’s how I cope with things. But the one thing I like about the Blues winning the Stanley Cup in 2019? The team’s relationship with superfan Laila Anderson. Not a dry eye in this here apartment when the Blues gifted her a Stanley Cup ring. Being around the Blues during the 2019 Stanley Cup Final, there’s no denying the impact Anderson had on the Blues and vice versa.
The Bruins, meanwhile, looked like the team you saw for the majority of the 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs in their 2-1 win over the Stars on Thursday. That’s both good and bad. Tuukka Rask looked dialed in, with stops on 28-of-29 shots against while Charlie Coyle remained a puck-possession monster. The bad? The Marchand-Bergeron-Pastrnak looked oddly out of sync.
A lot of that could come back to the fact that Bergeron was limited and only appeared in one preseason game, of course, but I really had a feeling that this line was going to come out guns blazing given the blame they shouldered for the Black and Gold’s postseason shortcomings on the biggest stage last June.
The Roman Polak incident was truly frightening. Watching the play in real-time, I figured it was just an awkward shoulder bump into the boards for the bruising defender after he mistimed a would-be hit on Chris Wagner. Then you saw the trainers from both teams come on the ice, you saw Bruins forward David Backes (Polak’s teammate in St. Louis) leading a prayer circle, and then the stretcher came out. It’s great to hear that Polak has movement in his extremities and is doing better at a local hospital.
Alex Ovechkin is already in midseason form. I was talking about this with some friends a little while ago, but I really hope we see Ovechkin give Gretzky’s all-time goals record a serious challenge. He’s currently 235 goals away, and at 34 years old, Ovechkin would need to average about 40 goals from now until he’s 40 to beat Gretzky. That’s assuming good health and steady production, too, which isn’t a guarantee when you consider how hard Ovechkin plays and the natural aging curve that hits ‘em all.
We all know that the Bolts are a well-oiled machine. They got better by adding Patrick Maroon and Kevin Shattenkirk as low-risk, high-reward signings. I figured these guys would be true depth pieces for the Bolts, too. But Shattenkirk scored a goal and led all Tampa Bay defenders in ice-time and Maroon scored a goal and was the team’s most-utilized bottom-six forward in their Game 1 win.
The only person who loves Opening Night more than hockey fans? Auston Matthews.
It’s great to see Carolina back in the mix as a legitimate threat. I was absolutely wowed by that arena and the energy around the team during my time in Raleigh in the 2019 Eastern Conference Finals. Largely unrelated, but I’m terrified of snakes. Just hate ‘em. Walking back to my hotel after a practice day, I arrived and walked through the parking lot to find two gigantic vultures eating… a snake. It was at that moment that I realized that the snake was run over in the hotel parking lot, meaning that there were snakes near the hotel I was staying at. Basically the worst. Other than that, loved NC.
Dougie Hamilton looks comfortable in Carolina red, and tallied two assists and the shootout winner in the Hurricanes’ Opening Night win over Carey Price and the Canadiens. Here’s a stat for you: Hamilton has a shot in 183 straight games dating back to Apr. 2017. The last time Hamilton failed to land a shot on goal? Game 1 of the team’s 2017 first-round series against the Ducks. Lotta rubber.
Ty Anderson is a writer, columnist, and weird personality for 98.5 The Sports Hub in Boston, where he covers all things Boston sports. He has been covering the National Hockey League for HockeyBuzz.com since 2010, and has also been part of the Boston Chapter of the PHWA since 2013. In addition to writing, Ty can occasionally be heard on the air at 98.5 The Sports Hub in Boston, and seen and/or heard on the NHL Network every now and then. He will not give you his email, so yell at him on Twitter (@_TyAnderson).
Join the Discussion:
»