With the first week of the NHL season behind us, teams begin to let go of their early-season anxiety. Heading into Week 2, his top of the NHL Power Rankings list of overtime heroics has been pretty stagnant so far (apart from the Edmonton Oilers goaltending changing things up). ), but there’s a lot of movement in the bottom half of the league.
The Colorado Avalanche and the Tampa Bay Lightning, with just a few games for each team, may have gotten off to a slower start than expected. Anything that doesn’t go unbeaten with a sizeable positive goal difference is disappointing for a team as good as these two he is.
The New York Rangers and Pittsburgh Penguins are two teams to watch. Both offenses are off to a good start with the Rangers scoring four and the Penguins scoring six. For the Rangers, this was kind of expected based on their performance last season. Led by Artemi Panarin (6 points for him in 3 games) and Mika Zibanejad (4 points), this exciting squad could soon dominate the league.
Moving on to the Detroit Red Wings, they were one of the teams whose predictions were murky heading into the season. They made a ton of big moves and plays in the offseason and showed they were ready to compete. Now, with two wins in two games and just two goals conceded, it’s possible that they are unlikely contenders for playoff berths in the East. showing gender.
The biggest moves of the week are the San Jose Sharks, Philadelphia Flyers and Edmonton Oilers. Here’s what’s happening with these teams.
Do sharks hibernate?
Expectations were low for the Sharks this season as they were left behind in the Pacific Division, but they are still disappointing after going 0-4 with just six goals to start the season. The biggest names in the team’s forward group, Logan Couture, Timo Meyer and Thomas Hertl, have a combined two goals and four points. The Sharks have little depth forward beyond them, so if these three of him struggle and get off to a slow start, the rest of the team will follow.
I think it’s because of the aforementioned early-season jitters, but teams tend to take important prizes, handle the puck poorly, and give up many scoring chances without being able to capitalize on them. doing.
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The goalkeeper tandem of James Reimer and Kaapo Kahkonen was a mixed bag. The former has decent stat lines of 2.56 GAA and .924 SV%. But it doesn’t matter how good the goalkeeper is when the team only scores 1.5 goals per game. The latter is heavily overwhelmed with 4.14 GAA and .814 SV%. If he stays on the shark roster, he has to be better.
Slow start still plagues Edmonton refuelers
This has been a longstanding problem for the Oilers. Game starts slow. It became a joke that the team might start 1-0 in the first puck drop, as they would likely give up goals within the first few minutes anyway. And that trend continues this season.
In both games so far, Edmonton have given up a goal within the first two minutes. Over the years, so many coaches, and so many different players on the roster, that this is still an issue that seems to affect them significantly compared to other teams. I’m confused.
Heading into the season, the Oilers had some important storylines to watch. One of them was how goaltending would play out. Signing free agent Jack Campbell, Big was supposed to be the team’s number one goalkeeper. In 70 minutes of ice time (in the second game of the season he was pulled in his 10 minutes), he gave up his 7 goals. His goals average is just short of six and his save percentage is .851.
Campbell’s previous team has also done him no favors. Defense is a scramble, with freebies and missed assignments costing teams very dangerous chances and goals. No. The Edmonton Oilers goal management issue, which was thought to be reasonably resolved, may still be an issue.
The John Tortorella effect in action
The Philadelphia Flyers were another team with little to no expectations to start the season. Many people began to question whether he had agreed to accept the job at .
And things escalated as Tortorella wasn’t afraid to be completely candid about what he saw with this team as he headed into the season. said openly. Or he says he thinks the team isn’t good at anything. Not what I want to hear from the coach.
But in the first two games of the season, the Flyers are 2-0 with eight goals in favor and four against. Not what was expected from a team with little depth and ongoing goaltending issues.
This tends to be a bit of a trend with a team coached by John Tortorella, especially during his time with the Columbus Blue Jackets, where he can lead the team to a good year or two. Was the Flyers’ early success the result? Or just a few games against equally weak teams in the New Jersey Devils and Vancouver Canucks?
Who do you think is poised to take a giant leap in the rankings? Is the Edmonton Oilers goaltending cause for concern already? Drop your comments below!
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