The first week of the NHL season is in the books.
Here is the best and worst from the first week.
Best of the week
New York Islanders
The Islanders are 3-0 to start the season. They beat Carolina in their first two games but beating the Rangers 6-3 at MSG was a notice to every team in the East. Brock Nelson has 4 goals in 3 games to start the season.
Picking up Johnny Boychuk and Nick Leddy before the start of the season was a smart move by GM Garth Snow. Boychuk has gotten off to a fast start, putting in a couple goals on the power play and Leddy scored his first goal against the Rangers.
Rick Nash
Nash had a tough go in last year’s playoffs but he’s bounced back to start this season, scoring 6 goals in 4 games. He’s had a goal in each of the 4 games. His wife also gave birth to their first child. Good times for Rick Nash.
Penguins Coach Mike Johnston
The Penguins have looked very good in their first two games to start the season. Beating Anaheim 6-4 in the season opener and then dominating Toronto at the ACC is a good start for Coach Johnston. The team looks better as a whole and all the fears about the changes this offseason are slowly being put to rest.
Victor Hedman
He’s been dominant so far for the Lightning with 7 points in 4 games(3 G, 4 A). He had a breakout year last season and he is on the way to having another great year.
Daniel Briere
He got his 300th career goal and game winner with less than a second left in regulation against Boston on Monday. And you thought buzzer-beating goals only happened in Mighty Ducks movies.
San Jose
The Sharks are off to a 3-0 start to the regular season. Unfortunately for them, no one will take it too seriously since they’ll be judged solely on post-season performance. GM Doug Wilson looks like a genius after John Scott had a goal against Washington on Tuesday.
Worst of the Week
Henrik Lundqvist
King Henrik got off to a rough start last October and it doesn’t look it will be any better this year. He gave up 6 goals against both Toronto and the Islanders. To be fair, he hasn’t gotten much help from his defense.
Buffalo’s performance against Anaheim
Buffalo’s coach Ted Nolan was not pleased after his team got destroyed by Anaheim on Monday afternoon. The Sabres lost to the Ducks 5-1 and were out shot 44-12. Nolan said the game looked like a “NHL team playing against a pewee team.”
Everyone calling Phil Kessel fat
The Toronto media has been all over Phil Kessel since the start of training camp because he came into camp out of shape. He and the Leafs struggled in the first two games but have played well the last two. He answered his critics in a game against the Avalanche on Tuesday, scoring the game winner in OT.
Florida’s attendance
The Panthers attendance has been iffy for awhile now but it came to a head with the season opener(11,419 attended the game). Then at the second home game against Ottawa it appeared that no one in Florida was aware a game was being played that night. The attendance was officially listed as 7,311 but it looked much less. There are reasons for this, as Florida’s new owners aren’t going to just give away tickets anymore.
Edmonton
Another year, another bad start to the season for the Oilers(0-2-1). They lost in a shootout and didn’t have a bad effort against the Canucks on Saturday night. But Los Angeles dominated the Oilers Tuesday night, beating them 6-1. It could be another long winter for the Oilers.
