Welcome back hockey fans! Welcome to Week 7 of our news from around the world of hockey and around the league. We have lots to get to, so let’s jump right in.
- One of the best things about any season is seeing some unreal things and last night we got to see a Goalie Goal when Filip Gustavsson scored an empty-net goal against the St. Louis Blues, as they beat them 4-1. The team celebrated like crazy after Gustavsson also made 27 saves and helped the team snag 2 points. That is always fun to see and we hope you go check it out.
- Speaking of milestones and goaltenders, Jake Allen of the New Jersey Devils is the first goalie in the NHL to win a game against all 33 teams (including the recently new Utah HC which were previously the Arizona Coyotes), which was also a shutout and the first loss for the new club. The win wasAllen’s 197th in his career since coming into the league with the St. Louis Blues in 2012-13. The win also put him inside the top-100 on the NHL’s all-time wins list (tied with elite goalie Jonas Hiller). That’s a pretty impressive feat after his trade from the Montreal Canadiens.
- As we are the first few days into the NHL season, we are seeing some wild storylines that have emerged. One is that there are 4 teams (Calgary, Dallas, Winnipeg and Tampa Bay) all who are left undefeated, and most impressive is Calgary who is 4-0-0. They have come out of the gate flying and being active and no one expected such a start. But they have buy in, Dustin Wolf is playing well and they are physical. We love seeing the Flames burn bright.
- Last night we saw Matvei Michkov score not only his first goal (but 2) against the Edmonton Oilers where he looked strong on the puck and played very well. We talked about Michkov last week on our episode with Philadelphia Flyers beat writer/reporter Jamey Baskov who raved about him and how he can be a possible Calder candidate this season. Keep an eye on him because if the Flyers are going to be competitive this season, Michkov will be a big part of that success.
- Speaking of Russian players, Washington Capitals forward Alex Ovechkin is the 6th player in NHL history to record 700+ goals and 700+ assists after the team’s 4-2 win against the Vegas Golden Knights. The 39 Russian forward is 42 goals away from breaking Wayne Gretzky and can break it this season, but he continues to defy father time and be a strong player. We love seeing Ovi be dominant and hope to see him break a few more records this season.
- There was also a report (and video online) of Rasmus Dahlin and Peyton Krebs dropping the gloves at Sabres practice and having to be separated by teammates after Dahlin hit Krebs low with a hip check which resulted in the scrum. Now this isn’t normally big news but the Sabres are 1-3-0 and have had early panic in the fanbase about the upcoming season and that the team needs to make the playoffs as they have struggled and it is a fanbase dying for some postseason success. This shows that the team showing some resilience and toughness and all teams go through this (thinking of the St. Louis Blues in 2019).
- Finally, some hockey fans (specifically Montreal and Pittsburgh fanS) noticed that their game was hosted on Amazon Prime Video (as well as being televised in French on RDS) after Amazon acquired the Canadian TV rights to select Monday night NHL games from Rogers for the next two seasons. This came from a big deal with the NHL and a means of the sport to venture into different forms of financial revenue. This is just the start and we can see this expand to other streaming services in the future.
- As always, there is a lot more news so make sure to tune in for our aired Season 6, Episode 7 of Two Guys & Hockey Talk. We dive into some great topics and much more.
Thoughts? Questions? Suggestions? Then remember to tune in each week to get all the latest news in the world of hockey. For more hockey news, different takes or if you want to chat about anything hockey give me a follow @hockey_two on TWITTER and give us a follow on YouTube, or at https://twoguysandhockeytalk.com/.
- Pawel ‘The Cat’
