The first few games of this young NHL season are behind us, and already there are a few surprises that should be talked about.
Leading off is the Ducks, looking less than mighty against Columbus in the Blue Jackets home opener tonight. Granted, this is already game four of the season for the Ducks compared to just one for the BJ’s (heehee)… but holy European Vacation Batman! How do you come out so flat against what is widely expected to be (yet again) one of the worst teams in the league?
I am willing to bet that at some point Brian “I’ll say whatever the !@# I want” Burke will come out against NHL teams starting the season off in Europe… not that he has been overwhelming in his support of the idea (saying “what choice do you have? when the league asks, you go”), but I bet he will have a few choice words by seasons end.
Another surprise from this game was the performance of Rick Nash. He set a career high of 4 points in a game (which is kind of shocking to me… a “superstar” that had only had at most 3 points in a game?), and actually looked like he might finally start living up to the hype. Now all he needs to do is stay healthy for an entire season and he should be golden.
Shocking but true headline #2: Joe Thornton knows how to shoot the puck!
I know it is only 2 games in to the season for the Sharks, but he has already shown that he won’t always do the most obvious thing you would expect a player who led the league last season with 92 assists (and 96 the season before that) to do. 2 goals in 2 games… and only 1 assist?
From the highlights tonight he had every opportunity to pass the puck off, but instead he chose to shoot. will wonders never cease…
Shocking headline #3: Is Guerin-Comrie-Fedotenko the newest elite line?
Again I have to stress that this is only based on one game, but 10 points between the 3 of them? sweet jebus!
Numbers like that are usually reserved for Heatley-Alfredsson-Spezza, Lecavalier-St.Louis-Richards or Thornton-Cheechoo-whoever they put out there for Thornton to deflect the puck off of… so I guess this will be a wait and see if they can maintain this level of performance sort of thing.
If this was against Chicago or Phoenix it might not be as surprising, but this was against Buffalo and Ryan Miller was in net…
Not so shocking but true headline #1: Leaf nation is suicidal after 2 games!
Oh my god, there is a goaltending controversy in the center of the universe.. let’s beat that dead horse on every freakin news cast as if it is actually a legitimate news story after only TWO GAMES!
Granted, if I was running things for the Maple Leafs the only thing Andrew Raycroft would be saving is my seat while I went off to the bathroom, and the Leafs did severely overpay for the services of one Vesa Toskala, but try and look at the bright side of this situation. At least they didn’t trade away the future of the franchise for some over the hill bums… this time they are still in their prime. 
Not so shocking but true headline #2: Canucks still severely dependent on Luongo to win.
Seriously, without him in net would they even stand a chance most nights? I wonder if he ever gets tired of being the most talented player on the ice for his team, or if he longs for his days in Florida.
That’s about it for this time around, but I’m sure there will be more to discuss as the season wears on.