An Avalanche of Goals
Colorado bounces back; Capitals, Flyers, Lightning, Sens all win
When the Colorado Avalanche lost their opening game to St. Louis, 4-1 on home ice, it was not a shocking event, because the Blues should be a good team, but it also put some sense of urgency on the second game of the season because the Avalanche are favored to be the best team in the league this season and losing two in a row at home to start the season is not becoming a team of their expected value.
Well, not to worry. The Avalanche made a line shuffle, putting captain Gabriel Landeskog back on the top line with Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen and they destroyed the Blues, the trio accounting for half of Colorado’s eight goals in an 8-0 demolition.
The scoreboard told the story well enough but the Avalanche earned that lopsided win. They outshot the Blues 38-21 and had more than 77% of the expected goals through the first two periods.
That was the Avalanche team that was expected this season.
FRIDAY STARS
PHI RW Travis Konecny 3 G, 1 A in a 5-2 win vs. Pittsburgh
OTT LW Brady Tkachuk 1 G, 2 A in a 5-3 win vs. Toronto
COL C Nathan MacKinnon 1 G, 2 A in an 8-0 win vs. St. Louis
WSH G Vitek Vanecek stopped 30 of 31 shots in a 2-1 win at Buffalo
Washington 2 Buffalo 1
WSH RW Tom Wilson 1 G, 1 A
WSH G Vitek Vanecek stopped 30 of 31 shots in his NHL debut to earn the win.
Pittsburgh 2 Philadelphia 5
PHI RW Travis Konecny 3 G, 1 A
PHI LW Claude Giroux, LW James van Riemsdyk, and RW Jakub Voracek 2 A
PIT G Tristan Jarry allowed three goals on six shots. Goaltending was a question mark coming into the season for the Penguins and it has been answered early, just maybe not in the way they would like it to be answered.
Coming up next, I’ll continue through the rest of Friday’s games and go through some injury or status updates.
Chicago 2, Tampa Bay 5
TB RW Blake Coleman, LW Ondrej Palat, RW Steven Stamkos, and C Yanni Gourde 1 G, 1 A
TB LW Barclay Goodrow 2 A
CHI LW Alex DeBrincat 1 G, 1 A
TB D Ryan McDonagh and D Erik Cernak were on the ice for 3 GF, 0 GA at 5-on-5.
CHI rookie D Ian Mitchell had the best shot differentials (73.7 CF%) on the team but was outscored 3-0 during 5-on-5 play.
Toronto 3 Ottawa 5
OTT LW Brady Tkachuk 1 G, 2 A
OTT RW Drake Batherson, C Josh Norris, D Nikita Zaitsev 2 A
TOR C John Tavares 1 G, 1 A
TOR G Frederik Andersen allowed five goals on 24 shots. None of the goals were glaringly his fault but it did seem like it was too easy for Ottawa in this game.
TOR D Morgan Rielly was on the ice for three goals against, and none for, during 5-on-5 play.
St. Louis 0 Colorado 8
COL C Nathan MacKinnon 1 G, 2 A
COL D Cale Makar 3 A
COL LW Gabriel Landeskog 2 G
COL RW Andre Burakovsky, D Devon Toews, RW Mikko Rantanen, and C Nazem Kadri 1 G, 1 A
COL G Philipp Grubauer made 19 saves for the shutout.
STL C Brayden Schenn and D Vince Dunn were both on for three goals against (and none for) at 5-on-5.
Injuries/roster notes
PHI C Sean Couturier getting MRI on his shoulder. He played just 45 seconds against Pittsburgh Friday.
CAR C Jordan Staal is on the Covid-19 list.
TB RW Tyler Johnson returned to the Lightning lineup Friday.
OTT C Colin White was a healthy scratch against Toronto. Just five more seasons at $4.75M remaining on his deal.
STL RW Mike Hoffman played (2 SOG, 12:52 TOI) after missing the first game due to visa issues.
PIT D Chad Ruhwedel was inserted into the lineup for Cody Ceci. That didn’t take long.
Shots/Expected Goals (from Natural Stat Trick)
Saturday’s Probabilities
Saturday DFS on Draft Kings
OTT C Josh Norris $2500
LA C Gabe Vilardi $2600
CAR LW Nino Niederreiter $4400
VAN RW Brock Boeser $4600
MIN LW Kirill Kaprizov $4200
NYR RW Alexis Lafreniere $3500
EDM LW Dominik Kahun $3100
DET D Filip Hronek $3600
CBJ D Zach Werenski $4700
TOR D Justin Holl $2700
NSH G Juuse Saros $7800
MTL G Carey Price $7200