Speaking of meltdowns, Pittsburgh's suffering one themselves. They trail the Hawks 8-1 after 40.

Make it now 10-1.  I haven't seen the Hawks score this much, since Savard and Larmer were donning the unis.

A lot of crazy high scores to start the season. It will normalize though ... no need to panic yet for teams that got blown out.

Las Vegas has won their NHL debut. James Neal scored both of the Knights goals, defeating Dallas 2-1.

Oct 7, 2017 3:21:37 GMT CM Punk'd said:

Las Vegas has won their NHL debut. James Neal scored both of the Knights goals, defeating Dallas 2-1.

How crazy is it that a former Star beats his old team in the first game in VGK history.

The Leafs are in a shooting gallery. Everyone's taking a shot at the so-called "King."

5-1 for the Buds, and it's still in the 1st.

And how about Ovechkin.  Two games, and he already has a pair of hat-tricks.

Oh boy. One minute, the Leafs look like a powerhouse. The next, they're looking like they did before Matthews arrived. 5-5.

CONSISTENCY, MEN!!!

Reaves is one badass motherfucker. My LAWD.

The Rangers sure provided us a scare with that second period. But the Leafs recovered, and survived it, 8-5.

Also, WHAT THE HELL, OVECHKIN?!!! Seven goals in the first two games of the season. The man's a freak of nature.

-It seems the rumors of Ovechkin's decline are highly exaggerated.
-King Henrik day's of being an elite goaltender could be coming to an end.

It's extremely early, but I'm just not too confident in the Rangers this season. They have guys who are not used to playing top minutes (Miller and Hayes) who are better suited as bottom six forwards on a championship caliber team. Rangers defense looks great on paper, but it has been a mess so far this season. I can't expect Zuccarello to carry this team night and night out. At least Ricks Dick will be gonzo after this year. And, I cringe everytime I remind myself that Pavelec is the back up.

The Rangers had a good run and looking back I'm not upset at what was done. They had their window so you gotta go after it. Stepan was just the beginning of a rebuild on the fly.

I love Ehlers. Became my favourite player early last season, bought his jersey. Watching him get his hat trick last night was great. Hellebuyck looked solid as well.

How about Las Vegas? Up 5-1 in their home debut. These teams better not sleep on these guys. There's some good veterans, and they got a great coach. RT ,your prediction about the Knights may not be as far fetched as you think.

I had a feeling Vegas would come out flying, and there are some pretty average-to-terrible teams in the west. I think the Golden Knights will definitely slow down and slump at some point but they've got a decent core of players and could pull out some upsets over the year.

I'd hate to be the Leafs today and tomorrow. Babcock is going to run them ragged. He's been expecting a game like last night since the preseason. Defense needs work!

Let's not forget two of those wins are against the Coyotes. It's just a matter of time until they are treading water. Their roster is no where near playoff ready as it should be this early.

With that said they have done a nice job to get this team ready for the future. They gotta do a fire sale by Christmas in order to get that first overall pick.

The curse is over. Leafs have finally beaten the Habs. Auston Matthews .. the promised prince has arrived.

Leafs still need to tinker their defense. It'll catch up to them sooner or later. They can't be scoring at this pace forever.

Yes the defense does need work, but more concerning is Freddie. He has got to give better than a .880 save pct.

Was at the Jets game last night. They were massively outplayed, but Hellebuyck kept them in the game until my boy Ehlers took over and scored another beauty. Coach Momo continues to be an idiot, and put Tanev with Little and Laine when Perreault got injured. Tanev has one quality...speed. That's it. He's a fringe NHLer. Jets keep winning despite Maurice and his outdated thinking, poor line optimization, and passive-box penalty kill.

Well what can I say? The Rangers are garbage it's time for that rebuild.

Kucherov and Stamkos are on fire. Stamkos has become assist machine. 

Oct 22, 2017 7:24:20 GMT toxicboy1980 said:

Kucherov and Stamkos are on fire. Stamkos has become assist machine. 

Tampa is scary this year. I've said before but I'll say again: if they were healthy last year, the Leafs would never have made the playoffs.

I think Tampa wins the division pretty easily this year.


..

Leafs sign Polak, which means bye bye Calle Rosen. I'm sad the Swedish defensive duo didn't work out as planned. Borgman is just on another level. I hope losing his best buddy doesn't hurt his play, but something had to happen. Ottawa made Toronto look stupid defensively last night.

Oct 18, 2017 18:01:39 GMT Zappy said:

Well what can I say? The Rangers are garbage it's time for that rebuild.


Do you think AV is the right coach to rebuild with? 

Oct 23, 2017 2:51:51 GMT Ed said:

Oct 18, 2017 18:01:39 GMT Zappy said:

Well what can I say? The Rangers are garbage it's time for that rebuild.


Do you think AV is the right coach to rebuild with? 

I think AV is a fantastic coach. The question would be does he want to be apart of a rebuilding team? He was so damn close with the Canucks and has had a ton of success with the Rangers. Its a matter of does he want to be part of a contending team. It would be ridiculous if the Rangers don't offer him a new contract.

AV can only do so much with this group of forwards. Outside of Zibanejad and Zuccarello Sauce the rest are either unproven (Hayes/Miller/Kreider), washed up (Rick The Dick), or a bunch of grinders.

One of the dumbest fucking moves the Canucks ever made, was firing Vigneult.

Me yesterday: "There's no way he gets claimed. Nobody is that dumb"

Tallon: Hold my beer...

Pretty unbelievable that Niemi gets claimed, but a legitimate goalie like Pickard makes it through waivers (and then traded).

Matt Murray made the save of the season tonight.

Any chance the Penguins reacquire Fleury at the deadline for their playoff run?

Oct 25, 2017 5:45:04 GMT Zappy said:

Any chance the Penguins reacquire Fleury at the deadline for their playoff run?

No way. Fleury is already a god in Las Vegas. If they even sniff the playoffs this year they'll hold on to him as long as they can.

I'm still blown away by the goalie interference call in the Leafs/Kings game Monday night. I can't wrap my head around it.

If Matt Martin is causing goalie interference by sliding into Quick (whether he had control over his actions or not), fine. If that's interference, BLOW THE PLAY DEAD RIGHT THERE.

Mitch Marner held off a wide open net because he saw Martin hit Quick. Then Quick got up, moved to his right, then moved AGAIN towards Marner, then Marner shot and scored.

Martin was no longer in the crease or interfering with Quick. At least 5 seconds went by after Martin left the crease, Quick made moves to stop the puck, and then Marner shot it.

So the NHL has set a precedent that if you touch a goalie, the puck can't enter the net for at least 5 seconds after that. Probably longer.

WHAT

Las Vegas, in just their first month of play (which isn't done, BTW), are the best team in the National Hockey League, with a record of 8-1.

Prior to the season, if you were to say that would happen, I would've called you sick in the head.

In less than a month, Vegas has as many wins, as the expansion Washington Capitals had in all of their first year (1974-75, still the worst in league history).

Crazy, isn't it?