NHL Offers Plenty of Surprises In The Early Going

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Today’s Lineup:

• NHL offers plenty of early surprises

• Josh Norris scores twice in season debut

• DeBrincat & Copp each score twice to beat Pens

• And a lot more… 👇

NHL Offers Plenty of Surprises in the Early Going

The NHL season is barely underway and already there are events happening that defy explanation. Here are 10 things we don’t understand:

1. The Detroit Red Wings and Ottawa Senators sit atop the Atlantic Division standings with 3-1 records. The Red Wings have missed the playoffs for seven seasons in a row and the Senators’ postseason drought is at six seasons. The two teams will play Saturday to see where they really stand.

2. Detroit’s Alex DeBrincat leads the NHL in points with eight in his first four games playing for the team he rooted for as a child.

3. The Boston Bruins won their first two games. Weren’t they supposed to collapse after Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci retired?

4. GM Lou Lamoriello’s New York Islanders are 2-0 despite having only scored four goals total in their first two games. It’s good to be on the team with Ilya Sorokin in goal.

5. With goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy on the long-term injured reserve, the Lightning are giving up 4.25 goals per game. The surprise here is that the Lightning haven’t made a deal to shore up the goaltending. Are they hoping the Red Wings put Alex Lyon through waivers?

6. The Seattle Kraken have only scored three goals in their first four games. Toronto’s Auston Matthews scored six goals in his first two games.

7. Defenseman Dmitry Orlov, signed this summer for $7.75 million per season on a two-year deal, is minus-7 for the 3-1 Carolina Hurricanes.

8. Buffalo’s Tage Thompson has no points in his first three games after putting up 94 last season. He has 12 shots on goal.

9. The Sharks are averaging 20 shots per game and giving up an average of 42 per game. It could be a very long season for the Sharks.

10. Chicago Blackhawks rookie Connor Bedard has 20 shots on goal in his first four NHL games. That ranks fourth in the NHL, ahead of players like Alex Ovechkin, Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and both Tkachuk brothers.

✌️ Josh Norris scores twice in first game back, leads Sens to 6-1 shellacking of Capitals. The 24-year-old forward missed the past 270 days thanks to a shoulder injury but didn’t seem to miss a beat in his season debut, scoring a power play goal and eventual game-winner midway through the 1st before snapping home his second goal of the game just under two minutes into the 2nd. Tarasenko, Zub, Giroux, and Sanderson added goals while Forsberg made 23 saves as the Senators won their 3rd straight. Read more →

🚨 Alex DeBrincat & Andrew Copp each score twice as Red Wings defeat Pens 6-3. DeBrincat got the Red Wings on the scoresheet midway through the 1st to tie the game at 1-1 and added his team-leading 5th goal late in the 3rd to pad the Wings lead. Copp tipped home his 2nd of the season in the 2nd before adding an empty netter with 92 seconds remaining in regulation. Chiarot and Perron (GWG) also scored for the Wings and Ville Husso made 30 saves as Detroit also won their 3rd straight. Read more →

What is the longest winning streak in Ottawa Senators history? Bonus: what year?

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The longest winning streak in Ottawa Senators history is 11 games set in the 2009-10 season.