Don't Mess With The Metro

Varlamov, Avalanche ruin Shattenkirk’s Rangers Debut

It was so perfect, The Rangers got to open up the season against the worst team and start out with an easy win, until it wasn’t. Simply put, the Rangers were the better team tonight. Yet, Semyon Varlamov simply stole a game at The Garden tonight while the Rangers dominated for most of the game. While there will be a lot of disappointment surrounding this game, I take a lot of positives from tonight. Mika Zibanejad and Pavel Buchnevich were fantastic, while Brady Skjei was one of the best players on the ice tonight. As for the disappointments, defensively the McDonagh/Shattenkirk D-Pair has a lot of kinks to work out while Henrik Lundqvist struggled tonight. This isn’t a “Henrik Lundqvist is too old for this” article BUT going forward, NYR will need more from him. After a high scoring 1st Period, the teams went into the locker room tied. The Rangers seemed to dominate the next 40 minutes, however the Avalanche took the scoring 2-0 (including an EN tally). Credit the Avalanche, but it wasn’t the Rangers night. Onto Toronto for NYR. 

3 Stars 

3. Mika Zibanejad (NYR- 2 Goals)

2. Matt Duchene (COL- 1 Goal, 1 Assist)

1. Semyon Varlamov (COL- 37 Saves, 1.000 ES SV%)

Alex Ovechkin’s Excelling Performance Leads the Capitals Past the Senators in a Shootout

A wild night in Ottawa that featured 5 third period goals ended up with the Capitals overcoming a 3-1 deficit to win in a shootout 5-4. The Senators scored 3 of their goals tonight off of turnovers by the Capitals in the defensive and neutral zones. Derick Brassard lead the Senators with a goal and 2 assists, while Mark Stone put a couple in the back of the net. Chris Wideman has the first goal and Bobby Ryan picked up a couple of helpers in addition to Ottawa’s lone shootout goal. Craig Anderson made 24 saves on 28 shots in the losing effort, as Ottawa starts the season 0-0-1 (1 point). They next host Detroit on Saturday night. The Capitals, despite the defensive lapses, managed to pull away with this one, thanks in large part to Alex Ovechkin. Ovechkin scored 3 goals tonight, plus one in the shootout, to start off the season with a hat trick, the 18th one of his storied-career. Brett Connolly scored the other goal for Washington, while Jakub Vrana notched 2 helpers. Evgeny Kuznetsov scored the winning shootout goal and tallied 3 assists to his resume. The Capitals penalty skill was solid, as they went 5/5 on the night that included a kill in overtime. Braden Holtby made 28 saves on 32 shots as Washington starts the season at 1-0-0 (2 points). They open their home campaign on Saturday night vs Montreal.

3 Stars

1) Alex Ovechkin

2) Derick Brassard

3) Mark Stone