Keeping up with the Metropolitans: Week 2

The Metropolitan has been full of surprises so far in the early going. Check out how each team fared this week!

By t.cann112 Oct 13, 2019, 12:30pm EDT

It’s been another unpredictable week in the Metro to start off this new campaign. The Hurricanes were undefeated in their first five games of the year, while the much improved Devils remain winless this season. There have been some early season struggles from some of the stronger teams in the Metro while some of the lesser teams from last year are flashing signs of improvement.

It’s a busy week in the NHL this week with the majority of teams playing in three games and many playing four games this week. It seems this season is going to be another roller coaster ride until the very end. Get ready, folks!

The Penguins had their first winning week of the season this week, but it didn’t start off with a very promising game. The Winnipeg Jets came into Pittsburgh with a depleted defensive group to face a Penguins team with an equally depleted forward group. The Jets defense came out of the game smiling like a butcher’s dog on Mike Lange Night at The Paint Can in a 4-1 victory over the Penguins, ending their 18 game losing streak in Pittsburgh dating back to 2007.

Sidney Crosby continued to prove that he’s still capable of carrying the Penguins on his back two nights later back at PPG Paints Arena. Crosby would open the scoring with a PPG three minutes into the 2nd period before Ondrej Kase would tie the game 30 seconds later for Anaheim. Crosby then displayed what makes him so great in the 3rd period when he retrieved a puck with only one hand on his stick and made Josh Manson look like a fool by outmuscling him with his other arm before firing a backhand pass right to the stick of Jake Guentzel who buries the shot, resulting in the 2-1 victory for the Penguins. Crosby created both goals for the Penguins that night and Matt Murray made 31 saves in the hard fought victory for Pittsburgh.

The Penguins would put up another seven goal game to wrap up the week in the Pens’ first road game of the year in Minnesota. The call-ups to replace the injured Penguins forwards played a major part in the game. Midway through the game with the score 2-1 in favor of the Penguins, Patric Hornqvist was in his office and created an absolute ballroom blitz when he laid his hands on Wild goalie Devan Dubnyk who retaliated with several blows to Hornqvist to go along with several other Wild players in the process. Dubnyk would get called for the roughing penalty and then would proceed to allow three goals in a 2:28 span ending his night and giving the Penguins a 5-1 lead they would not relinquish, finishing with a 7-4 final score.

Minnesota native Adam Johnson scored his first career goal in front on many friends and family and Sam Lafferty added an empty net goal to record his first career goal, as well. Joseph Blandisi was called up prior to the game and wound up registering the game-winning goal with his first goal with the Penguins in the 2nd period. Adam Johnson, Lafferty and Blandisi finished with six points between them on a night the Penguins needed the added offense.

The Penguins will be back in action this evening in Winnipeg in the Pens’ first set of 17 back-to-back situations this season. The Pens will return back home for a three game home stand in four days against Western Conference teams to wrap up a busy week for Pittsburgh. The Avs will be in Pittsburgh on Wednesday night before the Stars on Friday night. It will be another emotional night on Saturday night when Marc-Andre Fleury and the Golden Knights return to Pittsburgh for another reunion with one of the franchise’s well liked players.

New York Islanders v Carolina Hurricanes

The Hurricanes seemed to have bottled the magic from the end of last year and began this year right where they left off with a fast 5-0 start. The Canes began last week on the back end of a back-to-back at home against Tampa Bay after playing in DC the night before. Carolina would rally for the third straight game to begin the season and force OT by scoring the game’s final three goals with Jaccob Slavin scoring the game winner in OT to defeat the Lightning 4-3 and send the home fans happy in an exciting game.

The Hurricanes then hit the road to Sunrise for a quick one game road trip before returning home for another back-to-back. Carolina scored four 1st period goals and Ryan Dzingel scored his first two goals with Carolina as James Reimer faced 50 shots against his former team, stopping 47 of them in a convincing 6-3 victory for the Hurricanes, their fourth in a row to begin this new season.

Carolina got a quick start at home on Friday against the Islanders and took over a 2-2 game late in the 2nd with two late goals before adding an ENG in the 3rd period to knock off their Metro opponent Islanders 5-2 and begin the year 5-0. The Hurricanes outshot the Islanders 40-19 and both of the Islanders goals came via power play. The Hurricanes proved that they can win many different ways in their five games to begin the year.

However, their win streak was snapped against another Metropolitan rival the next night. It was a very competitive game and the Hurricanes would answer the Blue Jacket’s first two goals within 30 seconds of each goal to bring the game to a 2-2 tie entering the 3rd period. Columbus would score a goal a minute into the 3rd period and the Hurricanes could not answer as the Blue Jackets held on for the 3-2 regulation win and handing the Hurricanes their first loss of the year.

The Hurricanes have a tough road ahead of them for the next several weeks. The Canes will fly out to California this week to take on the three Cali teams beginning in L.A. on Tuesday night. The Sharks will be waiting for them in San Jose the following night before the Canes wrap up their week with their third game in four days in Anaheim on Friday night. Carolina will then return home before heading to Columbus in the next game the following Thursday.

The Capitals had an up and down week winning in regulation, losing in regulation and losing an overtime game. The Stars were first in line on Tuesday night in DC. Evgeny Kuznetsov returned from his suspension with an early goal less than five minutes into the 1st period and the game would be back and forth. Dallas scored two goals in the 3rd period to hold onto a 3-2 lead late in the game before Nicklas Backstrom would tied the game with 30 seconds remaining to force overtime. Tyler Seguin then made quick work and scored 43 seconds into the extra period to give the Stars their first win of the season.

The Capitals hit the road to Smashville two nights later in one of the more thrilling games this year so far in the NHL. The Capitals scored three 2nd period goals to have a 4-2 edge going into the 3rd period. Nashville would answer with two goals to swing momentum in their favor before T.J. Oshie answered midway through the 3rd to give the Capitals a 5-4 lead. Nick Bonino and Mattias Ekholm would then score 30 seconds apart with five minutes remaining, much to the delight of the Nashville faithful, and hand the Capitals their third loss in a row.

Dallas then played host to the Capitals for the two teams second game in five days, ending their season series just like that. The Capitals would gain a 2-0 lead after 40 minutes before Kuznetsov scored to make it 3-0 early in the 3rd period and the Capitals would hold on and add an ENG by Ovechkin to make it a 4-1 final and get revenge after the Stars defeated the Capitals in DC on Wednesday night.

The Capitals will have a three game home stand this week beginning against Colorado on Monday evening, with a 5 p.m. start time on Columbus Day. Toronto will be in town on Wednesday in what should be a highly entertaining game featuring two dynamic offensive teams. The Rangers will wrap up the week for Washington on Friday night before the Capitals are on the road for the remainder of October.

The Flyers returned home from their opening games in Prague and had mixed results. Carter Hart was flying high and would record his first career shutout with 25 saves over their closest rival in New Jersey. Ivan Provorov scored his first goal midway through the 1st period and Kevin Hayes would record his first goal in the orange and black as the Flyers pulled away in the 3rd period with three goals and shutout the Devils 4-0 in Philly on Wednesday night.

The Flyers then flew to the other side of North America to take on the Canucks in Vancouver on Saturday night. It was another back and forth game and the Canucks would have a 2-1 lead going into the 3rd period before Oskar Lindblom scored on the power play to tie the game. It remained tied through regulation and overtime until Vancouver outscored the Flyers 2-1 in the shootout to register the win for Vancouver.

Philadelphia will be in Calgary on Tuesday night before playing in Edmonton on Wednesday night to wrap up their western Canada swing. The Flyers then return home to face the Stars on Saturday night in Philly.

The Flyers have only played three games, but have also been all over the world during that span. Meanwhile, the Rangers have also only played three games and haven’t really gone too far away at all. The Rangers play only three games in the first three weeks of the NHL season and only had one on the docket this week at home against Edmonton.

The Rangers played like a team that hadn’t had any action in six days and fell short against the Oilers. Kaapo Kakko scored his first goal in the NHL but other than that it was a pretty uninspiring game by the Rangers as the Oilers tied it at one after 40 minutes before scoring the final three goals in the 3rd to defeat the Rangers 4-1 on Saturday afternoon.

Believe it or not, but the Rangers have another small workload this week with only two games in two nights on the road against the Devils on Thursday before facing the Capitals on Friday. The Rangers will then remain home for the rest of October in one of the weirdest schedules for any team to begin the season which may come back to haunt them in the end of the year as the Rangers will have to make up these games and travel eventually.

Columbus Blue Jackets v Carolina Hurricanes

Columbus finally got one in the win column at home against a red hot Buffalo Sabres team on Monday night. Columbus would score two goals late in the 1st period and the Sabres would answer with two goals of their own in the 2nd period. Nick Foligno would score a PPG to give the Jackets a 3-2 lead but Victor Olofsson recorded his third straight game with a PPG to force overtime. Alexandre Texier would score the game winner two minutes into sudden death and the Jackets would get their much needed first victory of the year.

The Jackets’ winning ways wouldn’t last, however, as Ryan Miller and the Ducks continued their tight defensive play and good goaltending to hold on to a 2-1 victory in regulation over Columbus on Friday night. All three goals in the game were score in a three minute span that saw Anaheim score short-handed and add another goal two minutes later before Columbus scored their only goal of the game one minute after that.

Columbus may have gained a lot of confidence in their final game of the week. They were on the road on the back end of a back-to-back against an undefeated and high flying Carolina team. Coach John Tortorella would send out Joonas Korpisalo for the second night in a row and he made 30 saves in a tightly contested game. As I mentioned above, each team answered the opponents goal within 30 seconds in the first two periods before Pierre-Luc Dubois scored in consecutive games to give the Blue Jackets the 3-2 lead they would not give back up and hand the Canes their first loss of the year and take a big step forward after a turbulent beginning to the year in Columbus.

Columbus will have three days off before playing three games in four days to wrap up their week. The Stars will be in town on Wednesday night before the Jackets are in Chicago on Friday night. Columbus will then return home on Saturday night to face the New York Islanders.

The Islanders also had an up and down week last week. They played four games beginning at home against Winnipeg last Sunday. The Islanders opened the scoring in the 2nd period and would put up three goals in the period before adding another goal in the 3rd and hold off the Jets by a final of 4-1.

James Neal would have a night to remember on Long Island two nights later. Neal would score four goals in the game, giving him six goals in only three games. The Islanders had no answer or fight left in them after Neal scored his third goal and the Oilers kept up the pressure in a 5-2 victory.

The Isles were behind the 8 ball the entire game in Carolina on Friday and looked out of sorts from the get-go in that game. The Canes outscored the Isles 2-1 in the 1st and 2nd period before adding an ENG to send the Islanders back home losers in back to back 5-2 losses.

The Islanders would respond 24 hours later at home against the Panthers, however. The Islanders scored two 2nd period goals but would allow Evgenii Dadonov to tie the game with less than 10 minutes in the 3rd period. Neither team would score again until the shootout when Brock Nelson scored the only goal on the first attempt of the shootout to preserve a 3-2 shootout victory for New York to finish their week on a winning note.

The Islanders will host the Stanley Cup winning Blues on Monday afternoon before heading to Winnipeg on Thursday night in Canada. The Islanders end their week on the road against a Metropolitan opponent in Columbus on Saturday night.

The Devils start to this season could not have gone much worse. They have surrendered three or more goals in all five of their games so far, and unsurprisingly lost all of them. Their suffering began in Philadelphia on Wednesday night as the Flyers had their way with the Devils and shut out the Devils 4-0.

The Devils returned home the next night to face the Fightin’ McDavids and Damon Severson scored with less than five minutes in regulation to break a 2-2 tie and give the home fans hope for their first victory of the year. But Blake Coleman would get a tripping penalty on McDavid with 1:16 remaining and of course, McDavid would score 10 seconds later to tie the game. Neither team would score in overtime and Leon Draisaitl scored the only goal of the shootout in the bottom of the 3rd inning for the walk off victory for Edmonton, New Jersey’s fourth loss in a row to start this season.

The suffering continued Saturday night for New Jersey as they shipped off to Boston to face the Bruins in their home opener. Brad Marchand scored his fourth goal of the year 3:33 into the first frame which would turn out to be the game winner as the Devils could not get one past Tuukka Rask who stopped all 31 shots he faced and the Devils lost their fifth in a row to begin their season.

The good news for New Jersey is that they won’t leave the confines of the Garden State until November. Their next chance to get that elusive first victory will be Monday afternoon against the Florida Panthers. The Devils will then hose the Rangers on Thursday night before another afternoon game against Vancouver on Saturday afternoon and will only play two more games for the rest of October.