Keeping up with the Metropolitans: Week 5

The calendar changes to October, but the Metro stayed roughly the same. Check out how the Metro fared last week!

By t.cann112 Nov 3, 2019, 6:00am EST

Philadelphia Flyers v Pittsburgh Penguins

The Penguins couldn’t have asked for a much better ending to October considering the circumstances. The Penguins were dealt injury after injury to key forwards, but still managed to not only stay afloat, but score goals at an unbelievable rate.

That surprising goal scoring pace was on full display when the Penguins began the week with the last game in October against cross state rival Philadelphia. The Penguins got four first period goals and seven total goals by seven different players with an all out assault of the Flyers in Pittsburgh to wrap up a relatively successful month of October for the Penguins.

The high flying Edmonton Oilers were next for Pittsburgh on Saturday to begin the festivities in month of November, but it wasn’t the usual suspects doing the goal scoring in regulation between the two teams. Colby Cave scored his first goal of the year for Edmonton midway through the game in what turned into a surprising goalie duel. Brian Dumoulin would add his first goal of the year while shorthanded late in the 3rd period to force another overtime game between the two teams.

Both teams decided that the game should be won in regulation and abandoned their defensive gameplans during regulation play and Leon Draisaitl would score 2:37 into overtime to give the Oilers the victory in overtime.

The Penguins remain in fourth place in the Metro after picking up three out of four possible points last week. The Penguins have a tough test to begin the week on the road in Boston on Monday night before facing the New York Islanders for the first time since last years playoffs at Barclays Center on Thursday night before ending the week at home against Chicago on Saturday night.

Washington Capitals v Toronto Maple Leafs

The Capitals had a relatively quiet week with only two games,but they made the most of them. The Caps wrapped up a five game road trip in Toronto on Tuesday night. John Carlson would score two goals and Alex Ovechkin would score the other two, with Ovechkin’s second of the game coming four minutes into overtime on the power play to end the road trip on a very high note for the Capitals.

John Carlson had a surprisingly quiet night when the Capitals returned home to face the Sabres, but the Capitals didn’t need him to show up on the scoreboard in this one as they scored four times in the first period and routed the Sabres 6-1 to finish the week undefeated in two games.

The Capitals return to action this evening at home against the Calgary Flames before flying to Florida for one game against the Panthers on Thursday and then returning back to DC to play the Golden Knights on Saturday night in a 2018 Stanley Cup Rematch.

The Islanders were hosting the Flyers last Sunday and were trying to accomplish something that hasn’t happened in nearly 30 years by winning seven games in a row. The Flyers hung with the Islanders in the first period, but the Isles took the game over in the second period and held on for a 5-3 victory, winning their seventh game in a row.

The Tampa Bay Lightning tried to end the streak at seven, but Barry Trotz and the Islanders instead made it eight in a row by pulling ahead in the 3rd period and holding off the Lightning’s late push and stopping 13/14 shots in the 3rd period by Tampa Bay.

It was a Barry Trotz Classic the following night in Buffalo for the Islanders. Derrick Brassard scored his fifth goal of the season in his fifth consecutive game, and that was the only scoring in the game as Semyon Varlamov turned aside all 27 Sabre shots he faced to extend the Isles streak to 9 games in a row.

Despite winning 9 games in a row, the Islanders are still not in first place although they did pass the Hurricanes for control of second place. The Islanders kick off a four game home stand and move to Barclays Center this week with games against Ottawa on Tuesday, Pittsburgh on Thursday and the Panthers on Saturday afternoon.

The Hurricanes began the last week slowly with only one game in the first five days, but made the most out of it. Carolina was trailing 1-0 going into the 3rd period but Andrei Svechnikov put the team on his shoulders and scored two goals to single-handedly take down the Flames. The Canes only allowed four shots on goal in the 3rd period and Petr Mrazek stopped 28/29 shots in the victory.

The Canes wrapped up last week with a back-to-back at home against Detroit on Friday and New Jersey on Saturday. The Red Wings put up a decent fight in the first two periods before Carolina closed the book on them with a shorthanded goal early in the 3rd period and their offense powered Carolina to a 7-3 win over the Wings.

New Jersey didn’t look like they would put up much more of a fight heading into the Hurricane’s next game, but New Jersey came to play and right their ship. It was back and forth through the first two frames, but New Jersey did all the scoring in the 3rd period to defeat the Hurricanes 5-3 and ruin a perfect week for Carolina.

The Hurricanes were bumped down a spot thanks the the Islanders win streak, but still sit comfortably in the top three of the Metro. The Hurricanes return to action in Philly on Tuesday night before returning to face the Rangers back at home on Thursday night. The Senators and Canes then play a home-and-home beginning in Ottawa on Saturday to end the week for Carolina.

If there’s one thing that I’ve learned writing these recaps the last few years, it’s that the Flyers are quite a case study. They are just as likely to win ten in a row as they are to lost ten in a row. The Flyers were coming into last week undefeated the week before. That didn’t last long.

The Flyers began last week in Long Island in the second game of a back-to-back. Jakub Voracek began the scoring but the Islanders roared back with three goals before Travis Konecny answered to make it 3-2 in the first period. That was as close as the Flyers would get as the Islanders padded their lead and held off the Flyers by a 5-3 final score, making it seven in a row for the Islanders.

The Penguins usually brings out the best or the worst in the Flyers, and when the two teams met in Pittsburgh on Tuesday, it may have brought out the absolute worst from the Flyers. The Penguins scored four goals in the first period and were up 6-0 before the Flyers got a goal past Matt Murray and then watched the Penguins add one more with six seconds remaining to curb stomp the Flyers unmercifully.

Philly then limped into Newark to face the Devils, which is what most teams need to feel better about themselves right now. It wasn’t easy but Joel Farabee’s first goal of his career tied the game in the 3rd period and Sean Couturier scored the only goal of the shootout to end the Flyer’s losing skid.

The Flyers were back in action less than 24 hours later in Toronto and there couldn’t have been a better matched game than this one in the box score. Both teams traded goals in each period and the shooutout went 11 rounds before a winner was decided. ELEVEN! Twenty two attempts! It took 15 shooters just to get a goal, which of course was immediately answered before Andreas Johnsson scored only the third goal out of 22 attempts to give the Maple Leafs the victory that neither goalie wanted to surrender.

The Flyers managed to move up a spot in the Metro, despite a few tough losses. The Flyers get a much needed two day break and begin a two game home stand against the Hurricanes on Tuesday and the Canadiens on Thursday. Philadelphia wraps up this week with a back-to-back on the road in Toronto on Saturday and Boston next Sunday.

The Blue Jackets had several days off to prepare for this week, but things did do go as planned for Columbus. The Oilers were at Nationwide Arena on Wednesday night, and James Neal and Leon Draisaitl continued their goal scoring barrages as both players scored their 11th goal of the season in the first period. Draisaitl would add another goal early in the second period to give the Oilers a 4-0 lead and the Jackets didn’t create much resistance, going down by a 4-1 final score.

The Blue Jackets then had a day off to travel to St. Louis to face the Stanley Cup Champs on Friday with Calgary waiting for the Jackets on Saturday. Columbus scored first and went up 3-1 midway through the game but the Blues answered twice in 30 seconds in the second period and the game would go to overtime. It took David Perron only 8 seconds to score his seventh goal of the year on the power play and hand the Blue Jackets the overtime loss, the Blue Jackets’ third loss in a row.

David Rittich and the Calgary Flames made no doubt about extending that losing streak to four less than a day later in Columbus. Calgary scored a goal in each period and Rittich made 43 saves, including 16 in the 3rd, to shut out the Blue Jackets 3-0 and end the week without a win for Columbus, dropping the Jackets one spot in the Metro this week.

Columbus has a two day break before playing at home against Vegas and the heading out west. The Arizona Coyotes will host the Jackets on Thursday night and the Colorado Avalance will do likewise on Saturday night to finish up for Columbus.

The Rangers have been very comfortable to begin the season with very little travel in the month of October. However, that little travel time hasn’t equaled success on the ice for the Rangers.

The Bruins were at MSG to begin last week on Sunday and this game was highly eventful. Unfortunately for the Rangers, it was mostly Boston doing the damage. It was a seemingly normal game after the first period before the Bruins scored five goals in a row, with four coming in the second period. The Rangers scored twice late in the third to make it 6-4, but Patrice Bergeron would complete the hat trick into an empty net to finish the Rangers by a 7-4 final score.

The Rangers finished the month of October at home against Tampa Bay on Tuesday night. Nikita Kucherov scored late in the first and it took the Rangers almost half the game to score their first of the game, but the Rangers ran away with the game with three goals in the 3rd period to down the Lightning 4-1 in a convincing home win.

The good times continued to roll for the Rangers when they played in Nashville on Saturday against the Predators. Alexandar Georgiev made 32 saves and Ryan Strome’s fourth goal of the season early in third period was enough as the Rangers held off the Predators surge in the end to win consecutive games to end the Rangers week.

The Rangers return home to play the Ottawa Senators on Monday night before beginning a back-to-back at home against Detroit on Wednesday night and facing the Hurricanes in Raleigh on Thursday to complete this week for New York.

The Devils played for only the second time in 11 days against Tampa Bay to continue their six game, three week home stand last Wednesday night. That game was one that fans love to watch and coaches have nightmares about. Sami Vatanen scored a beautiful goal to put the Devils up 5-3 early in the 3rd only to see the Lightning storm back with three goals as the home fans watched their home team blow their umpteenth lead in only the first month of the season.

But to the joy of the passionate fans who managed to stick around until the buzzer, Kyle Palmieri tapped in a shot with seven seconds left in regulation to force overtime just to make sure this game had everything. The game came to a merciful end 1:16 into overtime when Tyler Johnson snuck one past Cory Schneider that Schneider could have saved, along with many other goals in this game. The Devils outshot the Lightning 42-23, but still managed to give up seven goals and add to an already alarming list of blown 3rd period leads on home ice.

New Jersey was hoping that the calendar changing to November would make a difference, but it was still more of the same as the Devils wrapped up their home stand on Friday against the Flyers.

Wayne Simmonds scored his first goal with the Devils against his former team to get the scoring started and Taylor Hall scored midway through the 3rd period to give the Devils the lead. But as the story goes with New Jersey, that lead didn’t last long. The Flyers tied the game less than two minutes later and the only goal scored the remainder of the game came in the third round of the shootout to hand the Devils yet another loss on home ice despite leading in the 3rd period.

Leaving New Jersey for the first time since October 12 finally did the trick for the Devils. The Hurricanes hosted the Devils in Raleigh on Saturday featuring two Metro teams going in different directions. Both teams answered the other for the first two periods and with the score tied at three, four minutes into the 3rd period, P.K. Subban scored his second goal with the Devils and Damon Severson would do the same into an empty net to give the Devils a much needed 5-3 victory and built team confidence by beating a tough division opponent on the road to wrap up this week for the Devils and the Metropolitan.

That game against Carolina began a five game home stand for New Jersey. This week the Devils will be traveling across Canada beginning in Winnipeg on Tuesday night. The Devils then play back-to-back against Calgary and Edmonton on Thursday and Friday before completing the road trip in Vancouver next Sunday afternoon.