Tuesday and Wednesday night marked the NHL regular season’s return to North America, and the league didn’t waste any time in giving plenty of excitement to the fans:
The Edmonton Oilers Will Be Must-See TV Once Again
Edmonton’s home opener proved to be an entertaining preview for what could be another season of high-scoring matchups no matter the result.
Wednesday night’s 5-3 win over Vancouver was one of the more memorable season openers for the franchise. They were down 3-0 before storming back with five unanswered goals. When you think you can maybe take the Oilers out of a game, they find a way to get right back into it.
What more can we say about Connor McDavid? The captain notched a hat trick and a four-point night that saw him hit the 700-point mark in his career. He became the sixth-fastest player to reach 700 career points in NHL history.
It wasn’t the perfect start by any means, and that was further addressed by Oilers coach Jay Woodcroft wanting to see them clean up elements of his team’s play before they take on Calgary on Saturday night.
Woodcroft still gave credit to goalie Jack Campbell and to the play of his team’s special teams units for being key parts of the victory.
“In the end, even though it wasn’t the prettiest game in the world, I thought our fellas dug in,” Woodcroft said. “We’re very aware of some of the things we’re going to have to clean up.”
The game had so much drama that even the boards wanted in on the action.
As the players battled for the puck in the corner, the new digital dasherboard ads glitched and covered the play.
The digital ads were meant not to be a distraction to the game when they were initially announced. We’ll let you decide how that’s going so far.
The Future Is Ready To Take Over In Anaheim
Wow. Strap in, buckle up your seatbelts and do whatever else you have to do. If you have any qualms about the young guns of the Anaheim Ducks being ready to lead the way, Wednesday night should be an indication they’re prepared to be the faces of this franchise.
Anaheim’s 5-4 overtime win over Seattle was thrilling, but the Ducks were also led by the trio of Trevor Zegras, Mason McTavish, and Troy Terry. They combined for seven points in the victory, with Terry getting the game-winner after being sprung on a marvellous stretch pass from his goaltender John Gibson.
The Ducks have a fun young group that you’ll have to keep an eye on in the Pacific Division, which can turn into chaos at any given moment.
Referee Monologues Are Now A Thing?
Two officials opened up their respective games with a speech – and people took notice.
This might go down as one of the awkward moments to open an NHL season. Chris Rooney’s opening faceoff speech felt out of place, and social media let it be known just how strange it was before the New York Rangers and Tampa Bay Lightning got things going at Madison Square Garden.
Rooney wouldn’t be the only official to speak before getting the game started on Tuesday night, as Graham Skilliter would deliver one before the Vegas and Los Angeles game. Thankfully, Skilliter’s speech was much more natural and didn’t take from the opening faceoff aside from him, his mic being open for all of the fans at Crypto.com Arena to hear.
This wasn’t the first time the referee gave a pre-game speech to start the season. Kelly Sutherland delivered one to start the shortened 2020-21 season with a rivalry matchup between the Pittsburgh Penguins and Philadelphia Flyers. It went as you would probably expect.
Seriously though, who came up with this idea? If you asked the majority of fans, they’d rather get the opening faceoff out of the way after watching the player introductions that take place at every home opener.
