The best opening games for the 2019-20 regular season!
October 2nd, 2019
October 2nd, 2019 sparked the start for the 2019-20 season with plenty of intense and strong opening games. One of the first games was a rematch between the San Jose Sharks and Las Vegas Golden Knights. The rematch stems from the second round of the 2018-19 Stanley Cup Playoffs which went all the way to a game seven overtime and had sparked some controversy around it. Las Vegas seemed to have won this game in the first period after Las Vegas put up two goals early into the first period. While watching this game it had looked like San Jose seemed a little flat footed after a short off-season. San Jose was not winning battles in the corner and were letting the Golden Knights just pelt San Jose Goaltender, Martin Jones, with thirty-five shots of which he allowed four. The game ended with a score of four to one to the Las Vegas Golden Knights.
One of the other opening games was between the two most recent winners of the Stanley Cup, the St. Louis Blues and Washington Capitals. The St. Louis Blues were able to win the Stanley Cup for the first time ever in the 2018-19 season while the Washington Capitals also were able to take the cup home for the first time in history in the 2017-18 season. The match-up between the two teams went into overtime after the Blues managed to blow a two-nothing lead in the first. The Blues seemed to just get lazy after putting in two early goals in the first and let up a quick retaliation late in first and another goal early in the second. While the game was a stand-still at two-two the game went to overtime where Capital, Jakub Vrana, managed to put one final goal past Blues Goaltender, Jordan Binnington giving the win to the Washington Capitals.
October 3rd, 2019
The second night of regular season did just as great of a job as providing for great games as opening night. The first game of the night was a brawl between the Montreal Canadiens and the Carolina Hurricanes. The real stars of these games seemed to be the goaltenders for each of the teams as Montreal goaltender, Carey Price, stopped forty out of forty-three shots in three periods and an overtime but struggled to stay with Carolina forwards in the shootout giving up two out of three shots. Price was played on top of his head the entire night and even though he let up three goals and the shootout he played like a brick wall and carried his team into a shootout position. The Hurricanes' goaltender, Petr Mrazek, stopped thirty-three out of thirty-six goals and completely shut out the Canadiens in the shootout carrying his team to their first win of the season.
Another exciting game was between the newly rebuilt New York Rangers and the Winnipeg Jets. This game again seemed to be a battle between the goal tenders as Henrik Lundqvist of the New York Rangers stopped forty-three out of forty-seven shots in just three periods and Connor Hellebuyck of the Winnipeg Jets stopped twenty-six out of thirty-one shots. Henrik Lundqvist and the new Rangers roster managed to pull out a win in three periods with a resulting score of six-four.
October 4th, 2019
The main game that everyone was looking forward to watching was between the Jack Hughes and the New Jersey Devils and Patrik Laine and the Winnipeg Jets. Throughout the game Jack Hughes seemed to lack confidence in his play and act a little hesitant with some of the moves he was making. Regardless, I think Jack Hughes was a great opening game especially with all the pressure he is probably under after being the first overall pick of the last draft. The game progressed with the Devils giving up a four-one lead in third allowing the jets to score three goals in the third to bring us to an overtime and eventual shootout. Winnipeg was able to put two past the Devils goaltender giving Winnipeg the win for the night.
The final game that will be covered was between the Chicago Blackhawks and the Philadelphia Flyers. The game was a hard fought match resulting in a lot of back and forth goals between the teams. Chicago Blackhawk star, Patrick Kane, showed up for the home opening with a three point night recording one goal and two assists for night with each point coming in a different period. Travis Konecny was the star for the Philadelphia Flyers as he also had a three point night recording two goals and one assists and help bring home the win for the Flyers with a final score of four-three.
