Boston, the perennially successful team in the NHL, got off to a sticky start to the season. The team, which alternately won and lost, drifted into a stronger sideways slide at the end of October, when four of the five matches ended in defeat. After that, the ranking in the flat Atlantic division was last.
The course was later corrected, but without turbulence, the club couldn’t get through the stickiness at the beginning.
It was a bit surprising that the strongest conflicts arose around the star players. First the head coach John Montgomery raged in the change box in October for the experienced 36-year-old For Brad Marchandand later in November he retired his goal stick David Pastrnak too.
– This is the history of Boston, how the values have been fixed there already in time. Montgomery must have thought clearly with the club management that if he slips at all, the game will be stopped immediately. The idea is that this is how we operate here and that we don’t let things slack off at all, ‘s ice hockey expert Ismo Lehkonen sees
Veteran players reacted to the clashes, as is customary in winning clubs. Marchand defended his coach, stating that there is not enough accountability in the NHL these days. In the Canadian player’s opinion, such a mistake should be honored.
The 28-year-old Pastrnak, who was benched after losing the puck, was on the same lines.
– That is the only right way to react. Boston is a successful team with the right values, and here we got an excellent example of how to shoulder responsibility from two top players. It feels like there are too many fingers crossed these days, and players can’t handle tough love.
Who surprised?
Vancouver’s Finnish goalkeeper Kevin Lankinen belongs to the goalkeeper stories of the autumn season. Lankinen apparently had bigger offers on his table, but he was looking for a suitable opportunity.
One finally opened in Vancouver, where the number one guard Thatcher Demko a mysterious injury has kept him aside from real activities throughout the fall.
So Lankinen went to fight for playing time for the Latvian by Arturs Silovs with. After the first month, the pecking order is rarely clear. Lankinen has started in eight matches and has not lost a single one of them in regular time – the winning balance is recorded as 6–0-2.
Silovs, who sensationally led Latvia to medals at the World Championships in Tampere, has not won any of the three matches he has started. The save percentage shows 79 and the average number of shots allowed is five.
Lankinen plays on a cheap one-year contract of 875,000 talas, but from what we’ve seen, the dream of becoming the number one guard in the NHL is still alive and well.
– Lankinen received excellent sparring in Nashville Juuse Saros with and in the background there was still a legend called as a mentor Pekka Rinne. He definitely knew what he was doing and his level. This is a great thing and the value of the wins is also increased by the fact that Vancouver has not yet played, like at its best last season.
– So a goalkeeper is really needed, Lehkonen praises.
Who cheated?
Nashville. Stanley Cup winners from the summer transfer market, among others By Steven Stamkos and by Jonathan Marchessault captured Nashville has had a nightmarish start to its season. The goal of the club management was to raise the team that reached the playoffs last season to a new level, but the beginning does not bode well.
Out of the thirteen games, only four have ended with the Predators winning. The point percentage below 35 is the weakest in the entire series. Stamkos has scored three and Marchessault two in 13 games. The former’s power statistic is ten hits and the latter’s eight hits.
– Here is a classic example of when things go wrong from the start. Now they are trying to make a result in frustration with rage. Then it usually only gets worse. The atmosphere is tense and clubs are being thrown. When someone comes to the substitution cursing, the frustration is transferred like a baton to those going on the field.
With five against five, the team has lost the game crushingly 14–33. The team’s shooting percentage from the 5-5 game is also the weakest in the series (4.6), while it was 8.3 last year. So there might be something better in terms of hit accuracy, but the side slide is also about something else.
– I’m starting to wonder if that team should try to play fast all the time. Now it’s a change of direction all the time. Should I take the spoon in my beautiful hand, slow down the game and take control of the puck properly? Now they are trying to keep up the pace, but the game is slipping away, Lehkonen sees.
Finnish goal of the week
Nashville Juuso Pärssinen scored his first goal of the season early Thursday morning against Washington.
Pärssinen got a special chance earlier in the week between the previously mentioned Stamkos and Marchessault, but it didn’t work out and at the end of the second match, Pärssinen was moved out of the chain.
– It feels like in the last game he was given a little license to try more, and he did. Pärssinen took calculated risks on the puck, which resulted in some losses, but not a blanket one.
– This is not about Pärssis. He is a character player, smart and tenacious. It is known there that he will become an NHL player, Lehkonen believes.
What next?
In the coming weeks, Lehkonen will closely follow the teams in the New York area. The Rangers, who have been promoted as one of the pre-favorites in the East, have started well and New Jersey, who was promoted to the top, has also started to play better.
The Islanders, on the other hand, have started sticky, and the situation is not made easier by the key players by Adam Pelech and By Matthew Barzalin injuries.
– Kaapo Kako plays for Rangers nicely and Igor Šestjorkin the goal is hard hitting. He has certainly stolen such 6–8 points already, Lehkonen praises.
New Jersey has had a harder time in their home games.
– I don’t know if they are trying to please the home crowd, but they have played really well away from home. Jack Hughes is coming out there again fast.
– The game is tougher with the Islanders. Here are some pretty tough weeks ahead without Pelech and Barzal. The head coach Patrick Roy trying to squeeze everything possible out of the remaining key players and the rest of the team. You just have to give that horse a whip, even if it’s already hard, Lehkonen laughs.