This week’s Real Hockey Talk show takes place at the KDUS studio in Phoenix, AZ. Along with Greg Isaac, William Grigsby from lastwordonhockey.com, is back this week while Dave Issac is off on cruise taking it easy. Christina Farooq will join us on the phone to talk about the Los Angeles Kings and Dallas Stars. She follows both teams and we look forward to her take on the two teams. This is podcast #17 for your listening pleasure. Today we are going to cover the NHL 2019-20 fast starts and slow starts.
NHL 2019-20 Season Fast Starts/Slow Starts
Real Hockey Talk Podcast #17
We start out this show mentioning some teams and players who are off to a fast start and vice versa. Teams that caught our attention with fast starts were the Buffalo Sabres, Boston Bruins, Washington Capitals in the East. Turning to the West, the Edmonton Oilers, Colorado Avalanche, Anaheim Ducks, Arizona Coyotes, and Vancouver Canucks.
Western Conference Fast Starts
The Edmonton Oilers have excelled under the new guidance of head coach Dave Tippett and the constant offensive domination of Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl.
The Colorado Avalanche seem to have it all and are showing it as they demonstrate to everyone how awesome they can be. Even with the loss of Mikko Rantanen, the Av’s seem so deep that they hardly miss him.
The Anaheim Ducks have surprised early and may now be coming back to Earth. They have some potential and could make the playoffs… Greg thinks so. John Gibson may lead them.
The Arizona Coyotes have definitely excelled this young season with a winning record. Adding Phil Kessel has certainly helped their offence, but so far Nick Schmaltz is leading the scoring on the team.
The Vancouver Canucks have some youth and energy and added some good players like Tyler Myers who is a giant of a man at 6’8″, 229 pounds.
Eastern Conference Fast Starts
The Buffalo Sabres are turning heads early as they are leading the NHL in points. With players like Jack Eichel, Jeff Skinner, and Rasmus Dahlin they have accomplished quite a bit already. Now, if they can keep it up they will be a team to watch in the East.
The Boston Bruins fresh from their disappointing Stanley Cup loss last year are off to their usual good start. With David Pastrnak, Patrice Bergeron, and Brad Marchand how can you fail?
The Washington Capitals are also continuing their march to perhaps to another Cup run and when you have an Alex Ovechkin why not? But the guy stealing the show in Washington (besides that crazy guy in the White House) is John Carlson. He is on fire!
Western Conference Slow Starts
The Minnesota Wild have had a terrible new start to their 2019-20 season and they have a ways to go to become respectable.
The Dallas Stars (Christina Farooq’s team) have had a horrid start this season. Starting out 1-7-1 is not how any team wants to begin. Tyler Seguin and Jamie Benn have just not performed up to par yet. Maybe they need the owner to call them out again.
The San Jose Sharks are just not the team you saw last year. And why is that? When you lose a leader, a clutch player like Joe Pavelski how do you replace him? You don’t.
Eastern Conference Slow Starts
The New Jersey Devils were thought of as a team on the rise… not quite, at least not yet. Even with the addition of Jack Hughes, the first overall pick, and P.K. Subban and Wayne Simmonds, they are not doing well at all. This makes William’s prediction that they’ll be in the Cup Finals sound like a pipe dream… or a bad dream.
The New York Rangers are another big disappointment even with Artemi Panarin joining the team. Mika Zibanejad has been tearing it up and hopefully, the Rangers can get it together.
The Ottawa Senators have not started well either and it seems like once they learn not to take dumb penalties and play with discipline they will start winning more games.
The Detroit Red Wings are not setting the league on fire by any means. They have given up more goals than they should and don’t seem to know how to improve. Perhaps Steve Yzerman can work some magic.
That wraps up the NHL 2019-20 starts for the show. Hope you enjoyed them.
Christina Farooq Calls Into the Show
Christina Farooq calls into the show to give us her take on the NHL specifically the Kings and Stars. She fills us in on the roster of the Kings and who she thinks will help the team. She is a great hockey mind, so you’ll want to listen in to her analysis.
We finish up the show discussing the Coyotes and how much improved they are this season. The hope of making the playoffs looks much better this year.
We also question Christina on the future of the NHL in Houston.
GOOD SHOW!
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