Friday Night Heroes

It’s been a great week for hockey. I only missed one prediction from last week’s post. The games have been exciting and fresh faces are popping up in headlines. There were a few noteworthy performances last night, two from the East, and an entire team from the West. Because there are so many games happening and so little time to cover every little story, here are the headliners just from Friday night.

Vitek Vanecek

He came from the Czech Republic in the 2015-16 season, where he spent most of his first North American season in the ECHL. Since, Vitek has played over 100 games in Hershey in the AHL, waiting for his chance to make the Show. His name has been tossed around in the Capitals front office for the better part of a year since last season was put on hold and it became clear the goaltending situation was going to change this year. Anyone who has spent time in Hershey or has watched them play over the last 5 years can tell you that Vanecek has grown leaps and bounds.

That growth was put on display last night as he took the ice first for his NHL debut. Fans were hopeful but apprehensive. His talent is obvious, it was a matter of how he was going to handle the pressure.

As it turns out, the apprehension was unnecessary. Vanecek looked like an old pro, completely relaxed in his net. He shut out the first 2 periods of his NHL career and only allowed 1 goal on 31 shots for the entire game. The skeptics questioning whether or not 2 young goaltenders were capable of backing a team like the Capitals can rest assured we’re covered.

Let me tell you, there’s nothing like watching a team congratulate a goalie on his first win, especially when they have a friendship as pure as Vitek and Jakub Vrana.

nejlepší přátelé pic.twitter.com/ZsPlAbbltS

— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) January 16, 2021

Travis Konecny

It’s his 5th season in the NHL and he’s been on an upward trajectory from the start. Last season was his most productive by far, despite it being a shortened season, with 61 points in 66 games. It seems his trend is continuing into this year. Konecny scored twice within the first 10 minutes of their second game of the season against Pittsburgh last night. He had a quiet second period and half of the third, but then put the puck in the back of the net for a third time at 12:53. It’s his first career hat trick, the first hat trick of the season (for anyone), and his is the first hat trick for the Flyers since March of 2019. This is also the first Flyers hat trick against the Penguins in almost 8 years.

Philipp Grubauer & The Avalanche

Everyone, including myself, expects great things from the Avs this year. They disappointed in the first game, only scoring one goal from Burakovsky and losing their 2021 debut (my one missed prediction). But last night, they came back with a vengeance. After a quiet first period and an intermission where the analysts demanded more from the high-powered first line, the Avs finally got one in from Landeskog. And thus the floodgates were opened. Almost 10 minutes later it was Burakovsky. Two minutes after that, it was Landeskog again. Three minutes later, it was Rantanen. A minute into the third period, Kadri. Another 10 minutes and a new goaltender later, MacKinnon (finally). Not even a minute later, Donskoi. And then finally, with a little more than 5 minutes left in the game, Devon Toews had his first goal in Colorado.

For those of you not counting, that’s 8 goals.

You haven’t missed anything, either. The Blues didn’t get a single puck in. Philipp Grubauer stopped all 21 shots, making this the first shutout in the West this season. With Grubauer and Francouz backing a team that can score 8 unanswered goals, it’s going to be a great year for Colorado.

What’s to Come?

With so many games in the next 3 and a half months, there’s bound to be many more nights like last night. So who should we expect the next hat trick from? Who’s going to top an 8 to 0 win? What rookie is going to shine next? There are so many things to look forward to this season, even on the worst teams (how about the Sens, huh?). True hockey fans, we’re in for something special.

-Heidi Thomas (@DamselOnDrums)