Deen’s Daily: Prishchepov Debuts; Florida Sweeps in Finland; Capitals Keep Winning

Nikita Prishchepov has been an incredible story to follow. I remember seeing his name appear on the screen while covering the draft at the Sphere in June and making a comment about how we’ll probably never see these guys in the NHL — how seventh-round picks are often forgotten after a few years. But boy was I wrong.

Only eight guys were taken after Prishchepov. Despite being the 217th player to be selected out of 225, he became the third player from the draft to play in the NHL. All things considered, he actually played great.

Colorado lost by a final score of 5-2, again. This time to the Nashville Predators. It’s the Avs’ third straight loss, all by the same score. They fell to 5-7-0 on the season.

Justus Annunen got the nod in goal for the Avs and suffered a loss in a game he started for the first time this season. My colleague Colleen Flynn wrote about one of the other goalies, Kaapo Kahkonen, in this week’s edition of Flynn’s take. It’s available here for CHN+ subscribers. These are the types of in-depth analysis stories you can expect from both of us behind the paywall. The season still has 70 games to go, and I’d love nothing more than to grow our strong subscriber base. Join us for the ride.

Around The NHL

Florida Hockey Now: Two years ago the Avalanche went to Finland for the Global Series and beat the Columbus Blue Jackets in both games. This year, the Panthers did the same thing to the Dallas Stars. Florida is coming back home on a five-game winning streak.

Washington Capitals: The red-hot Capitals are becoming one of my favorite teams to follow. Not only is the Alex Ovechkin goal chase worth following (he scored again, by the way), but their team seems to have this chemistry thing figured out. Most of the guys they added over the offseason are fitting in and young guys like Connor McMichael and Aliaksei Protas are producing more than a point per game. On Saturday, Washington scored five goals in the first period and dominated the Blue Jackets 7-2 for their eighth win in 10 games to start the year.

Pittsburgh Hockey Now: It’s 2024, Ovechkin has six goals and 13 points in 10 games and Sidney Crosby is heating up. Almost 20 years after carrying the NHL as rookies, these guys are still doing their thing. Crosby scored twice on Saturday, helping lift Pittsburgh to a 3-1 victory over the Montreal Canadiens. Over the past three games, Crosby assisted on all three Pens goals in a 5-3 loss to Minnesota, scored both goals against Anaheim, and had the first two vs Montreal. The captain was in on seven straight goals before Blake Lizotte’s empty netter against the Habs.