Connor McDavid is still searching for his first NHL point — let alone his first career goal — but several of his Calder Trophy competitors have already lit the lamp.
McDavid’s main rival, Jack Eichel, roofed a shot in his very first game and that seemed to set off a trend of rookies scoring top corner. Check out these highlight-reel snipes from the opening week — in no particular order, but led off by Eichel, who showed off a wicked release throughout the pre-season as well. It wouldn’t be surprising to see him go bar down on a regular basis and finish with around 35 goals to lead all freshmen. If Eichel’s over/under is 30, I’ll put my money on the over.
Beautiful sounds.
Jack Eichel's 1st goal. Our famous foghorn. Rick Jeanneret's call. New goal song.🚨 #NextChapterhttps://t.co/AiGTTKn9OE
— Buffalo Sabres (@BuffaloSabres) October 9, 2015
Dylan Larkin, ladies and gentlemen. This kid is going to have a flair for the dramatic:
Max Domi put as much force behind this shot as his dad, Tie, put behind his uppercuts:
Jared McCann cracked Vancouver’s roster, at least in part, because of his NHL-calibre shot. Yup, that looks NHL-calibre to me:
Artemi Panarin might not have pinged the puck off the crossbar and in, but boy did he ever pick a corner on Henrik Lundqvist:
Oscar Lindberg has already scored four times to lead all rookies, so we can’t really leave him off this list. He has yet to go top-shelf, but he’s proving quick on the trigger as evidenced by his first goal:
Ditto for Dallas’s Mattias Janmark, his first also coming by way of the one-timer:
There, you’re all caught up on the rookie highlights for the time being. Now we can shift our attention back to the McDavid Watch.
Larry Fisher is a sports reporter for The Daily Courier in Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada. Follow him on Twitter: @LarryFisher_KDC.
