Winners and Losers from the Opening Games of the 2014-15 NHL Season

After a long summer, the 2014-15 NHL season is finally underway. Some teams have two games in the books, and the vast majority have at least one, with the only exceptions (the New York Islanders and Carolina Hurricanes) facing off on Friday night.  

There are always very few (if any) conclusions to draw in the early going. We in the media may have an attention span best suited to a sprint, but an NHL season always has much more in common with a marathon; it takes a long time to identify the really important trends.

But there's no harm in taking a quick look around the league at players, teams and situations that stand out as particularly good or bad. That's what we do in the following slideshow, which provides snapshots of some early-season winners and losers.

Winner: Coaches in 1st Year with Their Team

Gregory Shamus/Getty Images

Five of the NHL's six coaches in the first year with their team have seen their squad play one game, and to date none have suffered a regulation loss. 

Pittsburgh's Mike Johnston, Vancouver's Willie Desjardins and Nashville's Peter Laviolette all coached their teams to opening-game wins. Barry Trotz in Washington and Gerard Gallant in Florida were less fortunate, but their teams both managed a point in an overtime loss.

All told, the combined record of the quintet is 3-0-2, with Bill Peters' Carolina Hurricanes in action Friday night.

Loser: Craig Berube

Len Redkoles/Getty Images

Yes, the Philadelphia Flyers lost both of their first two games, but that isn't the real reason why Craig Berube is on this list.

Berube is here because he decided to start goaltender Steve Mason on back-to-back nights after a strong first game against Boston, and that decision blew up in his face.

There is good statistical data—much of it researched by Flyers blog Broad Street Hockey, no less—to indicate that a goalie's performance drops off sharply in the second game of back-to-backs. Berube was either unaware of or chose to ignore the data and started Mason anyway. While the Flyers defence was awful on Thursday night, Mason's save percentage fell from 0.939 to 0.800, as he allowed five goals on 25 shots.

Winner: Montreal Canadiens

Graig Abel/Getty Images

The second game in particular wasn't all that pretty—and it required a shootout—but Montreal claimed uncontested possession of first place in the NHL on Thursday, becoming the first team in the league to record two wins. 

Most of the team's lines are running strong, with Tomas Plekanec taking the lead offensively with three goals. The decision to make Dustin Tokarski the backup over Peter Budaj looks good early, too; Michel Therrien started the 25-year-old in his team's second game, and Tokarski stopped 29 of 30 shots and outdueled Braden Holtby in the shootout. 

Loser: Philadelphia Flyers

Elsa/Getty Images

It's not just that the Flyers have started the year 0-2, becoming the first team to lose two games. 

Near the top of the list of reasons for their inclusion is the loss of Braydon Coburn to injury. A middling defence that was already reeling from Kimmo Timonen's absence took a massive blow when it was announced prior to Thursday's game that Coburn would be out long term with a lower-body injury. 

"It's not going to be day-to-day," Hextall said (via reporter Randy Miller of NJ.com). "I believe this is going to take some time."

Add in that Claude Giroux and Jakub Voracek are a combined minus-nine over the first two games and this is a grim start for the Flyers.

Winner: Anaheim Ducks Backups, Current and Ex

Chris Carlson/Associated Press

A pair of goalies who played for the Anaheim Ducks last season started the year on the wrong end of tight battles for a starting gig, but both goalies' situations have improved since opening night.

In California, Frederik Andersen started the year on the bench, watching the highly touted John Gibson take on the Pittsburgh Penguins. Gibson surrendered six goals on 39 shots, and his 0.846 save percentage is now the third-worst in the NHL.  

Of the two goalies below him in the rankings, one is Edmonton's Ben Scrivens (0.808 save percentage), who surrendered five goals on 26 attempts to the Calgary Flames in his first outing. Scrivens has a slight edge on ex-Duck Viktor Fasth for the Oilers' top goalie job, but he didn't do himself any favours in his first contest.

Loser: Alex Ovechkin

If the NHL gave out awards for diving, we'd be labeling Alex Ovechkin a winner here.

The video above shows one of the most gratuitous flops in recent memory, the kind of embarrassing dive that the NHL really wants to eliminate from the game of hockey. The referee was fooled completely, and P.K. Subban ended up taking a bogus penalty for it. 

It would be a big surprise if Ovechkin didn't hear from the league on this one and just slightly less surprising if referees looked at him with a more jaundiced eye in the future.

Winner: Pascal Dupuis

Justin K. Aller/Getty Images

It isn't just that Pascal Dupuis' four-point night against the Anaheim Ducks was an exceptional hockey game or that it's a total that currently puts him first in the NHL scoring race. The real reason he deserves mention is because of the specific circumstances involved. 

Thursday's 6-4 victory over Anaheim was Dupuis' first game since just before Christmas 2013; he was felled by injury just two shifts into that match against the Ottawa Senators.

Now he's healthy, and the early returns suggest that the Pittsburgh Penguins are going to benefit in a big way from his presence.

Loser: Erik Cole

Ronald Martinez/Getty Images

There are five obvious cogs in the Dallas Stars' exceptional top-six forward group. Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin anchor the top line. Jason Spezza and Ales Hemsky were brought in from Ottawa over the summer to hold down the second unit. Excellent youngster Valeri Nichushkin belongs in there somewhere too.

The sixth guy, almost by default, is Erik Cole. That's a pretty nice slot to occupy, but it's one he lost for Thursday's game against Chicago. 

"Lindy Ruff confirms Erik Cole is a healthy scratch tonight after being late for practice Monday," reported Mike Heika of The Dallas Morning News. "Patrick Eaves will take spot on second line."

It really isn't the sort of start to the year that a veteran such as Cole should be having.

Winner: Toronto Media

Tom Pennington/Getty Images

The biggest winner and losers of Toronto Maple Leafs' Richard Panik waiver claim from the Tampa Bay Lightning weren't the two teams involved. The player doubtless benefits from moving away from a team loaded with young, quality players, but even he isn't the primary winner here.

Instead, it's everybody who loves a pun in the province of Ontario. The bulk of the people seem to be members of the Toronto media (whether mainstream or blogosphere). As anyone with Twitter the last few days knows, "Panik" sounds like "panic," and there's a natural cohesion between "Toronto Maple Leafs" and "panic."

Fans who hate cheesy puns are advised to avoid Toronto blogs and newspapers for the foreseeable future. For that matter, fans who really hate cheesy puns might want to ignore the Canadian media entirely given the prominence of the Toronto market.

Loser: Anybody Who Believed the NHL Was a Professional Outfit

Bruce Bennett/Getty Images

Chris Pronger was hired on Thursday as the newest member of the NHL's department of player safety. It was an interesting hire, given Pronger's own checkered past with the department, but there's no doubt he brings a unique perspective to the team.

There's just one problem: Pronger already technically has a job. Unless wages at the player safety department are a lot higher than they should be, Pronger's biggest checks won't be coming from the league but rather from the Philadelphia Flyers, the team to whom he is under contract for three more years. 

That's a technicality in some ways, as Pronger won't play for them again. But he is taking their money, and by his willingness to stay on long-term injured reserve rather than retire, he is actively helping them with a really tight salary-cap situation (Pronger's over-35 contract is impossible to erase from the club's books).

Our own Dave Lozo went into this in more detail, but this isn't complicated: If a guy is collecting big, fat stacks of cash from one team, he shouldn't be put in a position where he's being asked to impartially arbitrate for all 30 teams. It's a bush-league move by a business already rife with cronyism and questionable bias.  

All statistics courtesy of NHL.com unless otherwise noted.