Dany Heatley Hot, Tampa Bay Lightning Not

Some may feel that the NHL season doesn't really start until October 9.

Truthfully, I feel it will be more exciting when games in North America begin—but the season is underway after two days in Europe.

The Tampa Bay Lightning squared off against the New York Rangers in back-to-back matches in Prague, Czech Republic. Meanwhile, the Ottawa Senators got two early cracks at Sidney Crosby, along with the rest of the Pittsburgh Penguins team that eliminated them in last year's playoffs.

Stockholm hosted their two encounters—and who makes an appearance? Mats Sundin. Of course, he has to remind us that he still hasn't made up his mind. Starting now, I will do my best to write a weekly hot-or-not piece as the season progresses.

Fantasy hockey leagues allow me to follow every team and just about every player. The issue, if there is one, will be the time I have. My first edition won't have much, with only four teams in action this week.

Here are some of the quick starters, and lousy finishers in the young season:

HOT

With Jaromir Jagr gone, Scott Gomez looks ready to lead the Broadway show. After picking up an assist in Saturday's game, Gomez potted the game winner along with a helper in Sunday's meeting with Tampa Bay.

Two games, two points. Not bad for Markus Naslund—considering many have given up on him. He displayed some great stick-handling in both matches, and his down-low feed to Wade Redden for a powerplay goal was superb.

Tampa Bay's goaltending was the only impressive part of their performances in Prague. Mike Smith and Olaf Kolzig were outshot 80-40 overall in the two games, and both only conceded a goal each to keep the Lightning with any hopes of victory.

Henrik Lundqvist bagged two early wins to get the Rangers a strong start. He was particularly sharp in the first period of Game One, making a number of point blank saves. Not many shots came his way, but the King did his job.

The chances of Dany Heatley hitting another 50-goal, 50-assist campaign are greater than 50-50 for certain. Three power-play goals—two of which were typically precise.

Look out, folks—Jason Spezza is getting time on the penalty kill now, which means opposing teams have to keep an eye on him more. He netted a shorthanded goal in the first match, with a nice shot upstairs over Marc-Andre Fleury. Along with that, he set up Heatley for two of his three tallies on the weekend.

Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby put up two points against Ottawa. Malkin netted his first ever shorthanded goal, and Crosby had two helpers. Nothing special, I know. However, even in a slow start, they managed a point per game.

I was extremely upset when Alex Goligoski wasn't in the Pittsburgh lineup for Saturday's game, because I own him in a cash fantasy league. Today he got his shot, though, and didn't fail to impress. The youngster showed great offensive instincts, and netted a power-play goal in the dying seconds of the game.

NOT

A whole new team, but the same old problems for the Tampa Bay Lightning. New York outplayed them thoroughly in both matches, and none of the big guys like Martin St. Louis, Vincent Lecavalier, or Vaclav Prospal stepped it up. In the final minute of Game Two, Lecavalier was in all alone on Lunqvist and missed the net. How often does that happen?

When Tyler Kennedy beat Martin Gerber with a routine shot 40 seconds into the game, you could see it wasn't going to be Ottawa's night. Even though they salvaged a point, Alex Auld got the start today and looked very solid. Goligoski's last-gasp goal broke his shutout unfortunately.

He went from a terrible year to a great year—but is it back to bad for Nikolai Zherdev this season? He finished last season with a career high in points. Pointless in the first two outings, I'm hoping Zherdev doesn't drop back to the gutters in his new home.

Ranger fans will have to learn the hard way that Dmitri Kalinin isn't a defensive solution for them. He was a combined minus-two in Europe. Also, when St. Louis went right around the defender and scored, that was Kalinin standing there.

Like I mentioned, not much action to report on this week. Next week will be more in-depth and I'll look forward to bringing another hot or not article for Bleacher Report.