The Daily Scan: Flames loss stings, and so does Bennett’s dominance; Ovechkin is awesome; and the Leafs seriously signed a college backup

Hurt feelings were bound to come for Calgary Flames fans who always thought Sam Bennett had more potential than what the numbers showed during his time in Calgary. So not only did they lose in the Battle of Alberta Saturday night, their former guy is looking like the player the Flames spent their top pick on in the 2014 draft now – unfortunately it’s with the Florida Panthers.

Meanwhile: a Penguin joined Elias Lindholm in the quick goals category; Alex Ovechkin continues to climb the sniper charts; and the Toronto Maple Leafs are resorting to college goaltending as a backup because of salary cap issues.

Happy Scanning!

Former Calgary Flames grinder going off in Florida

– Bennett, the Calgary Flames’ highest draft pick in history, is showing that his playoff breakout last season was no fluke. He scored his second NHL hat-trick on Saturday and has 10 goals and 23 points in 17 games with the Florida Panthers since the trade.

The fresh start has paid off for the fourth-overall pick and he’s understandably enjoying his time in Florida as our Florida Hockey Now colleagues wrote.

– Teddy Blueger opened the scoring just 15 seconds into the Pittsburgh Penguins home opener, becoming just the seventh NHL player to score that quickly in the first game in front of home fans in a season. Interestingly, Calgary Flames centre Elias Lindholm is also on that list.

Ovechkin has former Flames legend Jaromir Jagr in his sights

– When talking about goals, you have to mention Alex Ovechkin, who just keeps climbing the historic list and has some big names in his sights this season.

Alex Ovechkin of the @Capitals scored his 804th career NHL goal (regular season & playoffs) and passed Mark Messier (803) for sole possession of the fifth-highest combined total in League history. #NHLFaceOff#NHLStats: https://t.co/npIuroWidG pic.twitter.com/UgG9X7aP7D

— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) October 17, 2021

Brad Marchand known for pesky penalties and penalty shots

– It’s not often the first goal comes on a penalty shot, but that’s what happened for Boston Bruins winger Brad Marchand, becoming the third in NHL history to earn a team’s first goal of the year that way (joining Mats Sundin and former Bruin Chris Kelly).

It was Marchand’s fifth penalty shot goal. He now ranks third all-time behind legends Pavel Bure (7) and Mario Lemieux (6).

– The Toronto Maple Leafs downed their provincial rival Ottawa Senators 3-1, but fortunately did not have to turn to backup goalie Alex Bishop – a college kid they signed as an emergency backup because of cap issues and an injury to Peter Mrazek. Yikes, talk about risk/reward cap management!

BONUS: NHL Trade Speculation

Twitter: Al Morganti of Philadelphia NBCsn, Tweeted this little tidbit about Claude Giroux (thanks, Spector’s Hockey, for finding it):

Sportsnet: Shocker, the Buffalo Sabres did something to delay moving Jack Eichel. The NHL trade requests by Buffalo are deal killers for a player who needs serious surgery. Elliotte Friedman reports Buffalo won’t eat salary.

Sorry, Flames fans, that seriously skunks the Jack Eichel to the Calgary Flames movement.

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