Colorado Avalanche: News From Around the NHL October 30th, 2014

Jack Eichel apparently has a lot in common with a lava lamp.

ack Eichel moves around the ice like a lava lamp.

The Boston University freshman makes hockey -- dangerous and difficult -- look quite safe and easy within his slippery surface encased in glass.

It's been this way since his parents, Bob and Anne, policed his fledgling mini-stick hockey career at age 3 in North Chelmsford, Massachusetts, northeast of Boston.

Little Jack would be instructed to go earn whatever he would get. When you grow up not rich and not poor, you are not all that far off from either, but you are closer to poor.

This state of mind and currency creates patience mixed with an undercurrent of urgency. Stir that together and you have a kid with a chance to go places.

Jack Eichel is that classic -- often reported as extinct -- middle-class American kid. Oh, and as his BU head coach David Quinn said, "He's a physical freak with strength, vision and an NHL shot." That helps, too.

The NHL season has an early front-runner for worst call of the season!

Being a referee in the NHL is difficult. It's hard to see every infraction that might happen on the ice, but it's even harder when when your eyes deceive you.

Capitals goalie Braden Holtby tumbled to the Verizon Center ice after he beat Red Wings forward Luke Glendening to a loose puck. With Holtby down, Drew Miller fired the puck into the open net for what he thought was the first goal of the game. Referee Mike Leggo waved it off immediately and called a penalty on Glendening for goaltender interference.

The problem here? Glendening never touched Holtby and the Caps goalie hit the ice because jumped up and grabbed him. Fortunately for the Red Wings, the Capitals didn't score on the power play and officials made up for it just over two minutes later with a penalty to Andre Burakovsky.

Rangers D John Moore was suspended 5 games for his hit on Wild punching bag Erik Haula.

New York Rangers defenseman John Moore has been suspended for five games, without pay, for an illegal check to the head of Minnesota Wild forward Erik Haula during NHL Game No. 122 in New York on Monday, October 27, the National Hockey League's Department of Player Safety announced today.

Moore is considered a repeat offender under the terms of the Collective Bargaining Agreement and, based on his average annual salary, will forfeit $51,859.75. The money goes to the Players' Emergency Assistance Fund.

Moore was assessed a match penalty 7:12 into the second period.

Fast starts never hurt a team hoping to make the playoffs. How important are they?

The funny thing about early season kneejerk reactions is that when it comes to individual player performances, those early conclusions can often times be misleading and flat out wrong. The NHL season is an incredibly long grind that will be filled with extreme highs and lows. Every player in the league, to some degree, is streaky and the very best players are going to go multiple games in a row without scoring while third-liners will have stretches where they score like top-liners. You just tend to notice the hot streaks and the cold streaks when they happen early in the season more than you do when they happen in January or February.

But when you keep things at the team level, a lot of times that initial reaction you get based on the first few games of the season can tend to be pretty accurate.