After 6 months of patiently waiting, this episode of the Keeping Karlsson Fantasy Hockey Podcast enthusiastically welcomes the return of real, true-to-life, honest-to-goodness NHL Data Points– we mean, NHL hockey games!!! Goals, assists, hits, blocks, and all those fun parts of hockey games are finally happening in a meaningful way once again, and Elan and Brian are here to raise, review and analyze all of the early action on the first episode of the official 2018-19 NHL season. We talk about early bumps, early slumps, and start-of-season management strategies and choices you can make to make sure your fantasy team is on track for a(nother) championship.

Credit and our sincere thanks to listener and patron Lewis E (@ProducerKeeper0) for writing and reading this episode's "Twas the Night Before Hockey" intro.

Players discussed on this episode include Elias Pettersson, Loui Eriksson, Nikolay Goldobin, Brock Boeser, Elias Lindholm, James Neal, Mike Smith, Dougie Hamilton, Justin Faulk, MichEAl Ferland, Jordan Staal, Valentin Zykov, Curtis McElhinney, Petr Mrazek, Scott Darling, Calvin Pickard, Brian Elliott, Michal Neuvirth, Oskar Lindblom, Wayne Simmonds, Radko Gudas, Travis Konecny, Robert Hagg, Dustin Brown, Alex Iafollo, Jonathan Quick, Jack Campbell, Peter Budaj, Gustav Nyquist, Dennis Cholowski, Keith Yandle, Roberto Luongo, James Reimer, Evander Kane, Melker Karlsson, Timo Meier, Jakob Silfverberg, Adam Henrique, Max Comtois, John Gibson, Clayton Keller, Conor Sheary, Casey Mittelstadt, Jeff Skinner, Duncan Keith, Erik Gustafsson, Brent Seabrook, Henri Jokiharju, Jonathan Toews, Alex DeBrincat, Nick Schmaltz, Corey Crawford, Cam Ward, Jaroslav Halak, Tuukka Rask, Charlie McAvoy, Ryan Donato, Jake DeBrusk, Thomas Chabot, Ryan Dzingel, Paul Byron, Artturi Lehkonen, Brendan Gallagher, Matt Murray, Casey DeSmith, William Nylander, Kasperi Kapanen, Craig Smith, T.J. Oshie, Kevin Fiala and more.

* * *

Like what you hear? Support us by telling a friend, subscribing to and reviewing Keeping Karlsson on iTunes, and following us on Twitter (@keepingkarlsson). 

Even better, support us by becoming a patron of Keeping Karlsson! Patrons support future episodes of the show and get all kinds of perks in return, like an invite to the Keeping Karlsson Ultimate Patron Fantasy League (aka the KKUPFL), monthly Patroncasts, access to the secret patrons-only Facebook group, and weekly show notes. 

The Keeping Karlsson Fantasy Hockey Podcast is proudly presented by DobberHockey.