Who’s Hot, Who’s Not in the NHL

The NHL has reached the two week mark of the schedule, each team has played at least five games, and some teams have stuck out while others have dug themselves a deep hole to get out of. While teams like Tampa Bay, Toronto, Chicago, and Nashville have fulfilled expectations thus far being where most fans and NHL experts have expected them to be, other teams like Edmonton, San Jose, New York Rangers, and Montreal are nowhere near reaching their expectations. There have been a handful of surprise teams too, ones who have gained the respect of other teams and fans across the league and are potentially on their way to worthwhile season. So, let’s dig into those surprises along with who’s been hot and who has not in the NHL.

(Surprise teams indicated with *)

Who’s Hot

Let’s begin with the team who has earned the most points in the standings, the Tampa Bay Lightning. The Bolts have been electric (get it?) and lead the league with 13 points and sit atop the Atlantic Division by a point. Nikita Kucherov has played in full savagery mode so far and scored at least one goal in his first seven out of eight games and is one goal behind the leader Alex Ovechkin with 8. Obviously having a healthy Steven Stamkos is crucial for the Bolts success this season and of course, Stamkos just does what he does best, puts up points, as he leads the league with 14 (2+12=14). Andrei Vasilevskiy has also done well in net leading the league in wins with 6, I would say this trend continues for Tampa borrowing a bad injury to one of their core players, and has to be considered a cup contender.

The 31st franchise to join the NHL looks like they are a team that won’t go down without a fight and their placement in the standings show that. The Vegas Golden Knights sit at the three spot in the Western Conference and are undefeated on the road albeit they have only played two games outside of the T-Mobile Arena. The home opener for Vegas was a chilling yet exciting night, one that brought the entire NHL together by honoring the 58 victims from the Vegas shooting in a 58 second moment of silence and with the Dallas Stars joining the Knights on their blue line for the National Anthem. A tough loss on the roster occurred for the Knights last weekend due to placing goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury on injured reserve but that hasn’t slowed down James Neal and the rest of the Knights, the new team from the desert deserve the upmost credit, and are a tough team to face.

*Taylor Hall, Cory Schneider, rookie Will Butcher, and Kyle Palmieri have made hockey fun again in New Jersey and currently hold the second highest point percentage in the Eastern Conference. The Devils are 6-1-0 in their first seven games and are tied with Toronto and St. Louis for second for most points in the NHL. New Jersey’s offense has carried the team thus far with their third best goal differential at +10, they are undefeated on the road with a 4-0-0 record and are currently on a three game winning streak. Don’t sleep on the Devils just yet, they have some really skilled rookies along with a veteran presence that have pushed the team to where they are at. It has surprised me how well they have played given the fact last year wasn’t all that pretty for them, but perhaps things have turned around.

Crown the Kings, ok maybe not just yet but they are back. Anze Kopitar is healthy, Jonathan Quick is healthy and is back to being the elite goaltender that he is, and LA have yet to lose in regulation thus far during the young campaign. The Kings are on a three game winning streak and smoked the Montreal Canadiens in their last game 5-1. Jonathan Quick is healthy and man has he showed up to play, he is currently sporting a .950 save percentage and a 1.59 goals against average, another Vezina Award campaign in the making? Don’t count it out. The Kings are hot and are putting pucks in the net, keep it rolling LA, you’re a fun team to watch.

The top team in the West is the St. Louis Blues (6-2-0), the third highest point getter is Jaden Schwartz (12), and Jake Allen is continuing to make highlight reel saves, all is good in St. Louis. While the stat sheet isn’t overly impressive compared to other teams across the league, it is clear that the Blues are playing as a team and feel this is their year to prove to the NHL they can contend for a cup. Although it always seems like the Blues suffer a big injury every season, if they remain healthy they have enough to do damage in the West, let’s see how long they can remain the best in the west.

Auston Matthews and the Toronto Maple Leafs are rocking a 6-1-0 record and are just one point behind Tampa for the top spot in the East. The crazed fans of Toronto had high expectations with this team going into this year with their abundance of young talent and so far they have risen up to those expectations. With the best goal differential (+12) and Frederick Anderson having the second most wins among goalies (5) Toronto has to be considered one of the top teams this far, especially during their three game win streak. Who knows if Anderson will continue to have the season that he has, but with the best offense in the NHL it may not really matter.

Who’s Not

*Perhaps the biggest surprise this season has been the New York Rangers with their 1-5-2  record and minus 10 goal differential, oh and Rick Nash only having just one goal on the year, yeah that doesn’t help either. Neither has the “King” himself Henrik Lundqvist with his 20 goals against .905 save percentage, and 3.15 goals against average. The leading scorer on the team is newcomer Kevin Shattenkirk (2+5=7), mind you that is a defenseman, the leading scorer at forward is Mats Zuccarello who has the same numbers as Shattenkirk but rocks a plus/minus of -9. Woof. Jimmy Vesey has yet to score through 8 games and has seen his team lose back to back games in overtime. If things don’t change quickly for the blueshirts some changes are bound to occur, like moving on from Rick Nash, but who would even want him at this point?

Colorado started the season through their first four games with a 3-1-0 record (granted two of those came against the Bruins, expect me to rant for a bit on them at the end of the article). But since then, the Avs have lost three straight and have to be considering moving on from either their captain Gabriel Landeskog or more than likely, Matt Duchene whose name has been in rumors since last years deadline. The Avs do have some young talent though and that has got to be the best upside to them, but with Semyon Varlamov not being the same goalie he once was, the Avs will continue to fall to the bottom of the West.

*The best player in the NHL, Connor McDavid, continues to make unbelievable plays night in and night out and its not surprise GM Peter Chiarelli gave him an enormous contract extension, but the team is only 2-4-0. At home they have been a disappointment (1-3-0) and overall they have a -7 goal differential. Last season Cam Talbot was considered a top ten goalie in the league, but through five starts this season he is only 2-3-0 with a .901 save percentage and a 3.17 goals against average, which doesn’t help this what should be a top offensive team in the league. McDavid can’t do it all only he and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins have more than one goal McDavid: (3+5=8) RNH: (2+1=3). Only six other players on the roster have scored a goal so far, each with just one goal. Edmonton was expected to make a deep run and be in a battle for the best in Alberta against Calgary this season, but right now they sit four points below a playoff spot, I think they bounce back but for now they are not hot.

*Claude Julien must have brought his “win a game 1-0” mentality to Montreal when he joined the team last season because the Habs are the second worst team in the league right now with a 1-5-1 record and -16 goal differential. Montreal doesn’t have a player on their roster with more than five points, which means not one player even cracks the top 50 in the league in points, their leading scorer is Jonathan Drouin (2+3=5) in his first season with the Canadiens. After Drouin, Karl Alzner sits alone at second on the team in points with 3 without even scoring a goal. These are dark times for the Habs and for Carey Price who has given up the second most goals allowed (19) and has a .885 save percentage and 3.56 GAA in 320 minutes played. Is it time for Montreal to hit the panic button? Maybe, but I refuse to count them out just yet, not quite yet.

Quick Bruins Rant

Game one against the defending Western Conference Champions was a game worth buying a ticket for which I did, the team looked much faster, had crisp passes, played the body, and scored four times against Pekka Rinne there is no hating that. BUT that all changed during the final couple of minutes when Nashville scored two quick goals and I sat in my seat and thought “uh-oh”. Is the defense a hoax and just teased me with two and a half solid periods? The next three out of four games proved it to be true. A nice little home and home sweep which included a dismal Columbus Day matinee to Colorado at home and then a 6-3 beatdown on the road a couple nights later. Then after that a win against the winless Arizona Coyotes (does it count? Maybe only in the record books) and then a better played game against Vegas in their first ever matchup but still ultimately a loss. Now the Bruins are on a four game homestand and started it off with a dub last night against the Canucks, a game in which they scored three goals on a five minute powerplay and had Patrice Bergeron back in their lineup who had a goal and three assists. I’ll take it. Bad news, or maybe good news, Tuukka Rask is hurt he got ran into by Anders Bjork at practice and may have a concussion and is considered out indefinitely for now. Rask really hasn’t done shit this season and that was one of my biggest worries going into this year. Adam McQuaid suffered a broken fibula last night and is out for eight weeks, so the already shaky defense is thin, which means guys like Chara, Krug, and god damnit I don’t want to say it but it’s true, Kevan Miller need to step up and be a force. The Bruins need to take advantage of this homestand and they have another so-so team in Buffalo coming up tomorrow night. If Bergeron can remain healthy and Marchand can continue to put up points like he has the Bruins should survive this stand, but other guys like Matt Beleskey, David Backes, Riley Nash, Frank Vatrano need to chip in offensively as well. We will see. So much for a “quick” rant eh?

Written by Nick Gendreau