The top two clubs in the Pacific Division have a combined age of seven years old.
The Vegas Golden Knights have been no stranger to success since they began NHL play five years ago in 2017, so it’s not a complete shocker to see them sitting atop the Pacific. But the second-place Seattle Kraken? Man, do they appear to be taking a step forward in Year 2.
When Brandon Tanev scored late to break a 2-2 tie on Saturday night in Pittsburgh, he provided Seattle with its fourth straight win and burned his old team along the way. In fact, the Kraken are 6-2-0 in their past eight and their four regulation-time losses this season are fewer than all but eight clubs in the NHL.
Okay, maybe it’s not yet time to start talking about them clearing that ridiculously high expansion bar set by Vegas, but clearly some strides are being made for a club that finished 30th in its debut season last year.
Dig into Seattle’s record a little more and you’ll find they have 11 road points — only Vegas, at 12, has more — and as the tweet above notes, they’re 6-1-1 against teams that participated in the 2022 Stanley Cup Playoffs. In terms of expected goals percentage, Seattle ranks a very respectable ninth in the league.
All of this with two goalies — Chris Driedger and Philipp Grubauer — on the injured reserve list.
Seattle is certainly getting contributions from up and down the lineup, as eight players on the squad have at least six points this year. Yanni Gourde and Morgan Geekie — both of whom registered a pair of points in Pittsburgh — are the hottest guys on the squad right now, having put up five points during this four-game surge.
Rookie centre Matty Beniers is obviously a huge source of excitement for the squad, as his nine points are best among freshman. Skating on Beniers’ left flank, Jaden Schwartz is leading the way with 10 points in Seattle.
As for the crease, Martin Jones has stepped up in a big way, especially of late. The former Shark and Flyer has been able to find his top form, posting a 4-1-0 record and .937 save percentage in his past five outings after the W in Steeltown.
The vibes have to be just immaculate in the Pacific Northwest right now, what with the Kraken playing the best hockey of their short history and the NFL’s Seattle Seahawks emerging as a surprise contender in that league.
In terms of the Kraken, we’ll see what kind of staying power they have. But based on the body of work so far, it’s pretty tough to make any real mirage cases right now.
Other Takeaways
• The other side of the coin in Pittsburgh was the Penguins losing their seventh consecutive game. Goals against are a massive issue for the Pens right now, with the club giving up an average of 4.7 per game during this ugly skid.
• Remember three weeks ago when fans in the cheap seats were calling for coach Lindy Ruff’s head? My goodness, does that seem like a lifetime ago for the Devils. New Jersey dropped the Calgary Flames 4-3 in overtime on Saturday night, running their record to 9-1-0 after opening the season 0-2-0. The Devils are the top club in the Metropolitan Division and their underlying numbers are off the spreadsheets. Eight forwards on the club have at least three goals this season, so this is about more than a breakout from Jesper Bratt, the two-way brilliance of Nico Hischier and the silly skills of Jack Hughes. A lot of people expected a jump from Jersey this season, but this is something else.
• It took Jamie Benn a while to get going this year, but he sure made the leap when he did. The Dallas captain scored his first goal of the season on Thursday, then went off for the hat trick against Edmonton on Saturday. His third snipe, in particular, was vintage Benn. Don’t look now but the man maligned for his huge salary cap hit and dwindling production in past years suddenly has 11 points in 12 games.
• It’s pretty tough to argue with the pair of two-game suspensions the league handed out after separate incidents on Saturday night. Josh Anderson’s hit on Alex Pietrangelo could have resulted in something truly awful happening, while Matthew Tkachuk is never going to get the benefit of the doubt in any situation like this.
• Has a player ever meant more to a franchise than Alex Ovechkin does to the Washington Capitals? https://twitter.com/PR_NHL/status/1589050621734297601
Weekend Warrior
Nathan MacKinnon’s seven assists in two games certainly deserves consideration, but we have to give it to Mikko Rantanen for his 2-3-5 performance on home soil in Finland during Colorado’s Global Series mini-sweep of Columbus. The team’s other Finn, Artturi Lehkonen, found the back of the net, too. They all did Peter McNab — the ‘Father of Colorado Hockey’ — proud. The former University of Denver star and the longtime colour analyst on Avs games died on Sunday at the age of 70.
Red and White Power Rankings
1. Winnipeg Jets (7-3-1): Josh Morrissey is one of those defencemen who is always talked about in the context of being more valuable than his point totals would suggest…but at the same time, you kind of always wished he scored more points. Well, he’s doing it this year. Morrissey had his first goal of the year on Saturday in the win over Chicago to go along with his 10th assists, giving him an even 11 points through 11 outings.
2. Toronto Maple Leafs (7-4-2): Just a monster weekend for the Leafs, gutting out a 2-1 win over Boston despite starter Ilya Samsonov being forced out of the game, then turning around and beating a top-flight club like Carolina in its own barn with their third-string guy in Erik Kallgren.
3. Edmonton Oilers (7-5-0): After losing to Dallas on Saturday, the Oilers now hit the road for nine of their next 12. Edmonton has been giving up 4.2 goals-per-game in its past five contests.
4. Calgary Flames (5-4-1): The Flames suddenly have just a single regulation-time win in their past seven games following Saturday night’s extra-time setback versus the Devils. And like the Oilers, they’re about to start living out of suitcases for most of November, with nine of 11 slated for the road.
5. Montreal Canadiens (5-6-1): The early returns on Kirby Dach: He looks born to play beside Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield. Since the trio was put together a week ago, Dach has seven points in four games, including three helpers in Montreal’s loss to Vegas on Saturday.
6. Ottawa Senators (4-7-0): The small silver lining in this black cloud of a five-game losing streak is the fact Cam Talbot has returned and has stopped 39 of the 41 shots he’s faced.
7. Vancouver Canucks (3-6-3): So the Canucks are up 3-0 on home ice, about to win for the fifth time in six games and it all comes crashing down again against the Preds in a 4-3 shootout loss. The Canucks now hold a gruesome .333 points percentage when leading after two periods. We’re right back in the smoking frying pan here.
The Week Ahead
• The scuffling St. Louis Blues will try to pull out of a six-game tailspin when they visit the Boston Bruins on Monday.
• It’s an all-Canadian desperation match on Tuesday, as the Canucks visit the Senators. Then on Wednesday, we get Sid V Ovie for the first time this year, followed by a monster revenge game on Thursday when Jack Eichel and the Golden Knights visit Buffalo.
• Ottawa and Vancouver fans who need some warm-and-fuzzies can celebrate Daniel Alfredsson, Roberto Luongo and the Sedin twins — Daniel and Henrik — being inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame this coming weekend. Finnish trailblazer Riikka Sallinen is also going in, as is Herb Carnegie posthumously.
