Friday is November 8, which means — if we overlook the early European start Buffalo and New Jersey got in Czechia — it’s been exactly one month since the NHL season began in earnest on October 8 with a banner-raising in South Florida.
Some of what’s happened in four-plus weeks since then is stuff many anticipated. On the other hand, it feels like the number of things that qualify as a surprise is at least slightly more extensive than usual.
For example, two teams many circled for a step back — the Winnipeg Jets and Carolina Hurricanes — sport the top two points percentages in the league. Martin Necas, a player mentioned endlessly in summer trade rumours, has 20 points and is being outscored by just five forwards in the NHL. Nikolaj Ehlers, cited in as many off-season fake trade proposals as Necas, is right behind with 17 points. The Washington Capitals, a club you may have forgotten even scraped into the playoffs last year, is authoring the kind of hot start that gives them the inside track on getting back this season and centre Dylan Strome has the fifth-best points-per-game mark (1.58) of any Canadian NHLer. Matt Duchene (1.36) is sixth.
Meanwhile, defenceman Cale Makar is competing with teammate Nathan MacKinnon for the league scoring lead, yet the Avalanche teammates are a combined minus-11 and play for a 6-7-0 team. Connor McDavid also plays for a sub-.500 squad. Due to a combination of injuries and uneven play by their teams, McDavid and Auston Matthews — the most recent two Rocket Richard winners — have combined for eight goals this year. In other words, the same amount put up by the Kings’ Alex Laferriere or the Avs’ (now injured) Ross Colton.
The Boston Bruins — who won a league-record 65 games in 2022-23, when Jim Montgomery won the Jack Adams in his first year with the team — have been identified as a squad that might drop the axe on its coach, while the Nashville Predators — after winning the off-season — have won just four of 13 games this year. In fact, GM Barry Trotz is already talking about a rebuild.
Suffice it to say, surprises abound and cut both ways.
With that in mind, we’re using this week’s power rankings, one month into the season, to identify an eyebrow-raising note — good or bad — about all 32 teams.
1. Winnipeg Jets (12-1-0) Nobody saw a league-best 4.77 goals per game coming, and hands up if you had Neal Pionk being a point-per-game blue-liner through 13 contests.
2. Carolina Hurricanes (9-2-0) Martin Necas has been the offensive story, but how about new Cane Jack Roslovic netting seven goals so far?
3. Florida Panthers (9-3-1) Sam Reinhart is a wonderful player, but it was easy to believe his 57-goal showing from last season was going to be a bit of an outlier. However, Reinhart is a Rocket Richard threat once again, earning himself a share of the NHL goal-scoring lead with 10 tallies.
4. New York Rangers (8-2-1) Second-year Ranger Will Cuylle has taken a nice offensive step with eight points in 11 outings this year. If he can bring offence like that in his six-foot-three package, New York will be over the moon.
5. Washington Capitals (9-3-0) Dylan Strome producing like a 1C? Alex Ovechkin scoring at a 55-goal pace at age 39? Both of those things catch your attention, as does Connor McMichael being tied for the team lead in goals (eight) with Ovie.
6. Vegas Golden Knights (9-3-1) What a scorching start by captain Mark Stone, who’s driving Vegas’ powerful offence with 21 points in 13 outings.
7. Minnesota Wild (8-2-2) Filip Gustavsson was the subject of off-season trade rumours, so his solid .917 save percentage is quite a sight so far.
8. Dallas Stars (7-4-0) No alarm bells are ringing, but for the second consecutive fall, Jason Robertson is a little sluggish out of the gate with just four goals in 11 contests.
9. New Jersey Devils (8-5-2) Nico Hischier has always been a quality player, but to see him scoring at a 55-goal pace is something else.
10. Los Angeles Kings (8-3-3) After everyone predicted another surge for Quinton Byfield, the big man is stuck on a single goal in 14 games this year.
11. Vancouver Canucks (6-2-3) You figured, after a summer to reset, Elias Pettersson’s elite offensive game would return. So far, though, that’s not been the case.
12. Toronto Maple Leafs (7-5-2) Two PPGs in their last outing helped, but it remains downright jarring to see the Leafs converting just 14.9 percent of the time (26th in the NHL) with the man advantage.
13. Tampa Bay Lightning (7-6-0) Anthony Cirelli as a point-per-game player? What a nice development for the Bolts.
14. Detroit Red Wings (6-5-1) Cam Talbot and Alex Lyon combining to provide Detroit with the fifth-best save percentage (.911) in the league? Didn’t see that coming.
15. Edmonton Oilers (6-7-1) Even with Connor McDavid sidelined for a bit, it’s absolutely shocking to see the Oilers ranked 30th in the league with 2.31 goals-per-game.
16. Ottawa Senators (6-6-0) We figured a Swedish goalie might have a .910 save percentage for the Sens this year, we just didn’t bank on it being Anton Forsberg instead of Linus Ullmark.
17. St. Louis Blues (7-6-0) Brayden Schenn has been a consistent 20-goal guy, so to see him still stuck on one goal with top centre Robert Thomas out of the lineup is a surprise.
18. Boston Bruins (6-7-1) We’re just not used to seeing Boston in the bottom third of the league in goals-against. The Bruins currently rank 22nd in the NHL, surrendering 3.29 goals a night.
19. Colorado Avalanche (6-7-0) Maybe it’s actually a surprise this team is doing as well as it is with forwards Jonathan Drouin, Miles Wood, Ross Colton, Valeri Nichukshin and, yes, captain Gabriel Landeskog all on the sidelines.
20. Calgary Flames (7-5-1) Andrei Kuzmenko scored at a 40-goal pace after landing in Calgary last season, so it’s a disappointing surprise to see him with just one tuck in 13 tries this year.
21. Columbus Blue Jackets (5-5-2) Sean Monahan played some great hockey last year, but it’s still quite something to see him fit so well with his new club. The veteran pivot leads Columbus with six goals.
22. Utah Hockey Club (5-5-3) Nick Schmaltz is a pass-first creator, but to see him stuck with a goose egg in the goals column this year is a shocker.
23. Buffalo Sabres (5-7-1) One goal — and just four points — for Dylan Cozens? We know he scuffled last year, but what’s going on here?
24. New York Islanders (5-6-2) Kyle Palmieri leads the Islanders with 11 points in 13 games. I’m not sure if that’s a surprise or the most on-brand thing you could imagine for the Isles.
25. Chicago Blackhawks (5-8-1) Listen, the kid is going to get there, but aren’t you a little surprised Connor Bedard has only scored three times this year?
26. Anaheim Ducks (4-6-2) It has not been a smooth ride for Trevor Zegras the past couple of seasons, but three points in 12 games? Ugh.
27. Pittsburgh Penguins (5-7-2) Really, most of what’s happening around this club is predictable, including the conversation shifting toward what a long road back to contention this will be.
28. Nashville Predators (4-8-1) Throw a dart and you’ll hit a bad surprise in Nashville. Throw two and you can hit Steven Stamkos and Jonathan Marchessault combining for just five goals so far.
29. Seattle Kraken (5-8-1) It’s crazy how quickly this season is getting away from Seattle. The Kraken are 1-6-1 in their past eight and if you take out a nutty 8-2 win versus Montreal, they’re being outscored 26-10 in that stretch. They’ve got a six-game homestand starting Friday and need to turn things around fast.
30. San Jose Sharks (4-8-2) The fact this team currently has just one loss in its past five outings would surely surprise anybody who watched it fail to win through its first nine games. Kudos to San Jose’s players for grabbing hold of the wheel.
31. Montreal Canadiens (4-7-2) The horrendous underlying numbers for this squad — which, despite not being that good last season, was usually very competitive — are truly astonishing.
32. Philadelphia Flyers (4-8-1) No matter what your expectation, a .842 combined save percentage in six games from Ivan Fedotov and Aleksei Kolosov is shocking to see.
