One of the more remarkable things about this NHL season is that we’ve crossed the halfway point without a head coach being fired. That’s unusual at the best of times, but in a turbulent campaign like this one, it’s borderline stunning.
That doesn’t mean there haven’t been some close calls, though. It felt like John Hynes was on the ropes earlier in the year before the Minnesota Wild turned things around. Andrew Brunette seemed as good as gone back in November, but rose from the mat after a nine-count as the Nashville Predators have clawed their way back up the standings. Marc Savard was let go by the Toronto Maple Leafs just before the holidays, as Craig Berube clung to his job in somewhat of a Christmas miracle. Now the Leafs are back in the mix for a playoff spot again, and Berube is on solid ground for the time being.
However, all of those coaches had the benefit of time on their side to turn things around. It’s now getting to a critical juncture in the season where missteps are running out if you plan on playing spring hockey.
The New Jersey Devils and Winnipeg Jets are clearly under the microscope now, with both falling well below expectations and needing something positive to happen immediately. Jets head coach Scott Arniel and Devils bench boss Sheldon Keefe are both feeling the pressure and need some miraculous bounce back to cool down their seats.
Scott Arniel and Sheldon Keefe are both coaching for their jobs
The Jets and Devils will meet Sunday afternoon with serious potential consequences for the loser. Winnipeg quieted the noise briefly on Friday, finally picking up a victory after losing 11 in a row. Meanwhile, New Jersey has lost seven of nine outings, including a 9-0 trouncing at the hands of the New York Islanders earlier this week. Losses like that get everyone’s attention, and if Keefe’s seat wasn’t hot already, it is now.
Most coaches who get fired in the middle of the season are usually those whose teams are in unexpected spots in the standings, and both the Devils and Jets are nowhere near where they want to be. Winnipeg was the Presidents’ Trophy winner a year ago and is now tied for last in the NHL, while the Devils were supposed to be an automatic playoff team after winning eight of their first nine games, but now find themselves close to the Eastern Conference basement with a minus-22 goal differential. It certainly does feel like both Arniel and Keefe need to put together a string of wins in the worst way to save their jobs.
Overreaction? – No
There are some troubling signs for each coach. When it comes to the Devils, the fact that the return of Jack Hughes from injury hasn’t done anything to boost the team whatsoever is concerning. New Jersey feels like a group that was expecting to land Quinn Hughes via trade and hasn’t recovered from the deal falling apart. Plus, the fact that $9M defenceman Dougie Hamilton is going to be a healthy scratch likely won’t help team camaraderie. It’s Keefe’s job to hold everything together, and general manager Tom Fitzgerald has been quiet lately, not giving his coach a vote of confidence.
As for the Jets, their biggest issue has been a lack of secondary scoring after losing Nik Ehlers last summer. Arniel finally moved Gabriel Vilardi away from Kyle Connor and Mark Scheifele, who have both been excellent, but it may be too little too late. The fact that Arniel’s been so hesitant to split up Scheifele and Connor to try and spark other Jets forwards could be viewed as complacency.
Ultimately, someone is going to lose another game on Sunday and only hear the chatter get louder. At some point, something has to give.
Senators have mismanaged their goaltending situation
Has there been a more disappointing team than the Ottawa Senators this season? If there is, it’s a short list.
After an impressive push in the second half of last year and a strong showing against the Toronto Maple Leafs in the postseason, many felt the Sens were a team on the rise, looking to take another step in 2025-26. Instead, the Sens have dropped seven of their past nine games and sit second last in the Eastern Conference. A huge part of that is goaltending, or lack thereof. Ottawa is sporting an .872 team save percentage at the moment, good enough for last in the league. To make matters more challenging, Linus Ullmark has been absent from the team and it’s unclear when he’ll return. Goaltending should be a real strength for this team but some questionable transactions have put them in a bind.
Overreaction? – No
It wasn’t that long ago when the Senators had both Joey Daccord and Filip Gustavsson, now two quality starters for the Seattle Kraken and Minnesota Wild respectively, on their roster at the same time. Ottawa left Daccord unprotected in the expansion draft in 2021 where the Kraken scooped him up and they dealt Gustavsson to the Wild in the summer of 2022 for Cam Talbot. When the Sens traded for Talbot, he was 35 and played all of 36 games for the team. Both Gustavsson and Daccord are now in their primes and have been very consistent over the past few seasons.
These missteps led Ottawa to hand out big money deals to Joonas Korpisalo, who was a disaster and traded after one season, and Ullmark, who has been very underwhelming thus far. Hindsight is 20/20 and goalies are hard to forecast, but it does feel that the Sens would’ve been wise to give at least one of Daccord or Gustavsson some more runway to prove what they could do.
Leafs won’t be able to overcome loss of Chris Tanev
Almost every team has dealt with some type of significant injuries this season and the Toronto Maple Leafs have felt them specifically on the back end. Jake McCabe just sat out a few games, Brandon Carlo missed a huge chunk of the year and Chris Tanev is now sidelined for his third stretch of the season, something he may or may not be able to return from in 2025-26. I don’t think anyone would argue that Tanev is Toronto’s most important defenceman and they are 6-3-2 with him this year and 12-12-5 without him. Considering how little room for error the Leafs have in their playoff chase, it’s going to be almost impossible to crack the postseason without him.
Overreaction? – Yes
While it’s still going to be a major uphill battle to get in, the Leafs have been playing much better lately and are actually 5-0-1 since Tanev’s latest injury. The return of Carlo has been a breath of fresh air for the blue line, as the veteran looks like a completely different player than he was earlier in the season when he was playing through an injury. McCabe is arguably playing the best hockey of his career, and Troy Stecher has been a massive addition off the waiver wire.
Staying healthy will obviously be the key here, but if Auston Matthews continues to play the way he has over the past few weeks and Toronto keeps getting excellent goaltending, it does at least seem plausible they could sneak in minus Tanev. Competing for a Stanley Cup would be an entirely different story, though this version of the Leafs should be able to hang with any of those bubble teams trying to grab a spot.
The Eastern Conference is superior to the West
I think the belief of many fans this season has been the East has been very mid. It makes sense, considering no one is really out of it and no one is running away with anything. Plus, you could argue the three best teams in the NHL are in the West and for that matter, in the Central. There’s no denying the Colorado Avalanche are head and shoulders above everyone and then the Dallas Stars and Minnesota Wild have put together strong campaigns as well. But just because the East doesn’t have as many elite teams as the West, it doesn’t mean it isn’t as strong. The East standings are as tight as it gets and the conference as a whole has a great case that it’s better than the West.
Overreaction? – No
First off, at one point a few days ago, the only West teams that would’ve been in a playoff spot if they were in the East were Colorado, Dallas and Minnesota. Every other West team would’ve been below the cutoff line. Vegas, with a couple of recent victories, would now be tied for a wild card spot if they were in the East, but no one else would be higher than 10th. Only five Western Conference teams have a positive goal differential, and only Vegas has one from the Pacific.
The head-to-head records support the East’s case as well. It’s been very one-sided, with the East dominating the West in 2025-26 with a mark of 168-107-28. Just in the last week for example, the East is 21-11-2.
Finally, the Avalanche have been playing at a historic pace this season and could go down as one of the best teams of all time, but all four of their regulation losses have come against Eastern Conference teams. No one would argue that the elite teams reside in the West, but they also have more teams on the lower end. The East has more good teams overall.
Dostal is starting to regress for the Ducks
There was a point earlier this season where the Anaheim Ducks were leading the Pacific Division and appeared to be a lock to return to the playoffs, but things have taken a drastic turn. The Ducks have lost nine in a row and have fallen out of the playoff picture, as Anaheim is suddenly having trouble keeping the puck out of its net. They’ve allowed an average of five goals per game over this stretch, and Lukas Dostal’s numbers are plummeting. He has an .887 save percentage, and after finishing in the top 20 in the league in goals saved above expected a year ago, Dostal has dropped all the way down to 75th with a mark of -5.4. Perhaps we anointed Dostal as one of the league’s best young goalies too soon.
Overreaction? – Yes
Dostal’s struggles have more to do with the Ducks’ lack of defensive prowess than a drop-off in play. Anaheim is a bottom-10 team when it comes to shots allowed, and they rank third-worst when it comes to high-danger chances against. Dostal is used to being under siege like this, as the Ducks were 32nd in both categories last year, but it’s starting to catch up to him. You can’t expect Dostal to keep standing on his head year after year when he’s constantly being put in a difficult position to succeed. At some point, the Ducks are going to have to start helping him more, and it’s Joel Quenneville’s responsibility to get them playing better defensive hockey. Dostal is one of the most talented young goalies in the game and could be a franchise netminder for the Ducks, but Anaheim has to start making it a little easier on him night in and night out.
