23-24 NHL Season Surprises

[The B’s Knees]

We’re somewhere between a quarter to a third of the way through the season, so I thought it would be interesting to list and rank some of the surprises so far.
Which are candidates to regress to the mean, and which are for real?
What did I miss?

Surprisingly good:

1. The Bruins - of course we all knew it, but I think there were doubters?
2. Canucks, Caps, Coyotes: The “C” teams!
3. Frank Vatrano: Leading the Ducks in scoring, tied with Pasta and Syd in goals!
4. The Kings: 9-0-0 on the road

Surprisingly bad:

1. The Oilers: 4 points fewer than the Habs but maybe, just maybe, they are turning it around?
2. Ovi: 5 goals so far! Same as Mike Matheson of the Habs.
3. Huberdeau: 51-point pace. Buy low candidate for the Habs?
4. The Devils: Tied with the lowly Habs??
5. The Leafs: 5 regulation wins - only the Habs have fewer.
6. Matt Tkachuk: Only 4 goals. Juston Barron of the Habs has more!

 

[ColdSoxPack]

Add Chicago to the surprisingly bad, IMO. They have the no 1 pick and added some good veterans. They are terrible.

 

[Scoops Bolling]

Well one of those veterans is out for the year already and another is having his contract terminated, so they're not exactly getting the bang for the buck they had planned on.

I didn't expect the Rangers to be this good. Sabres also have to be on the list of disappointments. They've spent big to build on this core, it's gotta start winning at some point.

 

[cshea]

Eh, I don't think Chicago being bad is a surprise. Most models had them as a bottom 3 team entering the year. They added Hall, Foligno and Perry up front but I'd probably quibble with labeling Foligno and Perry as "good veterans." The defense is basically a shitty Seth Jones and Connor Murphy with 4 rookies.

The really bad teams that land a generational talent in the draft usually suck the following year. He got hurt, but the Oilers finished 2nd to last in McDavid's rookie year. Same with the Penguins after landing Sid.

 

[Dim13]

The Wings have the 3rd best goal differential in the Eastern Conference, behind the Bruins and the Rangers. Nice to see the Yzerplan starting to shape up.

 

[Red Right Ankle]

Mad credit for working a negative Habs comparison into every bullet on the bad list.

 

[SemperFidelisSox]

Surprisingly good
- Winnipeg

Surprisingly bad
- Penguins PP

 

[The Napkin]

Arizona managed to have more goals than shots at one point tonight. That's a bit of a surprise to me.

 

[Lose Remerswaal]

Arizona managed to have more goals than shots at one point tonight. That's a bit of a surprise to me.

My guess would be the SOG tracker was lagging behind the score tracking. That seema common to me when watching games.

Still, a rare photo and certainly fun to show to a non party pooper.

 

[cshea]

Surprisingly bad
- Penguins PP

I think I heard this on the 32 Thoughts podcast before the season but when discussing Pittsburgh they mentioned that Karlsson was picky about his PP usage and where he wants to be. Essentially they thought Pittsburgh was going to have to revamp what they do, put Karlsson where he's happy and change the other 4 guys out there. I haven't watched a ton of the Penguins but I wonder if that's sort of what's happened.

 

[cshea]

More of a factoid than anything but saw this one today.

The Coyotes are on a 5 game winning streak and during the streak have beaten the last 5 Stanley Cup Champions

Vegas (2023)
Tampa (2020, 2021)
Colorado (2022)
St. Louis (fuck off)
Washington (2018)

Alas, the run ends as the Flyers are up next. Though they do see Pittsburgh this weekend.