Credit: Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports
As the NHL returns to action after celebrating Christmas and Boxing Day for Canadians, 29 teams have played at least 30 games.
During the offseason, many NHL experts predicted that the Edmonton Oilers would finally win a Stanley Cup with Connor McDavid while snubbing the reigning champions, the Vegas Golden Knights, to repeat. Meanwhile, there was a consensus that after 153 points last year, fans had only seen the beginning of what McDavid could achieve, but no one thought Nikita Kucherov would be back in the hunt for the Art Ross Trophy.
Furthermore, it is doubtful anyone expected the San Jose Sharks to be historically bad, and people knew it would be a tough rookie year for No. 1 overall pick Connor Bedard. Still, it wasn’t supposed to be filled with so much drama.
So, as the NHL returns from three consecutive days off, here’s some interesting observations from around the league.
The Oilers struggled mightily at the start of the season, with McDavid collecting just 13 points in his first 13 games. That led to the Oilers firing head coach Jay Woodcroft after just 13 games, replacing him with McDavid’s head coach from his junior days.
The change sparked an eight-game winning streak, and the Oilers have won 10 of their past 13 games overall since Woodcroft’s departure. The coaching change may have helped, but it is just covering up the core issues with this team: they don’t have elite goaltending, and their defensemen can’t be trusted. The Oilers rely heavily on power-play goals and McDavid and Leon Draisaitl to win games.
They remain five points out of a Western Conference wild card spot and rank 27th in the NHL standings, which isn’t where anyone predicted they’d be on opening night.
After claiming the Stanley Cup in June 2023, the Golden Knights came into the season with few pundits predicting they would repeat as champions. The Golden Knights come out of the Christmas break as the NHL’s second-best team. Despite the resurgence of the Vancouver Canucks, Vegas has been at or near the top of the Western Conference since the first puck drop.
Surprisingly, the Golden Knights are rolling through the competition without their best goalie, Adin Hill, who has played just 15 games because of a lower body injury. The Golden Knights are also without their top defenseman, Shea Theodore.
Last season, the Bruins compiled an NHL record 65 wins and 135 points only to bow out of the Stanley Cup playoffs in the first round. Then they lost franchise icons Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci in the offseason, leaving many to wonder if the team could sustain those losses and still stay competitive. Some observers thought they could possibly miss the playoffs for the first time since 2016.
But the Bruins have maintained the top spot in the Atlantic Division all season and started the year just as they finished last season, going 15-4-3 in the first two months. Despite hitting a recent rough patch with a 4-3-3 record in December, they remain in a dogfight with the New York Rangers for the top spot in the Eastern Conference.
Boston continues to get outstanding goaltending from Jeremy Swayman and Linus Ullmark, who are the backbone of the club’s success since the start of last year. The remainder of the season will not be a cakewalk, with the adversity possibly helping them prepare for the playoffs and a lengthy run to capture their first Stanley Cup since 2011.
As expected, Connor Bedard is leading the Chicago Blackhawks in scoring and is already double digits ahead of his next closest teammate. Despite producing at a 0.90 points-per-game average, he can’t carry the team alone, as evidenced by Chicago’s 31st ranking in the NHL with a 10-22-1 record.
The Blackhawks also continue to find themselves in media turmoil, first with additional sexual harassment lawsuits and recently the incident involving veteran Corey Perry getting cut from the team. Even though the NHL would love nothing more than to showcase Bedard on every network, he’s representing a franchise that needs a publicity makeover, which is added pressure for the 18-year-old as the de facto face of the franchise.
After finishing with a 22-44-16 record, ranking 28th in the NHL, the highlight of the San Jose Sharks 2022-23 season was Erik Karlsson winning the Norris Trophy as the league’s best defenseman. But during the offseason, the Sharks traded Karlsson to the Pittsburgh Penguins, officially kicking off a rebuild that has been painful to watch for fans.
Historically, the Sharks started the year with one of the worst records of all time, taking 12 games to earn their first win. Although everyone knew they were at the start of a rebuild, no one expected it to be so bad. After 34 games, they are dead last in the NHL standings and have the worst goal differential in the league at minus-67.
Even though they will not break the NHL records for fewest wins and most losses in the modern era — which the franchise already owns from the 1992-93 season — the Sharks have improved recently. They will spend the second half of the season competing with the Blackhawks for the first overall pick in the 2024 NHL Entry Draft.
Since 2017, only three players — Edmonton’s Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, and Tampa Bay’s Nikita Kucherov — have won the Art Ross Trophy as the NHL’s scoring leader. Right now, McDavid is the three-time defending scoring champion, and after a historic season in 2022-23 he seemed to be a lock to repeat.
However, Kucherov has been on a tear this year and has collected 57 points through 35 games, finding the scoresheet in all but five contests. Even though he’s got stiff competition in Auston Matthews and Brock Boeser for the Maurice “Rocket” Richard Trophy as the league’s top goal scorer, he’s also fending off Nathan MacKinnon and Quinn Hughes for the most assists. Still, he has a three-point lead in the overall scoring race.
Kucherov’s play this year is one of the key reasons the Lightning survived the first two months of the season without All-Star netminder Andrei Vasilveskiy. Although the team struggles to stay ahead in the wild card race, their best player may be looking to clean up at the upcoming NHL Awards show in June, ending McDavid’s reign at the top.
Last year, the Buffalo Sabres and Pittsburgh Penguins missed the playoffs by less than one point, while the Ottawa Senators missed by six points. Heading into the offseason, the Penguins retooled their front office and acquired Erik Karlsson to bolster their lineup. Meanwhile, the younger Sabres continued their rebuild, hoping to take the next step by ending the league’s longest playoff drought at 12 years.
But both franchises have struggled in 2023-24. Instead of taking steps forward, these clubs struggle to string together wins and collect points to stay in the playoff race.
However, they are not alone, with the Oilers, Seattle Kraken, and Minnesota Wild joining them in the bottom third of the league standings. Interestingly, the Kraken almost advanced to the Western Conference last season, and the Wild were in contention for the Central Division. Both teams have losing records and are trying to claim back into the tight races for a playoff spot.
Surprisingly, out of all the contenders, the freefall of the Penguins and Oilers was the least expected, and despite having over 50 games left, their climb to reach the playoffs will be rough. Moreover, their rosters are not strong enough to advance four rounds and win it all once they get there. Even though it’s not officially over for any club until the final buzzer, it may be too late for most of these teams, which should make for an exciting trade deadline in March.