We’re simply over a month into the NHL common season, and for some groups, the excessive hopes and optimism of the preseason have light away for one cause or one other.
The Athletic requested its NHL employees this week for every group’s greatest concern at this level. The responses lined the total spectrum, from goaltending and lack of offense to dangerous protection, accidents and extra. Right here’s what they stated.
Their offense continues to be backside tier: The Geese have scored just one or two targets in six of their 10 video games. They’ve averted being shut out however their 2.2 targets per recreation ranks thirty first, placing them above solely the equally punchless New York Islanders. A number of of their prime offensive gamers are struggling. Mason McTavish and Cutter Gauthier have but to attain. Frank Vatrano and Trevor Zegras every have one empty internet objective. It hasn’t helped that their energy play is simply 4-for-31, however they’re additionally being decisively outshot by a median of 9. The offense would actually be inept if Troy Terry, Leo Carlsson and Ryan Strome didn’t have 12 of their 22 targets. Lukas Dostal’s large goaltending is holding them afloat. — Eric Stephens
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5-on-five offense: Via 11 video games, the Bruins have scored solely 16 five-on-five targets. David Pastrnak has only one. Brad Marchand, Charlie Coyle, Pavel Zacha and Morgan Geekie, all of whom began the season within the prime six, have zero. It could be one factor if the Bruins had high-end goaltending like they did for the previous three seasons. Jeremy Swayman, with out Linus Ullmark, continues to be discovering his recreation. — Fluto Shinzawa
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Secondary scoring: Heading into Friday night time, the Sabres had solely two power-play targets this season and had just one objective whole from second-liners Dylan Cozens and Jack Quinn. Of Buffalo’s 24 five-on-five targets, 11 have include Tage Thompson on the ice. Lindy Ruff tried mixing up the second and third traces this week in an effort to get extra from gamers like Cozens and Quinn. The second line and energy play are the important thing to getting extra constant offense. — Matthew Fairburn
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Are younger gamers nonetheless progressing? This must be the No. 1 precedence for the Flames. Connor Zary is close to the highest of the Flames’ leaderboard in factors. That’s good. Dustin Wolf has misplaced his final two begins after profitable his first three. That’s much less good. The shine of Martin Pospisil as a middle has already worn off. That’s additionally much less good, however at the least he’s taking part in with Zary once more. Matthew Coronato doesn’t have an everyday spot within the lineup. The Flames crashing right down to Earth after a scorching begin was anticipated. It’s all in regards to the youth persevering with to push themselves ahead. — Julian McKenzie
Goaltending: The Hurricanes’ goaltending has been good — getting into Friday’s video games, Carolina had allowed the second-fewest targets within the league at 2.33 per recreation — however that doesn’t imply there isn’t trigger for concern. Frederik Andersen missed Monday’s recreation in Vancouver, resulting in Spencer Martin being recalled. Andersen was later introduced to be out week to week with a lower-body damage. Andersen (3-1-0, .941 save proportion, 1.48 goals-against common) had a greater GAA and save proportion than Pyotr Kochetkov (4-1-0, .891, 2.61) in October, and the Hurricanes are skinny after Martin ought to one other damage happen. The place is unquestionably on the minds of the teaching employees and entrance workplace. — Cory Lavalette
Objective scoring: There’s little question the Blackhawks are a greater group than a season in the past, however the offense stays an space of concern. They only don’t have a ton of depth scoring. They may particularly use extra five-on-five scoring from Tyler Bertuzzi, Taylor Corridor, Philipp Kurashev, Ilya Mikheyev and Teuvo Teräväinen. These 5 gamers mixed for 4 targets in five-on-five play by the primary 11 video games. — Scott Powers
Goaltending: Colorado’s .858 save proportion ranks final within the NHL, and it’s undoubtedly the most important contributor to the disappointing begin to the season. The Avalanche haven’t been dangerous defensively by most metrics, permitting the Tenth-fewest anticipated targets per 60 minutes, however all three goalies have struggled. Alexandar Georgiev’s minus-9.42 GSAx ranks 71st out of the 71 goalies to play this season, greater than three targets worse than the subsequent goalie. He ought to progress again to being close to the league common, however it must occur shortly earlier than the Avalanche lose an excessive amount of floor in an extremely aggressive Central Division. — Jesse Granger
Paper-thin depth: The Blue Jackets’ 5-4-1 begin is stable sufficient simply at face worth. However contemplating the gamers they’ve misplaced to accidents — captain Boone Jenner, Kent Johnson, Dmitri Voronkov and defenseman Erik Gudbranson — they’ve patched traces collectively and continued to play properly. Nonetheless, they’ll’t presumably endure that many accidents and anticipate to compete. Proper? Proper? — Aaron Portzline
Wyatt Johnston has one objective and 4 assists in 9 video games this season. (Jerome Miron / Imagn Photographs)
Wyatt Johnston’s lack of scoring: It’s all relative, proper? The Stars don’t have a complete lot to be involved about. They’re 7-3-0, Jake Oettinger is in prime type, Matt Duchene is having a turn-back-the-clock season. However this was alleged to be the 12 months Johnston took that remaining step into superstardom. As a substitute, he has one objective and 4 assists in 10 video games, he has a number of the worst possession numbers on the group and is on the third line whereas Logan Stankoven takes over on the highest line. The Stars have been nonetheless outscoring opponents 6-3 at five-on-five (heading into Friday) with Johnston on the ice; it’s hardly a disaster. But when the Stars are going to make one other Stanley Cup run this season, Johnston must be an enormous a part of it. — Mark Lazerus
An absence of offensive zone time: There are quite a lot of issues accompanying Detroit’s 4-5-1 begin, however that is the one which sums all of them up finest. Detroit simply hasn’t spent sufficient time in its opponent’s finish. In accordance with knowledge from NHL EDGE, the Pink Wings have performed simply 37.3 p.c of the time within the offensive zone, the bottom proportion within the league. That stat is probably going a symptom of a number of points, together with getting hemmed into their very own zone too usually and flaws with the group’s forecheck, however it sums up Detroit’s offensive woes precisely. The Pink Wings knew they misplaced quite a lot of offense this summer time and that it will be exhausting to exchange, however they’re not even actually giving themselves an opportunity to take action. — Max Bultman
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Connor McDavid’s damage: The Oilers bought off to an excellent begin of their first full recreation with out McDavid, who’s anticipated out of the lineup for 2 to 3 weeks with a lower-body damage. They recorded a season-high 5 targets in a victory over the Nashville Predators on Thursday. However that’s only one recreation and it was towards Nashville. They all the time beat Nashville. The Oilers gained simply as soon as in 5 tries final season with McDavid sidelined on account of damage, they usually’ll be in powerful till he returns. Even with the Music Metropolis consequence, the Oilers nonetheless have simply 5 wins of their first 11 video games. A slide this month may price them the Pacific Division crown they’re coveting. — Daniel Nugent-Bowman
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The third pair: All the things goes about in addition to might be anticipated for the defending champs, beginning with Aleksander Barkov’s return to the lineup, however they’re going to want to determine easy methods to proceed with their backside defensive pairing. There are three attainable mixtures of Adam Boqvist, Nate Schmidt and Uvis Balinskis, and none have been good — Florida has been outscored 10-1 with them on the ice. — Sean Gentille
Quinton Byfield is and not using a objective over the primary 11 contests. (Jason Parkhurst / Imagn Photographs)
Quinton Byfield’s sluggish begin: Byfield is and not using a objective over the primary 11 contests. He’s chipped in 5 assists, however it’s not the type of starting he or the Kings imagined after the perimeters agreed on a five-year extension value $31.25 million. His superior metrics aren’t dangerous, and the Kings haven’t accomplished him any favors by committing to return him to his pure place at middle and abandoning that simply 5 video games in. It’s attainable that he bounces between the center and the wing, which will not be nice for sustaining consistency or chemistry together with his linemates. The concern with him offensively is that he’s had a bent to fall into prolonged scoring droughts. Even in his breakout final season, the 22-year-old went 19 video games and not using a objective earlier than he scored his twentieth within the regular-season finale. — Eric Stephens
Jared Spurgeon’s well being: One large cause the Wild have been assured this season could be higher than final was the return of the captain after he was restricted to 16 video games final season on account of shoulder, hip and again accidents. However after season-ending hip and again surgical procedures, Spurgeon was sidelined after his second recreation and missed six in a row earlier than returning Tuesday in Pittsburgh. The group has stated the discomfort is “a part of the therapeutic course of.” Spurgeon stated they took “completely different routes” medically to get him again within the lineup, however he couldn’t say he was assured this could not be a season-long problem. The excellent news is the Wild went 4-1-1 with out him. — Michael Russo
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An absence of maturity: When you find yourself the second-youngest group within the NHL, with the youngest blue line, a scarcity of maturity most likely shouldn’t be a priority. It must be anticipated. However regardless of their youth, the Canadiens have elevated inside expectations, and which means recognizing recreation conditions and simply how badly issues can go flawed when your reads are off. Fundamental notions like taking part in a deep recreation, defensive protection on faceoffs or defensive zone play basically have been issues at numerous factors already this season. Maybe it’s an indication this group is just not but mature sufficient to execute comparatively easy ideas, but when the Canadiens hope to be mildly aggressive this season, they might want to mature in a rush. — Arpon Basu
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Nashville Predators
No. 2 middle: Defensive zone protection deserves a nod, as properly. Although the Preds have rebounded properly from shedding their first 5 video games, they’re nonetheless forcing Juuse Saros to take care of too many Grade-A possibilities. However simply as Saros, the ability play and different points of the Preds’ recreation are progressing, that can, too. There’s no clear reply on No. 2 middle, which is a part of why Andrew Brunette has accomplished a lot shuffling together with his prime two traces. The reply is probably going on one other roster proper now. — Joe Rexrode
Ondřej Palát’s struggles: The Devils are off to a stable begin, and their ahead group has been good. Palát, nonetheless, is off to a sluggish begin. Coming into Friday, he had the worst expected-goals-for proportion amongst Devils forwards, in response to Pure Stat Trick, and was averaging his lowest ice time per recreation since his rookie season. — Peter Baugh
New York Islanders
Objectives: If you get shut out 4 occasions in your first 10 video games, there might be no different concern that tops this one. The Islanders haven’t been a goal-scoring juggernaut for a very long time, however this season’s futility is a brand new low — they usually’ve been shut out by very mediocre groups (Pink Wings, Geese, Blue Jackets) to make it even worse. — Arthur Staple
The Rangers may use a Mika Zibanejad resurgence. (Bruce Bennett / Getty Photographs)
Mika Zibanejad’s struggles: Zibanejad had seven factors in 9 video games by Thursday, which on the floor is a decent whole. However he was additionally a minus-3, and coach Peter Laviolette lowered his ice time from previous seasons. His underlying numbers have suffered, too. The Rangers had solely 41 p.c of the anticipated targets share with him on the ice at five-on-five, in response to Pure Stat Trick, and have been getting out-chanced with him on the ice. Middle play is important for playoff groups, and the Rangers may use a Zibanejad resurgence. — Peter Baugh
The protection: The Sens protection has had good moments like an 8-1 domination over the St. Louis Blues. However they’ve nonetheless allowed three targets or extra within the majority of video games. The Senators have additionally adjusted to life with out Artem Zub, who usually performs alongside Jake Sanderson, and are taking advantage of their Jacob Bernard-Docker—Tyler Kleven pair. But when the Sens wish to compete, they’ll nonetheless want an additional defender. — Julian McKenzie
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5-on-five scoring: Via their first 11 video games, the Flyers have managed solely 16 targets at five-on-five — and 5 of these got here in a single recreation, a win over Minnesota on Oct. 26. A part of that’s as a result of they’ve seemed a lot too disjointed all around the ice at occasions and have too usually been hemmed in their very own zone. However gamers like Morgan Frost (zero five-on-five targets), Matvei Michkov (zero), Travis Konecny (zero), Owen Tippett (1), Tyson Foerster (1) and Joel Farabee (1) have nonetheless had loads of alternatives to do extra harm and haven’t. — Kevin Kurz
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Erik Karlsson’s offensive manufacturing: By no means an own-zone marvel, Karlsson has persistently created possibilities at a historic price for defensemen. That’s not the case this season, as his paltry level whole displays an ineffectiveness offensively that could be very exterior the norm. Karlsson is in Pittsburgh to be a prolific offensive pressure. However he had just one objective and 7 factors by 12 video games, and he hasn’t pushed play the best way he has in earlier seasons. Maybe an upper-body damage that saved him from collaborating in coaching camp stays a problem, or at the least it didn’t afford him the time he wanted to get game-ready. Regardless of the trigger, Karlsson’s poor offensive begin is among the large causes the Penguins started 3-7-1 and look nowhere near competing for the playoffs. — Rob Rossi
Will Smith’s early struggles: Eight video games. No factors. It was weighing on the 19-year-old rookie, who additionally was scratched from three different contests as a part of the group’s load administration plan for him over the primary half of the season. It seemed like the previous Boston School star was having hassle with the velocity and dimension of the NHL recreation as he had minimal affect. Thursday night time noticed the strain valve pop. Smith scored his first objective (and his first level) when he beat Chicago goalie Petr Mrázek within the first interval after which added one other profitable wrist shot within the second that may be the profitable objective in a 3-2 victory. The large night time must be a confidence jolt for the No. 4 choose within the 2023 draft, who is predicted to be an enormous a part of San Jose’s future. — Eric Stephens
Make it TWO targets for Will Smith 🔥 pic.twitter.com/bNOm0OpaH8
— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) November 1, 2024
Backup goaltending: The Kraken have performed properly within the first month, however regardless of some promising indicators, they’re nonetheless chugging alongside at roughly a .500 level proportion. They’re one in all solely two Pacific Division groups within the black by objective differential and their underlying profile seems in step with that of a playoff group, however they’ve been held again by porous depth goaltending performances in October. Philipp Grubauer is sporting an .881 save proportion throughout his 4 begins, and the Kraken have gained simply a kind of 4 video games. It’s early but and the samples are small, however for a group like Seattle, it’s worthwhile to be at the least at a .500 level proportion in video games your backup goaltender performs in the event you’re going to be a playoff group. Within the first month of the season, Seattle’s depth goaltending prevented it from consolidating a extra auspicious begin. — Thomas Drance
St. Louis Blues
Robert Thomas’ damage: Thomas suffered a fractured ankle Oct. 22 and will likely be re-evaluated in late November. Any membership that loses its No. 1 middle will miss him, however the Blues have been already skinny on the place. They’ve pressured winger Pavel Buchnevich into the position, which hasn’t labored as they hoped. The offense (2.7 targets per recreation, tied for twenty fourth within the league) and energy play (16.7 p.c, twenty first) are struggling. In consequence, the group has performed quite a lot of catch-up hockey, trailing by two targets or extra in seven of its 11 video games. Thomas can’t get again quickly sufficient. — Jeremy Rutherford
Depth assist: Depth was all the time going to be a weak spot in Tampa Bay. Cap casualties have depleted the underside six and third pair, and administration hasn’t discovered cost-effective choices to adequately exchange what the Lightning misplaced. Exterior of Nick Paul, the underside six is just about a black gap for offense. Whereas the group’s technique is constructed round its elite core, and with Ryan McDonagh again, plus Brandon Hagel and Anthony Cirelli clicking, the supporting solid bought a significant increase. However the backside of the lineup critically lacks. — Shayna Goldman
The ability play: On one hand, that is shocking. On the opposite, it’s not shocking in any respect. The shocking side: The Leafs have had one of many league’s prime regular-season energy performs for years and nonetheless boast all the identical acquainted components of it. Sturdy begins have been the norm for the five-pack of Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, William Nylander, John Tavares and Morgan Rielly. That very same unit, after all, struggled mightily in second halves 12 months after 12 months and, extra damagingly, within the postseason. The Leafs, with first-year coach Craig Berube, opted to maintain that prime group intact to start out the season. That’s modified not too long ago, with Berube pivoting to 2 balanced models. Whether or not that makes a distinction in the long term (if the Leafs even keep it up) could be very a lot TBD. — Jonas Siegel
The place did the offense go? After a terrific 3-0 begin the place the group piled up targets and introduced the Salt Lake Metropolis crowd to its toes, it has been a troublesome go for the Utahns. They’ve solely two wins of their final eight video games, a stretch throughout which they’re twenty ninth within the NHL in targets scored. Even with their two large losses on protection — Sean Durzi and John Marino are each out with long-term accidents — they’ve managed to play OK in their very own finish, however the energy play has been misfiring and prime prospect Josh Doan was despatched right down to Tucson. Utah particularly wants extra from Logan Cooley, Barrett Hayton and Lawson Crouse, who’ve mixed for simply six factors throughout this funk. — James Mirtle
The ability play: Vancouver’s core group has high-end talent and it’s persistently mixed on the ability play to fabricate targets at a couple of 22 p.c clip over the previous a number of seasons — which is excellent, however not elite. For no matter cause by the primary month of the season, nonetheless, the ability play is struggling enormously to get arrange and generate shot makes an attempt. Although the conversion price is just under common — buoyed by a two-goal outburst towards the Blackhawks in mid-October — Vancouver’s energy play isn’t passing the attention take a look at and its underlying footprint is league-worst. The Canucks, for instance, are the one group within the NHL producing shot makes an attempt at a price south of 80 makes an attempt per hour. And so they’re within the mid-70s. They’re additionally producing photographs at a league-worst price. If that continues, the membership might want to get fortunate or shoot at an extremely environment friendly clip to provide at even a median price with the person benefit. Even when the Canucks have the talent degree to drag that off, it’s a really powerful method to dwell. — Thomas Drance
Efficiency on the highway: The distinction between how the Golden Knights have carried out contained in the pleasant confines of T-Cellular Area in comparison with on the highway has been stark. Vegas is an ideal 7-0-0 at dwelling however has but to win in 4 contests because the customer. A part of that might be competitors, as all 4 opponents on the highway have been playoff groups a 12 months in the past. It may be a results of the lineup not being fairly as deep because it as soon as was. Vegas’ prime line of Jack Eichel, Mark Stone and Ivan Barbashev has dominated, however on the highway, it’s more durable for coach Bruce Cassidy to get favorable matchups. — Jesse Granger
The ability play: It seems like selecting nits given how good the Caps look total, however there’s some work to be accomplished with the person benefit. They’re thirtieth in proportion, which is tough, however it may be so simple as getting a bounce or two as a result of they’re producing possibilities. As a group, they’re at 9.35 anticipated targets per 60, ninth within the league. In different phrases, the method isn’t damaged. — Sean Gentille
The Jets are particular groups retailers: Final 12 months’s Jets would have liked an influence play this good: an NHL-best 45.2 p.c behemoth that has seemed harmful from each place on the ice. Kyle Connor is on hearth, tied for the power-play targets lead with 4, and Cole Perfetti has three from the second unit. The issue is that this 12 months’s Jets are usually not nearly as good at even energy as final 12 months’s group. The ten-1-0 document deserves plaudits, however Winnipeg has outscored its opponents solely 27-20 at five-on-five. These numbers are top-10 versus finest within the league just like the Jets have been final season. Maintain engaged on that by a grueling November schedule and this group will likely be a contender. — Murat Ates
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(Prime picture of Connor McDavid and Erik Karlsson: Curtis Comeau / Icon Sportswire through Getty Photographs)
