Tipsheet: A month into NHL season, perennial powers struggle while Blues try to survive
We're a month into the NHL season and some things are abundantly clear.
The rebuilt Nashville Predators are an absolute mess. Their ugly 6-2 loss at Florida Thursday left them in the Central Division cellar with a 4-9-1 record and a minus-17 goal differential.
Something must change, soon, in Smashville.
The aging Pittsburgh Penguins are also a mess. They have a bunch of destined Hall of Fame players producing deep into their 30s, but they lack goaltending and team defense. Sidney Crosby and Co. are 5-8-2 with a minus-17 goal differential.
Former Blues assistant coach and yesteryear Blues player Jim Montgomery is up against it with the Boston Bruins. There are signs that the foundation is cracking,
He's had to upbraid Brad Marchand on the bench and sit David Pastrnak during a game. The Bruins edged the Calgary Flames 4-3 in overtime Thursday, but they are 4-5-1 in their last 10 games and 7-7-1 overall.
The long-mighty Colorado Avalanche are also sputtering. Faced with a Blues-like litany of injuries, the 'Lanche have struggled to a 5-8-0 start.
Conversely, the Winnipeg Jets are soaring toward a top playoff seed. Their 1-0 victory over Colorado Thursday lifted their record to 13-1-0. That is an amazing start given the parity of the salary cap era,
As for the Blues, they are just trying to survive after losing No. 1 center Robert Thomas and Top 4 defensemen Philip Broberg and Nick Leddy to long-term injuries during the season.
They keep falling behind in games and they lack the firepower to consistently succeed playing catch-up. Their frustrating 3-2 loss to the Utah Hockey Club Thursday knocked them back to .500.
Writing for ESPN.com , Greg Wyshynski had this take on the Blues:
The Blues were an offensively challenged team even before losing top center Robert Thomas to a fractured ankle. Their 2.69 goals per game in their first 13 games ranked 24th in the NHL. That meant the Blues' best chance at winning would be through solid team defense to compensate for that lack of scoring. Alas, they averaged 3.08 goals against per game.
It could have been worse were it not for the goaltending battery of Jordan Binnington and Joel Hofer. Binnington (.904 save percentage, 2.77 goals-against average) and Hofer (.903, 3.33) helped propel the Blues into the top 10 in team save percentage early in the season.
The Blues aren't an exemplary defensive team under coach Drew Bannister, as they're 23rd in expected goals against per 60 minutes (2.57) and actual goals surrendered (2.72). While their goaltenders have been solid, both Binnington and Hofer have played below expected, per Stathletes. So there's room for improvement there, especially from Binnington, who could end up as Team Canada's starter in the 4 Nations Face-Off.
Given what has happened to the Blues this season – and what else is happening around the NHL – it could be worse.
Here is what folks have been writing about the first month of the season:
Ryan Dixon, Sportsnet: "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 rumors, 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 center Dylan Strome has the fifth-best points-per-game mark (1.58) of any Canadian NHLer. Matt Duchene (1.36) is sixth. Meanwhile, defenseman 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."
Ryan Lambert, EP Rinkside: "Barry Trotz said in a radio interview this week that if the Nashville Predators don't start moving in the right direction soon, they will have to consider a rebuild plan. That's quite interesting, isn't it? Just a few months ago, Trotz traded away his 22-year-old 'Goalie of the Future' to extend a goaltender seven years older through 2033. He also signed 33- and 34-year-old forwards to five- and four-year deals, respectively, and a 30-year-old defenseman through 2031. Now, the six highest-paid players on the team have some form of movement protection, and there's nobody with a significant contract coming off the books this summer. I don't know how you go from, 'We can be competitive, but need to add $20.5 million in cap commitments to do it,' to, 10 or 11 games later, saying, 'Maybe we need to think about rebuilding.' This could just be a scare tactic, with Trotz trying to light a fire under his players' backsides. He really doesn't have much choice, because the idea of a rebuild at this stage just doesn't seem realistic. I guess you have to pay someone even if you're tanking, but I wonder how many teams would actually line up to trade for even top veterans Filip Forsberg or Roman Josi, given they're signed for many years at high salaries and have final say on any trade destinations. This also feels like it might be laying the groundwork to simply fire the coach, who was a genius then not one then he was one again, and now I guess he might not be. Whatever the mix is, it's not working, and if you want to say Andrew Brunette 's to blame, I guess I can see the argument."
Kevin Kurz, The Athletic: "If you're looking for reasons why the Flyers are in the league basement after three and a half weeks, the best place to start is their misadventures with the No. 2 goalie spot. The splits are glaring. No. 1 Samuel Ersson, out with a minor lower-body injury suffered on Saturday, is a respectable 4-2-1 with a 2.68 goals-against average and .901 save percentage. But the backup goalie position has been nothing short of an embarrassment. The Flyers have yet to win a game, or even earn a single point, in the six games that either Kolosov or Ivan Fedotov have played."
Jason Chen, The Hockey News: "The Kraken are absolutely futile at scoring with two shutout losses during their four-game losing streak, and it's not like the Senators and Bruins are particularly hard to score on. They're 1-5-1 since their three-game winning streak and, since joining the NHL, rank 24th in goals per game. You can't blame the fans if their interest keeps waning."
Matt Larkin, Daily Faceoff: "The Pens' greybeard veterans were their best players last season, and they all performed at or near the peak of their abilities relative to their ages. Power-play woes aside, one could argue everything went as well as it possibly could have for the 2023-24 Pens, and it wasn't enough to yield a playoff berth. A 16-year playoff streak gave way to two consecutive playoff misses. As a response, the team's biggest editions were center Kevin Hayes, defenseman Matt Grzelcyk and prospect Rutger McGroarty, so it was difficult to envision a different fate this time around, as much as Crosby wanted to believe otherwise. We're now 14 games into Pittsburgh's season, and where do things stand? (Sidney) Crosby is still Crosby, on pace to pass Wayne Gretzky and set a standalone NHL record with a 20th consecutive point-per-game season. (Evgeni) Malkin is scoring at a 94-point pace. They along with (Erik) Karlsson and (Kris) Letang have played every game. And it has resulted in . . . a 5-7-2 record. Déjà vu of last season. The Pens continue to receive age-defying contributions from their veteran players and very little help from the rest of the roster. The Pens are paying, of course, for years of punting first-round picks and prospects in the name of Stanley Cup pursuit – which, for the record, was an absolutely worthwhile endeavor for then-GM Jim Rutherford. It certainly doesn't help that $5.375 million goaltender Tristan Jarry is utterly broken, currently trying to repair his game in the AHL. The Pens have elite special teams so far this season, but they bleed goals and at 5-on-5, ranking among bottom dwellers such as the San Jose Sharks, Anaheim Ducks and Montreal Canadiens when it comes to scoring chance suppression and expected goals against."
Ray Ratto, The Defector: "Their 3-0 victory on Tuesday night over the equally anonymous Utah Hockey Club was the Jets' 12th win in their first 13 games. They have scored the most goals per game and allowed the second-fewest; they have won eight of their games despite allowing the first goal, a power play scoring 44 percent of the time, the second-best save percentage in the league, and essentially dominate all the more sophisticated metrics . . . There is no facet in which they haven't been dominant."
"I just think we don't have enough chemistry on all our lines. Our penalty kill has been good. Power play, I would say, has been acceptable. Our face-offs are good. Our 5-on-5 play overall has improved defensively since the start of the year. But we haven't scored a lot of goals."
Nashville Predators general manager Barry Trotz.
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