Clocking In — Which NHL Clubs are Behind and Ahead of Schedule One Month into the Season

Scott Gardner
Nov 5 · 7 min read

The 2019–20 NHL season is one month in and with about 15 games come and gone for each of the clubs bidding for Lord Stanley’s Mug it’s time to do the same thing every hockey fan does come November. Make some wildly too early judgements and hand out some likely undeserved praise for the teams who have surprised us this year — for better or for worse. It’s only November, but predictions are part of what makes sports fun, so let’s indulge shall we?

Ahead of Schedule

  1. Edmonton Oilers

The Edmonton Oilers are in first place in the Pacific Division. That’s really all that needs to be said to grab headlines around the NHL. Swapping Milan Lucic for hired gun James Neal was always going to be a better compliment to McDavid but no one could have anticipated an 11 goal October for the newest Oiler.

Although it has been hard to tell in recent years, the Oilers have actually been slowly looking better and more promising. The surprise this year isn’t improvement — it’s just how drastic that improvement has been. The top line is scoring whenever they feel like it with McDavid and Draisatil both top five scorers in the league. Don’t expect that to change even if the Oilers winning ways do.

The team is a force at home, the hallmark of all good teams. So far losing only one game in regulation over the first seven at Rogers Arena. And the goal tending of Mikko Koskinen and Mike Smith has been satisfactory for the Oilers, an area that was supposed to still be a huge problem spot for the club.

If the big three stay healthy, some depth scoring emerges and the goal tending holds, dare I say the Oilers look like a playoff team in the admittedly very thin Pacific Division. Those are big ‘ifs’ but those Oliers fans deserve a break!

2. Vancouver Canucks

Right behind the Oilers in the Pacific and with two games in hand on them early are the wonder kids from Van-City.

Goals goals and more goals make the Vancouver Canucks one of the most entertaining watches early on this year. 53 goals on the year already puts their offensive output up with the very best in the world, the likes of the Predators and the Capitals. Those are not names this team was supposed to be mentioned alongside this year or even next year — but no one told them that.

What makes the Canucks such a surprising team is not only the amount of games they win but also the margin by which they do it. They seem to either lose the game narrowly, or blow the other team out of the building with 7 or 8 goals in a win.

Vancouver’s Brock Boeser (#6) scored a hat trick in the latest Canucks win against Los Angeles

Consistency is the key to keeping the Vancouver high octane offence churning out the goals. If they can find a happy medium between 8 goals one night and one goal the next this team will stay fun to watch all the way through ‘till spring.

3. New York Islanders

9 wins in the month of October is a pretty good result for any NHL team. 9 wins in a row? That’s a real deal red hot club that was not supposed to be winning games so easily and with such frequency. Ever since the dicey departure of their captain John Tavares to Toronto, the Islanders were supposed to drop off, back up and try rebuilding again. Instead they gave the Long Island keys to Matt Barzal and asked goalie coaching staff Mitch Korn and Piero Greco to deliver miracles, luckily miracles appear to be their speciality. This Islanders team has reborn Semyon Varlamov and Thomas Griess to deliver NY an NHL best goals against of just 29 goals surrendered through 13 games.

The Islanders are the best underdog story since the inaugural Golden Knights, they love to embrace the haters and surprise the doubters and I don’t see any reason they won’t stay good all year long.

Behind Schedule

  1. New Jersey Devils

Well, yeah behind schedule is one way to describe the start for the Devils. The team that many believed won the NHL off season adding Norris trophy winner PK Subban and first overall pick Jack Hughes to an already decent roster that included superstar Taylor Hall.

It has not worked. The good news is it’s only November, and with so much change in the top half of the lineup it is natural to expect a bit of a bumpy ride for a while but this is a bit worse than bumpy so far.

The superstar prospect Jack Hughes will only get better — just watch a Devils game and see this kid, he’s the real deal but his play just isn’t really producing anything yet and the Devils are feeling it. Hughes is at 7 points on the year and a miserable -6.

Assumed starting goalie Cory Schneider is yet to register a win this year in 4 tries and the team’s save percentage is an ugly .863. Goals against were always going to be concern but the offence was supposed to share some of the load — that hasn’t happened either. The Devils are 8 goals below the league average and what should be a capable power play is sputtering at less than %15 as opposed to the league average %19.

Devils goalie Cory Schneider is struggling early this year. As are much of the Devils.

All this is happening amid trade rumours about New Jersey’s true number 1, Taylor Hall.

It’s only November Devils’ fans. Maybe it will get better? …

2. Las Vegas Golden Knights

The trouble with two great seasons is you’re then expected to always have a third. So far the Golden Knights have been just okay, foreign territory to the passionate and so far, spoiled Las Vegas hockey fans.

The Knights have lost back to back games and are in an early four point hole in a division they were supposed to win with their eyes closed.

The problem so far for Vegas is goals against, it’s not bad by any means. This year, Marc-Andre Fluery seems to be playing like a human being for once in his life and the team is gonna have to make some adjustments to their style if that continues.

The Vegas Golden Knights are one of hockey’s most entertaining teams because of the pace they insist on playing. Attack the puck as hard as you can, then attack the net as hard as you can it’s an admirable style that is night in and night out just tough to play against. However, it is also a fast and loose style of hockey, a high risk — high reward brand of game is bound to give up some very optimal chances to the opposition should they manage to break the Vegas press.

So far this year Fluery seems to be struggling with his workload for the first time in his career and the Golden Knights are losing more games than they are used to because of it. They are still going to be a playoff team, of that I am sure. But they will need to make some changes or risk being somewhere unthinkable come April, behind the Edmonton Oilers!

3. Toronto Maple Leafs

Last year if you had told LeafsNation they were gonna be ahead of the Tampa Bay Lightning come November they would have cheered to your health and started planning a Stanley Cup parade. Instead the blue and white is scratching their heads this week wondering why their supercharged lineup isn’t winning hockey games.

The Leafs are above .500 and had unquestionably the toughest October schedule with 4 back to back games in the month and 5 games in the first full week of the NHL season. An agenda like that is bound to tire out any team and perhaps they are lucky to have escaped with just two minor injuries to Tavares and Muzzin.

Toronto’s demanding October schedule left them with work to do in the Atlantic Division. Seven points off leaders Boston.

Nevertheless this team is advertised as win now and 17 out of a possible 30 points won’t cut it. What hurts the most is it’s the same problem as always for the Leafs stopping scoring chances.

Frederik Andersen is an elite goalie in the NHL. In the Maple Leafs net he faces more shots and more high danger scoring chances that any other club and still boasts a record of 7–2 with already well over 300 saves to his name. He is not the problem. The brand new defence core on the Maple Leafs hasn’t really gelled and often they seem more interested in playing with the super skilled forwards all through the lineup than keeping Andersen out of trouble.

Scoring chances given up is not just a defence problem either the forwards for Toronto are scoring goals at a pretty respectable clip as expected, but they are often guilty of turning the puck over way too cheaply and that puts a lot of pressure on the men who get paid to keep the puck out of the net. Not a habit of championship teams.

The good news for the Leafs is the schedule should get a little easier their best two way forward and a top four defence man should be back soon and the talent and personnel is still present to turn it around and get back on schedule. It is a mental commitment to make the nights easier on Andersen, in theory, an easy fix.

Top Level Sports

Scott Gardner

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Top Level Sports

Variety sports publication featuring opinions, analysis, and more

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