Most surprising impressive and poor starts?

[Mortimer Snerd]

Chychrun's been fantastic on the top pairing with Carlson. Bummer that he went down with an upper body injury, but he shouldn't be out much longer.

Probably the biggest driver of the Caps turnaround though is the revamped top 6. PLD's been much better than his point totals suggest and his line with McMichael and Wilson's been dominant (61.5 xGF% with 39.5% OZ faceoffs). Young guys McMichael and Protas have also take a huge step as well-round, PPG wingers.

The surprise about the Caps is they're doing all this while their goalies have underperformed, their PP has been the worst in the league, and they've been missing one of their biggest offseason additions (Roy). They've been winning by absolutely dominating even strength play even with a diminished blue line.

I expected Chychrun to be good. I also expected him to be injured. What I questioned was the statement that the blueline has been rebuilt. Adding 1 player, even a good one, doesn't rebuild a blueline.

Otherwise, thanks for the explanation of their success. A lot of people, including me, were counting them out.

 

[Sheppy]

Charlie Coyle for me.

Had a career year last year points wise... this year he looks like an AHLer.

2 points in 14 games and a -8

 

[Kalopsia]

I expected Chychrun to be good. I also expected him to be injured. What I questioned was the statement that the blueline has been rebuilt. Adding 1 player, even a good one, doesn't rebuild a blueline.

Otherwise, thanks for the explanation of their success. A lot of people, including me, were counting them out.

Yeah, the rebuild's not off to a roaring start due to the injuries, but theoretically when they're all healthy the changes are Edmundson (3LD) out and Chychrun (1LD) in, bumping Fehervary (last year's 1LD) and Sandin (last year's 2LD) down a pairing each, while on the right side they did a straight swap of Roy for Jensen at 2RD. So they went from this...

Fehervary-Carlson
Sandin-Jensen
Edmundson-TVR

...to this...

Chychrun-Carlson
Fehervary-Roy
Sandin-TVR

...and the craziest part is they gained assets in the process. Edmundson was traded at the deadline for a 2024 3rd and a 2025 5th, Roy was a FA signing, and Chycrun cost Jensen and a 2026 3rd. They got younger and better, and even gained a little draft capital in the process. The only downside is ~5M higher net cap hits and Chychrun's injury risk.

 

[Nogatco Rd]

Adding 1 player, even a good one, doesn't rebuild a blueline.

if it bumps guys down the lineup to their correct slots then I imagine one or two players can have a disproportionate impact

 

[Mortimer Snerd]

Yeah, the rebuild's not off to a roaring start due to the injuries, but theoretically when they're all healthy the changes are Edmundson (3LD) out and Chychrun (1LD) in, bumping Fehervary (last year's 1LD) and Sandin (last year's 2LD) down a pairing each, while on the right side they did a straight swap of Roy for Jensen at 2RD. So they went from this...

Fehervary-Carlson
Sandin-Jensen
Edmundson-TVR

...to this...

Chychrun-Carlson
Fehervary-Jensen
Sandin-TVR

...and the craziest part is they gained assets in the process. Edmundson was traded at the deadline for a 2024 3rd and a 2025 5th, Roy was a FA signing, and Chycrun cost Jensen and a 2026 3rd. They got younger and better, and even gained a little draft capital in the process. The only downside is ~5M higher net cap hits and Chychrun's injury risk.

Cap space is only valuable if you use. That's good use of it assuming you had enough to begin with. Taking on PLD's contract on the other hand might not be so good. Time will tell on that score.

 

[ps241]

Nobody should be surprised by Winnipeg, they're really good team.

What we are surprised about is Scott Arniel because he was dog **** coach in Columbus.

Yes he was.

There have been a few good articles in the Athletic on this topic. Scott has been forthcoming on why he believes he failed first time around. I heard him being interviewed on the topic and found it insightful. He was very self reflective. He’s 62 getting his second shot as an NHL Head coach and I don’t think the opportunity is lost on him.

 

[ps241]

surprised by caps record for sure

Good call and its the same for me. I thought the Caps were on the back side of the mountain for sure.

 

[TGWL]

Charlie Coyle for me.

Had a career year last year points wise... this year he looks like an AHLer.

2 points in 14 games and a -8

I dumped him from my fantasy team. I took him kinda; late so no big loss but I saw him being passed over for players who won't get that production. Little did I know he wouldn't get that production either.

 

[RANDOMH3RO]

Ovechkin and the caps are the most impressive to me this season. Lots of people have not been shy about calling ovechkin washed up, but he continually exceeds expectations at every year. Caps exceeded expectations last year by making the playoffs and instead of taking the sweep as a swan song on a sinking ship they steeled themselves and got better.

Shout out to the wild too. I don’t watch their games often, but they’re another team that just got better by internal growth rather than tearing down just to try to build back up again.

 

[Nogatco Rd]

Not to rain on anyone’s parade but it’s worth mentioning that the Buffalo Sabres were a lot of people’s surprise team back in 2019 when they started 9-2-1.

They promptly lost 11 of their next 13, ultimately finishing with the 6th worst record in the league

Curiosly, despite their abysmal finish, they barely missed qualifying for the “play-ins” that year.. they were .007 in pts percentage behind the Canadiens in 2 less GP. Maybe if they get those two extra games in they take the Habs spot, and the Sabres are the ones who go on a magical run to the finals… maybe…

Shout out to the wild too. I don’t watch their games often, but they’re another team that just got better by internal growth rather than tearing down just to try to build back up again.

I’ve been pulling for them for the last few years, they showed a lot of heart in staying competitive and making the playoffs despite all that $ in dead cap space.

 

[Warh1ppy]

Most impressive so far for me:

Team: Washington. Love seeing it, I want Ovi to break the record and retire over 900 goals.
Player: Mark Stone. On pace for over 125 points or something.

Most disappointing
Team: Preds. Finally get some big game players and spend some $$ and...wow, worse than SJ
Player: E. Pettersson. 5th highest cap hit, post ASG through now, just wow.....

 

[Stickpucker]

I`m quite impresses with a player who everyone doomed a failure:

Jesperi Kotkaniemi

11gp 1g 7a 8p +7

He actually has the best +/- of Canes Top9. Good 2-way player atleast for the start of the season. Maybe he blooms late?

Iirc he started well last year for 20 to 30 games and withered away.

Not sure if it was between his ears or his conditioning.

It would be great if he developed more consistency this season.