Most surprising impressive and poor starts?

aceofpace

Registered User
Mar 19, 2016
149
174
For me

Most surprising impressive starts
Winnipeg (they were good last year too but still 12 and 1??)
Washington (back from the dead)
Minnesota (not sure they can keep this up though)

Most surprising poor starts
Boston (not sure what's going on here)
Nashville (disappointing after so many signings)
Colorado (not sure what's going on here too)
 

Grifter3511

Registered User
Nov 3, 2009
2,522
2,746
For me

Most surprising impressive starts
Winnipeg (they were good last year too but still 12 and 1??)
Washington (back from the dead)
Minnesota (not sure they can keep this up though)

Most surprising poor starts
Boston (not sure what's going on here)
Nashville (disappointing after so many signings)
Colorado (not sure what's going on here too)
I'm not surprised that they came out with a chip on their shoulder after how last season ended. But they've looked flat out possessed.
 

The Management

Registered User
Jun 8, 2009
2,037
2,304
Knew Winnipeg would be good, wouldn't have expected such a hot start.

Would not have predicted Edmonton and Columbus to have the same points percentage. Also expected much more from Nashville, and thought Philadelphia would look a bit feistier.
 
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NyQuil

Big F$&*in Q
Jan 5, 2005
98,972
65,124
Ottawa, ON
Washington and Nashville both have some significant personnel change but one of them seems to have meshed relatively quickly while the other hasn’t.

The Capitals have been a bit of a surprise I think. Maybe Nashville too but I thought Stamkos was a bit of an odd addition.
 

StumpyTown

Registered User
Sep 26, 2016
735
1,282
Colorado will be fine. They were down 3 or 4 of their top 6 forwards for a while. The only really scary thing for them is their goaltending which isn't likely to improve. When they get healthier they'll start winning some high scoring games again.
 

BB79

Now fully deceased
Apr 30, 2011
6,051
7,245
Washington is probably the most unexpected. They barely made the playoffs last spring, Ovi looked cooked and I think everyone had them pegged as going into a rebuild for a while. Pretty crazy how they turned on a dime with some good off-season moves.
 
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qc14

Registered User
Jul 1, 2024
181
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Washington and Minnesota are the most unexpected in either direction -- I think even if you thought they were playoff teams you wouldn't have expected them to be winning so many games and doing so with such great underlying processes. WPG still impressive but I think everyone collectively forgot they had 110 points last year and the exact same record as the Panthers.

As for the poor starts: having two top-5 goalies covered up a lot of bad process from Boston last year. Nashville is pretty much worst case scenario but I think something that wasn't too hard to imagine happening. Colorado ... still disappointing but everyone knew going into the year that they had massive injury risks and their goalies stunk. Pittsburgh being awful should only be surprising to people who didn't look at their offseason at all.

The big surprising disappointment to me has to be Edmonton doing literally the exact same thing they did at the start of last year.
 

TheDawnOfANewTage

Dahlin, it’ll all be fine
Dec 17, 2018
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Washington and Nashville both have some significant personnel change but one of them seems to have meshed relatively quickly while the other hasn’t.

The Capitals have been a bit of a surprise I think. Maybe Nashville too but I thought Stamkos was a bit of an odd addition.

Pavelski took awhile to get going with the Stars. Could still go the other way, but if I’m a Nashville fan I’m not panicking over him in particular, agreed on the odd fit though- lookin like they shoulda rebuilt instead of adding.
 
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Adam da bomb

Registered User
May 1, 2016
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Washington and Minnesota are the most unexpected in either direction -- I think even if you thought they were playoff teams you wouldn't have expected them to be winning so many games and doing so with such great underlying processes. WPG still impressive but I think everyone collectively forgot they had 110 points last year and the exact same record as the Panthers.

As for the poor starts: having two top-5 goalies covered up a lot of bad process from Boston last year. Nashville is pretty much worst case scenario but I think something that wasn't too hard to imagine happening. Colorado ... still disappointing but everyone knew going into the year that they had massive injury risks and their goalies stunk. Pittsburgh being awful should only be surprising to people who didn't look at their offseason at all.

The big surprising disappointment to me has to be Edmonton doing literally the exact same thing they did at the start of last year.
Wpg is surprising from a big picture. No one wants to play there. Prospects and players force their way out. Wpg needs to overpay to get anyone to come or stay.
 

Jixer19

Registered User
Dec 19, 2015
1,121
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Edmonton, Alberta
Colorado was missing 5 of the top 9 forwards, not to use injuries as an excuse, but you do that to any team, they will be hard pressed. Throw in the fact we have the league worst goaltending and well, the fact we are only 1 game under NHL .500 is almost a miracle lol
 
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Skidooboy

Registered User
Jun 22, 2011
2,394
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L4 Kordylewski Cloud
Wpg is surprising from a big picture. No one wants to play there. Prospects and players force their way out. Wpg needs to overpay to get anyone to come or stay.
fake narrative.
sure a couple of guys have wanted out....
BUT
many of our BEST players have signed long term contracts...some have even signed second long term contracts. and some of them signed pretty team friendly deals.
 

Adam da bomb

Registered User
May 1, 2016
13,085
10,061
fake narrative.
sure a couple of guys have wanted out....
BUT
many of our BEST players have signed long term contracts...some have even signed second long term contracts. and some of them signed pretty team friendly deals.
But, we just had mcgroaty force his way out this season. Pld the season before. I wonder how many teams have had as many players force their way out?
 

bobholly39

Registered User
Mar 10, 2013
23,373
16,739
Carolina - lots of off season changes, I thought they'd struggle more this year
Winnipeg - I thought they'd be a bubble team, and I actually expected they'd end up missing playoffs vs making it


Those are probably the most surprising. Nashville looks bad yes, but they started 0-5 and are now already 4-7-1, so slowly climbing back up...Colorado and Edmonton also slow starts, but slowly climbing back up....so nothing terrible surprising there.

At the bottom of the standings, no one is truly horrible. All can stil bounce back.

Honoroble mention also to both Washington and Wild who both have a great start, better than expected. Can probably add the Kings there too. Unlike both Carolina + Winnipeg - I'm not convinced yet if those hot starts are sustainable, so we'll see.
 

ChaoticOrange

Registered User
Jun 29, 2008
51,520
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Edmonton
washington had a great offseason and rebuilt their blueline in an extremely impressive manner. The fact that they're doing what they're doing without getting .900 goaltending suggests that if anything they've underperformed.

Edmonton always sucks in the early going of the season, but it sure looks like the choices theyve made with their bottom six were dumb.
 

Tom ServoMST3K

In search of a Steinbach Hero
Nov 2, 2010
27,904
18,939
What's your excuse?
Jets fan here.

He forced his way out, I assume the Jets would have signed him along the way if he was ok to stay.

I would have loved the contract he signed with LA if he signed with Winnipeg - shows what I know.

The vibe I got is he was a pro with Winnipeg, unlike his tenure in CLB, but he absolutely did not want to be here.

IMO PLD is the rare professional athlete who once he got paid, stopped trying - I actually understand that mentality and would be my biggest fear if I were running any sports team.
 

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