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-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.

 

[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