Positive and negative surprises at the Halfway Point of the NHL Season

[alko]

Postitive:
- Washington rules (also without Ovie)
- Oveckin can break record this season
- Winnipeg Jets
- Anze Kopitar
- Jack Eichel finally between the top dogs

Negative:
- Rangers
- Nashville
- Buffalo
- Slafkovsky
- Connor Bedard
- Boston Bruins Power Play (13 %)
- Anaheim Ducks low scoring

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[Grate n Colorful Oz]

Washington
Ottawa
Habs record, powerplay and especially PK (8th?!?)
Celebrini
Hutson
Michkov

New York
The absolutely pathetic letdown that are Detroit and Buffalo
Edit: Forgot Nashville

 

[The Panther]

Only two teams strike me as fairly big surprises:
-- Washington (better)
-- NY Rangers (worse)

Otherwise, pretty much as expected. (And yes, I expected Nashville and Vancouver to be worse).)

I don't think the Caps are going to do as well in the second half as the first, but I do think they're set to have a good season and they're a legit good team. The Rangers are harder to figure out. They're clearly better than their recent play suggests according to personnel and recent track-record, so I think there's just a coach / systems kind of issue there. They'll probably improve.

 

[Itsnotatrap]

I thought Nashville could thread a needle between a vet reliant roster and a decent prospect pipeline. I’m surprised by the degree of their struggles, but it does show the fine line on their approach and how rough it can get if you are on the wrong side of it.

 

[miscs75]

Negative surprise - Isles special teams is more pathetic then the the Team Canada loss to Latvia the other day.

 

[Tkachuk Norris]

Most prognosticators had the Flames as SJ and Chicago bad. They were never even close to that bad but they could make the playoffs which is a pretty crazy positive surprise

 

[oilers4life5]

Negative Surprise - Officiating is even worse this year and I did not think that was possible. Also, now we have no idea what goalie interference is.

 

[TheKrebsCycle]

Washington good surprise

Ny - definitely underachieving

 

[Megustaelhockey]

The Rangers need to be studied.

I can't remember a more precipitous drop from season to season, especially without any major injuries to point to.

 

[miscs75]

The Rangers need to be studied.

I can't remember a more precipitous drop from season to season, especially without any major injuries to point to.

They’re trying to trash the season to draft the Long Island born kid so he’s forced to go through human torture (wearing a Rangers uniform while growing up a massive Islanders fan).

 

[LemonSauceD]

Forbort-Myers
Soucy-Juulsen
Brannstrom-Desharnais

 

[LeonDraisaitl]

Not necessarily a surprise cause they’ve been doing this garbage for a while but I legitimately thought buffalo would be better than 13 consecutive losses

 

[Gaylord Q Tinkledink]

Stolarz and Woll being very solid for Toronto.

Tim Stutzle seems to have found another gear.

Washington kind of took the Vegas approach of taking the scrap of other teams and working out well for them.

New Jersey is really trucking along. They got back-to-back shutouts allowing 24 shots... total in those 2 games.

Carolina lost a lot of talent and their goalies are taking turns in the infirmary, but they're still rolling along.

Minnesota was doing really well and then the injury bug hit their top players.




Rangers have been the biggest surprise negatively for me, but reading what their fans have been saying it's not entirely surprising.

Swayman has bad stats, but I haven't seen a lot of Boston this year.

 

[JianYang]

Biggest positive is ovechkin is still able to score goals at an amazing clip.

Biggest womp womp is whatever the heck is going on in Manhattan.

 

[NyQuil]

The Rangers need to be studied.

I can't remember a more precipitous drop from season to season, especially without any major injuries to point to.

Reminds me a bit of the Senators from 2006-2007 (SCF appearance) to 2007-2008 (backed into the playoffs after one of the hottest starts in history and was polished off by the Pens in 5).

It’s not like the Pizza Line was broken up or traded away.

The interesting factoid from that second season is that Ottawa’s coach, John Paddock (taking over from Bryan Murray who took on the GM role), was the Eastern Conference all-star game coach for having the best record at the time, only to be fired in the same season right before the playoffs by Murray who took back the coaching reins.

To go from being the most successful coach in the conference halfway through the year to being fired that same year is pretty shocking.

It’s a bit reminiscent of what is going on at MSG this year.

 

[Aashir Mallik]

Forbort-Myers
Soucy-Juulsen
Brannstrom-Desharnais

Sorta reminds me of the leafs defence from 2019-20 when we had all of Rielly, Ceci and muzzin hurt at once

Dermott-Barrie were our top pairing, and Marty Marincin was playing minutes for us.

You just have to find a way to remain above .500 during this stretch and when hronek and Hughes get back things should settle down

 

[ReimanSum1908]

Positive:
Patrick Laine reemerging from injury and mental health issues looking like his old self.
Ovi leading the league in goals prior to his injury.

Negative:
Nashville imploding and discarding quality players for peanuts.

 

[The Last Red]

The Rangers need to be studied.

I can't remember a more precipitous drop from season to season, especially without any major injuries to point to.

They were always too Shesterkin-reliant. They were exposed in the playoffs last year. Had Carolina gotten even decent goaltending, the Rangers would have been out of the playoffs after round 2.

 

[dirtydanglez]

washington is probably the biggest positive surprise. they've managed to retool successfully and ovi is closing in the goal scoring record.

rangers and canucks are the negative surprises. rangers just full on collapsed and canucks are decimated by key injuries and locker room drama.

 

[hststens]

Negative surprise

• I definitely didn't think that the Rangers would be 28th in the league going into 2025.

Positive surprise

• Kirill Marchenko

 

[Captain97]

I'm going to go with the Habs and Bluejackets being 3 and 2 points out of a playoff spot is my big surprise

 

[Golden_Jet]

Reminds me a bit of the Senators from 2006-2007 (SCF appearance) to 2007-2008 (backed into the playoffs after one of the hottest starts in history and was polished off by the Pens in 5).

It’s not like the Pizza Line was broken up or traded away.

The interesting factoid from that second season is that Ottawa’s coach, John Paddock (taking over from Bryan Murray who took on the GM role), was the Eastern Conference all-star game coach for having the best record at the time, only to be fired in the same season right before the playoffs by Murray who took back the coaching reins.

To go from being the most successful coach in the conference halfway through the year to being fired that same year is pretty shocking.

It’s a bit reminiscent of what is going on at MSG this year.

Ya crazy, as the rangers started 12-4 or something

 

[JoeSakic13]

I think the Metro division has the biggest positives (Washington and New Jersey) as well as the biggest negatives (Rangers and to a lesser extent Pittsburgh)

However my homer fandom has Colorado in there as a team that actually pulled the trigger of fixing their goaltending situation. Starting the season 0-4 yet finishing 2024 5-0.

 

[dabeechman]

Positive - LA being 5th in points % being led by a ppg 37 year old Kopitar and missing Doughty through the first half of the season. Their goaltending situation is SUS at best with no tendy in the top 20 in GAA or SV%. Not sure how they do it.

Negative - Nashville being 3pts out of last.

HM: Ovi bounce back.

 

[tabness]

Nashville sucks which is surprising, Wings suck more than expected (should have been a bubble team), wtf happened to the Rags?