Just some crazy stuff that happened this year:
Ovie went from looking cooked and maybe that he wasn't even going to break Gretz's record at the start of 2024 to arguably having the best goal scoring start to this season and it's basically a question of when not if whereas at the start of the year some people were saying it's shameful/bad what he/the Caps was doing
Panthers win the cup where just a year ago they barely squeaked into the playoffs and were looking totally cooked in the first round vs the Bruins, after a long time being mediocre they finally put it together in the most spectacular way really (playoff failure to barely looking like a playoff team to looking cooked in the first round to making a cup run and then winning it the following year)
Devils and Jets look fantastic, with Devils more than expected, but if you just glanced at the standings from last year to this year still a great job (yes injuries), Jets not out of nowhere either, but they looked crazy good (still look fantastic) to start the year
The Caps and Wild are near/at the top of the league, I think if you asked 10k hardcore fans of each team if they expected it, I'm not sure anybody could've predicted such an insane upward trajectory when they looked poised to just be meh to slightly good for the foreseeable future, don't think anybody predicted even 1 of these 2 teams to be at the top
On the flipside the falloff of the Rangers is absolutely insane, from 2 games from a cup final to near the bottom of the league, maybe the Sabres and Wings being near the bottom isn't that crazy (although pretty wild still), but since we're in the betting era the parlay for those 3 teams to be at the bottom of the East on Jan 1st must be in the 1000s if not tens of thousands to 1
In the west most people had the Preds as a solid playoff lock and maybe an outside chance of contender status, but their falloff has been crazy too, I don't think anyone could've predicted them being 3 points out of 32nd in the league by Jan 1st and they've been healthy too
Some other notable events in the Hockey world:
Finally CHL players are eligible to play in the NCAA
Sid hitting milestones and breaking Lemieux's Penguin records
Canada losing to Switzerland in the World Championships and losing to Latvia in the World Juniors
McDavid not going out for his Smythe trophy
Fleury's farewell tour (having a chance at the cup too)
JT Miller existing and just blessing us with his existence
Czech Republic winning the world championship for the first time in 15 years
Celebrini looking great in his rookie year
Mcdavid hitting 1000 points just a year after he and the Oilers started as badly as they did
Matthews nearly hitting 70 goals
2 guys hitting 140+ points and 3 130+
Yotes finally being moved
Increase in goalie salaries
Is this one of the craziest/most interesting years in recent memory? Feels like there's a ton of milestones/crazy totals and the standings/NHL is all over the place from year to year.
(As a note: I'm not including the Johnny Gaudreau and his brother passing as I don't really feel there is anything to be said about it in this thread, it's not out of disrespect or an omission, just feels tasteless because it's genuinely crazy thing whereas the subjects in this thread are more so light hearted and ultimately not even close to as meaningful as a life lost)
