Which of these overachieving teams sustain it?

[Jared Dunn]

I don't necessarily think Sabres finishing a bit above .500 is overachieving, it's probably still not enough to get them into the playoffs.

Don't think the Jets can sustain QUITE this pace although I do think they'll take the division and possibly conference, Flames I think will fall. Wild and Capitals I think were just generally underrated coming into the season

 

[Romang67]

The caps should also get much better goaltending.

The caps are a top 5 team in expected goals share.

Eh, maybe. It's not like Lindgren or Thompson have ever been top of the crop goalies, and Thompson has been one of the better goalies in the league so far in GSAx.

I'd say where they are lagging behind what can be expected is their PP, but they just lost Ovechkin for two months which hurts them there.

Evolving hockey has them top 5, NaturalStatTrick has them 8th, so it's not like they're a bad team. I just think they are worse than they have been so far.

 

[benfranklin]

The Sabres are in a playoff position, largely due to their division underperforming so far, but it will easily be the story of the season if the Sabres end their drought. Its slowly been an under the radar story.

 

[NHL1674]

How is f*** Minnesota doing so well? Hynes is legitimately one of the worst coaches I've ever seen when he was in NJ, and Preds fans don't look fondly upon his time there either.

The bigger question is how are they doing it with all the dead cap space killing the roster? Thank goodness that ends next year. As for this year, I could see them possibly being a wildcard team. Can't see them holding their current spot the whole way.

As for the Jets, they'll be fine. A strong offense with Hellebuyck in the back is all they really need to stay close to the top. Obviously, all bets are off though when the playoffs come around, but that applies to everybody.

 

[Mattilaus]

One of these teams is not like the others. One of these teams just isn't the same.

 

[qc14]

Caps and Jets are on PDO heaters but also have legitimately great underlying numbers and are getting contributions from all over the roster. Minnesota I don't think are going to fall out of a playoff spot but seem much more susceptible to a downturn as soon as Kaprizov falls slightly from "Hart frontrunner" good to even just "top 10 forward in the league" good.

Calgary I still think probably miss the playoffs but also I don't know why people expected them to be a bottom 5 team going into the year. Buffalo is only overachieving in the sense that of the (many) bad teams in the east they're currently doing the least amount of shooting themselves in the foot.

 

[SheldonJPlankton]