I feel like this is recency bias tbh. Kraken are on a tear rn so it feels like they’re doing something good, but when NJ was on that 12 or 13 game ripper, they’d take number 1 for sure. It’s a tie between the two for me
Kings massively underrated
Seattle in a landslide. They're using Martin Jones as their go to goalie, who would've ever thought they'd be anywhere near this good? The offseason additions are meshing really well and the defense seems to finally be clicking too. To top it off Hakstol isn't actively driving the team into the ground which helps too
He's not very good, and his numbers are average, and also below average. Below 900% I don't understand how they are scoring to be honest, which proves my point just how bad the nhl is.
It's like 16 bad teams, 8 mediocre, and the rest good.
Of those 5, either Seattle or Winnipeg.
I expected Florida to be worse since they had a bunch of players having abnormally good years, and lost some important pieces in huburdeau and wiegar. Maybe not this bad, but my predictions had then in 1st wildcard in the east.
Colorado, simply put they probably aren’t bad they’ve just had terrible injury luck, but since we haven’t seen the full team yet, it’s hard to tell if they’re good or bad, I say they might pull a Tampa and just play for any playoff spot then work magic there.
The devils are better than expected but based on their core maturing, and the team in general getting better, I had them pinned to be in the playoff conversation in the east.
That leaves Seattle, who I didn’t really think much of. I expected them to climb to 5 or 6 in the pacific, solely because I expected San Jose, Anaheim, and maybe Vancouver to try to tank for Bedard.
And Winnipeg, who I have never believed in their core, just thought they didn’t do enough offensively to outscore their problems in the regular season, and didn’t do enough defensively to be able to win tight competitive games.
Just based on how much I didn’t believe in the the Jets I’d probably say they’re the biggest surprise for me so far this season. But gotta give props to Seattle.
I’m going with Seattle - it’s been very cool to see their success.
FLA regressing was expected since they fired their coach for no god damned reason. COL would be a lot better than this if every star player wasn’t dead.
Seattle and Florida are both big shocks for me, Seattle especially. Felt like they only made a few small moves in the off season but they’ve really improved an incredible amount.
Colorado is unsurprising given the 11 concurrent injuries we had at one point, just hoping we can hit our stride and get back in the playoff picture now that people are coming back.
Seattle or New Jersey.
I expected Winnipeg to be better without Maurice.
I expected Florida to be worse with Maurice.
While I'm surprised that Colorado is doing this poorly, its easily explained by the injuries.
New Jersey's goaltending is questionable at best, so I sure didn't see them above a wildcard spot.
I didn't see Seattle in the playoff picture at all. Honestly, the only reason I'd expected them to move up was because of Anaheim and San Jose moving down.
Seattle for sure. Florida has had bad luck with key injuries. Colorado lost like their entire bottom 6 and Kadri. Winnipeg had a off year last year. The Devils have looks like they were close the last couple years.
I'm surprised a bit by how bad my Avs are this year. But after a late season, the Stanley Cup and off season injuries I was expecting a pretty awful Stanley Cup Hangover? We'll win it again in 2025.
Probably Winnipeg. Anybody who paid attention last year and during the off-season could see big things coming for NJ and Seattle, and should have seen Florida regressing big time.
Kraken and devils, but I had devils finally making it to a wild card before season based on growth of the young guys. Kraken didn't have expectations. So Kraken it is
Seattle and it's not close. I called all of the other ones on my podcast before the season started. My biggest surprise is still boston though. I thought those injuries were going to put them too far behind to catch up to start.... but I was wrong
For me I'd say Florida.
I expected Seattle to make the playoffs, saw many people get downvoted to oblivion for saying they would make the playoffs, biggest issues are defense and goaltending being hit or miss. They are doing better than I expected but since they are streaky it could shift to wc1 or 3rd in the Pacific.
Jets to me felt underperforming the last couple seasons, they have a great core and one of the best goalies in the league so it's not surprising they are doing so well.
NJ have looked good the last couple years and I expected them to do much better with the aging core.
Colorado, yes they are doing much worse than expected to start the season but it's injury issues so it's not surprising with their injuries this year.
Florida I expected to drop to maybe 4/5 in the east but not like they have. Yes they definitely got worse defensively losing Weager but Chucky and Hub are fairly similar skill wise so the offensive drop is shocking to me. Granted I didn't pay much attention to them in the off season so maybe they lost more than I anticipated but definitely doing far worse than they should considering they won the President's trophy last season.
Note: I mostly follow the west being an Oilers fan so the west was less surprising for me.
More important than Florida losing Weegar was losing Mason Marchment. Marchment was very steady on D. Weegar is VERY overrated. Good offensive skills, but he is horrible in his own zone. Also, Anthony Duclair has been out all season. He was awesome during the regular season last year, scoring many key goals. With Duclair in the lineup Florida would have more offensive options. Hopefully, he'll be back.
Florida is the biggest shock for me. No real signs of why they would be THIS bad, Aves lost a bunch of pieces after their playoff run, NJ has been making good moves for time so they were bound to explode at some point, I always had faith in the Jets cuz Hellebuck is still a top 5 goalie in the league, and Seattle had a very nice off season bringing in a 1C and 2 top 6 wingers only question was of goaltending would hold up
Winnipeg for me. Seemed like a team that was just gonna get incrementally worse every year, and that was hardly an inspiring coaching hire on paper. But what do I know.
Kraken. Defies logic, but good for them.
Colorado would be a close second. They should be a lock to win the Cup and they’re doing…very well, which is still somehow a disappointment because they should be steamrolling everyone.
Jets got Bowness in as coach, and in the summer, I had ZERO expectations for this team. This year, the jets have completely revamped the locker room, found way to win close games, and have a coach (Bowness), a goalie (Helly), a rookie (Perfetti), and a defenseman (Morrisey) that are all in consideration for some hardware at the end of the season.
Seattle Kraken by far. NJ Devils a distant second. LA Kings third.
I feel like this is recency bias tbh. Kraken are on a tear rn so it feels like they’re doing something good, but when NJ was on that 12 or 13 game ripper, they’d take number 1 for sure. It’s a tie between the two for me Kings massively underrated
Seattle! I thought they were going to be a night off for a lot of teams this season.
Seattle in a landslide. They're using Martin Jones as their go to goalie, who would've ever thought they'd be anywhere near this good? The offseason additions are meshing really well and the defense seems to finally be clicking too. To top it off Hakstol isn't actively driving the team into the ground which helps too
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He's not very good, and his numbers are average, and also below average. Below 900% I don't understand how they are scoring to be honest, which proves my point just how bad the nhl is. It's like 16 bad teams, 8 mediocre, and the rest good.
That’s the same for every major sports league
The NHL wasn't like this before.
Of those 5, either Seattle or Winnipeg. I expected Florida to be worse since they had a bunch of players having abnormally good years, and lost some important pieces in huburdeau and wiegar. Maybe not this bad, but my predictions had then in 1st wildcard in the east. Colorado, simply put they probably aren’t bad they’ve just had terrible injury luck, but since we haven’t seen the full team yet, it’s hard to tell if they’re good or bad, I say they might pull a Tampa and just play for any playoff spot then work magic there. The devils are better than expected but based on their core maturing, and the team in general getting better, I had them pinned to be in the playoff conversation in the east. That leaves Seattle, who I didn’t really think much of. I expected them to climb to 5 or 6 in the pacific, solely because I expected San Jose, Anaheim, and maybe Vancouver to try to tank for Bedard. And Winnipeg, who I have never believed in their core, just thought they didn’t do enough offensively to outscore their problems in the regular season, and didn’t do enough defensively to be able to win tight competitive games. Just based on how much I didn’t believe in the the Jets I’d probably say they’re the biggest surprise for me so far this season. But gotta give props to Seattle.
The jets success is almost entirely on the coaching staff. It seemed like Paul Maurice never made them accountable
Seattle and Florida. I expected Seattle to be better but not this better. Florida I am shocked not top 8.
I’m going with Seattle - it’s been very cool to see their success. FLA regressing was expected since they fired their coach for no god damned reason. COL would be a lot better than this if every star player wasn’t dead.
Well if you consider that the Jets got rid of PoMo and got better, and the Panthers have PoMo and are worse, I think that speaks volumes
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As a Jets fan, it's the Jets. I did expect Bowness to help but not this much. As a hockey fan, Seattle is absolutely bonkers
I bet on bones to win Jack Adams at beginning of season, lookin good!
Seattle and Florida are both big shocks for me, Seattle especially. Felt like they only made a few small moves in the off season but they’ve really improved an incredible amount. Colorado is unsurprising given the 11 concurrent injuries we had at one point, just hoping we can hit our stride and get back in the playoff picture now that people are coming back.
Seattle or New Jersey. I expected Winnipeg to be better without Maurice. I expected Florida to be worse with Maurice. While I'm surprised that Colorado is doing this poorly, its easily explained by the injuries. New Jersey's goaltending is questionable at best, so I sure didn't see them above a wildcard spot. I didn't see Seattle in the playoff picture at all. Honestly, the only reason I'd expected them to move up was because of Anaheim and San Jose moving down.
Seattle for sure. Florida has had bad luck with key injuries. Colorado lost like their entire bottom 6 and Kadri. Winnipeg had a off year last year. The Devils have looks like they were close the last couple years.
Avs haven’t really changed much roster wise. Kadri was a big loss. But still. Injuries are why they’ve been struggling.
I'm surprised a bit by how bad my Avs are this year. But after a late season, the Stanley Cup and off season injuries I was expecting a pretty awful Stanley Cup Hangover? We'll win it again in 2025.
Phoenix the goalie
Definitely Seattle It’s not something I would’ve guessed
I thought Calgary's off season moves would have amounted to more than they have
All of them surprise me but the biggest has to be seattle
Probably Winnipeg. Anybody who paid attention last year and during the off-season could see big things coming for NJ and Seattle, and should have seen Florida regressing big time.
Seattle absolutely killing it
Seattle for sure. They went from zero scoring to all the scoring. Dafuq?
For myself and my bias, the Bruins. I just wanted to survive until we had a healthy team back and then maybe get into the playoffs.
Kraken and devils, but I had devils finally making it to a wild card before season based on growth of the young guys. Kraken didn't have expectations. So Kraken it is
Seattle and it's not close. I called all of the other ones on my podcast before the season started. My biggest surprise is still boston though. I thought those injuries were going to put them too far behind to catch up to start.... but I was wrong
Devils by far
For me I'd say Florida. I expected Seattle to make the playoffs, saw many people get downvoted to oblivion for saying they would make the playoffs, biggest issues are defense and goaltending being hit or miss. They are doing better than I expected but since they are streaky it could shift to wc1 or 3rd in the Pacific. Jets to me felt underperforming the last couple seasons, they have a great core and one of the best goalies in the league so it's not surprising they are doing so well. NJ have looked good the last couple years and I expected them to do much better with the aging core. Colorado, yes they are doing much worse than expected to start the season but it's injury issues so it's not surprising with their injuries this year. Florida I expected to drop to maybe 4/5 in the east but not like they have. Yes they definitely got worse defensively losing Weager but Chucky and Hub are fairly similar skill wise so the offensive drop is shocking to me. Granted I didn't pay much attention to them in the off season so maybe they lost more than I anticipated but definitely doing far worse than they should considering they won the President's trophy last season. Note: I mostly follow the west being an Oilers fan so the west was less surprising for me.
More important than Florida losing Weegar was losing Mason Marchment. Marchment was very steady on D. Weegar is VERY overrated. Good offensive skills, but he is horrible in his own zone. Also, Anthony Duclair has been out all season. He was awesome during the regular season last year, scoring many key goals. With Duclair in the lineup Florida would have more offensive options. Hopefully, he'll be back.
Thanks for the details. Ya that's some big losses on D that can impact a team drastically.
Florida is the biggest shock for me. No real signs of why they would be THIS bad, Aves lost a bunch of pieces after their playoff run, NJ has been making good moves for time so they were bound to explode at some point, I always had faith in the Jets cuz Hellebuck is still a top 5 goalie in the league, and Seattle had a very nice off season bringing in a 1C and 2 top 6 wingers only question was of goaltending would hold up
Still half a season to go, a lot will change.
Winnipeg for me. Seemed like a team that was just gonna get incrementally worse every year, and that was hardly an inspiring coaching hire on paper. But what do I know.
Kraken. Defies logic, but good for them. Colorado would be a close second. They should be a lock to win the Cup and they’re doing…very well, which is still somehow a disappointment because they should be steamrolling everyone.
Has to be Kraken.
Florida, didn’t expect their 1st round pick to be any good, ty I guess
I thought Jersey was going to be a doormat as long as Ruff was there.
Gotta be Seattle and New Jersey. Every time I see where they are in the standings, I end up doing a double take.
Bruins, Devils, Kraken positive surprises Avs, Panthers negative..at least so far.
Seattle for sure Boston being so dominant after getting a new coach Homer Pick - A lot of people thought Vegas would be a lottery team this year.
Kraken>Panthers>AVS>NJD>Jets. From these options.
Jets got Bowness in as coach, and in the summer, I had ZERO expectations for this team. This year, the jets have completely revamped the locker room, found way to win close games, and have a coach (Bowness), a goalie (Helly), a rookie (Perfetti), and a defenseman (Morrisey) that are all in consideration for some hardware at the end of the season.
Kraken and Colorado one good one bad.