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Watch Hockey Night in Canada on Sportsnet<\/p>\nJust one month into the new NHL campaign, the stories of the season are already beginning to come into focus.<\/p>\n
We\u2019ve seen clubs that were written off in the summer finding life in the fall, starting strong and upending the hockey world\u2019s predictions. And we\u2019ve seen the opposite too, with a few battle-tested contenders coming out of the gates sluggish and finding themselves mired in the middle of the pack.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s early \u2014\u00a0teams around the league are just making their way to the 15-game mark. Still, history suggests this early stretch can be a more accurate indication of what\u2019s to come than it might seem.<\/p>\n
Sportsnet\u2019s Elliotte Friedman often draws on a stat that seems to confirm as much:\u00a0the Nov. 1 benchmark. Clubs that are four or more points out of the playoffs after Nov. 1 face a slim chance of making it back into the playoff picture by the season\u2019s end. In the salary cap era, 72 teams have been in that position, and\u00a0only 10 have ended up making the post-season.<\/p>\n
With that in mind, let\u2019s take a closer look at who\u2019s in, who\u2019s out and the biggest surprises we\u2019ve seen through the season\u2019s early going.<\/p>\n
Watch Hockey Night in Canada on Sportsnet<\/p>\n
Watch Hockey Night in Canada on Sportsnet and Sportsnet+ all season long. This Saturday, catch the Maple Leafs vs. the Bruins, the Senators vs. the Flyers, the Canadiens vs. the Mammoth, the Oilers vs. the Avalanche and the Canucks vs. the Blue Jackets.<\/p>\n
Broadcast schedule<\/a><\/p>\n Pittsburgh, Montreal enjoying dominant starts<\/p>\n There\u2019s little question which club\u2019s start has been the biggest surprise of the season to this point. Prognosticators across the hockey world wrote the Pittsburgh Penguins<\/a> off after a difficult 2024-25 campaign that saw the black-and-gold miss the playoffs for the third straight year. Conversation about the organization seemed to focus more on when a Sidney Crosby trade might come than how his team would fare. Fast forward to November, and Crosby\u2019s Penguins sit tied for second in the league and tops in the East. Whether they can sustain that level until April remains to be seen, but so far, the Pens are flying, with new head coach Dan Muse\u2019s early impact looking immense, the club\u2019s off-season recruits impressing and Evgeni Malkin turning back the clock. For frame of reference, a year ago at this time, Pittsburgh was already outside of the playoff picture, sitting closer to the East\u2019s basement than its throne.<\/p>\n While the Penguins vie for the Metro crown, in the Atlantic it\u2019s the Montreal Canadiens<\/a> who\u2019ve been tearing it up. The Habs weren\u2019t in the type of dire straits Pittsburgh found itself in last season \u2014 Montreal managed to make its way back into the playoffs, claiming the East\u2019s second wild-card spot. But this year, they appear on the hunt for far more. No NHL club has won more than Martin St. Louis\u2019s squad to date \u2014 the Habs have collected twice as many wins as they had by this point last season. Their leading duo has been central to that strong start, with Cole Caufield tied for the most goals league-wide and captain Nick Suzuki a handful off the league scoring lead.<\/p>\n Detroit, Columbus in mix after missing out<\/p>\n Just a hair behind Montreal in an Atlantic Division that\u2019s been turned on its head early this season, the Detroit Red Wings<\/a> are similarly on par with the league\u2019s best. It\u2019s been nearly a decade since the Wings reigned as a perennial playoff participant. On the cusp of reaching 10 straight seasons without playoff hockey, Detroit\u2019s strong start has it level with Pittsburgh, Montreal and New Jersey atop the Eastern Conference, with The Yzerplan looking like it might finally turn the corner. A dominant opening month from Dylan Larkin has been pivotal to the promising start, with No. 71 level next to Suzuki among the game\u2019s top scorers.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, in the Metro, the Columbus Blue Jackets<\/a> have built on their strong showing last season and kicked off 2025-26 in fine form, too. The Jackets came agonizingly close to ending a four-year playoff drought last season, but ultimately wound up just two points out of the East\u2019s final wild-card spot. Now, they\u2019re on par with Carolina and the New York Rangers in the Metro. That said, this season hasn\u2019t seen teams in the East pulling away and staking their claim on post-season spots.\u00a0While last year at this time both wild-card clubs held a lead over the group of teams below them, this year’s Nov. 1 saw six clubs \u2014\u00a0the third-ranked teams in both divisions, and three teams battling for wild-card spots \u2014\u00a0all sitting level on points.<\/p>\n Trio of East\u2019s presumed contenders all sitting outside playoff picture<\/p>\n For a few of the East\u2019s supposed best \u2014 the Toronto Maple Leafs, Florida Panthers and Washington Capitals \u2014\u00a0that logjam of clubs could be taken as a positive or a negative. On one hand, there are a number of teams in the East wading through mediocre starts to the season, meaning each of them hasn\u2019t yet been buried by other squads pulling away in the standings. On the other hand, the fact that most of the conference sits roughly level on points means the season could get away from them quickly if other clubs manage to right the ship quicker.<\/p>\n It\u2019s an interesting year for all three squads. The Maple Leafs entered without Mitch Marner, with a number of new faces to work in, and with Auston Matthews trying to bounce back from injury. But so far, the changes haven\u2019t fully taken. Florida is navigating life without two of its most important leaders\u00a0\u2014 both Aleksander Barkov and Matthew Tkachuk are sidelined with injuries \u2014 but the assumption is the Cats just need to find their way back to the playoffs one way or another, where they\u2019ll wreak havoc once again. And after a season that saw the Capitals finish second in the league, a year removed from finishing 17th, all eyes are on D.C. to see whether their sterling campaign was a sign of real progress or a flash in the pan. As it stands, that trio is tied with three others (the Islanders, Sabres and Flyers) at the bottom of the Eastern Conference.<\/p>\n Utah, Seattle starting strong after missing playoffs last season<\/p>\n Utah\u2019s looking like the Pittsburgh of the West so far \u2014\u00a0through the early weeks of the new season, the Mammoth have earned the second-most wins of any club the West, ranking third overall in points. The key for Utah, though, will be making it last. Clayton Keller\u2019s club started well last season too, sitting in a wild-card spot a year ago at this time, but ultimately finished the year seven points out of the playoffs. The Mammoth have already built a bigger early cushion, led by a productive opening month from Nick Schmaltz, but holding off some of the teams nipping at their heels will be no small feat.<\/p>\n The same goes for Seattle. With eyes on charting a path back into the post-season after two seasons out, the Kraken have kept pace in the West to this point, and currently find themselves part of the playoff picture. If there\u2019s a worry for the Kraken\u2019s chances, it\u2019s the fact that they\u2019re mired in a logjam of their own, with the Pacific\u2019s top three clubs, and the wild-card club above them, all sitting level on points. This time last year, the Kraken were in a similar group of clubs milling around the wild-card spots, before ultimately missing out by 20 points, with four teams between them and a playoff berth. The question this time will be how long the Kraken can hang around, and whether they can perhaps push any higher.<\/p>\n Early struggles have Vancouver, Minnesota sitting outside playoff mix\u00a0<\/p>\n