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Good morning to everyone except anyone who doesn’t want to see more color-on-color jersey matchups. Who wasn’t happy by the end of that Rangers-Red Wings game? OK, Jonathan Quick seemed a little annoyed, but who else?
Let us explain
We had a six-pack last night. Of NHL games, I mean. Or maybe other things, I’m not here to tell you how to live your life. But the hockey was fun, with the Panthers and Canucks lighting up the scoreboard while the Bruins and Hurricanes went old-school defensive. Also, I’m told there was a bit of a blowout in the Oilers-Sabres game, so I’m just going to assume that means Edmonton won. Wait, what? Huh. Yeah, this league makes no sense.
🌉 California Love
My pal Eric Stephens is in a state of confusion.
No really, he is. Eric is our guy out in California, which is just about the most confusing state in the hockey world right now. Coming into the season, we were all writing off the Los Angeles Kings, a team that couldn’t win a round and had just hired Ken Holland to come in and make its blue line worse. The Anaheim Ducks were rebuilding and would need a few more years to compete for much of anything. And the San Jose Sharks would be terrible, probably on purpose, as they chased yet another high draft pick.
Six weeks later, and … uh, yeah, none of that is happening.
I’m confused. So I asked Eric to help me figure it out, and he was gracious enough to explain it to me like I’m East Coast media. Here are my questions and his answers:
A Kings team that some of us had already written off just won four straight to briefly move into first place in the Pacific. What, if anything, has changed in L.A. over the last few weeks?
Eric: The craziest development is an about-face from last season where the NHL’s best team at home and an average-at-best road team is now a titan away from Crypto.com Arena yet awful on its own ice. This 9-3-2 stretch the Kings are on has come with eight of those victories on the road. Just 1-4-2 at home but 9-2-2 on the road. It’s not quite as perplexing of a duality as the New York Rangers, but it’s awfully close.
The Kings are back to their tried-and-true formula of possession hockey, getting sound defense, stable goaltending from Darcy Kuemper (supported by backup Anton Forsberg looking better) and enough offense at key times. It’s always been more the collective with L.A., but Brandt Clarke is looking good on the back end, Kevin Fiala is on one of his goal-scoring heaters and Quinton Byfield is warming up. Adrian Kempe, their best player, is deservedly getting paid. Scratching out points by going to overtime eight times doesn’t hurt.
The Ducks were the story of the NHL in the first month, scoring their way to a seven-game win streak. But then they lost three straight, all in regulation, before picking up an overtime win on Monday. Did we all get out over our skis on Anaheim?
Eric: Having seen a lot of bad Ducks hockey for years, I’ve got to admit I was beginning to get caught up in their far-better-than-expected start. The Ducks were boldly talking about making the 2026 postseason to end a seven-year drought, and their start will help them stay in contention barring a sudden and deep downturn.
I think this first batch of true adversity will be good for them. The Ducks weren’t going to keep scoring five, six or seven goals every game, and the opposition has adjusted accordingly to this high-flying outfit, being more physical with their young stars. They’re still a serious work in progress defensively, but a long homestand now gives them the opportunity to show they’ve got some staying power. And Lukáš Dostál is the real deal.
The Sharks: Not terrible! After a six-game losing streak to start the season, they’ve won eight of 13. Are their days of trolling for lottery odds at the bottom of the league over?
Eric: The Sharks are making the kind of strides you want to see (and what they anticipated) when you’re starting to build it back up after tearing it down. I think the next 20 games will be a better gauge of how much progress they’ve made and how much ground is left to cover on the road back to respectability. But Macklin Celebrini is appointment viewing every night. The chemistry he has with Will Smith — who’s continuing to emerge as an elite talent — is something few duos have, especially at such a young age.
I’m not ruling them out of the Gavin McKenna sweepstakes, but ownership on down has stated they’re not interested in being part of it. The hope around San Jose is now transitioning into belief that better days lie ahead. Some of those days have arrived. More veterans will be weeded out and a larger core with Celebrini at the center still needs to be established. But they’re more competitive and the goaltending appears vastly improved (Yaroslav Askarov has been exceptional in his last few starts).
(Sean M. Haffey / Getty Images)
Finally, rank these three scenarios from most to least likely:
The Kings finish first in the Pacific
The Ducks make the playoffs
The Sharks finish over .500
Eric: Here’s my best guess:
1. The Ducks make the playoffs: Especially if the number to get in is lower because of all the parity. If 94 points is enough for a wild card, Anaheim needs to go just 30-23-11 the rest of the way. A .555 points percentage is very doable.
2. The Kings finish first in the Pacific: It was a surprise to see L.A. surge (or float) to the top of the division. Edmonton’s struggles play a part. I think some of it is also just Vegas, which has dealt with notable injuries, not playing as many games. The Kings will be in the mix, but the Oilers and Golden Knights still have higher ceilings to reach. (It’ll be harder for all three to grab points with the previously bad teams in the West rising up).
3. The Sharks finish over .500: It would be quite a story, but I think it would take Askarov (and Alex Nedeljkovic, to a lesser extent) stealing more games. And they could still sell off impending UFAs at the trade deadline, though that can open spots for players in their impressive pipeline to get their first taste of the NHL or those who got a prior introduction to take a bigger bite.
Thanks to Eric for that. Be sure to check out his work.
💡 Trivia Time
Today’s question comes from editor Sarah, who found something weird about everyone’s favorite hockey country. In her words:
There are exactly five players to appear in an NHL game this season with “eh” somewhere in their last name. All are established NHL regulars and not a single one is Canadian.
Can you name them?
I’ll admit, I got only three — and one of those was only because I finally learned how to spell the guy’s name after years of getting it wrong.
Answer at the bottom.
Coast to Coast
🏒 Hailey Salvian is halfway through her PWHL previews, having already covered New York, Boston, Montreal and Toronto. Check back for the rest of the league, including the two new expansion teams in Seattle and Vancouver, later in the week.
💸 Good news: if you have a pack of Upper Deck hockey cards from a few years ago lying around, you could be rich.
👴 This is the first season in a very long time where we haven’t seen Lou Lamoriello pulling strings in a front office somewhere, but he says that’s just fine with him.
👶 At the other end of the age spectrum, Corey Pronman has more on the deepening debate around Gavin McKenna’s case to go first overall.
🎙️ On “The Athletic Hockey Show” podcast, the Monday crew mourns the end of NHL free agency.
➕ Put It In / Keep It Out ➖
(Maddie Meyer / Getty Images)
What’s the difference?
I like fancy stats. For you kids out there, that’s what we used to call analytics back in the day when looking into the numbers in more detail was considered controversial. Ah, the great analytics wars of the 2010s, when we all wrote CORSI in all caps for some reason. Mirtle still has the scars.
So sure, fancy stats are fine. But sometimes, so are the basic stats. So today, let’s dive into one of the most basic team stats there is: goals differential. How many goals have you scored? How many have you given up? Combine those two numbers, and you have a team’s goals differential, which in theory tells you how well a team is playing, because scoring more goals than you allow tends to be a pretty big deal in this sport.
But this year, that basic stat is spitting out some funky results. Here are five weird things the goals differential column on the standings is telling us. (Note that I’m using the NHL’s version of goals differential here, which includes shootout results even though that’s stupid.)
1. The Atlantic is not good. Not one team in the entire division has a positive differential. Only one is even, and that’s not the one any of us would have suspected. As of this morning, the Bruins — who I’ll remind you finished last in the division last year — are exactly even. The Sabres are way down at minus-9. And everyone else is muddling around between minus-1 and minus-5.
2. The Metro is … maybe good? Not great, mind you. But everyone is either positive or very close, with nobody worse than the Islanders at minus-1. Even the last-place Capitals are still sitting at plus-4. Meanwhile, the Hurricanes are second overall at plus-16, trailing only our next team …
3. The Avalanche are on a different planet. They’re sitting at plus-31, in a league where nobody else is even close to plus-20. I think they might be good.
4. The Kings seem kind of fake. At least if you go by this one stat, which has them at minus-1 despite being in first place in the Pacific at the start of the week. On the other hand, the Ducks are at a division-best plus-10. California sure is confusing, somebody should write something about that.
5. The Blackhawks are … wait, that can’t be right. At plus-12, they’re the second-best team in the West? Better than the Stars, Knights and Jets? Yeah, this stat is broken, forget I ever brought this up.
(Bruce Bennett / Getty Images)
What to Watch
📺 Devils @ Lightning
7 p.m. ET on NHL Network / Sportsnet
Is it too early to label this an Eastern Conference playoff preview? Yes, absolutely. (But if it happens, remember you read it here first.)
📺 Islanders @ Stars
8 p.m. ET on ESPN+
Admit it, if I’d asked you to name one of just two games tonight featuring two teams with double-digit wins, this wouldn’t have been your first pick. But the Islanders have grinded their way to 10-7-2 as we all watch Matthew Schaefer get better each game. He’ll have his work cut out for him against the Stars, who may be the league’s hottest team right now.
📺 Rangers @ Golden Knights
10 p.m. ET on ESPN+ / Sportsnet / TVA
Do you think the Rangers stay at New York-New York when they visit Vegas? I think they should have to. They could ride the roller coaster, which would give them a pretty good idea of how the Golden Knights’ season is going so far.
📺 Mammoth @ Sharks
10 p.m. ET on ESPN+
It’s two teams headed in opposite directions, as the Mammoth have fallen off lately while the Sharks are riding those positive California vibes. When they met in October, Nick Schmaltz had a hat trick, his first three goals of what’s now shaping up to be a monster contract year.
Full NHL schedule here. Try streaming games like these for free on Fubo.
🇨🇦 Your Trivia Answer
The five active players with “eh” in their last name are:
Carolina’s Nikolaj Ehlers and Shayne Gostisbehere
Colorado’s Artturi Lehkonen
Anaheim’s Ryan Poehling
Washington’s Martin Fehérváry
Not one of them is Canadian. (Although there was a winger in the 1960s from Saskatchewan named Gerry Ehman, which might be the most Canadian name of all time.)
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