Takeaways one month in
One month in to the Hockey League's run to the Stanley Cup Finals, we have our first takeaways of the season - and they may surprise you.
Cleveland Barons Stay Hot - The defending Champions have not missed a bit in the first month of play, quietly winning ten of twelve games and leading the Hockey League in scoring. They haven't entered the meat of their schedule yet, but so far, the same group that hoisted Cleveland's first Stanley Cup last spring and partnered with the Rams to end the city's twenty-two year sports drought are looking just as good as they did then, if not better.
Quakers For Real - It would be remiss not to point out, though, that the Barons are not the best team in their own conference. After missing the playoffs five straight seasons, Philadelphia has won their first thirteen games, accumulated full points, and if the playoffs started today would be far and away leaders for the President's Cup. They are the first team since the 1996 Red Wings to open a season with thirteen wins and are closing in on the 2006 Red Wings' record of sixteen straight wins. How are they doing it? By playing tough, defensive hockey and winning on breakaways and steals. That dependence on opportunities rather than scoring power is likely not sustainable, but what a start to the season nonetheless, a run that so far augurs two of the best squads in the history of the modern sport. That being said, there are plenty of cases that urge caution; Montreal opened with eleven straight wins in 2019-20 and won sixteen of seventeen to begin their campaign, and they failed to advance to the Playoff.
Canucks Back? - The Vancouver Canucks of the early 2010s are one of the few groups that can make a reasonable challenge to second place in the Hockey League of the last 30 years behind the Red Wings dynasty of 1995-08. Winning back-to-back Presidents' Trophies and Stanley Cups - the only team to ever do so, considering that the Trophy is generally regarded as a curse - the Canucks blasted their way to consecutive 120 point seasons and in 2011 did not lose a Playoff game until the seven-game classic Finals against Boston. The current group looks eerily reminiscent, already having raced out to 24 points - just one behind the Quakers - and a head and shoulders lead in the West with nobody else even close. This promising start looks balanced enough to carry the day, and at least build a strong points bank ahead of the Playoff.
What's Wrong in Edmonton? - In sharp contrast, last year's first seed (indeed, first seed the last four years) in the West is mired in seventh place and does not look ready to attempt to avenge its heartbreaking loss in Game Seven of the Stanley Cup Finals to Cleveland last spring. Connor McDavid has suffered numerous injuries, and the defense cannot stop anything. The only consolation is that other Playoff teams from the West from last year like Seattle and Los Angeles are similarly struggling early, suggesting a conference-wide shakeup, but Oilers had high ambitions to win the club's first Stanley Cup after coming so close to the silverware. What a hangover.
First to Worst? - What a difference eighteen months make. In late May of 2022, the Totems were hoisting their fourth Stanley Cup since 2007 and fifth in club history, sending Henrik Lundqvist off with one last championship in his remarkable but uneven swansong season. Today, they are in last place in the West, having won a single game and unable to stop anyone after making the Western Semis last year. While Sidney Crosby is still a solid scorer, even he is showing his age, and it may be time to cashier some of the veterans of this decorated squad that is up there with the Red Wings, Canucks and Sabres of the world as 21st century powerhouses and start from scratch.
