NHL 2022-2023: FA July 13th - LET IT BEGIN

[axeman90210]

I gotta say, I think the Devils might be the most shocking / surprising team so far this season, imo.

I gotta say, I think the Devils might be the most shocking / surprising team so far this season, imo.

For sure. Refreshing to see.

Yeah, I think at this point the Devils fanbase is pretty pleasantly surprised so far as well. We expected to take a step forward this year, and when the first two games were ugly things got sour pretty fast ("Fire Lindy" chants at our home opener). A few different things playing into this year's success so far:

- Better goaltending. Our puck possession/scoring chance metrics were consistent with at least a fringe playoff contender last year, but we had I think the worst goaltending in the league (if not, neck and neck with Seattle for that distinction). Even without improvement elsewhere, better goaltending than we got last year has been a boon

- Bolstered defense. One thing our GM has done a great job of is picking up defensemen for non-premium assets from teams with a salary cap and/or expansion draft squeeze on their own rosters. We didn't give up all that much for any of Jonas Siegenthaler, Ryan Graves, or most recently John Marino, and all three have worked out very well in NJ.

- Better health (so far, knock on wood). The stat that I think best exemplifies that is that this most recent 12 games we've played are the first time that Nico Hischier, Jesper Bratt, and Jack Hughes have all played 12 consecutive games together. This is Jack Hughes' 4th year (and the others have been here longer). That speaks to how injury-bitten we've been at the top of our forwards depth chart. Dougie Hamilton is also looking noticeably better this year, we found out afterwards that he played most of last season with a nagging lower body injury.

I don't know that they'll be able to keep up this pace throughout the whole season, but it's been a blast so far. We've got a couple more should-wins coming up to hopefully keep stockpiling early points before some inevitable lulls through the season.

[King Postwhore]

Better start leads to better seating in playoffs.

[TAC]

Better start leads to better seating in playoffs.

Maybe get a seat near the ice!

[axeman90210]

Much better than a seat on the couch

[King Postwhore]

Bingo.

[TAC]

Bruins are playing Calgary tonight. Other than the Bruins and the Islanders, they have my favorite uniforms. Love the colors.

[King Postwhore]

McAvoy with a goal in his first game back!!

[axeman90210]

Hot damn, 8 in a row! Really entertaining game tonight, Devs and Senators traded 1 goal leads back and forth until they were tied at 3 in the third. The Devils had to bring in a 22 year old backup fresh from the AHL because Vanecek left the game with an injury and the kid made a few huge saves while the Devils killed off a 2 minute penalty in OT. Then Dougie Hamilton buried one with like 30 seconds left in overtime while the Devils were on a powerplay of their own.

[KevShmev]

The Blues won a game!

It's an early Christmas miracle!!

[gmillerdrake]

Nice road win in Vegas tonight by the Blues. Looked like a real hockey team.

[jingle.boy]

Nice road win in Vegas tonight by the Blues. Looked like a real hockey team.

This year has been so up and down for so many teams - more than a handful have looked so good at times, while looking so bad at others.  It seems the only thing that's been consistent is the inconsistency. 

[KevShmev]

Nice road win in Vegas tonight by the Blues. Looked like a real hockey team.

Nice!  I couldn't stay awake for it (old man problems ), but seeing that they won at Vegas, who has been red hot, is a nice surprise to wake up and see.

[gmillerdrake]

Nice road win in Vegas tonight by the Blues. Looked like a real hockey team.

This year has been so up and down for so many teams - more than a handful have looked so good at times, while looking so bad at others.  It seems the only thing that's been consistent is the inconsistency. 

No kidding. I've already made the adjustment mentally to just take what we get from the Blues. They're not a 'championship' level team at all. I mean, sure there's always a chance they get hot at the right time but they're not in the realm of thr juggernaut's of the league at all.

[Anguyen92]

This year has been so up and down for so many teams - more than a handful have looked so good at times, while looking so bad at others.  It seems the only thing that's been consistent is the inconsistency. 

Yep.  I do feel like the Kings are slowly coming into form, defensively-wise.  Quick is starting to feel like Quick and played like it in his last four starts (with the exception of the Panthers game).  Cal Petersen still needs some help and confidence and good support from the team in the D zone, but I got good confidence in them smoothing their issues out.  This next road trip will suck (Flames, Oilers, Canucks, and Kraken).  The Kings needs to play at peak condition to get those pts against Pacific division teams.

[TAC]

Nice road win in Vegas tonight by the Blues. Looked like a real hockey team.

Nice!  I couldn't stay awake for it (old man problems ), but seeing that they won at Vegas, who has been red hot, is a nice surprise to wake up and see.

Looks like Vegas had the dreaded 'first game at home letdown after a long road trip' game.

[gmillerdrake]

Nice road win in Vegas tonight by the Blues. Looked like a real hockey team.

Nice road win in Denver tonight by the Blues. Looked like a real hockey team.

[jingle.boy]

Nice road win in Vegas tonight by the Blues. Looked like a real hockey team.

Nice road win in Denver tonight by the Blues. Looked like a real hockey team.

Maybe they just needed to get away from their toxic fanbase! 

[gmillerdrake]

Nice road win in Vegas tonight by the Blues. Looked like a real hockey team.

Nice road win in Denver tonight by the Blues. Looked like a real hockey team.

Maybe they just needed to get away from their toxic fanbase! 

Probably 

Killing off a 5 on 3 that turned into a 6 on 3 for the last 1:44 of the game against the #1 PP unit in the league was heart attack city! Couple huge saves and blocks and then a deep sigh of relief!

[TAC]

Nice road win in Vegas tonight by the Blues. Looked like a real hockey team.

Nice road win in Denver tonight by the Blues. Looked like a real hockey team.

Maybe they just needed to get away from their toxic fanbase! 

[pg1067]

In case anyone hasn't yet seen Triumph on Hockey Night in Canada:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MApKx3lOJc

[jingle.boy]

In case anyone hasn't yet seen Triumph on Hockey Night in Canada:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MApKx3lOJc

Thanks for posting that.  I didn't catch the game on Saturday until the 3rd period, and was wondering why every commercial break was led out by a Triumph track!

[pg1067]

In case anyone hasn't yet seen Triumph on Hockey Night in Canada:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MApKx3lOJc

Thanks for posting that.  I didn't catch the game on Saturday until the 3rd period, and was wondering why every commercial break was led out by a Triumph track!

Sweet!  Mike Levine always seemed to be wearing a hockey jersey when they played live.

[King Postwhore]

Talk about class personified

https://www.hockeyfeed.com/nhl-news/tage-thompson-shares-the-classy-comments-that-patrice-bergeron-had-for-him-prior-to-puck-drop

[TAC]

I've said it before, but I would have his baby.

[KevShmev]

My friends who moved to Denver five years ago went to the Blues/Avs game last night, and my friend Callie sent me this pic of what they showed on the scoreboard.



To unpack it, it is implying that the rooting for the Blues is like rooting for the bad guys (the anti-hero), and the lyric they have listed, "It must be exhausting always rooting for the anti-hero," is from the chorus of Taylor Swift's Anti-Hero which is currently the number 1 song in the country.  Too funny. 

[jingle.boy]

Talk about class personified

https://www.hockeyfeed.com/nhl-news/tage-thompson-shares-the-classy-comments-that-patrice-bergeron-had-for-him-prior-to-puck-drop

Incredible.  Bergeron is the kind of player/person that makes it really hard(er) to hate Boston.

Not impossible, but hard(er).   

[axeman90210]

Devils up to ten in a row. Should be a fun game on Thursday Chad.

[jingle.boy]

Devils up to ten in a row. Should be a fun game on Thursday Chad.

Indeed.  I don't mean to diminish the Devils' streak (I already said they're the most surprising team to me), but 6 of the 9 teams they've played on this streak were not playoff teams last year (and most don't look like they'll be so again this year)*.  Now, victories aren't always easy to come by (the Leafs have LOST to the Coyotes, Ducks, Sharks and Canadiens already this year!), so it's impressive that the Devils are taking care of business - and taking the Ws in OT (where the Leafs are falling short).

All in all, it should be an entertaining game.  I'll be tuning in for sure.

*only Avs, Oil, Flames they've beaten on this streak.  And in looking at their entire record, they've played mostly non-playoff teams so far this year (11/16 games).  I'm sure I'll be eating crow Thursday night for this blasphemy!   

[TAC]

Indeed.  I don't mean to diminish the Devils' streak (I already said they're the most surprising team to me), but 6 of the 9 teams they've played on this streak were not playoff teams last year (and most don't look like they'll be so again this year)*. 

Have you done this analysis for the Bruins? They're off to a great start but they have also played some sucky teams too.
I've been thinking about looking at their strength of schedule myself.


EDIT:
9 of the Bruins 16 games have been against LY playoff teams, going 8-1 in those games with a Road Loss to Toronto, but also including Road Victories in Wash, Pitts, and NYR.

To balance that, they also have wins against lower teams such as the Pens, Blues, Van, Buff, and the Ducks.


According to this..
http://powerrankingsguru.com/nhl/strength-of-schedule.php
The Devils have played the easiest schedule so far and the Bruins have played the 5th easiest.

[jingle.boy]

Nice link.  I find it a little comical that in the power rankings, Leafs are behind both Florida and Tampa, while having a better points percentage and tougher strength-of-schedule than both .  You can't even call it a bias towards last season performance, otherwise the Knights and Bruins wouldn't be ranking so high (which BTW, I think those are top 2 teams in the league atm).

It's still relatively early, and things will shake out as time goes on.  I'm not putting any stock into the regular season.  The Leafs could be a wildcard team for all I care - their playoff performance is the only thing that matters.

[TAC]

It's still relatively early, and things will shake out as time goes on.  I'm not putting any stock into the regular season.  The Leafs could be a wildcard team for all I care - their playoff performance is the only thing that matters.

Right.

Any 15 game stretch can skew the rankings big time.

[jingle.boy]

It's still relatively early, and things will shake out as time goes on.  I'm not putting any stock into the regular season.  The Leafs could be a wildcard team for all I care - their playoff performance is the only thing that matters.

Right.

Any 15 game stretch can skew the rankings big time.

Good and bad.  Remember a few years back, Buffalo went 8-1-1 to start the season, then had TWO 10-game winless streaks throughout the season.

[TAC]

No, I don't remember.

[gmillerdrake]

Nice road win in Vegas tonight by the Blues. Looked like a real hockey team.

Nice road win in Denver tonight by the Blues. Looked like a real hockey team.

Nice road win in Chicago tonight by the Blues. Looked like a real hockey team.

[jingle.boy]

Nice road win in Vegas tonight by the Blues. Looked like a real hockey team.

Nice road win in Denver tonight by the Blues. Looked like a real hockey team.

Nice road win in Chicago tonight by the Blues. Looked like a real hockey team.

I mean, it is Chicago.