It's very early, but when playoff spots can be decided by a point or two, NHL teams that stumbled out of the gate must pick it up right away, writes Adam Proteau.
As the NHL’s 2023-24 regular season begins to unfold, there’s already a sense of notable pressure on a number of teams that have stumbled out of the gate.
Don’t misunderstand us – there’s still approximately 97.5 percent of the season still to go, which leaves plenty of time for dramatic twists and turns. However, you'd be mistaken if you don’t believe teams are beginning to feel the heat.
Let’s see which teams at the bottom of the NHL standings are bound for better days sooner than later and which teams will likely continue to struggle in the weeks ahead.
At the bottom of the Atlantic Division are two teams that much is expected of this season – the Buffalo Sabres and Florida Panthers, both of who have identical 0-2-0 records. The Sabres dropped games to the New York Islanders and New York Rangers by a combined score of 8-3, while the Panthers fell 2-0 on the road to Minnesota and 6-4 to the Winnipeg Jets.
The Panthers’ next 10 games feature challenges from playoff-caliber teams in New Jersey, Toronto, Vancouver, Seattle, Boston and Detroit, with softer touches in the form of the San Jose Sharks, Chicago Blackhawks, Columbus Blue Jackets and Washington Capitals.
Even a 50/50 split of those games would leave Florida in an unenviable position by the end of the first week of November. They need to rebound better than that. We’re talking an 8-0-2 record in those 10 games or some other very high number on their part. They dug a hole for themselves they nearly couldn’t climb out from last season, and you’d better believe Panthers brass are acutely aware of the potential for problems in Florida in the next few weeks.
Meanwhile, the Sabres have just as tough, if not tougher, of a time than the Panthers through their next 10 games. Buffalo will be taking on Tampa Bay, Calgary, the Islanders and the Canadiens in a four-game home stretch. Then, they’ll play two road games at Ottawa and New Jersey before facing the Avalanche at home. To round it off, the Sabres have a home-and-home series against Philly and a road game in Toronto.
The Sabres should beat the Flames, Isles, Habs and the Flyers two times if they’re going to make their way up the Atlantic standings. The Sabres and Panthers need to overachieve to a degree if they don’t want to be stuck catching up at the end of December.
There’s another team that’s sagged to start the year (although they’ve only competed once), and that’s the Washington Capitals, who are 0-1-0 thus far. That loss was a fairly disheartening 4-0 defeat at the hands of their Metropolitan Division rivals in Pittsburgh.
The Penguins held the Caps to just 19 shots on net, while Pittsburgh fired 35 shots at Washington’s goal. Washington did keep the Pens off the scoresheet in the first period, but the Penguins were clearly the more prepared and motivated group of the two, and the loss was deserved.
The Capitals may have the easiest next-10-game stretch in the next three weeks, with a home showdown against the Flames, two road games against Ottawa and Montreal, a home tilt against Toronto, a road game in New Jersey, and a five-game home stretch against the Minnesota Wild, San Jose Sharks, New York Islanders, Columbus Blue Jackets and Panthers. The Caps need to string together a slew of wins just to stay afloat in the Metro, which looks to have seven of eight teams beating each other up all season long to make the playoffs.
In the Western Conference, things are a little more evenly spread out. Only one team has yet to record a point in the standings, compared to the three in the East. Hello, Edmonton. (Don’t worry, Oilers fans, they’ve obviously got too much talent to stay out of the win column as they have after losing to Vancouver twice in regulation time in three days. They’ve got the best chance of rebounding of any bottom-tier team, and an extended losing streak would be shocking.)
A relative surprise is the 0-2-1 record amassed by the Seattle Kraken, who did garner their first point in a 2-1 shootout loss against St. Louis on Saturday. The Kraken only managed two regulation-time goals in those three defeats.
The Kraken have arguably the toughest next 10 games of any of the aforementioned teams. They have three home games against Colorado, Carolina and the New York Rangers, a four-game road swing taking them to Detroit, Carolina, Florida and Tampa Bay, home games against Nashville and Calgary, and a road battle against Arizona. There’s a very real danger Seattle can hurt itself badly by the first week of November.
As they say, you never win a Stanley Cup in the first two months of the season, but you sure can lose enough to deny yourself a shot in the sport’s toughest tournament.
Teams that emerged at the top of their division are giving themselves padding to help them make it through the grind of the season, and the clubs that didn’t start well have a stark warning on the horizon – improve or find the rest of your season without any meaning.
It’s true most teams have played only 2.5 percent of their season, but it won’t be long before that number rises, truly traps them and harms any of their Cup aspirations.