The holiday break is upon the league and the season has been good to Vancouver's J.T. Miller, a surprising set of netminders and the Dallas Stars, writes Adam Proteau.

Welcome to a holiday edition of Screen Shots, a regular THN.com feature in which we examine a few hockey topics, and break them down in a few paragraphs apiece. Moving along:

J.T. Miller's a Dark Horse for the Art Ross

When it comes to the NHL’s Art Ross Trophy race as the league’s top point-getter, there are many familiar faces in the mix: Connor McDavid, Nathan MacKinnon, and Artemi Panarin are in the top-six point-producers, and they’re likely to remain in the race long after this season ends. However, there’s one name that stands out in the Art Ross battle – Canucks center J.T. Miller, who is on pace to set new career highs in goals, assists and points.

At age 30, he’s coming off a season in which his drive was questioned by some Vancouver fans and media, and he’s playing like he’s holding a grudge, posting 15 goals and 48 points in 35 games this year. That gives him a projected 35 goals and 112 points this season, which would be a notable improvement on his current career bests of 32 goals and 99 points, both of which were set in the 2021-22 campaign.

While it’s true younger Canucks stars Quinn Hughes, Elias Pettersson and Thatcher Demko are the Canucks' most important players, Miller has taken some of the pressure off of them by forgetting about his critics and playing great hockey. He’s heading toward his mid-thirties, so it may come to pass that this season winds up being his most productive year on offense, but Miller is certainly silencing his critics and making Vancouver management relieved they didn’t trade him last year. If you were ripping him for poor results last season, you have to give him credit for a major turnaround this year.

Surprise Goaltending Leaders at Holiday Break

At the Christmas holiday break, we can clearly see the state of NHL goaltending remains extremely fluid. Indeed, if you'd said at this time last season that Vegas’ Adin Hill, Los Angeles’ Cam Talbot, Rangers goalie Jonathan Quick and Washington’s Charlie Lindgren would occupy four of the top five G.A.A.s in the league this season, people would've laughed at you. Star goalies Ilya Sorokin and Igor Shesterkin aren’t struggling, but they’re also not in the top 10 among NHL netminders in G.A.A. and SP. Instead, we’ve got goalies who’ve either bounced around the league of late (Talbot and Quick) and guys who aren’t marquee names (Hill and Lindgren) moving the needle in the top 10.

There are still goalies you expect to be in the top 10 in the league – Winnipeg’s Connor Hellebuyck and Vancouver’s Demko, for example, but teams are operating on the likelihood that a slightly better-than-average goalie can give you enough decent netminding to let the rest of your team push you through into a deep playoff run and into the winner’s circle as a Stanley Cup champion. The Colorado Avalanche did it two years ago, and Vegas did it last year, so it shouldn't be surprising we're seeing an example of it happening again.

Will we still be surprised if Hill, Talbot, Quick and Lindgren are in the top 10 by season’s end? Sure. However, we’re no longer shocked to see goalies assert themselves as difference-makers at varying points in their NHL careers. It’s an inexact science at best, and it can be the difference between a long post-season showing and an early exit – or no playoffs at all.

Stars Climb the Central Division

Finally, we’d be remiss if we didn’t talk about one of our pre-season favorites to do a lot of damage: the Dallas Stars. Very quietly, they’ve ascended to the top of the Central Division, just as this writer expected when making our pre-season predictions. There was so much to like about the Stars on paper – their goaltending with Jake Oettinger; their veteran presence including Joe Pavelski, Roope Hintz, and Jason Robertson, among others; and their defense with Norris Trophy candidate Miro Heiskanen – it would’ve been next-to-impossible for Dallas to not be one of the best teams in the Central. And that’s been true thus far this season.

The Stars aren't the league’s best defensive team at 3.09 goals-against per game, they're in the middle of the NHL in that category but their offense is terrific (3.50 goals-for per-game, putting them fifth overall in the league in that department). Dallas doesn't have an abundance of cap space. They’ve got only $763,277 in space – but if they do put a deal together, we’d hazard a guess it would be to address their depth on 'D'.

That said, even with no roster moves made the rest of the way, the Stars are tremendously dangerous, and a clear-cut Cup frontrunner. Once again, Jim Nill has done a hell of a job.