Among the NHL's Eastern Conference, the New York Rangers and Islanders are doing about as Adam Proteau expected, while the Philadelphia Flyers, Washington Capitals and Ottawa Senators surprise him.
With many NHL teams at or near the quarter mark of their regular season, it’s a good time to look at what we expected to see, and what we didn’t.
Today, we’ll focus on the Eastern Conference, and tomorrow, we’ll break down the Western Conference. The New York Rangers and New York Islanders are doing about as expected, while the Philadelphia Flyers, Washington Capitals and Ottawa Senators are surprising.
What We Expected from the Eastern Conference
The New York Rangers Thriving
We were the only writer in THN's web writers poll who picked the Rangers as our choice to win the Presidents’ Trophy this season. After the games on Nov. 26, they had the best points percentage in the league at .816 with a 15-3-1 record.
Not only are the Rangers dynamite as a group, but they’re winning without much of anything from youngster Kaapo Kakko (two goals, three points in 19 games), veteran Blake Wheeler (four assists, six points) and injured star defenseman Adam Fox (10 games played). Their goaltending from Igor Shesterkin and Jonathan Quick is spectacular.
If they find a way to have all their pistons firing, the Blueshirts may never slump again. They don’t have any salary cap space once Fox returns, but even if they did, what area needs improving? Not much, as far as we’re concerned. Rangers GM Chris Drury has assembled a leviathan, and there’s no sense in messing with near-perfection at this point. Injuries may change that, but for now, all’s well that ends well in Manhattan.
The New York Islanders Struggling To Create Offense
Averaging just 2.55 goals-for per game – third-worst in the NHL – the Islanders are just as bad on offense as many of us expected they’d be.
Other than forwards Mathew Barzal, Brock Nelson and Bo Horvat, and defenseman Noah Dobson, no Isles player is averaging more than 0.60 points per game, and there’s no one on the trade market that GM Lou Lamoriello can bring in to change that.
We also expected the Islanders to be a solid defensive team, and that, too, has come to pass. But they can’t expect the netminding tandem of Ilya Sorokin and Semyon Varlamov to save their bacon every game. With no cavalry on the horizon to bail them out on offense, the Isles are going to have a lot of trouble staying in the Metropolitan Division playoff race. And nobody on Long Island can say they didn’t see that coming.
What We Didn’t Expect
The Philadelphia Flyers and Washington Capitals in a Playoff Position
We come by it honestly – before the season began, this writer projected the Flyers and Caps would be at the very bottom of the Metro.
Instead, both teams have overachieved, with Philly posting an 11-9-1 mark and Washington putting up a 10-5-2 record. Caps coach Spencer Carbery and Philly counterpart John Tortorella deserve credit for the solid start to their team’s season – and while we’d be lying if we said we expect them to remain this competitive through the next 60-odd games, the Capitals and Flyers have assured themselves of meaningful hockey through the new year and beyond.
From our perspective, the Metro is still the toughest division in the league, and that’s reflected in the standings. But the division may be even more difficult to win thanks to the Caps and Flyers’ early-season success. They’ve earned respect, and now, the question is whether or not they can remain as competitive through the grind of the parts of the season that remain in front of them.
The Ottawa Senators, Sad Sacks Once Again
Before the year began, the Senators had, on paper, one of the teams that would push for a playoff berth in the improved Atlantic Division.
Unfortunately for Sens fans – as well as now-former GM Pierre Dorion – the team has yet again underwhelmed and currently sits last in the Atlantic with an 8-8-0 record.
Technically, they’re not the worst Atlantic team, as they’ve got a whopping five games in hand on the seventh-place Montreal Canadiens and sixth-place Buffalo Sabres, who are also not nearly as good as expected after all the off-season hype. But the Senators would still only rank sixth in the Atlantic based on points percentage.
Ottawa is as mediocre on the road (2-2-0) as they are at home (6-6-0), and as president of hockey ops Steve Staios tries to change the culture of the organization, there’s no sense a turnaround is just around the corner.
If the Senators do stay on the same .500 pace, they'll likely part ways with coach D.J. Smith and look forward to the 2024-25 campaign. That will be a huge downer for their fan base, but they’re already pretty upset as it is. We've seen bigger turnarounds before, but every point gained or missed at this point is crucial for them and the Sabres just to stay in the playoff race.
