The Los Angeles Kings are one of the best teams in hockey through American Thanksgiving. They sit first in the Pacific Division and third in the league by points percentage. 

Yes, expectations were raised this season and the Kings were expected to compete for the division, but a start this good has exceeded most expectations.

For the most part, the players who were expected to lead this team have done exactly that. But there's been a few surprise standouts 19 games in.

One player has elevated to a level we've never seen before, one has re-captured previous levels and the other is a new face who's looked great.

He isn't one of the three players I'm focusing on but I will give an honorable mention to Carl Grundstrom. 

Seven goals in 19 games, a 30-goal pace, playing mostly fourth-line minutes is extremely impressive. 

The only reason he doesn't make the official list is because goals from Grundstrom aren't really a surprise, even if they're coming more frequently than usual. 

Kicking off the list is Trevor Moore. Many people questioned his contract when it was signed, calling it an overpay based on too small a sample size.

To those people's defense, Moore's injury-riddled 2022-23 season didn't give much reason for optimism. However, Moore's come in and outperformed that contract this season. 

His 11 goals in 19 games lead the team and already surpasses last season's 10. 

I don't think a resurgence from Moore is surprising given his injury issues last season, but this level of goalscoring is a massive surprise.

For all of Moore's strengths in the past, goal-scoring certainly wasn't one of them. 

In his previous 211 games with the Kings, Moore has scored 16.4 goals below expected and shot at 8.47%. This season, Moore's scored 4.9 goals above expected and is shooting at 20.8%.

Yes, that means his current pace is probably unsustainable and that's fine. I don't think expecting Moore to keep this up and score nearly 50 goals is fair to him. 

But through 19 games, he's been dynamite for the Kings.

The great part about Moore is that he doesn't need to score 50 to be an impactful player either. Even if his production is cut in half for the remainder of this season, he'll be great for this team.

If he ends this season with around 25 goals and 50+ points, combined with his 200-foot game and play-driving, the Kings are getting great value out of Moore.

Remember when we all thought goaltending would be the end of this Kings team? Well, 19 games in Cam Talbot should have put a lot of those concerns to bed.

Before the season started, I said there was reason for optimism regarding Talbot taking the number one spot. A combination of his familiarity with Todd McLellan's system and the Kings' solid defensive play felt like a recipe for success.

But I didn't expect Talbot to play this well. I was expecting league-average goaltending, but Talbot's posting top-five numbers right now.

According to HockeyReference.com, Talbot's leading the league with 11.55 goals saved above expected (GSAA), is second in save percentage amongst goalies with more than four starters and third in goals against average. 

McLellan preached confidence in Talbot before the season started, but I doubt even he expected this level of performance

It's worth noting that the Kings have made life a lot easier for Talbot so far. They've allowed the fewest scoring chances against and the fewest high-danger chances against this season. 

Still, Talbot's come up big when necessary, highlighted by his league-leading GSAA, and gives this team a lot of confidence.

We'll see if Talbot, now 36 years old, can sustain this throughout a full season, but he looks great right now.

No player has exceeded my expectations like Andreas Englund this season.

I expected him to split time with Tobi Bjornfot and be a physical presence who struggles at five-on-five. 

Instead, he's become a reliable third-pair defenseman who's providing quality minutes and brings the physical presence this team was missing. 

He's also developed some great chemistry with Jordan Spence on that third pair. They've played less than half the top-pairs minutes and almost half the second-pairs, so I don't want to read too much into their analytics, but they look great. 

Englund's also tied for the team lead in hits and leads the league with five fighting majors. 

True enforcers don't exist anymore, but Englund's exactly what you want in, what McLellan calls, the "shepherd" role.

He's willing and capable of dropping the gloves, is generally physical and can provide quality minutes.

It's hard to ask more of a third-pair defenseman making just $1 million dollars.