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When forward David Pastrnak of the Boston Bruins found the back of the net for the 25^th time this season he became the first NHL player to reach 25 goals by December 1^st since Mario Lemieux achieved the feat in 1992/93. Pastrnak also became just one of 11 NHL’ers to mange it and his 25 goals in 27 contests represents the quickest goalscoring start in the league since Jaromir Jagr in 1996/97.

The next accomplishment in sight for the 23-year-old native of the Czech Republic is to score 50 goals in his team’s first 50 games. The last player to reach those numbers was Brett Hull, who achieved it for the second consecutive time in his career in 1991/92. The only other players to hit 50 goals in their first 50 or fewer games of a season have been Lemieux (twice), Maurice Richard, Mike Bossy, Wayne Gretzky (three times), Cam Neely and Alexander Mogilny.

Pastrnak, who was drafted by Boston with the 25^th overall pick in 2014, has scored at a rate of 0.93 goals-per-game so far this season and is on pace to reach 76 in the 82-game schedule. And with 15 assists in his first 27 games he has 42 points and is on pace for 121 points this year. The winger has notched five game winners and 12 of his goals have come on the power-play while his shooting percentage has been a very impressive 23.1 per-cent.

However, just eight players have managed to score at least 70 goals in an NHL season and these are Lemieux, Gretzky, Hull, Mogilny, Jari Kurri, Phil Esposito, Bernie Nichols and Teemu Selanne.

It’s highly unlikely Pastrnak will be able to keep up the scoring pace over the entire season but sports has always been about beating the odds. The Bruins play their 50^th game of the season in Pittsburgh against the Penguins on January 19^th so fans will have to wait about another six weeks to see if Pastrnak can reach the magical number of 50 goals by then.

Pastrnak scored his 20^th goal in his 22^nd game this season while Esposito reached the mark in 18 games, and Neely, who both played for Boston, did it in 19 games. Another Bruin, Herb Cain, scored 20 goals for the club in 20 games. For Pastrnak to score 70 times this season he needs to turn the goal light on another 45 times in the next 53 games and of course would need to remain healthy the rest of the way. Up until now, he’s played the full 82-game schedule just once in his NHL career.

Scoring 70 goals isn’t out of the question though since on paper the Bruins have one of the league’s easier schedules from now until April. A total of 27 of their 53 remaining contests are against teams that are currently in non-playoff positions. But this includes squads that very well could make the playoffs by the end of the season sch as the Vegas Golden Knights, Toronto Maple Leafs, Tampa Bay Lightning and Nashville Predators.

But even if Pastrnak doesn’t score 70 goals this season he’s definitely on track at the moment to lead the league in goals and win the Rocket Richard Trophy for doing so. As of December 2^nd, Alexander Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals was second on the scoring parade with 20 goals in 28 games while Connor McDavid of the Edmonton Oilers had 19 in 29. Leon Draisaitl of Edmonton had 18 in 29 and Pastrnak’s linemate Brad Marchand was ranked fifth with 18 goals in 27 games and even had a better shooting percentage than Pastrnak by scoring on 27.3 per cent of his shots.

Even though the New York Islanders dropped a 2-1 decision in overtime on the west coast to the San Jose Sharks on November 23^rd they still managed to extend a new franchise record. The point earned for the overtime loss meant the Islanders finished the game by earning at least one point in their past 17 regular-season NHL contests. The team has gone 15-0-2 during its hot streak and hadn’t been beaten in regulation time since October, 11^th when they were downed 5-2 on the road by the Carolina Hurricanes  during the second week of the season.

The game in San Jose was also the club’s third straight overtime outing and seventh-straight game to be decided by just one goal. In fact, eight of the 17 games during the streak have gone to overtime or a shootout. The Islanders previous record for consecutive games with a point was 15, which they achieved three times before since joining the league in 1972. The last time they were this hot was back in 1981/82 when they won a franchise-record 15 games in a row and before overtime and shootouts were introduced in the NHL.

Head coach Barry Trotz was understandably impressed with his squad and told the media his players simply show up every night and compete as hard as they possibly can. He added that the team understands two points are just as important in October and November as they are in February and March and they just find a way to win on most occasions. As of November 25^th the streak had enabled the Islanders to climb to second place in the Metropolitan Division.

The Washington Capitals sat atop the division with 37 points while the Islanders were next with 34 points with a record of 16-3-2 and they also had four games in hand on the Capitals. The three regulation losses were also tied for the fewest in the league with the Boston Bruins. As a team, the Islanders were above league average in most categories. Their power-play was clicking at a success rate of 20 per cent while the league average was 19.6 and their penalty killing was 83.3 per cent with the average being 80.3.

As far as goals-for per game go, the team was scoring at a pace of 3.14 per outing with the average being 3.03. Keeping the puck out of their own net has arguably been the Islanders’ strongest point as they owned the third-best goals-against average at 2.43 with the league average being 3.03 per game. The team had earned at least one point in 18 of their 21 games this season to lead the league in that department at 81 per cent. Another remarkable statistic is the fact the Islanders goaltenders haven’t allowed a goal in a shootout this season as they’ve stopped 100 per cent of the shots faced.

On an individual level, goaltender Thomas Greiss owned a record of 9-1 with the second-best save percentage in the league at 93.2 and the second-best goals-against average of 2.07. Fellow netminder Semyon Varlamov was 7-2-2 with a 91.3 save percentage and 2.63 GAA. The team’s scoring has been well balanced as centre Mathew Barzal is leading the team in goals, assists and points with nine, 11 and 20 respectively in 21 games.

Brock Nelson has chipped in with eight goals and 11 assists while Anthony Beauvillier has eight goals and eight helpers  with Derrick Brassard six goals and 10 assists. In addition, fellow forwards Josh Bailey and Anders Lee have 14 and 10 points respectively while blue liners Devon Toews and Ryan Pulock each have 10 points. When former captain John Tavares jumped ship and signed with the Toronto Maple Leafs as a free agent in the summer of 2018 many fans felt the Islanders may slip in the standings.

The opposite has been true though and since Trotz took over behind the bench in 2018/19 the team has allowed the fewest goals against in the league. There’s no doubt the Islanders’ point streak will eventually come to an end but the team would have to completely collapse the rest of the way to miss the playoffs and that’s unlikely to happen.

This year’s inductees into the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto may not feature any former superstars but the list does include some former Stanley Cup-winners and solid, consistent players. The induction ceremonies on November 18^th will see Sergei Zubov, Vaclav Nedomansky, Guy Carbonneau, and Hayley Wickenheiser enter in the players’ category while Jim Rutherford and Jerry York will be inducted as builders.

Guy Carbonneau of Sept-Iles, Quebec, was drafted by the Montreal Canadiens with the 44^th overall pick in 1979. After learning the ropes of pro hockey for a couple of seasons in the American Hockey League he established himself in the NHL as an excellent defensive forward from 1982 to 2000. Carbonneau played in 1,318 NHL regular-season games with the Dallas Stars, St. Louis Blues and Canadiens and accumulated 663 points on 260 goals and 403 assists with 38 goals and 93 points in 231 playoff outings.

Carbonneau was an exceptional centre who won the Frank Selke Trophy as the NHL’s best defensive forward in 1991/92, 1988/89 and 1987/88. The former Canadiens’ captain also helped his teams to three Stanley Cup championships as he hoisted the cup with Montreal in 1985/86 and 1992/93 and again with Dallas in 1998/99.

Russian native Sergei Zubov was one of the NHL’s top defensemen from 1992 to 2009 after beginning his career in his hometown in 1988 with CSKA Moscow. Zubov was then drafted into the NHL by the New York Rangers in 1990 with the 85^th overall selection. He skated in 1,068 regular-season games with the Pittsburgh Penguins, Dallas Stars and Rangers and notched 152 goals and 619 helpers for 771 points. When retiring from the NHL back in 2009 Zubov was the league’s all-time leading scorer for Russian-born defensemen and is currently ranked second behind Sergei Gonchar.

Zubov made the 2005/06 NHL Second All-Star Team and also proved to be a top postseason performer with 24 goals and 117 points in his 164 playoff contests. He helped the 1993/94 Rangers team capture the Stanley Cup and was a teammate of Carbonneau’s in Dallas in 1998/99 when the Stars hoisted the silverware. On the international level, Zubov helped Russia win a gold medal at the Olympic Games in Albertville, Canada in 1992.

Vaclav Nedomansky hails from the former nation of Czechoslovakia and became the first hockey player to reach North America after defecting from a communist Eastern European nation. In 1974 he found himself in Toronto and promptly joined the World Hockey Association’s Toronto Toros. Nedomansky had already played more than 12 years in his homeland when landing in Toronto and the forward scored 41 goals and 81 points in his first pro season with the Toros.

Nedomansky played a second season with the Toros and then skated with the Birmingham Bulls of the WHA for a year. He started the next season in the WHA but then joined the Detroit Red Wings of the NHL after just 12 games. He posted 254 points in his 252 WHA games and had 354 goals along with 534 points prior to that in 388 outings in Czechoslovakia. He played four seasons for the Red Wings and a year each with the St. Louis Blues and New York Rangers.

He then retired at the age of 39 in 1983 with 121 goals and 277 points to his name in 420 NHL regular-season contests with three goals and five assists in seven playoff games. On the international front, Nedomansky played with Czechoslovakia at the Olympics in 1968 and 1972 and suited up in numerous World Championship tournaments, totalling 80 goals and 39 helpers for 119 points in 93 contests with the national team of Czechoslovakia.

Center Haley Wickenheiser served as captain of the Canadian National Women’s Team for several years and captured five Olympic medals. She won gold four straight times from 2002 to 2014 and also won a silver in 1998. In addition, she was named the most valuable women’s player of the Olympics in 2002 in Salt Lake City and again in 2006 in Torino, Italy. The native of Shaunavon, Saskatchewan currently works with the Toronto Maple Leafs in the front office and won seven gold medals along with six silvers at the Women’s IIHF World Championships.

She’s also the Canadian women’s’ team all-time leading scorer with 377 points from 168 goals and 211 assists in 276 career games. Wickenheiser debuted with the national team at the age of 15 in 1994 and played 23 years for the squad until 2017. She made hockey history in 2003 when she became the first woman to score in a men’s professional game when she found the back of the net while playing in Finland with HC Salamat of the third division.

Jim Rutherford, who’s currently the Pittsburgh Penguins’ general manager, won the Stanley Cup in 2005/06 when he was at the helm of the Carolina Hurricanes and the native of Beeton, Ontario then helped guide the Penguins to the title in 2015/16 and again in 2016/17. He was also named the 2015/16 General Manager of the Year.

Jerry York of Watertown, Massachusetts coached for 47 years in the NCAA college league while spending 25 seasons at Boston College, 15 campaigns with Bowling Green and seven seasons with Clarkson. He holds the all-time coaching record for wins in American college hockey at 1,067 and is one of only three head coaches in the NCAA to win a national championship with different schools. He helped Bowling Green win the crown in 1983/84 and won four titles at Boston College from 2000 to 2012.

Even though he’s now 34 years old, Russian sniper Alexander Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals is off to yet another excellent start with 13 goals in his first 18 games in the 2019/20 NHL campaign. It seems inevitable Ovechkin will reach the 30-goal mark for the 15^th straight season since making his league debut back in 2005/06. He now has 671 career regular-season markers in 1102 games and is just 224 goals away from breaking Wayne Gretzky’s all time scoring mark of 894.

Ovechkin appears to defy the odds year after year when fans expect him to eventually slow down and he’s on pace to score 59 time this season. His career-best is 65 goals which he reached in 2007/08 and he’s failed to reach the 40-goal plateau in just four of his 15 full seasons. One of these was the shortened 48-game campaign of 2012/13 when he still managed to score 32 times. Ovechkin has scored at least 50 goals in eight seasons and has also led the NHL in goals on a record eight occasions.

He won his eighth Rocket Richard Trophy last season for tallying 51 goals to move into first place all time after being tied with Hall of Famer Bobby Hull for leading the league in scoring seven times each. If Ovechkin can stay healthy and keep up his scoring pace he could possibly become the NHL’s greatest goal scorer. Gretzky leads the way with 894 while Gordie Howe ranks second at 801 with Jaromir Jagr coming in third at 766. He also needs to overtake the likes of Brett Hull, Marcel Dionne, Phil Esposito and Mike Gartner who have 741, 731, 717 and 708 goals respectively.

One NHL record Ovechkin is bound to set in the next year or two is for career power-play goals. Dave Andreychuk currently holds the mark with 274 goals with the man advantage while Ovechkin has tallied 252 power-play goals with five of them coming this season so far. The Capitals’ winger is already in elite company for being the third-oldest NHL player to score 50 goals in a season as his output last year placed him behind Jaromir Jagr and Johnny Bucyk in that category.

Scoring goals has never been a problem for Washington’s captain as he notched 52 in his rookie season while also taking home the Calder Trophy in 2005/06 and making the NHL’s All-Rookie Team. He’s a sure-fire bet to be inducted to the Hockey Hall of Fame as soon as he’s eligible as he’s a 12-time All-Star (8 First-Team, 4 Second-Team) who has won 17 individual awards during his NHL career along with a Stanley Cup. His silverware collection includes three Hart Trophies and eight Rocket Richard Awards.

Ovechkin’s greatest individual campaign came in 2007/08 by taking home the Hart, Richard, Art Ross, and Lady Byng Trophies when he racked up 65 goals and 47 assists for 112 points. Ovechkin’s overall play is just as impressive as there’s no indication that he’s slowing down. And even though he plays a somewhat reckless, physical style of hockey, he’s remained relatively healthy throughout his career simply due to his incredible strength. He’s missed just 30 games since entering the league in 2005/06 and that’s one of the reasons he has a legitimate shot at toppling Gretzky’s career scoring mark.

With enough ice time and a chance to help contribute to the power-play, 22-year-old center Anthony Cirelli may one day become a point-per-game NHL player. The Woodbridge, Ontario native was halfway there when the 2019/20 season faced off with 50 points in his first 100 NHL career games on 24 goals and 26 assists but there’s still a lot of hard work ahead of him.

No matter where Cirelli’s played, he’s never really been a huge offensive threat but has contributed to the cause consistently. He notched 19 goals and 29 assists last season while playing all 82 games and averaging just under 15 minutes of ice time per game in his official rookie campaign. The young man has shown head coach Jon cooper that he’s capable of playing an effective 200-foot game in the NHL and started the season with a plus-36 rating.

He’s an excellent penalty-killer and managed to score five times while shorthanded last year. Cirelli’s defensive prowess is so good he could enjoy a fine career in the league based on that aspect of the game alone, but he also has the potential to help out offensively as well. He has chipped in with six points in the first 12 contests this season which is on pace for his career average of 0.5 points per game. However, he’s managed just one goal to go along with his five helpers.

Cirelli’s a fine two-way forward who’s averaging just under 18 minutes of ice time this year, which is a three-minute increase from last season. Cirelli earned a spot in the Ontario Hockey League (OHL) in 2014/15 when he made the Oshawa Generals as a walk-on player. He scored 13 goals and 36 points in his rookie season in 68 games and added two goals and eight assists  in 21 postseason playoff outings. The Generals won the Memorial Cup with Cirelli tallying the tournament’s game-winning goal.

Cirelli obviously impressed somebody in the Tampa Bay organization as the club then drafted him in the third round in 2015 with 72^nd overall selection. He returned to Oshawa for the 2015/16 season and notched 59 points in his 62 appearances with five points in five postseason games. He also made his pro debut by playing three games in the AHL with the Syracuse Crunch, but didn’t get on the scoresheet.

In 2016/17 Cirelli played 26 games with Oshawa and scored 34 points before being sent to the Erie Otters in a mid-season. The then posted 30 points in his 25 outings in Erie for 30 goals and 34 assists on the season in 51 games. However, he still wasn’t seen as a major offensive player. That changed somewhat in the playoffs as Erie won the OHL championship and reached the Memorial Cup as Cirelli scored 15 goals and 16 assists in 22 playoff contests.

Cirelli started 2017/18 with Syracuse in the AHL and posted 14 goals 23 assists in 51 games and was then called up by the Lightning. He registered five goals and six helpers for Tampa in 18 games and added two goals and an assists in 17 postseason games. He followed up with 39 points as a rookie last year with a goal and assist in his four playoff games and was named to the NHL’s All-Rookie Team. It’s fair to say he’s off to an average start this season but the odds are Cirelli will eventually pick up the pace and could one day become a point-per-game player.

Heading into the last week of October the Buffalo Sabres were surprisingly sitting atop the Atlantic Division and tied for the Eastern Conference lead with the Washington Capitals. The Sabres were 9-2-1 for 19 points with 41 goals scored and 30 allowed. However, fans aren’t celebrating their good fortune too much since the club put together a franchise-record 10-game winning streak early last season before falling flat on its face.

The Sabres’ power-play success is definitely one of the reasons they’re off to a red-hot start at is was ranked fourth in the league at 28.9 per cent while their penalty-killing was 14^th at 81.1 per cent. They have also been scoring at a pace of 3.42 goals per game while giving up 2.50 per night. Goaltender Linus Ullmark was ranked fourth in the league with a 93.1 save percentage and had a 2.56 goals-against average while fellow netminder Carter Hutton was 10th-best in GAA at 2.27 with a 92.0 save percentage as their platoon system was working well.

After the Sabres posted their 10-game winning streak last year they more or less collapsed and failed to reach the postseason. Head coach Phil Housley was sacrificed and Ralph Krueger was brought in as the team’s new bench boss. Krueger must be doing something right early in 2019/20 as his squad has been in fine form since the puck dropped . Twenty-two-year-old centre Jack Eichel has been leading the way offensively with six goals and 10 assists in the first 12 outings but the team has been getting consistent scoring from several other players.

Second-year blue liner Rasmus Dahlin, who was named one of the three finalists for the rookie-of-the-year-award last season, had contributed a goal and 10 points while forwards Sam Reinhart and Victor Olofsson also had 10 points. In addition, Jeff Skinner and Marcus Johansson each had eight points while Casey Mittelstadt had seven. Eichel, Olofsson and Dahlin have also proven to be key power-play contributors as Eichel and Olofsson had eight points each with the man advantage while Dahlin had seven. In fact, the 24-year-old Olofsson of Sweden set a new NHL record earlier this season when he scored his seventh-consecutive power-play goal in the league.

Olofsson became the first NHL’er to score the first seven goals of his career all with the man advantage. His streak actually began last year when he was called up for six games by the Sabres and notched a pair of power-play markers. The rookie winger then set the new record by scoring his first five goals this season on the power-play as well. The previous record of six power-play goals to start an NHL career was held by the Winnipeg Jets’ Craig Norwich (1979/80), The Hartford Whalers’ Sylvain Turgeon (1983/84) and the New York Islanders’ Jeff Norton (1987/88).

Olofsson has done well to make it to the NHL considering he wasn’t drafted until the seventh round with the 181^st pick in 2014. He stayed at home in Sweden until last season when he skated with the Rochester Americans of the American Hockey League and impressed with 30 goals and 63 points in 66 games before the Sabres called him up for six contests. Olofsson made the team out of training camp this year and should give the Sabres’ offence a big boost.

If there has been a disappointment in Buffalo so far this season it would have to be 26-year-old forward Jimmy Vesey with just two assists after 11 outings while registering just 13 shots on goal. Vesey is a former Hobey Baker Award winner as the best collegiate player in America and had posted 50 goals and 90 points in his first 240 NHL appearances with the New York Rangers. The Sabres traded for him this summer for a 2021 third-round draft pick. Vesey was recently injured though and missed Buffalo’s 2-0 win over Detroit on October 25^th, so may come back and pick up his game.

The Colorado Avalanche have gone 7-1-1 to start the new NHL season and shared the league lead with the Edmonton Oilers and Buffalo Sabres as of October 21^st with a game in hand on both teams. Like last season, the Avalanche is relying on their top line of Nathan MacKinnon, Mikko Rantanen and captain Gabriel Landeskog to handle the majority of the scoring and they haven’t disappointed. MacKinnon had four goals and seven assists after eight outings while Rantanen had chipped in with five goals and six helpers and Landeskog had posted three goals and four assists.

However, Colorado is no longer regarded as a “one-line team” since the squad is getting some much-appreciated secondary scoring from several players early on. This may be a surprise to some fans since general manager Joe Sakic made several player moves during the offseason. He traded Carl Soderberg to the Arizona Coyotes as well as Alexander Kerfoot and high-scoring defenseman Tyson Barrie to the Toronto Maple Leafs. Sakic received centre Nazem Kadri and blue line prospect Calle Rosen from Toronto and signed forwards Joonas Donskoi and Pierre-Edouard Bellemare as free agents. He also added Valeri Nichushkin and Andre Burakovsky to the roster.

The 29-year-old Kadri was the most well known of the newcomers and he’s registered three goals and five points in eight games. He adds grit, experience and skill to the lineup and can also be useful on the power-play if needed. Burakovsky may be the most pleasant surprise though as the 24-year-old Austrian winger had four goals and eight points after eight contests. Donskoi had helped out with three goals and six points while defensive forwards Bellemare and Nichushkin had combined for four points in 13 games. The team was also getting offensive help from the blue line as 20-year-old rookie Cale Makar had seven points in eight games, and Ian Cole had four points in four.

Other players pulling their weight include Tyson Jost and Matt Calvert with five points each in eight games and J.T. Compher with four points in five encounters. Of course, the big question for the Avalanche right now is when will the bubble burst? Will the team continue to roll for most of the season or will the offensive production tail off? After eight games the club was leading the NHL in scoring with an 4.38 goals per game while the league average was 2.99. Their power-play was ranked 15^th in the league at 20 per cent while the penalty-killing was sixth best at 87 per cent.

Defensively, the squad had the tenth-best goals-against average at 2.63. Goaltender Philipp Grubauer had five wins with a 2.79 GAA and 91.9 save percentage while new backup Pavel Francouz had won both of his games with a 1.95 GAA and owned the second-best save percentage in the league at 95.1 per cent. Overall, the Avalanche have gotten off to an excellent start in 2019/20 as the top line is getting help from the rest of the lineup and rearguard Makar has shown he can replace the departed Tyson Barrie’s offensive output.

Like all teams though, the Avalanche will have to endure some rough spots this season. But if they can rack up as many points as possible before the road gets rocky they should have an excellent chance of returning to the playoffs next April. And once there, they could end up being a legitimate Stanley Cup contender due to their fine mixture of youth and experience along with their knack for scoring goals and efficient defensive play.

The Toronto Maple Leafs installed a revolving door at the Scotiabank arena this summer as several players were jettisoned. Even though general manager Kyle Dubas spent most of his energy working on Mitch Marner’s new contract he still found the time to usher Nazem Kadri, Tyler Ennis, Nikita Zaitsev, Conor Brown, Jake Gardiner, Ron Hainsey and Patrick Marleau out of town. Toronto also made changes to its coaching staff as Paul McFarland and Dave Hakstol were hired as assistant coaches to replace D.J. Smith and Jim Hiller.

Newcomers include Tyson Barrie, Alexander Kerfoot, Jason Spezza, Nick Shore, Ilya Mikheyev and Cody Ceci while Dmytro Timashov and Rasmus Sandin made the team from the AHL’s Toronto Marlies. In addition, the Leafs faced off for the new season without the injured Travis Dermott and Zach Hyman. In addition, five of last year’s starting defencemen on opening night weren’t in the lineup for this year’s season opener. Morgan Rielly was the only returnee with Dermott sidelined.

But even with the massive overhaul, the Leafs of this season have started out like the Leafs of last season. They’ve already lost three games at home to Montreal (shootout), St. Louis and Tampa and were 3-2-1 after six games. Their victories were against two of the league’s weaker sisters in Ottawa and Detroit and they also managed to beat a Columbus side which lost its best players to free agency this summer.

Many experts feel this year’s roster isn’t really better than last year’s and it was basically assembled simply because the salaries were slightly lower. Even so, when Dermott and Hyman return, Dubas will have to clear some salary cap space somehow as he has to pay the massive contracts of Marner, Auston Matthews, John Tavares and William Nylander. It’s true that Tyson Barrie makes the team stronger on the right side of the blue line but without Gardiner they’re now weaker on the left side.

As usual, goaltender Frederik Andersen has gotten off to a mediocre start in October and was pulled in the Leafs’ 7-3 home loss to Tampa after allowing all seven goals. The defence still doesn’t appear to be strong enough to win a playoff round even though it’s been retooled but the team seems to have enough offence to make most games close. Their defensive zone coverage leaves a lot to be desired and perhaps it’s not the players who should shoulder the blame. Instead it appears to be the coaching tactics.

The Leafs have changed players but are still playing the same old questionable system in their own end. They could stick Bobby Orr, Ray Bourque, Borje Salming and Nicklas Lidstrom back on the blue line and still struggle if the coaching tactics are wrong. The team often relies on long stretch passes to leave its own zone but this means they have to chase down and fight for loose pucks if the passes are intercepted or miss the mark. It also results in a lot more icing calls and the Leafs already iced the puck the third most times in the league last season.

Offensively, the only real change so far has been on the power play as Matthews and Marner are now playing on their off-wings to be better positioned for one-time shots. It’s worked well early on but the team’s penalty-killing still isn’t up to par. Based on pure talent, the Leafs boast one of the best lineups in the NHL. But they will continue to play inconsistent hockey unless the coaching staff realizes they need to play to their strengths and change their defensive system.

They may end up with another 100-point season but if this team doesn’t finally win at least one playoff series the campaign will be a failure. Head coach Mike Babcock has lost all three playoff rounds since being hired and with Sheldon Keefe coaching the AHL’s Toronto Marlies and former Philadelphia Flyers’ head coach Hakstol on the staff, Dubas might not hesitate to send Babcock packing during the season if the team doesn’t live up to its potential. Perhaps then and only then, the new Leafs may lose shed their resemblance to the old Leafs.

The St. Louis Blues just raised the Stanley Cup banner to kick off the 2019/20 NHL campaign and may be headed to the White House to celebrate last season’s victory, but they’re going to find the going to be awful tough this year. In the eyes of many experts, defending a championship is a heck of a lot tougher than winning one. This doesn’t bode too well for a club that took just over 50 years to hoist the Stanley Cup for the first time.

Looking at the facts, the NHL’s silverware has been defended successfully just once in the salary-cap era, twice over the past 20 years and on five occasions in the last 35 seasons. It’s not impossible to achieve, but it’s certainly against the odds. The odds were against the club last season too though when they suddenly caught fire at the turn of the 2019 calendar year. The Blues resided in the league basement in early January then catapulted up the standings to make the playoffs and capture the Stanley Cup in seven games on the road in Boston.

The Blues more or less have the same lineup as last season with a couple of exceptions. Forward Patrick Maroon, who hails from St. Louis, left the team as an unrestricted free agent during the summer and inked a deal with the Tampa Bay Lightning. General manager Doug Armstrong then pulled the trigger on a significant trade by sending defenceman Joel Edmundson to the Carolina Hurricanes along with a seventh-round draft choice in 2021 and prospect Dominik Bokk for offensive blue liner Justin Faulk and a fifth-rounder in 2020.

The 27-year-old Faulk was signed to a $45.5 million, seven-year contract extension. In addition, Armstrong just gave forward Brayden Schenn a new eight-year deal worth $52 million. This leaves head coach Craig Berube with an arguably better squad than last season with the addition of Faulk, but with many other teams making several changes it’s possible the Blues haven’t done enough to keep up with them. Their season started on a sour note as they blew a 2-0 lead to the Washington Capitals in their season opener at home and lost 3-2 in overtime just hours after hoisting their championship banner to the rafters.

For the Blues to hold onto their title and repeat as champions they’re going to have to get better regular seasons from just about everybody. They can’t afford to wait until the campaign is three months old and then suddenly switch gears and make a run at the playoffs.  They need to play consistently from day one and stay in the thick of the playoff hunt at all times. Their key players will be netminder Jordan Binnington, captain and defenceman Alexander Pietrangelo and forwards Schenn, Vladimir Tarasenko, Ryan O’Reilly and Jayden Schwartz.

Binnington had a remarkable 2018/19 season as the Blues fortunes turned around when he was called up from the American Hockey League in January. He handled the transition physically and mentally and simply shrugged off losses and bad goals. He ended up setting an NHL record for winning 16 playoff games as a rookie and it will be interesting to see if he suffers from the so-called ‘sophomore jinx.”

Berube himself was also a catalyst for the team last season as he replaced former coach Mike Yeo on November 19^th when Yeo was fired. It took the team about six weeks to get used to Berube’s ways and once everybody was on the same page they gelled. Once they reached the playoffs, the team collectively dug in even deeper and their gritty play combined with excellent goaltending and timely scoring resulted in the Stanley Cup. The Blues defending their title isn’t likely this season, but what they achieved last campaign was perhaps even more unlikely.

With the 2019/20 NHL season knocking on the door, fans of the New Jersey Devils should be anxious to see how their team performs. The club made the Stanley Cup Final five times from 1995 to 2012 and won the silverware three times in that span. However, they haven’t done much since. That could all change this season though if everything falls into place. They failed to make the postseason five consecutive years after their last appearance in the final before making it in 2017/18, but missed out again last year.

They went 31-41-10 last season for an eighth-place finish in the Metropolitan Division and were also third-worst in the entire league. Fans felt it was a setback especially since the club won the 2017 draft lottery and selected forward prospect Nico Hischier first overall. In addition, they acquired some elite scoring from the Edmonton Oilers when they landed Taylor Hall in a trade for defenceman Adam Larsson. Hall came over in the summer of 2016 and would win the Hart Memorial Trophy for 2017/18 as the league’s top player. He missed most of last season due to injury but still posted 37 points in 33 outings.

General manager Ray Shero worked hard at improving the roster during the offseason and also had a bit of luck go his way. The Devils won the draft lottery again and selected young scoring sensation Jack Hughes from the American hockey program. The 18-year-old Hughes of Orlando, Florida, scored 116 in 2017/18 skating with the U.S. Hockey National Team Development Program and posted 112 points last season in just 50 contests. Hughes set a new record for scoring with the program by posting 228 points and the 5-foot-10-inch center spent the preseason with New Jersey proving he’s ready for the NHL.

Shero traded for 30-year-old defenseman P.K. Subban in the offseason as he sent a second-round draft choice this summer and next to Nashville along with prospects Steve Santini and Jeremy Davies. Subban was named the best defenceman in the NHL in 2012/13 and took home the Norris Trophy for his efforts and is also a three-time NHL All Star. Davies had yet to play an NHL game and fellow rearguard Santini had 21 points in 114 career contests.

Shero also landed 21-year-old forward Nikita Gusev from Russia from the Vegas Golden Knights for a third-round draft pick in 2020 and a second-rounder in 2021. Gusev was originally drafted in 2012 by Tampa Bay in the seventh round as the 202^nd overall selection. He’s yet to play in the NHL though as he remained in Russia to play with in the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL). Vegas took him in the league’s expansion draft when the club entered the NHL.

Gusev played 391 games in the KHL with 332 points on 119 goals and 213 assists and added 28 goals and 40 assists in 67 postseason outings. He led the KHL in scoring in 2018/19 with 17 goals and 65 helpers in 62 games for 82 points. He was MVP of the league and honoured as the best forward at the 2018 Olympics with four goals and eight assists in 12 games. Shero managed to sign Gusev for $9 million over two years.

The GM wasn’t finished there though as he signed 31-year-old power forward Wayne Simmonds as an unrestricted free agent from the Nashville Predators. Simmonds was inked for a season at $5 million after struggling in 2018/19 with 17 goals and 30 points. On the bright side, he’s notched 74 goals with the man advantage since 2012/14 to rank second behind Alexander Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals with 120 power-play markers.

Simmonds played eight campaigns with the Philadelphia Flyers before Nashville traded for him at the deadline last season. Simmonds scored a minimum  24 goals in six of his seasons with the Flyers and cracked the 30-goal plateau on two occasions. He’s scored 243 NHL goals up to now with 94 of them coming on the power-play, so should be a big help in that department as New Jersey were 21^st in the league with the man advantage last season.

The Devils appear to have solid scoring with Gusev, Hughes, Simmonds and Subban added to the lineup while Hischier has an added year of experience and Hall should be healthy. If they can get good enough goaltending and play well inside their own blue line the team should still be in the thick of things when the 82-game schedule concludes.