A week into the abbreviated 48-game season, and opinions are already polarizing.
Teams like the Chicago Blackhawks, San Jose Sharks, and St. Louis Blues are off to incredibly-impressive starts, having won a combined sixteen games in seventeen chances.
Others haven't been so lucky.
Six teams have won just one game through the first eight days, and although some clubs may have been expected to toil in the cellar for the majority of they ear, others weren't exactly expected.
The defending Stanley Cup champions have earned just one win, a 4-2 victory in Phoenix.
The Philadelphia Flyers have already played six games this year, but have only won twice. In four losses against Tampa Bay, Pittsburgh, New Jersey, and Buffalo, they've been out-scored 16-3 in the process.
And, what about the Washington Capitals? Getting away from former head coach Dale Hunter and to a more offensive-minded bench boss in Adam Oates was thought to be the solution for what ailed their once-vaunted attack last year, but it's been an ugly start out of the gate -- a 1-3-1 record, and a -8 goal differential.
Some of the hot and cold starts are certainly the product of small samples and will regress to their natural mean, but in a shortened year, these losing streaks simply can't continue for a significant duration. Go through one ugly losing streak, and a playoff berth may dissipate into thin air.
The Q: Through the first week, what team have you been most disappointed with? What teams do you see climbing out from the bottom, and what teams do you see sticking down there with only a hope for the lottery?
I'll throw my hat into the ring for the last team in the aforementioned bunch -- the Washington Capitals -- as the most disappointing to me. The team's play on the ice has been frustrating, but so too has some of the coaching decisions by frontman Adam Oates, such as skating Jay Beagle and Joey Crabb on the top-line with Alex Ovechkin. I thought the move from the defense-first, defense-only hockey that Dale Hunter employed would be a positive, but I haven't seen it so far.
Truthfully, there's too much talent in Washington for this trend to continue, and I expect them to right this ship in the coming weeks, especially as players continue to adjust to Oates' style.
What say you?
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