The time has come to start making some assessments. The 2014-15 season is still fairly young, but teams have played enough games for us to dish out some praise and criticism. There’s already been some surprising stories and the PDL team got together and discussed some of the topics which have caught us off-guard.
Laura Astorian
Probably my biggest surprise has been the starts of a few Central teams. I expected Colorado to drop off this year, but good lord. Their start has been awful and it’s not all because they lost Paul Stastny. Winnipeg’s goaltenders have finally started to focus – Hutchinson has been solid. It’s good to see them finally have a goalie of tomorrow – that is an actual goalie of tomorrow, and not Ondrej Pavelec in perpetuity.
The Nashville Predators have also been a pleasant surprise. Imagine, having a healthy elite goaltender and offense are helping the Predators succeed? Madness. Hopefully they can keep it up this season.
Chris Rocco
Columbus getting off to a bad start is a little bit surprising after they ended last season so well. Even without Nathan Horton and some of the other injuries they’ve had, sitting in last place in the Metro has to be a shock. They’re not getting a whole lot of help from their goalies and defense right now. Their biggest question mark coming into the season, Ryan Johansen, is playing very well so that’s a good sign. They’ll need to turn it around quickly and get healthy if they want a chance at making the playoffs.
Derek Rocco
I think mine is how bad the Sabres and Canes are. Coming into the season we knew they’d be horrible, but holy s*** they are bad. Especially the Sabres. At what point will they start trading and dumping players?
Another team that has been quietly terrible: The Avs. Not overly surprising because they didn’t do much in the offseason. That said, they are behind the curve out west.
David Rogers
I hate to pile on, but the start by Columbus is a shock after last season and Buffalo is worse than any of us could have anticipated. The Sabres were confident – a veil we mostly saw through – but things have been far worse and pathetic than expected.
On a more positive note, what’s going on in Calgary? The Flames weren’t a team too many people were discussing this summer, but they’ve quietly been one of the better teams in 2014-15. Jonas Hiller has finally produced stability in the Flames’ crease.
As for players, it’s insane what Vladimir Tarasenko has been doing so far this year. He really broke on to the scene in the playoffs last year against Chicago, but this season has seen him elevate his game to a level that has the whole league buzzing.
