NHL Puck Drops: The woebegone one

Several NHL teams experiencing early season woes, says league pundit

This NHL season is barely two weeks old, but already there’s concern over the slow start of several clubs.

The Edmonton Oilers, Montreal Canadiens, New York Rangers and San Jose Sharks are projected to be playoff contenders. As of Monday, however, the Rangers had one win in six games, the Canadiens one in five, the Oilers and Sharks one in four.

Despite the presence of 2017 scoring champion Connor McDavid, the Oilers are finding goals difficult to come by. So are the Canadiens, Sharks and Rangers. The four sit among the league’s lowest-scoring teams.

Other issues also plague these clubs.

Oilers goaltender Cam Talbot gave up nine goals in his last two

games. Defensive breakdowns proved costly for the Canadiens. The Sharks are having difficulty scoring at even strength. The Rangers are disorganized and inconsistent.

The Arizona Coyotes and Buffalo Sabres, meanwhile, entered the season with high hopes following a summer of substantial changes designed to kick-start their stalled rebuilding plans.

Both clubs hired new head coaches. The Sabres also shook up their management.

The two teams also made significant roster moves. The Coyotes acquired centre Derek Stepan and goaltender Antti Raanta from the Rangers and defenceman Niklas Hjalmarsson from the Chicago Blackhawks.

The Sabres re-acquired winger Jason Pominville and added blue-liner Marco Scandella in a multi-player trade with the Minnesota Wild.

So far, however, the changes haven’t helped. The Sabres have just one victory in their first six games while the Coyotes are winless through five.

The Dallas Stars also made substantial moves to return to playoff contention this season.

Ken Hitchcock, who coached them to a Stanley Cup in 1999, returns behind the bench. Ben Bishop was acquired to stabilize their goaltending and right wing Alexander Radulov added to bolster their scoring punch.

The Stars fared a little better than the Coyotes and Sabres, winning two of their first five games. However, they seem to be having difficulty adjusting to Hitchcock’s defence-first system. Bishop’s played well, but Radulov had only two points.

It’s still very early in this season. These clubs have plenty of time to reverse their fortunes. But the longer their struggles continue, the more nervous their fans will become.

Leafs, Flames defensive woes

The Toronto Maple Leafs and Calgary Flames began this week sitting atop their respective divisions. However, their defensive play is already an early season cause for concern.

As of Sunday, the Leafs led the league in goals per game (5.20), but also had the thirdhighest goals-against per game (3.80). Goaltender Frederik Andersen is doing his best, but he’s not getting much support from a blue-line lacking skilled topfour depth.

The Flames are well-stocked in quality defencemen, led by Mark Giordano, Dougie Hamilton, T.J. Brodie and Travis Hamonic. As of Sunday, however, they’d given up the thirdmost shots-against per game (36.3).

Despite the encouraging starts for both clubs, that early promise could vanish if their defensive shortcomings continue.