Slapshots - The NHL Roundup for December 14

​Written by Zeke Perez Jr.

(David Hahn/Icon Sportswire)

Storylines galore exist as we sit at a quarter of the way into hockey season. The usual suspects are off to a hot start, with the Chicago Blackhawks, Anaheim Ducks, and defending champion Pittsburgh Penguins leading their divisions. In the middle of the pack, just a handful of wins separate potential Wild Card teams. Down in the cellar, a number of teams may have already begun to look to the future as their potential playoff hopes are sinking fast. In this roundup we look at risers, fallers, and hockey in the desert.
 
Oh, Canada! The Return of the North.
As American as apple pie and baseball? As Canadian as poutine and hockey. Well, not so much in 2016. Hopefully Canadians were all stocked up on fries, gravy, and cheese curds last year, because they didn’t have any hockey to watch after the regular season. For the first time since 1969-70, not a single team from north of the border made the Stanley Cup playoffs. Things are looking up so far this season though! As of right now, five of the seven teams based in Canada have rebounded and are in a position to make the playoffs. The Montreal Canadiens are leading their division, with the Edmonton Oilers, Calgary Flames, and Ottawa Senators not far behind in theirs. The Winnipeg Jets are holding their own in the ridiculously stacked Central division, doing enough to hang onto the second wild card spot in the Western Conference. Things aren’t all bad in Toronto either, as the Maple Leafs’ rookie sensation Auston Matthews has burst onto the scene showcasing his outstanding scoring ability and delivering the beginning of a bright future for the franchise.
 
Big Scoring in The Big Apple.
The New York Rangers are putting the biscuit in the basket at a rate that has to have the team’s equipment managers heading to Costco to stock up on replacement goal nets in bulk. They have already scored 105 goals in their first thirty games. Oh, and New York is only allowing 2.30 goals per game, tied for sixth-best in the league. That’s a recipe for success that has the Broadway Blueshirts’ faithful wondering if this might be the year they find a way to win it all, ending a trend of disappointing playoff exits and a twenty-four year Stanley Cup drought.
 
Rocky Mountain Low: The Downfall of the Colorado Avalanche.
Once a feared and revered franchise, the Colorado Avalanche are now a doormat for the entire league. Dead last in the NHL standings, the Avs look hopeless and lost on any given night. Both McNichols Arena and Pepsi Center used to be a place where opposing teams hated to play. Now, Colorado’s home games are a welcome sight on the schedule for traveling teams looking for an easy W. After getting blown out 5-1 at home by the Nashville Predators on November 1st, many Avalanche players vowed that they would not get embarrassed in their own house like that again. That didn’t last long and the empty promises have led to a paltry 4-8-1 home record. They aren’t much better on the road either, recently suffering one of the most embarrassing losses in team history: a 10-1 blowout at the hands of Montreal. Many believed that Colorado’s collapse over time was due to poor coaching, that the right personnel was needed to transform a “young” “talented” core into Stanley Cup champions. That belief lead to the departure of head coaches Joel Quenneville, Tony Granato, Joe Sacco, and, most recently, Patrick Roy. Things are not getting better under current head coach Jared Bednar, leaving many wondering if the problem lies within the common denominator (the aforementioned core group of players) after all. Dark days are upon Denver hockey. The superstar players aren’t delivering. They haven’t for years. Blowing up the roster and starting fresh may be the only thing that brings Lord Stanley back to the Mile High City.
 
Is the Red Wings Streak in Jeopardy?
Death. Taxes. The Red Wings make the playoffs. Detroit hasn’t missed the Stanley Cup playoffs in a quarter of a century. It may just be wishful thinking from a bitter Avalanche fan, but 2016-17 might finally be the year that the streak ends. Detroit is currently in twelfth place out of sixteen in the Eastern Conference. The eleven teams in front of them are all looking extremely formidable and may be tough to outpace. On top of that, the Wings have struggled to generate much offense, ranking twenty-first in the league in goals scored. The season is still young and Detroit is too good of a franchise to rule out now, though. While Detroit currently sits behind eleven good teams, many of those teams are neck and neck, only separated by a few points. Detroit looked doomed in the 2015-16 season too, but a late-season push boosted them into third in their division and into a playoff spot, via a tiebreaker with the Boston Bruins. A short winning streak would put Detroit back into contention.
 
Westward Expansion: What Las Vegas’ New Team Means for the Rest of the League.
Matching Baskin Robbins, the National Hockey League is rolling out its thirty-first flavor for the 2017-18 campaign. The new squad has been met with lots of local support. Season ticket sales exceeded 15,000 in June, well before the team even had a name or logo. Those finally came on November 22nd when the new team unveiled its identity: the Vegas Golden Knights. In the midst of all the fanfare, there are a few large implications for the rest of the league to keep an eye on, namely roster moves and league growth. Above all else, the most pressing issue for the other thirty teams in the league is the loss of talent that comes with the addition of a franchise. At the end of the 2016 season, the NHL will hold the 2017 Expansion Draft where the Golden Knights will select thirty players for their roster, one from each existing team. The league has a few rules in place to prevent the expansion draft from becoming a fantasy draft. Each team can protect a certain number of players: either a) seven forwards, three defensemen, and a goalie, or b) eight total skaters (forwards and defensemen) and one goalie. Additionally, all rookies, second-year players, and players with “No Movement” clauses in their contracts are off-limits. Teams have between now and June 21st to analyze their rosters and begin to make some tough decisions about who they need to protect and who they are willing to leave vulnerable. Additionally, this should create more movement prior to the trade deadline, as teams will look to ship off players that they don’t have room to protect, in an effort to gain something in return rather than to risk losing them for nothing in the draft. A secondary and more distant ramification for the league is the NHL’s overall growth. With the addition of the Golden Knights, the NHL sits at an unbalanced thirty-one teams, with sixteen in the Eastern Conference and fifteen in the Western Conference. This likely means that a thirty-second team could be added to the league in the coming years. Seattle and Quebec City are currently both in the market for a hockey team. If either receives a team, more shuffling would be necessary within conferences and divisions, but the league would ultimately become more balanced. 

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