Highlights and lowlights from NHL seasons first half: Bruins, Avalanche, Calder race, more

The midpoint of the NHL season came upon us this week, a touch earlier than a year ago when a COVID-19 outbreak shut down the league over Christmas and caused so many postponements that the league eventually withdrew its players from the 2022 Winter Olympics. Hard to believe that was only a year ago.

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Things have gone relatively smoothly, on a macro basis, for the NHL this season: A couple of weather-related postponements, but otherwise, it’s been mostly full steam ahead. Scoring is up. Connor McDavid is flying. The Boston Bruins are in the middle of a potentially record-setting season. The trade market is stuck in its predictable state of gridlock.

The usual surprises and disappointments have occurred, and one thing that you can reliably predict is that there’ll be more of the same in the second half.

In the second week of the New Year, let’s break things down — examining a few highlights and lowlights — and then peer into the crystal ball to see what may lie ahead.

Three first half highlights (beyond McDavid’s otherworldly play)

1. The Bruins’ ascendancy

Boston reached the midpoint of its season on Thursday night against the Seattle Kraken, a 3-0 loss which represented their first regulation defeat on home ice all year after a sparkling 19-0-3 start. Even after they were shut out by Martin Jones, the Bruins remain ranked in the top three in goals for, goals against, power play and penalty killing percentages, and at plus-65, were miles ahead of No. 2 Dallas in terms of goals for/goals against. After 41 games, they are on pace for 136 points, which would beat the previous record of 132, set by the 1976-77 Montreal Canadiens, who went 60-8-12 in an 80-game schedule.

In my first scene-setting column of the year, which focused on the changes made in the offseason by, among others, the Ottawa Senators, I warned against writing the Bruins off. They were going to start the season without two important cogs, Brad Marchand and Charlie McAvoy, which theoretically, might have caused them to limp out of the gate. I noted that the same things had been said about the Pittsburgh Penguins the year before, thanks to the early-season absences of Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and others, but the Penguins weathered the storm, survived the injuries and thrived after that.

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My biases always tend to be in favor of experienced teams. I’ve just been around too long to fully put my trust in teams that — too soon – turn the keys over to prospects, not all of them ready for the NHL grind. But the Bruins did more than just survive the early going; they hit the ground running and haven’t stopped. Most teams, even the ones on record-setting runs, eventually hit a lull in the schedule. You saw it in the last week or so with Carolina — an 0-3-1 stretch after a 15-0-2 run before beating Columbus on Thursday — and it’s reasonable to think the Bruins will eventually hit a stale patch at some point in the second half. Still, what they’ve done thus far is remarkable. Let’s see if it ultimately ends in a record-setting season and then debate whether that is a good thing or not. The last time a team had a similar, practically blemish-free regular season, it ended up getting swept in the opening playoff round (Tampa Bay by Columbus in 2019).

2. Seattle in the playoff hunt

Be honest. When the Kraken got aggressive in the summer and added, among others, Andre Burakovsky, Oliver Bjorkstrand, Justin Schultz and Jones, you thought that could translate into marginal improvements, but not nearly enough to compete for a playoff spot, even in the admittedly weak Pacific Division. Instead, they are third in points in the division, second in winning percentage and only four points out of top spot (occupied by Vegas). As of Thursday, they’d won seven in a row.

What’s happening with Seattle in Year 2 of its existence is reminiscent of what happened with Vegas in Year 1 of its existence. A lot of surprises early. High marks for trying. A few hiccups in the second quarter, which caused the predictable knowing nods from the hockey panels: That reality was finally settling in. And then another surge now, which also features an unlikely burst of offence from across the roster. Trivia: On a goals-per-game basis, only Boston and Buffalo have scored more goals than the Kraken. Few outside Seattle believe it can be sustained, which is the absolute perfect scenario for the Kraken. It means they won’t tighten up, because the pressure probably isn’t going to change or increase. It means they can still play the “we’ll-show-them” card right to the end of the season. In other words, all the same things that applied to Vegas in its expansion season.

Right now, Seattle has created separation between itself and the half-dozen teams clustered in the middle of the Western Conference standings — a cushion that may help them survive at least one more bump in the road. Remember, Vegas unexpectedly hung in until the bitter end — and actually ended up adding rather than subtracting at the deadline. Their run didn’t end until a loss to Washington in the Stanley Cup Final. It’s hard to imagine Seattle can duplicate that run — but on the other hand, maybe it’s time to start believing in the Kraken.

3. Karlsson’s resurgence

Erik Karlson’s struggles with injuries the past handful of years, plus the fact that the San Jose Sharks are a bottom feeder again, led many to believe his best days were behind him. Instead, he’s had a resurgent first half. He became the first NHL defenseman to reach the 50-point threshold, doing so for the fifth time in his remarkable career. At one point, near the end of December, he’d recorded points in 11 consecutive games and was not slowing up after a fast start. At last count, he was tied for fifth in the overall scoring race and is the leader among defensemen, by nine points over two other defensemen in the midst of breakout seasons — the Jets’ Josh Morrissey and the Sabres’ Rasmus Dahlin. San Jose isn’t a playoff team this year; without Karlsson’s contributions, they would almost certainly be in the running for the coveted 32nd-place finish in the overall standings.

Three first half lowlights

1. The Calder Trophy race

Let’s face it, we got spoiled in a three-year span between 2016 and 2018, which produced three spectacular rookie crops in a row. Let’s just run down the 2017 race for context. Auston Matthews, Patrik Laine, William Nylander and Mitch Marner all scored 60 points or more. The remaining six players in the top 10 that year were Sebastian Aho, Matthew Tkachuk, Zach Werenski, Brayden Point, Brady Skjei and Mikko Rantanen. Also worth a shoutout is Jake Guentzel, who had 33 points in 40 games after getting promoted from the minors. The next year was pretty great too — seven players, with 50 points or more, and Pierre-Luc Dubois just outside, with 48. And these were far lower scoring years compared to today.

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Every Calder class since has been comparatively meh, a lot like this year’s, which features Seattle’s Matty Beniers essentially running away with the rookie scoring race. Anaheim’s Mason McTavish is showing progress and then just about everybody else is enduring the predictable ups and downs associated with young players, trying to figure out how to play consistently in a tough, fast league.

2. Florida’s struggles

In theory, Tuesday’s game between visiting Florida and Colorado should have been hyped as the game of the year — the defending Presidents’ Trophy winners versus the defending Stanley Cup champions. Instead, the game slipped by without much notice. Florida ended up with a 5-4 win, but not before blowing a 4-1 third-period lead. The biggest trade of last offseason was unquestionably Florida’s decision to ship Jonathan Huberdeau and MacKenzie Weegar to Calgary for Matthew Tkachuk. Tkachuk has been Florida’s most consistent player, mainly because the team leader there, Aleksander Barkov, missed 10 games earlier because of injury and illness. Barkov had a five-point night in his return the week before the New Year — the sort of performance fueled by adrenaline. He is slowly getting up to speed. When Barkov fully hits his stride, that will help the Panthers enormously in the second half. But the goaltending needs to be more consistent; the team is missing not just Weegar, but also the players added at the deadline, but sacrificed to the salary cap. Those include Ben Chiarot, Claude Giroux, Frank Vatrano and Mason Marchment. Anthony Duclair, a 31-goal scorer, hasn’t played all season after surgery but may return to the lineup soon.

The coaching change, from Andrew Brunette to Paul Maurice, hasn’t gone smoothly either; the lesson — of over-tinkering with chemistry and a roster that’s working — won’t be lost on NHL GMs of contending teams trying to devise a trade-deadline strategy in 2023. Thursday’s loss to Vegas was typical of how things have gone — they were ahead and in control until an egregious defensive error let Jack Eichel sneak behind the defense for a breakaway and the tying goal. And then they proceeded to lose in regulation, garnering zero points. A top-three finish in the division is a longshot at this point. They are now firmly chasing one of two wild cards — and the gap between the Panthers and the eighth-place Penguins is six points, with Pittsburgh having three games in hand. That’s a lot of ground to make up in their remaining 39 games.

3. The Stanley Cup hangover in Colorado

As bad as Florida’s loss to Vegas was Thursday night, Colorado losing to lottery-bound Chicago was arguably worse. It’s genuinely hard to know exactly what to make of the Avs right now because they haven’t had their optimal lineup on the ice for a single minute all season. Mostly, that’s because team captain Gabriel Landeskog hasn’t played at all. But other key pieces have missed either significant time or just enough time to disrupt a lineup in constant flux. Probably not what you wanted in a year when you’re trying to graft a new No. 1 goalie (Alexandar Georgiev) onto a championship roster.

Of course, having an exceptional regular season from start to finish rarely translates into Stanley Cup success. Usually, adversity along the way builds resilience and is then there to be tapped when the games really start to matter. The only thing with Colorado, though? The Avalanche still needs to edge into the top eight to make the playoffs. Currently, they are fifth in a group of five teams separated by six points, chasing two wild-card spots, but on a points percentage basis, are just fractionally behind Edmonton. So, a more manageable climb than what Florida faces. The numbers change nightly and normally what happens is one or two teams in the mushy middle go on a bit of a run and create some separation. Still, we’ve been talking for a while now about possible reinforcements that new GM Chris MacFarland might add at the trade deadline to bolster the team for a Stanley Cup defense. Maybe they need to expedite the process. However it plays out, the one piece of good news is that there are potentially fascinating playoff races ahead in the second half, in both conferences, which was not the case a year ago. Overall, this has to be construed as a good thing for the NHL.

Short shifts

• When it comes to coaching, the NHL has long been known as a hired-to-be-fired league; over the years, a few of us have joked that what really needs to happen is to allow teams to trade coaches in the same way they trade players (back when player trades actually occurred). In a roundabout way, that happened this year. The movement was nicely illustrated after the NHL announced the coaching staffs for the 2023 All-Star Game. Three of the four are new faces in new places that made a triangular shift: Bruce Cassidy, who moved from Boston to Vegas, leads the Pacific. Peter DeBoer, who moved from Vegas to Dallas, leads the Central. And Jim Montgomery, who was last a head coach in the NHL with Dallas and now runs Boston, leads the Atlantic. It’s as if the teams made a three-way coaching trade, the kind you’d really like to see on the player side a little more often. The only genuine incumbent is the 2021 Jack Adams winner, Rod Brind’Amour of Carolina who, after all this time, still seems to have a voice that resonates in the Hurricanes’ dressing room. A part of me would have liked to have seen Rick Bowness, formerly with Dallas, now with Winnipeg, get the Central nod. He got edged out by scant percentage points by DeBoer. The NHL awards the All-Star head coaching position to the coach whose team had the best winning percentage as of Wednesday.

• Carolina had an important moment this week: Activating goaltender Frederik Andersen off injured reserve and starting him Thursday on the road against Columbus. Andersen missed 29 games with an undisclosed lower-body injury, suffered in a practice in November. Andersen surrendered two goals in an easy Carolina win, on a night when he wasn’t overly tested — just the sort of return you’d want in an ideal world. In Andersen’s lengthy absence, the Hurricanes turned to their goalie of the future, Pyotr Kochetkov, who responded with a rookie of the month performance in December, where he went 7-0-1, and posted consecutive shutouts at one point. Kochetkov missed about a week with an injury of his own and hadn’t been the same since — three games in a row, surrendering four goals — but he is still 10-4-4 overall and the only goalie of the three on the roster (Antti Raanta is the other) signed to a contract for next season. So, he figures to be a big part of the future. The present? We’ll see. Andersen and Raanta combined to win the Jennings last year, for lowest goals-against average, though that is also a function of how well Carolina defends.

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And finally

It didn’t get a lot of attention, but there was another small tweak to the Hockey Hall of Fame selection committee this week, with Colorado president Joe Sakic stepping in to replace Bobby Clarke, who retired after nine years. Earlier, former Professional Hockey Writers’ Association president Scott Morrison replaced Michael Farber, who had served the max term of 15 years on the selection committee. People have often asked me, how does a player who has been passed over in Hall of Fame selection for years finally get chosen? My answer is simple. The selection committee isn’t a static body. It changes constantly. Procedurally, a successful candidate needs 14 of a possible 18 votes to get elected. If a handful of no votes rotate off the committee and are replaced with a handful of yes votes, then someone from the outside looking in suddenly can gain admittance. I stepped down after 15 years on the committee in 2018; since then, a third of the committee has been turned over (Sakic, Morrison, Cassie Campbell-Pascall, Mark Chipman, Cammi Granato and Mike Murphy are all new to the selection committee since my departure). That’s a lot of new faces and a lot of new voices. From the outside looking in, Henrik Lundqvist, in his first year of eligibility in the male player category, and Caroline Ouellette, in her second year of eligibility in the female player category, are probably the only sure things for 2023.

(Photo: Mark J. Rebilas / USA Today)

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