This article is part of our The Daily Puck series.
Around the Rink
I mean, you might as well shut down the Montreal Canadiens' season and give them a free pass to the Eastern Conference Finals. Carey Price pitched a 25-save shutout last night, earned his fourth straight win, and believe it or not, it's his fifth shutout in seven games against the Rangers.
The Habs are off to a 5-0 start, the best in franchise history, and at this pace, they won't have to score many goals to pile up the wins. The Lightning were my pre-season pick to win the Atlantic Division, but if Victor Hedman misses a chunk of time (it looks like he might), the Habs will take it. Yes, it's early, but it's Price we're talking about here. He's proven and the best goalie in the league right now.
Goaltending, as usual, has been a difference maker, but I can't remember when it was the the story to start the season. Narratives about goalies catching fire usually come later in the season, such as the Wild's mid-season turnaround with Devan Dubnyk and Andrew Hammond stealing a playoff spot for the Senators.
But while the Habs, Red Wings, Panthers, Jets, Canucks, Sharks and Coyotes are off to better-than-expected starts due to strong goaltending, the Bruins, Blue Jackets, Avalanche and Kings are already wondering if the hole is too deep. In such a tight league, points lost now could be the difference between a playoff spot and a very long summer. As Elliotte Friedman has pointed out in the past, if you're out of the playoff picture by as many as five points by early November, it's very unlikely you make the playoffs.
Between Tuukka Rask (4.72 GAA, .846 Sv%), Sergei Bobrovsky (5.05, .830), Semyon Varlamov (5.07, .841) and Jonathan Quick (3.70, .861), Quick and Bobrovsky make me nervous the most. With a high-powered Colorado offense, Varlamov can at least win some baseball-score games, and Rask will have the services of Zdeno Chara and Dennis Seidenberg at some point, so there's a silver lining in both situations. With Columbus and L.A., the problems seem a little bigger and harder to figure out. These are two teams that are supposed to be contenders for their division.
The Jackets defense is a mess. The team is "off the rails," says Jarmo Kekalainen. Even as an unabashed Jack Johnson fan, even I know that when Johnson leads your defensemen in ice time, you have a bit of a problem. (Fancy stats guys are violently nodding their heads). The Kings have Doughty, but after him the drop-off is pretty steep (yeah, Jake Muzzin and Alec Martinez are second-pairing guys to me) and the team looks dispirited and disinterested.
The last thing that I want to point out is that neither Quick nor Bobrovsky are usually among the league leaders in even strength save percentage. When Bobrovsky won his Vezina (in a shortened season!), his .942 save percentage in 5-on-5 situations led the league. Over the past two years, Quick has finished 19th and 16th and Bobrovsky 11th and 22nd among goalies who have played at least 1000 minutes, according to Puckalytics.com. That's not good.
There's no easy fix. Elite defensemen are hard to find and a team in flux can't solve all of its problems the next day. Against such tough competition – the BJ's in the Metro Division and the Kings in the Western Conference – they're really falling way behind. I'll qualify everything and say "it's so early anything can still happen" but this is the point where I start wondering which goalies will end up in the top 10 after Price, Henrik Lundqvist and Pekka Rinne.
Projected Goalie Starters (all times Eastern)
For updates on the projected goalies later in the day, check out our Projected Goalies Grid.
Sharks (Martin Jones) at Devils (Cory Schneider), 7:00 PM
Maple Leafs (James Reimer*) at Blue Jackets (Sergei Bobrovsky*), 7:00 PM
Hurricanes (Cam Ward*) at Red Wings (Petr Mrazek), 7:30 PM
Flames (Karri Ramo*) at Jets (Ondrej Pavelec), 8:00 PM
Blues (Jake Allen*) at Canucks (Ryan Miller), 10:00 PM
Avalanche (Reto Berra*) at Ducks (Frederik Andersen), 10:00 PM
Wild (Darcy Kuemper) at Kings (Jonathan Quick), 10:30 PM
Injury News For Teams Playing Friday
San Jose Sharks
Raffi Torres, LW (suspension) – Continues to serve 41-game suspension.
New Jersey Devils
Cory Schneider, G (personal) – Missed previous game but likely to start vs. Sharks.
Patrik Elias, LW (knee) – Day-to-day; will not play.
Toronto Maple Leafs
Stephane Robidas, D (groin) – No timetable for return.
Shawn Matthias, LW (shoulder) – Practiced in full on Wednesday, likely to play.
Columbus Blue Jackets
David Clarkson, RW (lower body) – Expected to play.
Alexander Wennberg, C (concussion) – Will not play.
Josh Anderson, RW (orbital fracture) – Out four weeks.
Carolina Hurricanes
James Wisniewski, D (torn ACL) – Out six months.
Riley Nash, C (shoulder) – Out up to two weeks.
Joakim Nordstrom, C (undisclosed) – Did not practice Wednesday; doubtful.
Detroit Red Wings
Danny DeKeyser, D (foot) – Expected to return Saturday.
Luke Glendening, C (lower body) – Did not practice Thursday; doubtful.
Darren Helm, RW (shoulder) – Will not play.
Johan Franzen, RW (head) – Placed on injured reserve Thursday; will not play.
Pavel Datsyuk, C (ankle) – No return date set; will not play.
Calgary Flames
Ladislav Smid, D (neck) – No return date set; doubtful.
Joe Colborne, C (thumb) – No return date set; will not play.
T.J. Brodie, D (hand) – No return date set; doubtful.
Lance Bouma, LW (broken leg) – Out three months.
Winnipeg Jets
Grant Clitsome, D (back) – Out for the season.
St. Louis Blues
Patrik Berglund, LW (shoulder) – No return date set.
Robby Fabbri, RW (concussion) – No timetable for return.
Kevin Shattenkirk, D (lower body) – Did not practice Thursday; doubtful.
Vancouver Canucks
Jacob Markstrom, G (lower body) – No return date set.
Chris Higgins, LW (foot) – Out 4-6 weeks.
Colorado Avalanche
Jesse Winchester, LW (concussion) – No return date set.
Anaheim Ducks
Clayton Stoner, D (lower body) – Did not play Wednesday; doubtful.
Nate Thompson, C (shoulder) – No return date set.
Minnesota Wild
Tyler Graovac, C (lower body) – Out 2-3 weeks.
Los Angeles Kings
Matt Greene, D (undisclosed) – Attended practice but did not play Thursday; doubtful.
Dwight King, LW (foot) – Out 8-10 weeks.
Hot
Blake Wheeler, RW, WPG – Wheeler is on a four-game point streak with two goals and five points as he continues to show that he is a very capable top-six winger. He's a monster across most roto leagues, especially ones that count peripheral stats, and he's never dipped below a 60-point per season pace entering his fifth full season as a Jet.
Ryan Johansen, C, CLS – It's not the lack of scoring that's killing the BJ's. Despite a 7-3 drubbing at the hands of the Sens, Johansen had two assists, giving him four points in three games and 14 shots on net. He's clearly the franchise player in Columbus and he's got quality linemates in Boone Jenner and Brandon Saad. He's undeniably one of the best young players in the league.
Cold
Milan Lucic, LW, LA – What's going on in Hollywood? The former model franchise has made headlines for all the wrong reasons recently, and their biggest summer acquisition hasn't been very good so far. Lucic admitted that adjusting to the Kings' style has been a bit of a challenge, but through three games he has zero points, just two shots on net and seven hits.
Nazem Kadri, C, TOR – He is a much more talented player than Tyler Bozak, but with just one point and a minus-5 rating over his past three games, he's never going to be a threat. He's certainly trying and putting shots on net, but the production just isn't quite there yet. The ice time won't be there, either, if his defense doesn't improve.
Recommended Pickup
Nikolaj Ehlers, LW, WPG – So, if you haven't heard, there's a huge youth movement in the NHL. You know Connor McDavid and Jack Eichel already, and Max Domi and Anthony Duclair are lights-out in Arizona. But how about Ehlers, the amazing Danish kid who scored back-to-back 100-point seasons with the Q's Halifax Mooseheads? The kid has some really slick moves and he's by far the most offensively talented and exciting player on the Jets right now. He has three points in four games, but also 15 shots, the same as Domi and Duclair combined.
