Ice-Capades 9: Overreactions from Week 2 of the NHL Season

I saw all these Week One overreaction articles from NHL websites, and you know what? One week is a relatively small sample size for gauging how teams will perform throughout the long NHL season. I decided to give each NHL team another week to either wow or surprise me. As we reach the end of the second week of the NHL season, here are 10 Week 2 overreactions for 10 teams per conference. If I did all 32, this would come out in Week 23. Plus, our NHL masters update two weeks into the season!

Eastern Conference

I know losing Matthew Thachuk and Sasha Barkov for long-term injuries is bad for the Florida Panthers, but did they really have to look so lifeless against teams not named the Philadelphia Flyers on the road? It also doesn’t help the Florida Men that Dimitry Kulikov is rehabbing from shoulder surgery, and Tomas Nosek is also injured. And as I am writing this, the Panthers lost 3-0 to the Buffalo Sabres. Getting beaten by a team that started 0-3, as is losing yet another Panther, as Miko Mikkola sustained a concussion and had to leave the game. Could Paul Maurice at least put the LLM (Lundell, Luostarinen, and Marchand) line back? They played very well against Philadelphia and gave Sergei Bobrovsky some goal support. Bob and Tarasov can only do so much if the offense lets Sabres goalie Alex Lyon shut them out. The road to a Stanley Cup threepeat just got a whole lot harder.

The Tampa Bay Lightning also got off to a sluggish start. While a quarter of their team is not in the hospital ward like the Panthers, they are missing star winger Nikita Kucherov due to an unspecified illness. Even so, losing all three road games is not a great start for the Lightning. Time will tell if the decline of the Lightning’s playoff dominance will come this year. The signs are there; they lost back-to-back first-round playoff series against their cross-state rival. Now, to see if they give Detroit a playoff series win like they did with Columbus in 2019.

I said in Ice-Capades 2 that playoff experience doesn’t hurt for a young core. The Montreal Canadiens got a taste of the playoffs and continued their playoff-caliber play. It doesn’t hurt that they have a full season of Ivan Demidov; I look forward to the future battles between him and Matvei Michkov when the Flyers and Canadiens play against each other. Could they at least give their fans fewer heart attacks? Four of their last six games have been decided by one goal, and in their previous game (a 4-3 loss against the Rangers), they were at one point leading the Rangers 3-0. This is where the Canadiens’ youth shows, but please hold onto the leads a bit longer, and you’ll be fine. Hopefully.

The storm surge marches on for the Carolina Hurricanes. While I do think that the Brink goal was not goaltender interference (Flyers bias showing here), they were the only undefeated team. Granted, one of those wins came against the tanking Sharks, but winning against a supposedly revitalized Ducks team and a Kings team playing for Anze Kopitar’s dignity in his final season gives their undefeated record some credit. And then they went to Vegas and lost. The good news amidst their loss— it wasn’t a shutout, and free agent acquisition Nic Ehlers got his first point as a Cane. I’m also happy they didn’t sign Michael McCleod, who, like Carter Hart, whom I discuss later in this article, was a defendant in the Hockey Canada trial.

The new coaching system (and a power play coach not named Rocky Thompson) has led to a slightly better start for the Philadelphia Flyers. 2-2-1 against top teams like the Panthers, Hurricanes, Jets, and Wild is not bad at all. Dan Vladar actually looks like a good goaltender, while we still have to suffer through Sam Ersson. Look, I love Errson in international play, but he has yet to transfer his great play to the NHL. And while we wait for Kolosov and Bjarnasson to develop with the Phantoms, Ersson will be a black hole in our goaltending. The Brink Cates Forester line is still amazing. And even with Matvei Michov having a sophomore slump, captain Sean Couturier, Owen Tippett, Trevor Zegras, and Christian Dvorak have picked up the goal scoring. I don’t expect the Flyers to make a playoff run due to the other playoff-caliber teams in their division, but I will be happy if they remain a playoff bubble team into Game 82. It will show me the rebuild has progressed

Can the Detroit Red Wings not disappoint writer and friend of the newsletter Anna Hudak again? She follows the Blue Jackets, for heaven’s sake, and they’ve done less than the Red Wings! The youth movement featuring Emmett Finnie, Axel Sandin-Pellika, and Michael Brandesgg-Nyggard has bolstered this roster, even after losing Patrick Kane to an injury for a few games. Getting 6 out of their 8 points against Atlantic division opponents after losing their home opener 5-1 against Montreal doesn’t hurt either. Cam Talbot and John Gibson have been serviceable in net, and their penalty kill has been stellar. I won’t say the p word (playoffs), but they could very well get there the way the Red Wings’ youth are playing.

Speaking of the Columbus Blue Jackets, they are also a team looking to make it into the playoffs. They intend to build on last season’s amazing run that left them two points away from making the playoffs. Jet Greaves and Elvis Merzlikins have combined for a .926 save percentage, and players like Adam Fantilli and Krill Marchenko have continued to build upon their great seasons. The Atlantic is shaping up to be a tough division, as the Blue Jackets are also competing with the Montreal Canadiens, Ottawa Senators, and Detroit Red Wings for a playoff spot. Still, I am sure they can at the very least be a playoff bubble team. That’s the most I can hope for until they prove me wrong and clinch a playoff spot.

The New York Rangers look okay on the road. And by okay, they’ve actually managed to win games and score. I know it sounds like bare minimum for a team that knows full well how to do both those things, but the Rangers play like a completely different team at home. On the road, they can score with ease, but at home? Forget about it. You know your achievement is bad when we’re comparing the Rangers’ scoreless drought to a hockey team that no longer exists, the 1928-1929 Pittsburgh Pirates. And this comes with Igor Shesterkin still playing perfect hockey with a .970 save percentage. Shame his team can’t give him goal support on their home ice. Captain JT Miller must have forgotten when making “No BS” the Rangers’ slogan that the S should also stand for scoring on the road and at home!

The Buffalo Sabres should be the least surprising team for Tank Bowl status early in the season. Starting 0-3, with two of those losses at home, is par for the course for a team mired in a fourteen-year playoff drought. But they are a team playing with pride on the line, and I can say from experience that those are the more dangerous teams to play against. They mollywolloped the Senators 8-4 and then won against the Panthers, which will be their Stanley Cup for at least the next 15 years. Sorry, Sabres fans, but until your team’s management fires Kevyn Adams and does a rebuild for the rebuild that never ends, you will not be making the playoffs any time soon.

The New Jersey Devils hired their rival defensive coach Brad Shaw—I hate seeing him in the clothes of the satanic rival and know that he is almost guaranteed to win a Stanley Cup with the Devils, given the luck Flyers players¹ and coaches have had after leaving. Both Hughes brothers are playing well, and Shaw’s hiring has boosted their defense. But the Devils’ injury bug does not take a year off. Six games in, and the injured reserve already has four Devils on it—goaltender Jacob Markstrom (with Jake Allen performing admirably in his absence), Stefan Nosen, Evgeni Dadonov, Zach McEwen, and Johnathan Kovacevic. Devils fans better hope the Hughes brothers adorn themselves in bubble wrap, or they will be just as devastated as they were last season.

The tank for Gavin McKenna campaign is on for the Pittsburgh Penguins. While they have a better goaltender tandem with Artur Silovs and Tristan Jarry, reinforcing the narratives of receiving generational first overall picks would be fun. Mario Lemieux helped Sidney Crosby, so Sidney Crosby could help Gavin McKenna, or that’s what Pens fans are hoping for. It’s Malkin and Letang’s potential last season as Penguins, and the Sidney Crosby trade rumors are louder than ever. Let’s hope you get what you want.

Western Conference

Can the Edmonton Oilers win the cup?

Or a more pathetic version of this question:

Can the Los Angeles Kings win a playoff round?²

Both the Edmonton Oilers and the Los Angeles Kings have hit speed bumps during their playoff contention window. The Oilers have made it to the Stanley Cup Final in back-to-back seasons, but have lost to the Panthers in those consecutive Cup Final runs. The LA Kings haven’t made it past the first round since they won the Stanley Cup in 2014. Both teams had offseason questions—the Oilers with signing McDavid to a long-term deal as he was a free agent after the 2025-2026 season, and the Kings with whether Anze Kopitar’s 2025-2026 season would be their last.

For the Oilers, McDavid signed to a two-year extension, basically telling the GM Stan Bowman, “Get some decent goaltending and defending, or I will go elsewhere”. Stan Bowman then chose to use the offseason to stick with his sieve/Hasek goaltending duo in Calvin Pickard and Stuart Skinner, and sign noted defensive mastermind Evan Bouchard to a four-year extension. Also, Mattias Ekholm, but he’s a decent defender, so he’ll escape my ire. McDavid and Draisaitl will be carrying this team again, but even their efforts couldn’t stop their annual October skid.

The Los Angeles Kings announced over the offseason that the 2025-2026 season would be Anze Kopitar’s last in the NHL (he’s currently on the long-term injured reserve list recovering from foot surgery). To honor their captain, GM Ken Holland went out and got two of the oldest defenders he could find—Cody Ceci and Brian Dumolin—and signed them to long-term deals (Brian Dumolin to a 3-year, $12 million contract and Ceci to a 4-year, $18 million contract). They also signed Corey Perry, which goes to show that Holland forgot about the role former Duck Perry played in the rivalry between the Kings and Ducks. In commemoration of being signed by his rival, Perry sustained a knee injury that required surgery. Thanks to getting older and slower, the Kings are now in 8th place in the Western Conference, joining bottom-of-the-barrel teams like the San Jose Sharks and the Calgary Flames, whose scoring woes have finally caught up to them. The Kings will be letting Kopitar down if they don’t make it to the playoffs, and they definitely should think about firing Holland if they remain a basement team.

Dallas Stars rightfully sided with their goalie over their head coach, firing Peter DeBoer and replacing him with assistant coach Glen Gulutzan. While the Stars won their first four games, including a shootout win against the Colorado Avalanche on the road, they have lost their last two games. I’ll chalk some of it up to adapting to Gulutzan’s system, but blowing another multi-goal lead to the Canucks makes me think that the loss may have started a bit of a downward spiral.

The Colorado Avalanche would like not to repeat last year’s Rantanen Revenge in the playoffs, thank you very much. They did add Brett Burns to hopefully motivate the team to give him his first Stanley Cup, but they didn’t have to add much to a team that consists of Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar. Also, having a full season of Gabriel Landeskog will help, as well as the Wood Pile in the net. Plus, Martin Necas is racking up assists in droves on the top line with Mackinnon. They will do well in the regular season, but the question remains if they can give MacKinnon another cup.

The Vegas Golden Knights are cooking. They locked up Jack Eichel to an 8-year deal, and have seen Pavel Dorofeyev score 5 goals in as many games. Plus, Mitch Marner is settling in fine to the new system as a playmaker. The problem for the Golden Knights is their goaltending. While Akira Schmid has potential, he has only played 50 games. After Adin Hill got injured, the Vegas Golden Knights management made a deal with the devil and signed Carter Hart. If that name sounds familiar, he’s one of the five players acquitted in the Hockey Canada Trial focusing on the rape of EM during the celebration of Canada’s World Juniors championship win. While there is a contingent of NHL fans willing to welcome him back, there are others who are not. A petition did go around urging the Knights not to sign Hart, but given how the Knights revoked The Athletic reporter Mark Lazarus’ credentials over a story he was writing about the teams looking at signing members of the Hockey Canada Five, they have their guy and are going to stick with him. Shocked, but not surprised. Exhibit number 1,079 as to why Hockey culture is rancid.

I, for one, cannot wait for him to get annihilated by the Avalanche like he did in the last game he played in. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

The Utah Mammoth is a sneaky pick for getting a wild-card spot. They have amazing forward depth with Dylan Gunther and the eternally underrated Clayton Keller. They also have the Spicy Tuna himself, Liam O’Brien, mixing things up as well. Their question lies with goaltending. Who is their true number one outside of Karel Vejmelka? No, seriously. Connor Ingraham is in Edmonton, and I have no clue who they have next. At least they have a name, a mascot, and stable ownership. Arizona Coyotes fans are again howling sadly into the night.

The Chicago Blackhawks finally look watchable! While Connor Bedard is an amazing player, he should not be the only reason to watch Blackhawks games. Enter Frank Nazar and goalie Spencer Knight to aid Bedard in turning the Hawks’ fortunes around. They make seeing them eleven billion times on national television easier to deal with, so there’s that. Just keep developing the youth, and they’ll be fine.

Last year, San Jose Sharks play-by-play broadcaster Randy Hahn dubbed them “the most fun last-place team you’ll ever see!” Now they’re just a last-place team. Yes, they have great talent, but could they please stop blowing leads? Or at the very least, tethering their goaltender to the net so they don’t misplay the puck? If we have to reenact Iphegenia to give stars Will Smith, Macklin Celebrini, and the rest of the Sharks a win, so be it.

Can Seattle get Kraken into a playoff spot? Or at the very least, out of the mediocrity they were comfortable in for the past two seasons? Right now, they have more alternate jerseys than they do playoff series wins. I’m not sure if hiring Lane Lambert, he of the middling New York Islanders, as your coach will help. Same with Ronnie Francis, who, like Ron Hextall, is a good player, but not the best president/GM. The vibes I get from these hirings are showing that 2023 may very well be a fluke. It’s not like they’re in a tough conference or anything..oh wait, they do! At least Seattle fans have a PWHL team to put expectations on.

The Anaheim Ducks showed they wanted out of the rebuild that never ends by hiring Coach Q. They’ve played well in their games, with Chris Kreider and Jacob Trouba making Chris Drury pay for his decision to ship them to the West Coast. They also have burgeoning young talent such as Bennett Sennecke and Jackson LaCombe. Plus, Cutter Gauthier has four goals in the five games he played; would I be a Flyers fan if I didn’t mention him?

Now, to address their coach: while Coach Q shows genuine remorse for his role in the 2021 Chicago Blackhawks sexual assault scandal, I remain unconvinced of his statement evincing some type of personal values turnaround. If/when he speaks up about a similar situation happening in the league, or frequently donates or organizes events with Anaheim organizations dealing with sexual violence, that’s when I’ll reconsider my position.

NHL Masters Update

Created by former NHL player Mike Commodore, the NHL Masters honors the player with the worst plus/minus. Whereas Scotty Scheifer would love a -48, a hockey player would not. So, who are the NHL Masters leaders so far? Here are the top ten (shoutout to Hockey Reference for the statistics)

Of the top ten players, half come from teams that made it to the playoffs last season, with Sam Bennett and Nikita Kucherov establishing a dual threat in the top two for their respective Florida teams. You don’t pay Bennett for the regular season play, but it is still disappointing to see his defensive play taking a step back after signing an 8-year, $64 million contract to stay in Florida. At least Kucherov has two goals; Bennett has 0. Then again, it is still early in the season, and a lot of bad defense is yet to be seen from players who live in places where winters are social constructs imposed by the Northern States. I’m just happy there isn’t a Flyer in the top 10.

Thank you for making it through this 3,000-word article! I wanted to take this space to let you know that on Sunday, October 26th, I’ll be tabling at Huxley and Hiro’s Fall Authors Fair at the Queen in Wilmington, Delaware, from 11-3 pm. I will have bookmarks with a QR code to my Linktree, and you can also buy my book from Huxley and Hiro at the fair. Tickets for both early and general access are linked below.

Early Access: https://huxleyandhiro.com/p/fall-2025-author-fair-ticket-early-access-11am-12pm-entry

General Access: https://huxleyandhiro.com/p/fall-2025-author-fair-ticket-12pm-1pm-entry