Hands in the air if you predicted the New Jersey Devils would be in first place in the Metropolitan Division two days into November.
That's what we thought.
While some pundits expected the club would be much improved thanks to Nico Hischier and a revamped offense, very few thought the Devils would earn 18 out of a possible 22 points to start the campaign.
Looking at how New Jersey climbed atop the Metro to start the second month of the season gives the impression that this group of Devils is much different from versions past - and their success could be sustainable. Here's why.
Scoring by committee
The Devils don't have a single player in the top 40 goal-scorers; Brian Gibbons is their only forward with five goals or more. This would potentially cripple most clubs. However, for John Hynes' men, it's a classic case of the whole being greater than the sum of its parts.
Across the first 11 games of the season, New Jersey features 16 different goal-scorers and has tallied the 11th-most goals in the NHL, a respectable 40. Only the Columbus Blue Jackets have more players with a goal (17).
The Devils may lack the pure, bona fide goal-scorer that most teams long for, but they're getting the job done as a group on a nightly basis.
Road warriors
The mark of any good team is how well it can play on the road. After five away contests to start the campaign, New Jersey is a perfect 5-0-0 and the last remaining undefeated road team in the league.
More impressive than the record is the way the club's been winning away from Prudential Center. The Devils have won their five road contests by a combined score of 22-11, including victories over the Toronto Maple Leafs and Ottawa Senators.
If New Jersey can continue to rack up points on the road, it'll be a very difficult team to deal with.
Consistency in the crease
One of the biggest flaws of last year's Devils was the poor play of their No. 1 goaltender, Cory Schneider. In his worst season since becoming an everyday starter five years ago, he registered a lackluster save percentage (.908) and goals-against average (2.82) to go along with only 20 wins.
Schneider's seemingly turned the page on his poor campaign, however, putting up better numbers this fall while earning back the respect of Devils fans and management.
Across eight starts, Schneider has registered a 6-1-0 record with one shutout and a .921 save percentage. A lot of credit is due to the defense in front of him, and of course he can still play better, but he appears to have his confidence back.
Balanced offensive contributions, a propensity to put up points on the road, and a reinvigorated starting goaltender have the upstart Devils sitting pretty, and potentially set up to stay that way.
Few things in hockey are more daunting than attempting to defend against a Pittsburgh Penguins power play.
The Edmonton Oilers learned this the hard way Wednesday by failing to keep Pittsburgh's top unit from scoring the eventual game-winner with less than eight minutes remaining in the third period.
Here's a look at how the Penguins executed their deciding strike with Ryan Nugent-Hopkins helplessly looking on from the penalty box after being called for interference.
The play began with defenseman Kris Letang (No. 58) controlling the puck in the defensive zone and preparing to lead a breakout.
Shortly after crossing the Penguins' blue line, Letang dropped the puck back to Phil Kessel (81) while Evgeni Malkin (71) came alongside at the back end of the rush.
Kessel and Malkin skated through the neutral zone uncontested, and caught up with the rest of the top power-play unit just prior to entering the offensive zone. Sidney Crosby (87) can be seen to the left of Malkin, with Letang and Patric Hornqvist (72) to Kessel's right.
As it became clear that Kessel was going to carry the puck into the zone rather than dump it in deep, the Oilers' penalty killers descended on him and Malkin. On the ice at the time were defensemen Adam Larsson (6) and Darnell Nurse (25), as well as forwards Matt Kassian (44) and Drake Caggiula (91).
Still, a quick pass from Kessel to Malkin could not be stopped, as seen from a different angle.
Malkin was able to cut between Larsson and Caggiula. Left with a clear look at Cam Talbot in net, Malkin made no mistake on the wide-open opportunity.
He promptly deposited the puck into the back of the net with a wrist shot to Talbot's glove side.
The power-play marker was Pittsburgh's 16th of the season, tying the Penguins with the Tampa Bay Lightning for most in the NHL. Both teams have been afforded 54 opportunities, good for a success rate of 29.6 percent. Only the Dallas Stars have been more efficient on the man advantage, scoring 12 goals on 39 chances (30.8 percent).
Malkin's goal gave him nine power-play points on the season, and the assists for Kessel and Letang marked their eighth points respectively on the man advantage.
It's remarkable that Pittsburgh was able to craft such a perfect play with Crosby acting more as a decoy than a participant, and a testament to the star power head coach Mike Sullivan has at his disposal.
Memo to the opposition: Try to stay out of the box.
Over the course of the 2017-18 season, theScore will run a series of interviews with former players in which they recall some of the greatest moments of their career. This edition focuses on Hall of Fame forward Bill Barber, who racked up 883 points over 903 games and won a pair of Stanley Cup titles in a 12-year playing career spent entirely with the Philadelphia Flyers.
On what he remembers from his first NHL game:
I had spent some time in the minors playing for the Richmond Robins, and I joined the team from Hershey. It was an exciting time. I thought I was just okay; I needed to get better, and wanted to make a mark so I could stay in the NHL. It was in Toronto, and I had an average game, but it was exciting.
On his first NHL goal:
We were in Buffalo. I believe Joey Watson had taken a shot from the point, and I ended up tipping it in. It was a game that I think got me over the hump, where I knew that I was a fit on the team and I knew I could play in the league and be a factor. It's a goal I won't forget; it gave me the confidence I needed to stay and play in the NHL and play for the Flyers.
On who hit him the hardest in his career:
The one thing about that era: When you got hit, you were going to get hit fair - unless you deserved to get more than that. Bobby Baun, he hit hard. You had to watch for him. Tim Horton ... Pat Quinn, they were all good hitters. You really had to be careful and be aware of where they were on the ice. They'd hit you hard enough to wind you, or get you a little dizzy.
I'll even go with Denis Potvin. He was a very thick guy. You had to watch him coming through the middle on you. He caught me in junior one time in Ottawa. I shouldn't have been looking down to grab the puck, but we were on the power play, and I paid the price.
On the influence head coach Fred Shero had on him:
Freddy was a very special man, a special coach. The one thing I'll say about Freddy, he gave me every opportunity to make the team and be a factor on the team. He gave me an opportunity to expand my role, other than just playing a regular shift. He played me on the power play, he had me killing penalties, and he showed a lot of confidence.
He had a quiet way of reaching you. He was like a father figure; he wasn't a yeller or a screamer. Little was said. When you didn't play up to your standards, you felt bad - like you let him down. The older players absolutely loved him and the younger players cherished him because they gave him an opportunity to play. He sure helped me have a great career.
On his 50-goal, 112-point career year in 1975-76:
We had a line of three different kinds of players on it - the LCB line. We scored a lot of goals. Reggie (Leach) was a sniper and a shooter, (Bobby) Clarke did a lot of forechecking and grunt work, and I was the in-between guy where I needed to play some offense and also play defensively, too, which I took pride in. I always wanted to be someone that played both ends of the ice.
We just seemed to complement one another. We knew where one another were on the ice at all times. We knew how to get open, and when to take a chance, and when not to take a chance. It was definitely a special year for us. In today's game, any line that could put our numbers up would be considered a very, very special line.
On the best talkers of his era:
We had a team where no one talked too much. (laughs) We had a bunch of guys that would get on your nerves a little bit. But we weren't teased too much or talked to on the ice, I can assure you of that. And when they did talk, I wasn't paying any attention to it. I was in a different zone when I was on the ice or on the bench, I was totally focused on helping the team win.
On his favorite officials:
I can name two guys that I thought were very special officials: Art Skov and Lloyd Gilmour. Those are the two guys I remember the most. If you had a penalty, you could comment and they would come right back at you, and then you would let it go. They would let you play the game.
On the most underrated player from his career:
I'll mention a couple of guys from our hockey team that probably deserved more recognition. Rick MacLeish is one of them; he was a very talented centerman that would shoot the puck and skate with the best of them.
Ross Lonsberry took me under his wing a little bit and helped me play the game the proper way, both offensively and defensively. Orest Kindrachuk was a good little player that could skate on the top line on any given night. Those are the guys I know best. They were truly special players.
On what made Bobby Clarke great:
He was tenacious, so focused. And he was a team player, period. Anyone who played with him, he made the player better. He definitely made me better. He never gave up on anything; he was determined, a player you would love to have. He was a leader. All he played for was the team. He was a great teammate and player and is a great friend.
On his favorite story from the Flyers' back-to-back Stanley Cup titles:
Everyone had their superstition. If Terry Crisp came across hockey sticks that were crossed in the dressing room, they had to be uncrossed. Terry Harris, the second year we won the Cup, every time we won a game, he would talk about building his tractor. "There's another wheel on the tractor," he would say.
Everyone had a little something that they did. Putting their socks on a certain way. Hanging their jersey. All sorts of stuff that people on the outside would like to see if they were inside the dressing room.
On his superstition:
Everything had to be laid out in front of me so that when I got dressed, I wasn't fumbling around. My socks had to be a certain way on the floor. The marking of a certain sock had to be on my left, not my right. My gloves had to be put down a certain way.
A lot of times, I kept my gloves in a garbage bag. The old leather gloves used to stiffen up from sweat, and then they would harden, and the stick would turn in your hands. Mind you, it didn't smell too good (laughs). But they would stay softer that way.
On his favorite visiting arena:
Chicago and Boston, because the rinks were smaller. There wasn't a lot of room out there, and if you could shoot the puck a little bit, you always had a chance to score a goal there.
Chicago, I think, would be my choice because of the fans they had there and the way the old building was structured. It was a lot of fun playing in Chicago.
On what he remembers from his last NHL game:
I was hurt, and I didn't say too much to the doctors about my injury. The game before that, I could feel that something wasn't quite right.
I was having a so-so year. The last couple of years of my career, I was battling a really bad knee problem. I got the seasons in, but truthfully, I wasn't very pleased about them. So that last game, I was in warm-up and I came off the ice and said, "I can't play." I had broken a piece of bone off my femur in my knee joint, and I had to have reconstructive surgery.
I knew going in (to surgery) I wouldn't be playing again.
On whether he has any regrets after being forced to retire at 31:
The only thing that I wanted to do was to change positions to play longer.
I grew up a defenseman, and at a young age they moved me up because I was always up ice and didn't get back half the time. I would have loved to have the opportunity to go back and play defense for a couple of years. I did that for Pat Quinn when he was coaching; we had a defense problem, so I ended up playing about seven or eight games as a defenseman.
I loved it, because you're pretty much out there every second shift. And Quinn would say, "I don't want you to change - I want you up the ice with the puck. If you get the chance to go, I want you going." That's the only thing I wish I could have had a shot at; it would have been like being a young kid again, trying to make the team as a defenseman at an older age.
EDMONTON, Alberta (AP) Evgeni Malkin's tiebreaking power-play goal in the third period lifted the Pittsburgh Penguins to a 3-2 victory over the Edmonton Oilers on Wednesday night.
Patric Hornqvist and Conor Sheary also scored for the defending Stanley Cup champion Penguins, and Matt Murray stopped 35 shots.
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Leon Draisaitl had goals for the Oilers, who have lost four of their last five games. Cam Talbot finished with 27 saves.
Malkin tucked a wrist shot under Talbot's arm on the power play with 7:37 remaining in the third.
Murray made a big save on Nugent-Hopkins in tight with 13 seconds to go to preserve the win.
Pittsburgh nearly scored eight minutes into the game as Bryan Rust's shot rang off the crossbar, and was declared a no-goal after a video review.
The Penguins struck on the power play just 56 seconds into the middle period as Hornqvist tipped a puck in front past Talbot for his fourth of the season.
Edmonton tied it up a few minutes later on its own power play. Patrick Maroon sent a backhand pass from behind the net to Nugent-Hopkins, who scored his fifth of the season and 100th of his career.
Less than a minute later, Connor McDavid made a no-look pass to allow Draisaitl to direct the puck into a wide-open net for a 2-1 lead.
Sidney Crosby followed McDavid's play with a similar pass on a 2-on-1 to set up a goal by Sheary with 22 seconds left in the second.
CHICAGO (AP) Corey Crawford made 35 saves in his first shutout of the season, and the Chicago Blackhawks stopped a three-game slide with a 3-0 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers on Wednesday night.
Artem Anisimov and Jonathan Toews scored 20 seconds apart in the second and Crawford took over from there, helping Chicago kill off three Philadelphia power plays in the last half of the game. Rookie Alex DeBrincat added an empty-net goal with 1:49 left in Crawford's 22nd career shutout.
Brian Elliott made 32 stops for Philadelphia, which was coming off a 4-3 overtime loss to lowly Arizona on Monday. The Flyers have dropped four of five heading into Thursday night's game at Central Division-leading St. Louis.
Chicago had dropped five of six, prompting coach Joel Quenneville to juggle his lines and defensive pairings in search of a spark. Quenneville also had his team do sprints at the end of practice on Tuesday after he grew frustrated with the effort by the players.
The Blackhawks responded with a workmanlike effort while improving to 4-2-1 at home.
Chicago came up empty on its first four power plays before Anisimov delivered in the second. With Brandon Manning in the box for holding Ryan Hartman, the rugged center skated behind the Flyers' penalty killers and slammed home a rebound for a 1-0 lead at 8:58.
Anisimov's fourth goal of the season was the Blackhawks' first successful power play since Richard Panik scored at Arizona on Oct. 21. They were unsuccessful in their previous 18 chances.
Toews then blocked shot a near the blue line and skated in alone on Elliott. The captain slipped a backhander between the goaltender's legs for his first goal since Oct. 12 against Minnesota, stopping a seven-game drought.
That was more than enough for Crawford, who came up with a couple of big stops as Philadelphia pressed for a score in the third. He made his best save of the night with 1:45 left in the first, doing the splits to get over for a pad stop on Valtteri Filppula's wraparound.
NOTES: Flyers D Radko Gudas suffered an upper-body injury in the first and did not return to the game. ... Chicago D Connor Murphy's father, Gord, is an assistant coach for Philadelphia. ... The Blackhawks and Flyers play again on Nov. 9 in Philadelphia, finishing their two-game season series.
