A handful of injuries up front are forcing the Ottawa Senators to seek out external reinforcements.
The Senators are "trying hard to add a forward," Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman wrote in his "31 Thoughts" column Wednesday.
Two of the club's top three centers recently went down with injuries: Colin White will miss three-to-five weeks with a hip flexor and Artem Anisimov is out one-to-two weeks with a lower-body ailment.
Senators general manager Pierre Dorion has already shown a willingness to make moves early in the season, acquiring forward Vladislav Namestnikov from the New York Rangers earlier in October in exchange for a fourth-round pick and defenseman Nick Ebert. The move has paid off brilliantly thus far; Namestnikov is currently tied for the team lead with six points in six games in a Sens uniform.
It's rare that teams look to trade away players so early in the season, but Toronto Maple Leafs forward Nic Petan is one individual reportedly on the trade block. It's worth noting Dorion and Leafs GM Kyle Dubas appear to have a strong working relationship, as the two teams pulled off a six-player trade this past summer.
In the meantime, the Senators have recalled 2016 first-round pick Logan Brown from the AHL and penciled him in on the top line. That will surely please his agent, who complained about the team's handling of Brown's development in early October.
The rebuilding Senators entered Wednesday with the NHL's worst record at 1-6-1.
Colorado Avalanche star forward Mikko Rantanen has been deemed week-to-week after being injured on Monday, head coach Jared Bednar said Wednesday.
Rantanen sustained an apparent leg injury, which Bednar classified as a lower-body ailment, against the St. Louis Blues when he fell awkwardly. He left the contest and didn't return.
The top-line winger has produced five goals and 12 points through the first nine games of 2019-20, including Monday's contest.
The first three weeks of the 2019-20 NHL season have given us plenty to think about and gawk at. Here are some of the many eye-catching developments from the first 21 days of action:
Scoring > fighting
The NHL has made a distinct move from decades past. Fighting's importance on the game is dwindling, while scoring continues to surge. Both trends have carried on through the first few weeks of the final season of the 2010s. There have been 21 fighting majors, according to HockeyFights.com, which is a 197-fight pace or a scrap roughly every two-and-a-half games, which would be a historic low. Meanwhile, the average 2019-20 game has featured 6.1 total goals, the highest rate since the lockout-shortened 2005-06 campaign.
Front offices acting fast
Andy Marlin / Getty Images
Nico Hischier's seven-year contract extension was a tidy piece of business for New Jersey Devils general manager Ray Shero. Hischier, who will make $7.25 million starting next season, has been lost in the shuffle in a league ruled by more flamboyant players. The two-way center is an integral part of what New Jersey is building, forming a one-two punch down the middle with Jack Hughes. He joins Chicago Blackhawks winger Alex DeBrincat, Ottawa Senators defenseman Thomas Chabot, Winnipeg Jets rearguard Josh Morrissey, and Arizona Coyotes winger Clayton Keller on the list of 2020 restricted free agents who've inked an extension far in advance of July 1. The 2019 RFA crop taught GMs a lesson, apparently.
Carlson on fire
John Carlson finished fourth in Norris Trophy voting last year. In his previous nine seasons, he cracked the top five just once. It's safe to say he's the clubhouse leader now. Carlson tops all skaters - yes, that includes Connor McDavid - in points (five goals and 15 assists for 20 points in 11 games). If Carlson can remain healthy and average a point per game for the remainder of the season, he'll become the first defenseman since Ray Bourque in 1993-94 to crack the 90-point mark. Video game numbers for a 29-year-old in the second season of an eight-year deal. For the Capitals, it's $8 million well spent.
Sharks dress to impress
Bravo to the San Jose Sharks. Those Los Tiburones warmup jerseys hit all the right notes.
Hockey is infinitely more entertaining when McDavid is on the ice. Sprinkle in plenty of Leon Draisaitl and the Edmonton Oilers become must-watch. Still, how long can coach Dave Tippett continue this insane early-season deployment? Through 10 games, Draisaitl (23:42 average ice time) and McDavid (22:43) are flirting with diminishing returns over the 82-game regular-season marathon. Tippett is in a tough spot. He must balance the daily motivation to win the next game with the short-, medium-, and long-term needs of the Oilers' greater picture.
Schedules gone wild
It's hard to recall an NHL season in which so many teams had scheduling glitches right off the hop. A few examples: the Minnesota Wild are on the road for 13 of their first 18 games; the Flyers played Game 1 in Prague, their second contest in Philadelphia five days later, and then the third in Vancouver three days after that; the Sharks and Buffalo Sabres, teams based in opposite parts of the continent, had a home-and-home over a four-day period; while all of that was going on, the New York Rangers had a week off between Games 2 and 3.
Hintz of a promising future
Sara Schmidle / Getty Images
Unless you're a Dallas Stars fan or a prospect aficionado, you probably didn't know a single thing about Roope Hintz at this point last year. The big, speedy Finnish center broke out in March and has continued to demonstrate he is on the verge of stardom. Hintz, a second-round pick in the 2015 draft, has quietly bagged six goals in 11 games to lead Dallas' attack. Not groundbreaking stuff, but relative to team performance, he's doing quite well for himself.
Mighty Duck between the pipes
John Gibson can't do it all. Through his first seven starts, the perennial Vezina Trophy contender allowed just 13 goals on 214 shots for a sparkling save percentage of .939. In the eighth, he conceded four goals on 19 shots. Upcoming games against strong conference foes - the Stars, Colorado Avalanche, and Vegas Golden Knights - should reveal more about the dynamic between team and goalie. Overall, it's happy days for Ducks fans - unexpectedly, Anaheim is off to a 6-4-0 start - but is Gibson doing more harm than good in the long run? A club that could sorely use a high draft-lottery position is playing in front of a world-class goalie.
More thunder than Lightning
Since Brayden Point made his season debut on Oct. 10, the center has skated at even-strength with wingers Nikita Kucherov and Steven Stamkos and defenseman Victor Hedman for roughly 23 minutes. That collection of talent is bordering on absurd. Four top-50 (top-30?) players on the ice at the same time. The hockey world should be talking about the Tampa Bay Lightning foursome ad nauseam, but the results haven't been ideal. The stat line through five games of experimentation: 23 shot attempts for, 29 shot attempts against, two goals for, two goals against.
'Canes still surgin' under Rod
Gregg Forwerck / Getty Images
After a deep playoff run, the Carolina Hurricanes have burst out of the gates in 2019-20. The catalyst in Raleigh always seems to be Rod Brind'Amour, the assistant coach for seven years before he was promoted to bench boss in May 2018. A longtime NHL coach once explained the difference between the two positions. The assistant is an uncle type for players (arm's length from discipline, a listening ear, etc.) while a head coach is closer to a father figure.
In the case of Carolina, stud defenseman Jaccob Slavin reports few hiccups in Brind'Amour's transition to team dad: "His personality and how he operates as a person, how he respects you as a player, did not change from assistant coach to head coach. That's rare to find. He genuinely cares about us as players, and as people too. It’s something special that we have with him."
Freshman struggles
Quite the early hiccup for rookies from the 2019 NHL Draft. Top picks Jack Hughes and Kaapo Kakko have combined for two goals and two assists in 15 games. Kirby Dach (third overall, Blackhawks), Ville Heinola (20th, Jets), and Tobias Bjornot (22nd, Los Angeles Kings) are the only other 2019 picks to appear in an NHL game. Heinola, a super-smart defenseman, leads the pack in production with five points in eight outings, getting scratched three times. What an odd group and strange early-season development.
Stone-cold stud
Mark Stone has been an absolute game-changer for the Vegas Golden Knights since arriving prior to last season's trade deadline. In 29 regular-season games, Stone has put up 25 points while guiding the team to a 54.5% share of the even-strength shot attempts when he's on the ice. When asked in September how the Golden Knights might benefit from a full year of Stone, fellow forward Jonathan Marchessault wasted no words: "You get a No. 1 forward, that's what you get. He's an unbelievable player. He does everything well on the ice."
Everything, indeed, including one-punching Nashville Predators captain Roman Josi and reacting appropriately to the roller coaster that is the NHL shootout.
Mike Sullivan's take on morning skates is perfect. The Pittsburgh Penguins coach used the power of storytelling to explain why the tradition is "overrated" and why slowly but surely it's being eliminated from a number of NHL programs, including his own.
"It's like, 'Why does the whole league have morning skates?' It reminds me of why my mother cut the side of the hams off before she cooked 'em," Sullivan told Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. "I asked her, 'Why do you cut the sides of the hams off?' She said, 'I don't know. Because that's how my mother taught me.' So I asked my grandmother. I said, 'Why do you cut the side of the hams off before you put 'em in the oven?' She said, 'That was easy. I didn't have a pan that was big enough.' That's my analogy."
Bench boss update
From scorching to warm to lukewarm, a ranking of three head coaches believed to be on the hot seat:
Bruce Boudreau, Wild (3-6-0)
John Hynes, Devils (2-4-2)
Jim Montgomery, Stars (3-7-1)
And, from freezing-cold to chilly to brisk, here are three head coaches on the other end of the spectrum (the cold seat?):
Ralph Krueger, Sabres (8-1-1)
Dave Tippett, Oilers (7-1-1)
Bruce Cassidy, Bruins (6-1-2)
Another slow start for DeBrusk
Jake DeBrusk and October is not a match made in heaven. The Boston Bruins power forward has failed to hit the ground running in each October of his young NHL career. In 2017-18, he put up four points in 10 games. Last year, over a 12-game month, he pitched in just three goals. This season, through nine contests, he has three points, two of which came in Games 8 and 9.
"I don't know what it is," he said over the weekend, prior to scoring against Toronto. "I don't really necessarily like where my game's at right now overall, let alone statistic-wise, so I'm just trying to build and find my game."
DeBrusk tends to turn it on as the season progresses. In October, he's averaged 0.32 points per game, compared to 0.67 in the other combined months of the regular season.
Souperman is in the building
Mike Babcock is notoriously difficult to win over, but Russian rookie Ilya Mikheyev has quickly endeared himself to the Toronto Maple Leafs coach. Mikheyev, who has three goals and four assists in 11 games, has not once seen his nightly ice time dip below 13 minutes. This past Saturday, he played a career-high 18:22 as a second-line winger and first-unit penalty killer. Not bad for a 25-year-old who last year was a complete unknown to North Americans.
"Ilya's fast and he's strong, which are two important things on the penalty kill," Maple Leafs winger Trevor Moore said of his new, beloved teammate. "He reads the play well and he's got good instincts. He's been great."
Shrewdly, Seattle's NHL team has chosen to build out the geek squad years ahead of its debut in 2021. In June, ownership tapped former Wild analytics guru Alexandra Mandrycky to be its director of hockey administration. Ron Francis, who was hired a month later, has always been considered a numbers-friendly GM. And, just last week, the club announced it's searching for a quantitative analyst, data engineer, and developer to help shape expansion-draft strategy and assist in player acquisition, roster construction, and in-game tactics.
Maurice joins exclusive group
Jets coach Paul Maurice is a member of the 700-win club. He's spent more than two decades running benches for three franchises - Hartford/Carolina (twice), Toronto, and Winnipeg - that have been filled with varying levels of talent. Here's a stab at an all-time lineup of Maurice-coached players:
LW
C
RW
Jeff Skinner
Mats Sundin
Brendan Shanahan
Gary Roberts
Ron Francis
Patrik Laine
Jeff O'Neill
Rod Brind'Amour
Blake Wheeler
Eric Staal
Mark Scheifele
Justin Williams
LD
RD
Paul Coffey
Sandish Ozolinsh
Tomas Kaberle
Dustin Byfuglien
Glen Wesley
Bryan McCabe
STARTER
BACKUP
Tom Barrasso
Jean-Sebastien Giguere
Goal of the year?
With all due respect to Sidney Crosby's, Blake Coleman's, and David Pastrnak's wonderful tallies, the goal of the year front-runner is Columbus Blue Jackets winger Sonny Milano's between-the-legs snipe. Milano flashed both finesse and guts on the Oct. 16 play, pulling the puck back while two defenders chased him down before roofing it on goalie Ben Bishop.
A basic hockey lesson: never, ever doubt Crosby. With Evgeni Malkin sidelined and Phil Kessel in Arizona, the 32-year-old has willed the Penguins to a 6-4-0 record to start the season. His performance this year, his 15th in the NHL, has underlined his ability to rise to the occasion. McDavid may be the best player in the world, but Crosby is the grand master. Interestingly, though, neither should be dominating the way-too-early Hart Trophy conversation. No, the MVP of the first few weeks is Jack Eichel, McDavid's old draft classmate.
West Coast rivalry
Please, give us a few more chapters of this Drew Doughty-Matthew Tkachuk rivalry. At this point, both guys seem genuinely into the WWE-style tiff. Let's hope they stay interested between now and Dec. 7, when the Kings and Calgary Flames meet for their third of four meetings this season.
"Just an inexcusable change. Two guys that stayed out too long looking for offense," Couture told reporters afterward. "It's a selfish play that doesn't need to be part of this team, so we'll figure that out."
Meier and Labanc were both on the ice for nearly 90 seconds of the extra frame (1:28 and 1:22, respectively) before going off with the Sabres controlling the puck and pushing to enter the Sharks' defensive zone.
Couture and Joe Thornton came over the boards to replace them, but it was too late, as Brent Burns was forced to defend a two-on-one that led to Jack Eichel's winner for Buffalo.
Meier and Labanc have struggled to find their footing on the offensive end this season. They've each collected two goals and two assists in nine games.
On July 1, Meier inked a four-year contract extension reportedly worth $24 million following a 66-point campaign. One week later, Labanc signed a one-year deal for a reported $1 million on the heels of his 56-point output in 2018-19.
The Washington Capitals blue-liner scored twice Tuesday against the Calgary Flames, giving him a league-leading 20 points on the season. By reaching the mark, he became the fourth defenseman ever to tally 20 points in October, according to Capitals Public Relations.
With three more games to go this month, Carlson has a chance to capture the all-time record for points by a defenseman in October, according to NBCS Capitals:
Defenseman
Season
Points
Al MacInnis
1990
25
Brian Leetch
1990
21
Paul Coffey
1988
21
Paul Coffey
1981
20
John Carlson
2019
20
MacInnis, Leetch, and Coffey are all enshrined in the Hockey Hall of Fame.
Carlson is also the second-quickest defenseman to record 20 points, per NHL PR, needing just 11 games. Bobby Orr also required 11 games to reach the mark in 1974-75, while Coffey needed just 10 in 1988-89.
The 29-year-old has been incredibly productive over the last two campaigns, recording 68 points in 2017-18 and 70 in 2018-19. However, 47% of his points those seasons came on the power play. This year, he's dominated at even strength, as only six of his 20 points have come with the man advantage.
Carlson has a three-point lead on David Pastrnak and Connor McDavid in the Art Ross race, is the front-runner for the Norris Trophy, and should be firmly entrenched in Hart Trophy conversations as well. What a start.
