There has been no shortage of action this week in the NHL. Amongst the biggest leapers, the Florida Panthers continued their red-hot streak of play. The team defeated the Buffalo Sabres before splitting a home-and-home with the St. Louis Blues.
The Washington Capitals kept their grip on the top of the Metropolitan Division. After narrowly falling to the Chicago Blackhawks in a shootout, the group bounced back with victories over the Columbus Blue Jackets and the Anaheim Ducks. On the flip side, the Philadelphia Flyers are still searching for answers. Choosing to part ways with head coach Alain Vigneault amidst a losing streak, the Flyers have now lost their last ten games.
Back with our “Stock up, Stock down“, here are this week’s biggest winners and losers.
Stock Up: Tampa Bay Lightning
The Lightning continue to set the consistency bar. Once again battling injuries up and down their roster, the two-time defending champions are without stars Nikita Kucherov and Brayden Point. They refuse to let it get in the way of playoff aspirations, and are beginning to roll after a slow start to the season.
Rattling off victories over the Boston Bruins and the Philadelphia Flyers, the team also defeated the Maple Leafs 5-3 on Thursday Night. Back to form after appearing in just 38 games a year ago, captain Steven Stamkos sits in a tie for 11th with 13 goals through 25 games. Along with this, Victor Hedman has continued to be the model for defenseman with 22 assists. Pair that with the play of goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy, and Jon Cooper’s group looks destined to be one of the final franchises left again.
Stock Down: Vancouver Canucks
It is not often in hockey you see a team “clean house” just 27 games into their season. This is how bad things have gotten for Vancouver. Moving on from longtime general manager Jim Benning, the team also fired head coach Travis Green after he inked a two-year contract extension in the offseason. The franchise is getting nothing out of their star players, Elias Pettersson and Brock Boeser have just 13 points each.
The Canucks are still searching for answers in their own end and on the penalty kill. They currently rank 18th in the NHL with 2.96 goals allowed per game. They also sit dead last in the league when down a man, leading to just a 65.9 percent conversion rate. The lone bright spot for a dark time for the franchise has been the play of Thatcher Demko. The 26-year-old has posted a .915 save percentage and a 2.73 goals-against average across 22 starts.
Stock Up: Pittsburgh Penguins
Coming on since the return of captain Sidney Crosby, the Penguins have won seven of their last 10 games. They are fresh off back-to-back victories over the Seattle Kraken and the Canucks on their west coast road trip. Hindered by a COVID-19 outbreak earlier on in the season, one of the brightest spots for the team had been the play of forward Jake Guentzel. Recently injured, he had helped pick up the pieces for a club that has been challenged on the offensive end at times. During the month of December, the 27-year-old was riding a thirteen-game point streak before being declared week to week with an upper-body injury.
Rebounding after a poor season last year, goaltender Tristan Jarry has been one of the hottest netminders in the league. Currently ranked seventh in the league in wins, he is on pace to set career highs in both goals-against average and save percentage. Recently vaulting up to fourth place in the top-heavy Metropolitan Division, Mike Sullivan‘s group will soon get Evgeni Malkin back from injury. Pittsburgh was destined to be in the wild card hunt all year long, and the team should have enough talent to help push them into postseason play for a second straight year.
Stock Down: New Jersey Devils
Lauded by many as a team on the up-and-up prior to the start of the season, it has been anything but smooth sailing for the Devils. They have crept back to the middle of the pack after a 7-4 start, but the team has lost four of their last five games. Struggling to generate offense, the group ranks 18th in the NHL with just 2.88 goals averaged per game.
New Jersey also ranks 20th in the league in shooting percentage. Former No. 2-overall pick Nico Hischier has managed just three tallies in 24 games while speedster Tomas Tatar has only five. More concerning for the group has been their inability to get anything going with the extra man. Converting at a miserable 14.1 percent on the power play, the team has allowed three shorthanded markers.
Stock Up: New York Rangers
The Rangers are off to one of their best starts of the last five years. They are sitting at 17-5-3; the fourth spot in the Metropolitan. Throwing his name into the Hart Trophy conversation, Artemi Panarin leads the group with 31 points in 25 games. In addition to this, Adam Fox has picked up right where he left off after capturing the Norris Trophy as the league’s top defenseman a year ago. Dynamic for the Rangers on the backend, the 23-year-old currently sits in a tie with Hedman for the most points by a blueliner with 27.
More importantly for the group has been the play of their bottom six. Getting strong production from their bottom two lines, former first overall pick Alexis Lafreniere, Julien Gauthier, and Filip Chytil have nine goals combined between the trio. Recently dodging a bullet after it was revealed that Igor Shesterkin would not miss an extended period of time after suffering a lower-body injury, this is an exciting young group with a clear goal of making noise in the postseason.
Stock Down: Seattle Kraken
While it’s hard to rain on the parade of an expansion club roster, the Kraken have dug themselves into quite a hole through their opening 26 games. Sitting in the basement of the Pacific Division, the group has won only nine games, the second-worst mark in the league. While they have begun to play a little better as of late, the team is fresh off a 3-1 loss to the Winnipeg Jets and a 6-1 thumping by the Penguins. Most disappointing for Seattle fans has been the struggles of free-agent acquisition Philipp Grubauer.
Nominated for the Vezina Trophy after one of the finest seasons of his pro career a year ago in Colorado, the 30-year-old goaltender has posted a disappointing .887 save percentage and a 3.16 goals-against average. Currently sitting 10 points out of the final wild card spot in the Western Conference, it is unlikely that the team will push for a playoff spot. As a result, it may be smart for general manager Ron Francis to sell assets at the trade deadline to preserve cap space and build his roster for the future.
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