NHL: 3 biggest disappointments at the midway mark

We are halfway through the NHL season and teams are starting to reveal their true colours. Here are the three biggest disappointments of the midway mark.

The NHL has reached the halfway mark of its season and it’s a great time to properly evaluate the performance of all the teams. This article will be talking about the three biggest disappointments of the 2019-2020 season.

“Disappointment” will be measured based on how high the expectations for the team were before the season started vs. how their first-half actually turned out. Here they are.

1. New Jersey Devils

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No other team had higher expectations heading into the 2019-2020 season than the New Jersey Devils. The trade for P.K. Subban indicated that Ray Shero was going all-in this season and pieces like Taylor Hall, Nico Hischier, and Jack Hughes made this team look formidable on paper. However, the Devils never got their goaltending situation figured out and their .895 save percentage is third-worst in the league.

Instead of being in a playoff hunt, the Devils became sellers and ended up trading former Hart-winner Taylor Hall to the Arizona Coyotes as they continue to retool their team. Considering how high the expectations for this team were, seeing them behind the Ottawa Senators in the standings is quite the disappointment.

2. Nashville Predators

In the offseason, the Nashville Predators gave out huge contracts to star players like Matt Duchene, Viktor Arvidsson, and Roman Josi. It seemed like David Poile was putting all his trust in the team he built and while they started off strong, they have since fallen off the wagon. After their six-game losing streak, the team never regained their swagger and their scoring dried up.

The team went from being one of the top offensive teams in the league to 18th in the league in goals per game (2.9). Both Pekka Rinne and Juuse Saros have been struggling and neither of them has a save percentage over .900.

The poor play lead to the firing of their head coach, Peter Laviolette, the same man who has never missed the playoffs when he was behind the Predators’ bench. After signing a huge free agent in Matt Duchene and locking up key players, no one saw Nashville firing their head coach midway through the season in an attempt to wake their players up.

3. San Jose Sharks

After reaching the Conference Finals just a few months ago, no one expected to see the San Jose Sharks near the bottom of the standings in the Western Conference. The team has not had any of their key players go down with an injury and while their goaltending is poor, but it was the same as last season.

Three days ago, the Sharks had a 4-2 lead over the Washington Capitals with less than 2 minutes in the third period. Instead of holding the lead, the team collapsed and ended up losing in overtime. This wasn’t the first time that San Jose gave the game away late in the third period, in fact, the team has allowed a total of 56 goals in the last five minutes of the third period, the most in the entire league.

The Sharks’ struggles lead to the firing of their head coach Peter DeBoer in a desperate attempt to give their players a jolt. If they continue to play this way, the team will be on the path to miss the playoffs for just their seventh time in their 28-year long existence.