Three NHL Teams Poised to Climb Standings Soon

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The NHL season is well underway with the puck dropping to begin the 2020-21 season just over a month ago.

A month is a significant enough amount of time that we can start to see which teams are the pretenders and contenders this season. There is still a lot of middle ground to sort out, but it is already becoming clear who the best teams in the league are and who the worst teams will be.

The Arizona Coyotes might not win ten games this season. They have been just terrible. They have only played 16 games but have been outscored by 62 goals. They actually had decent goaltending early in the year from an unknown source in goaltender Karel Vejmelka who only allowed 21 goals in his first nine games but couldn’t get a win.

The Montreal Canadiens, Ottawa Senators and Chicago Blackhawks have all firmly declared themselves as not contenders this season fairly quickly as well.

It appears that the Toronto Maple Leafs, Tampa Bay Lightning and Washington Capitals are going to have successful regular seasons, though that should surprise no one.

There are a few teams who look out of place in the standings to begin the season. Previously, we looked at the three teams who are currently in a playoff spot but would not be able to hang on to it for long.

Today, we are going to look at the three teams who are not doing so well to begin the season, but will be just fine and are about to climb the NHL standings any day now.

Oct 26, 2021; Denver, Colorado, USA; Nathan MacKinnon. Mandatory Credit: Isaiah J. Downing-USA TODAY Sports /

Colorado Avalanche

The Colorado Avalanche won the President’s Trophy last season. It was a shortened year, but they put up 82 points in the standings in 56 games to lead the way in the NHL. Things haven’t started quite so well this season.

The Avalanche headed into Wednesday night’s game with the Vancouver Canucks with a 6-5-1 record. It isn’t terrible, but it is far off the pace they set last season. The team did lose a couple of scoring forwards in Brandon Saad and Joonas Donskoi, but the core is still in place and they should be on top of the standings again.

However, they currently sit 6th in the Central Division standings, only ahead of the Chicago Blackhawks and Arizona Coyotes who are two of the worst teams in the league this season.

The Avalanche have been forced to deal with a number of key injuries already this season. Nathan MacKinnon, Mikko Rantanen and Gabriel Landeskog form one of the best lines in the league but all three have missed games. Devon Toews has only played three contests so far and Cale Makar was out for a couple of games as well.

Once they get healthy, they will get rolling. All signs are pointing to them playing better than their record anyway. According to natrualstattrick.com, the Avs rank 4th in the NHL in scoring chance percentage at five on five and are 5th in expected goals for percentage but sit at 18th in actual goals scored percentage.

That just tells you the pucks aren’t going in right now but they soon will and the Avalanche will storm their way up the standings.

Seattle Kraken

The Seattle Kraken have not been off to a good start to their inaugural season. They won just four of their first 15 games and sit at the bottom of the Pacific Division standings. Their 3-4-0 record at home is not good and their 1-6-0 mark on the road suggests they just aren’t that good.

But, the advanced numbers would strongly suggest otherwise.

The Kraken rank 7th in the NHL in scoring chance percentage and are 11th in expected goals percentage at five on five. This tells you they are a good, not fantastic, but pretty good hockey team. They are creating chances and getting pucks on net, regularly outshooting and leading in scoring chances but they just aren’t getting the wins.

Part of that reason is the awful goaltending they have received. Phillip Grubauer was the top free agent goalie available and the Kraken were fortunate to sign him. Or so it seemed. He has a 3.18 GAA and a .880 SV% in 12 games this season after being the runner-up for the Vezina Trophy last season. Backup Chris Driedger has only played two games so far but his numbers are even worse.

The Kraken won’t have the worst goaltending tandem in the league all season, and when Grubauer starts to play like he always has in the past, the wins will come frequently.

The Kraken also benefit from the fact their division isn’t stacked with Stanley Cup contenders. The Anaheim Ducks look great right now, but is their rebuild really far enough along that it’ll last? The Edmonton Oilers and Calgary Flames are also in playoff spots, but they have flaws on their team and won’t be impossible to catch. The Oilers have a terrific offence, but the numbers suggest they give up more than they create.

The Kraken aren’t posted to go on a Stanley Cup Final run like the Vegas Golden Knights did in their inaugural season, but a run to the postseason could still happen.

New York Islanders

The New York Islanders have been to the past two Eastern Conference Finals. Their only problem is they keep losing in Game 7 to the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Their current team is built quite similar to the ones that reached the final four, with Matthew Barzal carrying the ball offensively and a solid, but not star studded supporting cast up front. The team has a good group of defenders, and gets great goaltending from Semyon Varlamov and Ilya Sorokin.

Their identity really is a terrific defensive team that suffocates its opponent and scores just enough to win games. That identity has been in place this season, except they haven’t been winning as many games as usual.

The reason? Well, the Isles have played 13 games this season and every one of them has been on the road. Their new building was not ready for the beginning of the season, so they haven’t played a home game yet. That will change on Saturday night when they host the Calgary Flames.

Expect the team to start winning more often.

They have a bit of a hole to dig themselves out of, as they sit last in the Metropolitan Division with a 5-6-2 record. The Islanders actually started the season quite well, going 5-2-2 in their first nine road games, but they ran out of gas on their trip and lost the final four. Now, they get three days off to rest before finally playing a game on home ice.

Don’t let the end of a ridiculous 13 game road trip fool you, the New York Islanders are every bit as good as they were the past two seasons when they lost in the Stanley Cup semifinals.

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