Three NHL teams doing worse than expected so far
Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
Despite a slow start from star center Connor McDavid, with just one goal and six points, the Edmonton Oilers remain hopeful. Strong performances from depth players have shown promise, offering a glimmer of optimism for the team’s success this season.
Although the 2024-25 National Hockey League (NHL) year has just started, many teams are underperforming and leaving fans worried about what the rest of the season will be like already. Those three teams are the Edmonton Oilers, the Colorado Avalanche, and the Nashville Predators.
In recent seasons, the Edmonton Oilers have always been a team that gets off to a slow and shaky start, comes out of nowhere, and blows the competition away. They did that exact thing last season, reaching game seven of the Stanley Cup Final—only losing to the Florida Panthers over the course of four games. Goaltending is the current situation needing some serious help, which impacts the overall team in a big way. Goaltender Stuart Skinner has a record of 1-3-0 with a .851 save percentage and a 4.03 goals-against average (GAA) to start the season. Skinner does not need to be the best goalie in the league for the Oilers to get to where they need to be during the regular season. As long as he’s average, which he readily achieved with the Oilers last season, the Oilers will be able to win plenty of games.
Winning games should not be a problem for Edmonton’s stellar depth and lineup. Top scorers, however, like center Leon Draisaitl, scoring just three goals to start the season, and center Connor McDavid, scoring one goal and tallying six points is not enough to sustain the Oilers' success this season. On the bright side, Edmonton's depth is showing promise, with forward Jeff Skinner, newly acquired from the Buffalo Sabres, racking up four points in six games. Right winger Corey Perry is playing well, and their blue line is also looking promising. This makes viewers hopeful that, like many times before, the Oilers tune might change.
The Colorado Avalanche will always be one of those teams in the playoff conversation; right now, however, the Avalanche are facing a rocky start to this 2024-25 season. The Colorado Avalanche started their season 0-4 for only the second time in franchise history. The Avalanche currently ranks last in the league for goals against per game at 4.83 due to poor goaltending. Goaltender Aleksandar Georgiev has a record of 1-3-0, with a .811 save percentage and a 4.99 GAA. In their four losses, he allowed the most goals in the league with 17. Despite their goaltending woes, they have major star power with players like center Nathan MacKinnon, defenseman Cale Makar, and power forward Mikko Rantanen. On the defensive side, they are doing well in limiting shots against, standing at fourth best in the league with 25.5 per game, and generating scoring chances, standing at eleventh in goals, averaging 3.50 per game.
The Nashville Predators had one of the greatest storylines from last season, going on an 18-point win streak (16-0-2) after General Manager Barry Trotz canceled their trip to see U2 at the Las Vegas Sphere following two brutal losses. After that point, the Predators saw the playoffs for the first time since 2022. Their top free-agent acquisitions this summer, Steven Stamkos and Jonathan Marchessault, have just two goals combined, unlike the forwards on their previous teams. Stamkos, more specifically, has struggled, with just one goal and no assists in five games; one could connect his slow production with his linemates. In Tampa Bay, he had center Brayden Point and right winger Nikita Kucherov setting up scoring opportunities left and right, while this same type of play-making ability cannot be seen in Nashville.
Another big thing that hurts the Predators is their aging roster. Stamkos and Marchessault are 34 and showing signs of slowing down. The Predators' roster has an average age of 28.96, making them the third oldest team in the NHL, just behind the Oilers and Pittsburgh Penguins.
Moving forward, hockey fans are keeping watchful eyes on these three teams to see how new player adjustments might catapult some of them to success levels watchers know they are capable of. It will be interesting to see how these three teams grow as the season progresses.