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O Canada: How the Great White North's seven NHL teams fared in the first month of 2014-15

Sam McCaig
O Canada: How the Great White North's seven NHL teams fared in the first month of 2014-15

We’re one month into the 2014-15 NHL regular season, and it’s the end of the beginning but not the beginning of the end for any of Canada’s seven NHL teams. No, not even the Edmonton Oilers, who lost their first five games, won four in a row, then lost four straight heading into Friday night’s winnable contest at Buffalo. (Note: If the up-and-mostly-down Oilers beat the Sabres, it’ll be Edmonton’s first road win of 2014-15; they’re the last team in the NHL without a victory away from home.)

A cross-Canada checkup on the Great White North’s seven NHL teams, in order of how they fared in the first month of the NHL season:

1. Vancouver Canucks: First-year GM Jim Benning looks brilliant. All of his offseason moves, so far, are working out great. Vancouver is 10-4-0 under rookie NHL coach Willie Desjardins, and UFA goalie Ryan Miller has won 10 of his first 11 starts. Radim Vrbata, signed to skate and score with the Sedins, is doing exactly that. Nick Bonino, acquired from Anaheim in the Ryan Kesler trade, leads the team with seven goals. No regulars have missed time due to injury, with the only notable absence being Alex Burrows serving a three-game suspension for a hit to the head. After the drawn-out Roberto Luongo saga, some bumpy years under Mike Gillis and the tumultuous John Tortorella tenure, stability reigns in Vancouver.

2. Montreal Canadiens: The Habs entered the season with the expectation that they would be Canada’s best NHL team in 2014-15, and played like it in the early going. Montreal went 3-1-0 on a season-opening four-game road trip, then won four in a row at home. All was well. Since then, however, some worrisome signs. The Canadiens have won just two of their past six games, and those were 2-1 shootout victories over the Flames and Sabres. The Habs scored just six goals in that six-game span (not including shootout tallies) and were shut out twice. They’ve been blown out two times in their past three outings, losing 6-2 to Calgary and 5-0 to Chicago before surviving the Sabres. The good news: Montreal begins a four-game homestand on Saturday, and plays six of its next seven at the Bell Centre. The bad news: There are no pushovers on the horizon, their next seven opponents are all over .500 and playing like postseason contenders.

Mark Giordano and T.J. Brodie are leading the way for the surprising Flames. (USA Today)
Mark Giordano and T.J. Brodie are leading the way for the surprising Flames. (USA Today)

3. Calgary Flames: Raise your hand if you knew the Flames’ top two scorers are defensemen. And raise both your hands if you knew the NHL’s top two defensemen scorers are both Flames. Calgary captain Mark Giordano (four goals, 15 points) and blossoming T.J. Brodie (four goals, 14 points) lead the way in southern Alberta, and don’t forget defenseman Dennis Wideman, tied for the team lead with five goals. Not to mention, Kris Russell chipping in with seven assists. Those four defenders are averaging 22-25 minutes in ice time per game and -- along with the early goaltending heroics of Jonas Hiller and Karri Ramo -- can claim most of the credit for Calgary’s early success. After losing their season opener at home to the Canucks, the Flames won four times on a six-game road trip, an impressive showing for a team that entered 2014-15 with muted hopes. Two wins in the subsequent six-game homestand was less encouraging, but the good news is the Flames are back on the road for five games and they’ve won two of the first three. Calgary has missed the playoffs five straight years and it would be a surprise if they make it this season, but defense and goaltending are a good place to build. (OK, you can put your hands down now.)

4. Ottawa Senators: Clarke MacArthur scores, Craig Anderson saves. In short, that’s been the secret behind Ottawa’s strong start. MacArthur leads the Sens with seven goals while no other forward has more than three (defenseman Erik Karlsson has four), and MacArthur’s three game-winners equal the rest of the team combined. In the crease, Anderson has been lights-out, sporting a league-leading .948 save percentage. That’s too good to be sustainable, but Anderson has a history of hot streaks and he’s certainly on one now. It probably helps that backup Robin Lehner is pushing to be a starter; so far, the net competition has been a net gain for the Sens. Ottawa is the last team in the NHL that hasn’t lost in regulation at home (4-0-2) and they’re picking up points on the road, too (3-3-0).

5. Winnipeg Jets: A season-opening 6-2 win over Arizona was followed by four straight losses, and it looked like the tone was set for another frustrating season in Winnipeg. But then the Jets won six of seven before a shootout loss to the Penguins, relying on -- wait for it -- team defense and solid goaltending. They’re not printing playoff tickets yet, but Winnipeg is sitting in a postseason position in the ultra-tough West and that has to be a good feeling for a team that hasn’t had a whole lot to celebrate since landing in The ‘Peg in 2011. Can Ondrej Pavelec and Michael Hutchinson keep a good thing going in the Jets crease? Will Evander Kane, back from a knee injury, deliver Gordie Howe hat tricks instead of off-ice distraction? The Jets are a grind-it-out bunch and it’s not going to get any easier -- they kick off a five-game road trip this weekend -- but the early success gives them confidence now as well as hope for the future, and that’s a great place to start.

Defense and leadership are constant questions in Toronto, but Dion Phaneuf's Leafs remain in the playoff range. (USA Today)
Defense and leadership are constant questions in Toronto, but Dion Phaneuf's Leafs remain in the playoff range. (USA Today)

6. Toronto Maple Leafs: It seems they’re everyone’s favorite target, and the Leafs deserve much of the criticism that’s heaped their way. They’re inconsistent. The goaltending has been up-and-down. The defense is not the sum of its parts. Their best players disappear for too long. The leadership, from coach Randy Carlyle to captain Dion Phaneuf to sniper Phil Kessel, is constantly questioned. But the Leafs continue to hang around the playoff periphery in the East, and you sometimes get the feeling they’re just a three-game win streak from moving up into a postseason spot. If, if, if … Jonathan Bernier (or James Reimer) starts stealing games like Bernier did in the first half of last season … Kessel and his first-line mates can be a force game-in and game-out … most importantly, the blueline (and team-wide commitment to defense) can finally come together. If not, it’ll be the ninth non-playoff season in 10 years for the NHL’s favorite bulls-eye.

7. Edmonton Oilers: They’re not the team that went winless in the first five games of the season, they’re not the team that won four in a row after that … or the team that lost four in a row after that. But when you add it all up, the Oilers are 4-8-1, last in the Western Conference and last in the league in goals against per game … and that’s what they have been, for years, so that must be what they are. Edmonton is 4-2-0 versus the East, which is great until you realize it means they’re 0-6-1 versus the West. The Oilers need to play defense or move to the Eastern Conference.

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