We are just over one week into the 2023-24 NHL season, and there are already plenty of storylines around the league. But if there’s one thing hockey fans love to do, it’s overreact early in the season like there aren’t six more months of hockey to be played. Today, I’m going to have some fun doing exactly that. Most teams have only played three or four games, but here are five overreactions to the first week of action we’ve seen so far.
1. The Seattle Kraken were a one-year wonder.
The Seattle Kraken surprised almost everyone in the hockey world with their phenomenal 2022-23 season. In just their second year of play, the Kraken went 46-28-8 and made the playoffs. They had 19 more wins than their inaugural 2021-22 season.
So far, 2023-24 has not been as sweet for Seattle. Through their first five games, the Kraken are 1-3-1. They have one of the worst offenses in the league, scoring just 2.00 goals per game. Most of those goals came in the one game they did win, putting up a seven spot against Carolina. They’ve barely scored in four of their five games. While their goals against are solid, the lack of scoring is a huge problem early on.
If this continues, the Kraken won’t be anywhere near a playoff spot, and last season will look like a complete flash in the pan.
2. Auston Matthews is going to score 70 goals.
Auston Matthews opened the 2023-24 season with back-to-back hat tricks and has six goals in four games so far. He’s one of the best shooters in the NHL, and if he stays healthy, could pot 70 goals this season.
Nobody has scored 70 goals in a season since Teemu Selanne and Alexander Mogilny both ripped 76 in 1992-93. However, scoring has exploded in the NHL over the past few seasons, and last year gave fans the first 150-point scorer and first 100-point defenseman since the early 90s.
The league is at a point where a 70-goal season doesn’t seem impossible anymore. Matthews has the hot start and more than enough talent to realistically pull it off.
3. The Florida Panthers are not a playoff team.
Last season, they represented the Eastern Conference in the Stanley Cup Finals. This season, they won’t even be in the playoffs. The Florida Panthers are not off to a great start, going 2-2-0 with a -1-goal differential through their first four games. They played very poorly in their first two games and didn’t look all that great in their last game despite beating an equally unimpressive Toronto Maple Leafs. The Atlantic Division is stacked this year, and Florida is going to struggle if they continue to play this way.
It’s looking more and more like last season’s playoff run was just a case of the team getting red hot at the right time. They weren’t particularly good in the regular season and just snuck into the last playoff spot. With the rise of the Buffalo Sabres, Detroit Red Wings, and Ottawa Senators, making the playoffs in the Atlantic is going to be even harder. Florida doesn’t look like they have what it takes.
4. Jordan Binnington will win the Vezina Trophy.
The best goaltender of those who have played more than one game this season has been Jordan Binnington. The St. Louis Blues netminder has started two games, posting a 1-0-1 record with a staggering .969 save percentage and 0.92 goals against average.
If Jordan Binnington can continue playing at this level, he will drag the Blues into a playoff spot and take home the Vezina Trophy in the process.
5. The Washington Capitals are a bottom-five team.
After years of being a perennial playoff team, the Washington Capitals missed the postseason in 2022-23. So far, 2023-24 isn’t going any better. Washington is off to a putrid start with a 1-2-0 record and a -8 goal differential. They’re dead last in the Metropolitan Division.
The stats are bad, the analytics are bad, and the eye test is really bad. This could be a very ugly year for the Capitals, and it’s a real possibility that they end up one of the five worst teams in the NHL this year.
Calm Down…It’s Early
These are all obviously complete overreactions at this point in the season. It’s only the first week of an 82-game marathon. There is still a ton of hockey to be played, and time for all of these things to potentially change and then change again. However, like I said earlier, hockey fans love to overreact early on in the year.
All of these things look like realistic possibilities right now. We’ll just have to wait and see if they keep up as the season goes along. I predict one or two of them will, and the rest will truly be early-season overreactions.
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