Here is the Nov. 30 edition of the mailbag, where we answer your questions asked on Twitter using #OvertheBoards. Tweet your questions to @drosennhl.
How about three surprises this far this season? What team(s)/player(s) have surprised you the most? Could be good or bad. Is there one storyline that you didn’t see coming? — @theashcity
I’ll give you three good and three not so good.
Let’s start with the good.
1. The New Jersey Devils are really good. That’s something I didn’t see coming. I thought they’d take a step in the right direction; I didn’t think they’d climb the stairs. They’ve won 19 of their first 23 games (19-4-0), including 16 of their past 17 and 10 straight on the road. They’re deep, fast, skilled and relentless. Centers Jack Hughes (12 goals, 14 assists) and Nico Hischier (10 goals, 15 assists) have taken huge steps. The Devils are 17-0-0 when Hischier gets at least one point and 9-0-0 when Hughes scores a goal. Vitek Vanecek is playing like a no. 1 goalie. The Devils are for real.
Video: NJD@NYR: Hughes scores through five-hole on breakaway
2. The Boston Bruins are better than I thought. New coach, missing key players at the start of the season, goalie questions, age questions. They had it all going into the season, but they haven’t blinked. I love the way they play, the way they move the puck, how quickly they make plays, how stout they are defensively. The third period is their best period. They are 13-0-0 when scoring the first goal and have outscored their opposition 34-12 in the third.
3. Quietly, Martin Necas is having a strong season. He is tied with Sebastian Aho for first on the Carolina Hurricanes with 25 points (11 goals, 14 assists) in 23 games this season. It’s surprising to me because the 23-year-old forward looked lost in the Eastern Conference Second Round against the New York Rangers last season. I covered that seven-game series and Necas left me unimpressed. It looked like he was on a different page, the wrong one, but his game has matured and he’s on the same page. He didn’t score his 10th goal until his 59th game last season. He got no. 10 in the 22nd game this season. It’s not a big story around the NHL, but it looks like Necas is starting to live up to his potential as the No. 12 pick in the 2017 NHL Draft.
Video: CGY@CAR: Necas finishes off nifty passing play in 2nd
The not so good:
1. I picked the Vancouver Canucks to make the Stanley Cup Playoffs as the third-place team in the Pacific Division. They are starting to play better, but it floors me that they routinely have the same problem holding leads. Entering Tuesday, they had lost seven games while holding a multigoal lead (0-5-2). They blew third period leads against the Minnesota Wild on Oct. 20 (a 4-3 overtime loss) and against the San Jose Sharks on Sunday (4-3 overtime win). Mind boggling.
2. The three finalists for the 2022 Vezina Trophy voted as the best goalie in the NHL were Igor Shesterkin (Rangers), who won it, Jacob Markstrom (Calgary Flames), the first runner-up, and Jesus Saros (Nashville Predators). None of them received a top five vote from the panel of 14 NHL.com writers that recently participated in the first in-season installment of our Trophy Tracker series. Shesterkin called himself out after a 5-3 loss to the Devils on Monday, saying “goalie played [expletive] game again. I feel so bad and play so bad. I’m ashamed.” Shesterkin is 10-4-3 with a 2.58 goals-against average and .913 save percentage. Those are solid numbers, but he set a higher standard last season and he’s been a part of the reason why the Rangers are 10-9-4 and fifth in the Metropolitan Division. Markstrom is 8-5-2 with a 3.03 GAA and .889 save percentage for Calgary, which is 10-9-3, fifth in the Pacific Division. Saros is 8- 6-2 with a 2.92 GAA and .910 save percentage for Nashville, which is 10-9-2, tied for fourth in the Central Division.
3. The Minnesota Wild needed more from center Marco Rossi this season. He had one assist in 16 games before he was sent to Iowa of the American Hockey League on Monday. The Wild are in a difficult situation with the NHL salary cap because of the dead money they’re carrying resulting from the buyouts of defenseman. Ryan Suter and defenseman Zach Parise. It makes it even more imperative that players like Rossi, high draft picks who are on entry-level contracts, have an impact. I think Rossi, the No. 9 pick in the 2020 NHL Draft, will be a good player for the Wild, but his lack of any kind of impact is surprising.
Is it too early to panic about the Rangers missing the playoffs this season? — @KREIDERMAN20
Panic? Yes. Worry? No.
Panic is too strong of an emotion for any team 23 games into the season, but the Rangers are struggling and frustrated. They’re not scoring at the rate they expect (3.00 goals per game, tied for 19th in the NHL). Their power play can look dangerous, but it isn’t producing enough (21.3 percent, 18th). They’re middle of the pack in 5-on-5 scoring (44 goals in 23 games). Turnovers are a problem. Their in-game funks last too long. Shesterkin hasn’t bailed them out as often as he did last season, but he has all 10 of their wins because Jaroslav Halak Hasn’t delivered in the backup role. Lately, the Rangers have struggled to hold multigoal leads, losing 4-3 to the Edmonton Oilers on Saturday after leading 3-0 going into the third period and to the Devils on Monday after taking a 2-0 lead 3:01 into the first. . They have holes in their lineup. They didn’t sign forward Jimmy Vesey to play in the top six, but he has. Alexis Lafreniere has three goals. Kaapo Kakko has four. They need more offense from both. Artemi Panarin and Vincent Trocheck, New York’s big offseason free agent signing, have not meshed like the Rangers hoped. The lack of a solid and reliable veteran defenseman on their third pair is apparent.
So, worry about the Rangers now, the fact that they’re fifth in the Metropolitan Division and losers of three straight, the last two because of blown multigoal leads, and not getting the saves they need at key times from Shesterkin or the power- play production they require. But don’t panic yet. Let’s see how they handle the next three games, two in a row against the Ottawa Senators and one against the Chicago Blackhawks in the next four days. If they want to get back on track, they need to win all three.
Ilya Sorokin is the goalie Islanders fans have been waiting for since Roberto Luongo was traded to get Rick DiPietro. If he keeps up this level of play, does he deserve Hart Trophy nods at the end of the season, or not quite there yet? — @mikeybox
I’m not ready to say Sorokin deserves Hart Trophy votes, but he should be in the Vezina Trophy conversation. He has a chance to play his way into the MVP conversation, but it’s hard to compare what he’s doing for the Islanders to what Shesterkin did for the Rangers last season, when he was the second runner-up for the Hart Trophy. Shesterkin earned his Hart votes because he was the main reason why the Rangers stayed in the playoff race leading into the 2022 NHL Trade Deadline, when they upgraded their forward depth and started to play better in front of the goalie. He saved them on a lot of nights. He was the reason they were winning. The Islanders are mostly solid in front of Sorokin. They’re a better team now than the Rangers were at this time last season. They’re better than the Rangers are now too. But Sorokin has been outstanding, arguably the best goalie in the NHL with a 2.18 GAA and .933 save percentage in 17 games (16 starts). But for a goalie to get into the MVP conversation he has to be having a generationally good season. I’m not ready to put Connor Hellebuyck (Winnipeg Jets), Linus Ullmark (Bruins) or Logan Thompson (Vegas Golden Knights) in the MVP conversation yet either. All four should be in the Vezina conversation.
Video: EDM@NYI: Sorokin posts 49-save shutout in a 3-0 win
How do you see? Alex Galchenyuk Fitting in with the Avalanche? — @avrilanche
This is a necessary and relatively risk-free addition because of all the subtractions the Colorado Avalanche are dealing with because of injuries at forward. Galchenyuk isn’t coming in cold. He had seven points (three goals, four assists) in seven games for Colorado of the AHL after signing a PTO with them Nov. 9. He can play center or wing. He can be a dangerous scorer, and the Avalanche need forwards who can do that. Galchenyuk’s deficiency is away from the puck, but when he has it, he’s dynamic. The Avalanche are missing Gabriel Landeskog (knee surgery), Valery Nichushkin (ankle surgery), Darren Helm (lower body), Evan Rodrigues (lower body) and Martin Kaut (illness). If Galchenyuk is a hit, the Avalanche will be that much deeper when their injured players return and will have some insurance if more goes down. If he’s a dud, they’re not tied into him for long. It’s a pro-rated one-year contract. If he skates and creates chances, he’ll be a hit.
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