One of the biggest surprises for me so far is the Oilers, and now that San Jose is on their longest win streak of the season, it will be interesting to see how the Thursday match up between those two juggernauts plays out.
The Oilers are bizarre. We knew the Sharks would be bad- maybe not THIS bad, but bad. But the Oilers? This looks like the Oilers of ten years ago, angling for another first-overall pick, rather than the flawed-but-flashy team we've seen the past few years under McDavid and Draisaitl. It's the same flaws as always killing them- goaltending and blue-line, over and over, with no fix- but the offense in past years has bailed them out a bit- this year, that's not going great either. Depth is a huge problem outside of that top line. They shouldn't be nearly THIS bad, but the issues that are behind it have been there for a long time. (That there was a belief that Jack Campbell was the fix in net long-term was always folly.)
My big surprise has been Boston, if you'll pardon my homer-ism. Last year's mutant season was bizarre, with a sour ending that lead to the loss of both top centers to retirement- it would have been perfectly understandable to see the Bruins stumble a bit out of the gate as they learned to adjust to post-Bergeron/Krecji life. But, same as last year when several players were on IR to start off, it doesn't seem to be bothering them a bit- Swayman has been excellent in net, the defense has been solid despite being banged-up (or suspended, MACAVOY), and they're getting solid contributions up and down the lineup on the attack. Is it sustainable, could this be a repeat of last year's run? No. I wouldn't dare even dream it. But, these were the weeks that I figured they'd struggle to figure out their identity, and all they've done is get every point in the standings save for three (one to Anaheim and two to Detroit) as of this writing. I'm staggered.
