1 Early Hot Take for Every NHL Team So Far

We've made it through to the second week of the 2024-25 NHL season, and of course, it's far too early to say anything for certain yet.

But that's not going to stop us having initial thoughts on each team.

Even those with a mild take will agree the 0-4 Avalanche start raises a bunch of red flags, while the most optimistic fan will be wary of the 4-0 Calgary Flames.

The first look at these teams have given us so much to ponder already, so here's a hot take brewing for every NHL team after a small but real sample size of action.

The Anaheim Ducks are going to be better than we think this season, and I want to patent this hot take because I've been saying it since the day the 2023-24 season ended: They might make the playoffs.

Take Wednesday's win over the Utah Hockey Club.

They beat a high-power, hot team and did it their way: via a bunch of goals.

They got two goals from budding star defenseman Pavel Mintyukov, two points from Mason McTavish, and one goal and two points from Leo Carlsson.

The kids are more than alright, Trevor Zegras seems ready to really prove himself, and there's more than enough help with the supporting cast.

Cole Koepke is going to be a lineup mainstay.

The 26-year-old signed a one-year, two-way contract with Boston at the start of NHL free agency, and is now holding down one of the best fourth lines in the league.

He's got two goals and five points in five games, matching the team lead in points and leading the team with three assists.

I swear this isn't fun for me.

I love the people of Buffalo and the spirit of the city.

But the Sabres are going to miss the playoffs for the 14th consecutive year.

They are losing in devastating ways, they bought out their third-highest scorer, and it's tough to see a way out of it all without putting too much pressure on the younger players.

We are rightfully all abuzz about Jonathan Huberdeau's hot start, but it shouldn't be a hot take to say someone capable of scoring a ridiculous amount is going to bounce back from a very low career point.

My hot take about the Flames is Anthony Mantha's inherent clutchness is reversing their reputation for being the place good players go to dry up.

My hot take is that the Carolina Hurricanes will be fine.

They defeated the big, bad Devils Tuesday, Seth Jarvis scored his first goal of the season, and Pyotr Kochetkov looked great in net.

While last season was probably their best opportunity to win the Cup, when has head coach Rod Brind'Amour ever liked doing things the easy way? If Kochetkov steals the net, the hope is still alive.

Teuvo Teravainen is an extremely versatile two-way winger, who loves nothing more than passing despite his killer shot.

He's leading the Blackhawks with three goals and five points alongside Connor Bedard, who has one goal and five points.

If you know about Teravainen , then you know and Blackhawks fans were treated to the beginning of his career before this reunion.

But if you don't know, you're about to find out.

Colorado's shockingly bad start to the season isn't just about the 0-4-0 record.

It's about the amount of senseless goals allowed, the goals they aren't scoring, and the lack of heart that Nathan MacKinnon has always been able to muster out of this team.

It's a tough scene when Cale Makar has eight points in four games and a minus-six rating, MacKinnon's got seven points and a minus-six rating, and Mikko Rantanen has four goals and a minus-five rating.

The goaltending has been atrocious and there's no depth.

The start to the season is a hot take on how to play the game of hockey.

It doesn't sit right with me to put pressure on someone like Sean Monahan, who was best friends with Johnny Gaudreau, to have a career year or put up X amount of points.

It's incredible to me that he even finds the strength to get up and play every day, as great as it is to watch him score.

That said, he's clearly not done being the clutch goal-scorer and teammate that he is.

That trade to the Jets reinvigorated him, and he's going to remind us all this year how valuable he is in the correct role.

How does one construct a hot take about the most consistent team in the league? I'm breaking my brain trying to say anything other than "Wow, this team is very good, and the young kids seamlessly entering the lineup make it even more impressive." Congrats on the undefeated start, Dallas, literally everyone saw this coming.

Listen, I like what I'm seeing from Cam Talbot so far* *I wrote this sentence before Thursday's game against the Rangers and I may retract this statement but I'm enjoying it with caution.

Meanwhile, Alex Lyon and Ville Husso were competing for a waiver assignment that Husso won after allowing four goals on 14 shots in his debut.

Even if Talbot is the guy in net for the Red Wings, and that sort of makes me shudder, I need Lyon to get it together and create a stronger overall tandem before I'm too confident in the Wings this season.

Maybe they can go out and get one really good guy instead of seven sporadic guys stacked up in a trench suit.

Even before Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl remembered who they were in that comeback win against the Flyers, everything was going to be fine.

The beginning of the season woes were very fixable, with star players slumping.

Call me with concern when McDavid, Draisaitl, and Bouchard are all producing and the team can't win.

McDavid arrived on the goal-scoring sheet against the Predators Thursday, and looked like his usual self.

Every.

Thing.

Is.

Fine.

Not only is Sam Reinhart not overrated, but last season's 58-goal scorer might be underrated.

With both Matthew Tkachuk and Sasha Barkov out throughout the first few weeks of the season, Reinhart has kept the Panthers afloat with four goals and eight points in five games.

The Kings did basically nothing to improve their roster over the offseason after buying out Pierre-Luc Dubois, and now with Drew Doughty out their defensive shortcomings are exposed.

They've gotta put together a convincing streak soon, or it might be another first-round exit (or worse) this postseason.

Wait, are the Minnesota Wild fun? They're currently sitting at 2-0-2 and six points, good for fourth in the Central.

Matt Boldy is off to a start that means business, with two goals and five points in four games.

Filip Gustavsson isn't just contributing to the offense with his goalie goal -- he's got a 1.66 goals against average and a .948 save percentage to start the season.

Sam Montembeault isn't a fluke, and he's reminding us of that each game this season.

He's currently leading all NHL goaltenders with 6.3 goals saved above expected, and he's managed to keep a Patrik Laine-less Montreal team competitive in all of his starts.

My hot take is that the defense has been even worse than the offense as the Predators have embarked on this 0-3 start.

Sure, they only had six goals in three games, but especially in that blowout loss against the Kraken, the defense has been all over the place.

Juuse Saros is great, but even he can't handle being left wide open for half a game.

Dawson Mercer needs to live up to his scoring potential to truly elevate this Devils team to Cup Contention.

Mercer endeared himself to the hockey world with his two-way game, but he flashed us a scoring edge and there are no takesies backsies! Now that he's made it to the top six, we need to see a bit more than a goal and an assist in six games while the goaltending is doing its job.

Star goaltender Ilya Sorokin is back, and the season the Islanders have is basically up to him.

This is a solid squad with a potential goaltending ace that could elevate them to a nice playoff run with a career year.

Former No.

1 overall draft pick Alexis Lafreniere was highly criticized at the beginning of his career for taking a bit of time to get used to the NHL.

But you'll recall the last stages of his development and the beginning of his career occurred during the hardest years of the pandemic, and Lafreniere has really been popping off since last season's playoff run.

His trajectory is going to remind us that patience and context matter before we write a high draft pick off.

Despite the chaos, this has been an ideal start for the Senators.

This has been a head-scratching team with unrealized potential for years.

Maybe it's cathartic that they're now beating brother Matthew and winning games 8-7.

We've seen just about enough out of Tristan Jarry at this point.

Let Joel Blomqvist cook in net until Alex Nedeljkovic returns.

Matvei Michkov is going to be the young star Flyers fans have pined for for years.

The only reason this is a hot take is because so much has gone wrong for so long on the Flyers' journey to claim a true star, but he's here, and he's scoring two power play goals in one period.

The Sharks are sustaining a few overtime losses at the beginning of this season, and I honestly think it's a great way for the "kids" to get their reps in and gain some experience.

This Sharks season isn't about the scoreboard, it's about situational hockey.

It was hilariously on brand earlier this week when the Kraken put up seven goals from different individuals in their win over the Predators.

My hot take is that in order for them to have another deep-ish playoff run, at least three of those need to come from one consistent scorer next time.

The Blues never needed that post-Cup rebuild -- they sneakily did it in front of our eyes, keeping Pavel Buchnevich, assembling a young core, and finalizing it via Oilers offer sheets.

What they do need? A fresh start in net.

Brayden Point is going to score just 10 more points than last season and just five more points than the season before and make it to the 100-point club.

Look, I'm not endorsing the events leading up to this happening, but it's a gift to be alive to witness a Jake Guentzel-Brayden Point-Nikita Kucherov line.

Just watch the last five seconds of Lightning-Golden Knights Thursday and you'll catch my drift.

We've seen a lot of defense, competent goaltending, and supporting offense step up as the Leafs have started the season on a 3-1-0 run.

This is exactly how they gain confidence to go on a long playoff run.

Let's save the criticism for the core four for the playoffs.

The Hockey Club is going to cool off, and that's ok.

I bet they'll still be in playoff contention and have a great chance to make it in when the time comes, but they don't need to be the best team out West.

They needed to give us an exciting start to the franchise, and they did just that.

We're all looking to the glaring and obvious goaltending problem the Canucks are dealing with as they flail around to start the season, and that's valid.

But what if I told you we're also allowed to expect star center Elias Pettersson to step up and set the tone more than he has thus far? It took the Canucks four games to finally win, but they finally broke through Thursday against the Panthers in overtime.

Pettersson was nowhere to be found on the scoresheet.

They'll need more from EP40 if they want to do more than just squeak by this season.

With Mark Stone leading the team at two goals and eight points in four games, maybe Vegas wasn't bending the rules to keep one of the best players in the league off their roster afterall...

Alex Ovechkin becoming just the sixth player in NHL history to have 700 goals and 700 assists is almost as cool as breaking the goals record.

When it comes to the Winnipeg Jets, I genuinely believe Connor Hellebuyck should be able to fire one person -- staff, management, player -- per year until he gets the serious run at the Cup that he deserves..

This article has been shared from the original article on bleacherreport, here is the link to the original article.