Ranking the 10 Biggest Surprises in the NHL During October

Consider this delightful photo of Montreal Canadiens fans in Vancouver a tip of the cap to their team's hot start, and it's somewhat surprising nature. At 8-2-1, the Habs are exceeding early-season expectations, but since people at ESPN, NHL.com, SB Nation and the man typing this had them reaching the Stanley Cup Final, it's not that surprising.

As for the other 10 items on this list, they are far more surprising than anything happening in Montreal.

There are teams exceeding expectations and one team finding a way to come under the low bar that had been set for it. Durable stars suddenly hobbled, players showing signs of resurgence after down years and others looking like they are ready to break out for career years.

Take a look through this slideshow to see what's been surprising many during the first month of the NHL season.

1. The Nashville Predators Are the NHL's Best Team

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This is a surprise to 99 percent of the hockey world, except for yours truly, who picked the Nashville Predators to finish with 99 points.

But with the league's best record at 6-1-2, this is even a surprise to the sharpest hockey minds who are rarely wrong about anything.

And before you leave your comment, the Montreal Canadiens lead the league with 17 points, but with 14 points in nine games, the Predators have the league's best points percentage at .778.

How have the Predators done it?

Having a healthy Pekka Rinne (6-1-1, 1.71/.936) stopping pucks is the biggest reason for the hot start. After missing more than half the 2013-14 season, a healthy Rinne is reminding everyone about the difference he can make.

At 2.44 goals per game, the Preds aren't a scoring machine. James Neal has three of his five goals in one game, but he single-handedly won that game, 3-2 against the Blackhawks. Filip Forsberg looks better than ever with a goal and six assists, and Mike Ribeiro has three goals and seven points.

But the Preds are winning the way they've always won—with goaltending and defense. As long as Rinne and Shea Weber stay healthy, these winning Preds are likely here to stay. 

2. The Lack of Supplementary Discipline

Jae C. Hong/Associated Press

Stephane Quintal took over for Brendan Shanahan as the head of NHL player safety before the start of this season and, unlike his predecessor, hasn't been dishing out discipline all that often.

With the NHL announcing a three-game suspension for Alex Burrows of the Vancouver Canucks on Friday, Quintal has dished out 10 games worthy of punishment for three incidents: two games to Sharks forward John Scott for leaving the bench to fight and five games to New York Rangers defenseman John Moore for destroying the skull of Minnesota Wild forward Erik Haula.

Those 10 games also include the preseason, when no supplemental discipline was deemed necessary.

At this point last season, the Shanahan-led player-safety department dished out 85 games (regular season and exhibition) worth of supplemental discipline.

Are there fewer infractions happening? In the eyes of DOPS, yeah, but that doesn't mean there haven't been hits it's let go.

Radko Gudas on Scottie Upshall. Eric Gryba on Artem Anisimov. Chris Kreider on Jonas Brodin. Josh Gorges on Patrick Maroon. Erik Johnson on Erik Haula (this poor guy). Ryan Kesler on Mikael Granlund.

It's quite the shift from player safety, a department that one year ago decided a Phil Kessel slash when John Scott was attempting to murder him was worth three preseason games. 

As long as the league continues to put more weight on injuries that result from illegal hits and not the hits themselves, it's unlikely the behavior will change.

3. Jim Rutherford Says He Wants to Extend Marc-Andre Fleury

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General manager Jim Rutherford replaced Ray Shero during the offseason. Upon his hiring, the 65-year-old Rutherford said he wasn't long for Pittsburgh, per Dave Molinari of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: "I would suspect the term for me is probably two or three years here."

Rutherford may not be sticking around, but goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury might be.

Here's what Rutherford said on Oct. 21 to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review's Rob Rossi about the pending unrestricted free agent: “As long as I'm the general manager, Marc-Andre Fleury will be our goalie.”

Based on Rutherford's notion of being there for 2-3 years, Fleury is at worst looking at a new contract that takes him through 2017-18, perhaps longer.

The big question is: Why?

Since wining the Stanley Cup in 2009, Fleury has a decidedly average .914 save percentage in the regular season. In the postseason since 2009, he's a fire hydrant dressed in goalie equipment with an embarrassing .891 save percentage in 44 games.

At 30, now seems like the time to break ties with Fleury, yet here we are.

The projected free-agent goaltender crop isn't great: Antti Niemi, Karri Ramo, Michal Neuvirth and Devan Dubnyk lead the way. 

But announcing you're ready to hitch your wagon to a goaltender who has submarined so many recent postseasons is an odd choice.

4. The Absence of Zdeno Chara

Paul Sancya/Associated Press

Yeah, he's 37 years old. Yeah, one leading hockey expert foretold of this before the season.

But it's still shocking that Zdeno Chara suffered a serious injury.

Chara had missed 20 total games since the start of the 2006-07 season and showed no signs of breaking down entering this season. But a collision with the New York Islanders John Tavares (one that placed Tavares on his backside) led to Chara missing 4-6 weeks with a knee injury.

At 6'9" and 255 pounds, it's hard to think of Chara as anything but indestructible, and for him to suffer his first serious injury in more than a decade, it's a bit jarring. 

5. Ryan Johansen Is Dominating Despite a Lack of Training Camp

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The faint sound you heard at times in October was NHL general managers cringing at the sight of Ryan Johansen's early-season showing.

Johansen and the Columbus Blue Jackets didn't come to terms on a new contract until right before the start of the regular season, leaving many (myself included) to believe the lack of training camp and exhibition season would lead to a slow start for the 22-year-old. After all, what's more important than building a foundation of fitness and getting into game shape by playing exhibition games?

Apparently, lots of things.

Johansen has 12 points in nine games and is tied for seventh in league scoring.

If Johansen's start catches the eye of other potential restricted free agents (RFAs), maybe they'll wait until the last possible minute before signing, thus extracting more money from their bosses. 

6. Jonas Hiller Is Looking Reborn in Calgary

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The Anaheim Ducks were loaded at goaltender last season, so Jonas Hiller found himself nudged to the side for the younger Frederik Andersen and John Gibson this season.

The 32-year-old Hiller had a below-average .912 save percentage the past three seasons, not looking anything like the goaltender he was before dealing with vertigo in 2011.

But he has been a godsend for a Flames team that is getting killed in possession. The Flames are 26th in Fenwick close, according to Hockey-Reference.com, but Hiller's .948 save percentage in six starts is the biggest reason why the team is 5-4-2.

Hiller's October performance is as unsustainable as it gets, but posting a .948 in any given month after his past three seasons qualifies as surprising.

7. The Buffalo Sabres Are Bad…No, They Are Even Worse Than We Thought

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There can't be a person on the planet who believed the Buffalo Sabres would be anything but the worst team in the NHL. After finishing with 52 points last season and buying out Christian Ehrhoff before the season, we all knew it would be bad.

But this bad?

With five points in 11 games, the Sabres are on pace for 37 points, which would be the fewest of any team since the NHL introduced the overtime loser point in 1999-00.

The worst team in the OTL loser point era is the 1999-00 Atlanta Thrashers, an expansion team that finished with 39 points.

The Sabres are not an expansion team; they are a team that went to the playoffs in 2011 and tried to remedy their problems by signing forwards Matt Moulson and Brian Gionta and trading for defenseman Josh Gorges.

Moulson and Gionta have combined for zero goals and three assists in 11 games. 

8. Not a Single Head Coach Has Been Fired

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This one isn't overly surprising, as coaches tend to be fired during the first few weeks of November when they are let go during the season.

Just recently, Davis Payne, Scott Gordon, Bruce Boudreau and Randy Carlyle were asked to vacate the premises in early November, but there seemed to be so many viable candidates for an October dismissal this year.

First and foremost, it seems like it's only a matter of time before Carlyle and the Toronto Maple Leafs part ways, but a 4-4-1 start isn't getting anyone canned, even if an idiot fan is tossing a jersey on the ice.

Ted Nolan hardly seems like the long-term plan in Buffalo, yet he has survived the first month. The Hurricanes are 0-6-2, but rookie coach Bill Peters was never someone who was getting fired. The Edmonton Oilers and Dallas Eakins are 4-5-1 and looking like they are on the upswing.

Maybe Dave Tippett in Arizona could be first to go, as the Coyotes are 3-5-1, and their general manager is questioning the "compete" of his players in the media. 

There are still a few hours left in October, but it looks like we won't have a repeat of Peter Laviolette this season.

9. Jakub Voracek Is Leading the League in Scoring

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The 25-year-old Jakub Voracek had 46 points in 48 games two seasons ago, but in terms of volume, his 62 points in 82 games were a career-best.

Since arriving in Philadelphia before the 2011-12 season, Voracek has looked more and more like the seventh pick in the 2007 draft, but no one could have foreseen his start to the 2014-15 season. 

With 15 points (12 assists) in 10 games, he is tied for the scoring lead with Dallas' Tyler Seguin and Pittsburgh's Sidney Crosby. Voracek has played one more game than Seguin and Crosby, but there's nothing unsurprising about him being on pace for 123 points this season.

And it's not as though Voracek is stockpiling points on the power play—12 of his 15 points have come with the Philadelphia Flyers at even strength.

With injuries to their defense, the Flyers will have to win their fair share of high-scoring affairs, so a 100-point season from Voracek is not just a potential surprise, but perhaps a necessity too.

10. The New Jersey Devils Have Won a Shootout

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For the first time since March 15, 2013, the New Jersey Devils picked up an extra point by winning a shootout. 

In a game that will go down in infamy, the Devils beat the Winnipeg Jets 2-1 on Thursday night. They snapped an 18-shootout losing streak on the strength of one goal from Jacob Josefson and three saves from Cory Schneider in one of the most shocking upsets in NHL history.

The shootout is basically a coin flip, so the Devils were bound to eventually win a breakaway contest. 

But consider how terrible they had been before winning Thursday.

In those 18 losses, the Devils were 6-of-59 (10.1 percent) in shootout attempts. The league average is around 30 percent, so the Devils were essentially the Buffalo Sabres of shootouts for nearly two years.

Schneider had been just as bad with the Devils, stopping a league-worst 51.6 percent of shootout attempts since coming to New Jersey in 2013 and was 0-of-2 this season.

This means the Devils' last two shootout wins have come against Ondrej Pavelec, so their next one will snap a lengthy streak of losing shootouts against good NHL goaltenders.