The Biggest Storylines to Watch in Week 5 of the 2014-15 NHL Season

Baseball season's over, we've turned back our clocks and the 2014-15 NHL season is heading into its second month.

This year's hockey calendar is unfolding at a more leisurely pace than we've seen in awhile. Last season, the schedule was condensed due to the Olympic break, and the year before that, the league crammed 48 games into four months after settling its four-month lockout.

As teams get down to business and the contenders start to separate themselves from the pretenders, here are the key trends and storylines to watch over the next week.

All stats courtesy of NHL.com.

Will the Flurry of Suspensions Continue?

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As Luke Fox of Sportsnet points out, Stephane Quintal got an unexpectedly gentle welcome into his new job as senior vice president of player safety to start the season.

For the first time in more than 30 years, the NHL didn't hand down its first game-related suspension until October 27, though Slava Voynov was suspended on October 20 pending the investigation into his off-ice domestic violence incident. Until last week, it was starting to look like NHL players had learned their lesson about careless play, head shots and checking from behind.

As a serial offender, the San Jose Sharks' John Scott seemed like a fitting character to kick off the on-ice suspension season. As the first of five players to be suspended last week, Scott was assessed a two-game penalty for leaving the bench to take part in a brawl. Supplementary discipline was then handed out in short order to John Moore, Alex Burrows, Jordan Nolan and Anton Volchenkov.

This week kicks off with a hearing for Edmonton Oilers captain Andrew Ference on Monday to address a check to the head of the Vancouver Canucks' Zack Kassian on Saturday night. After that, we'll see if the eerie sense of calm returns or if the bad behavior continues as the season wears on.

Is the West Still the Best?

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One of the big storylines through the early part of the 2013-14 season was the outright dominance of teams from the Western Conference over their rivals from the East.

This year, the pattern didn't reveal itself right away, but as the season goes on, it's showing itself once again.

Through four weeks of play, only two Western Conference teams have losing records against Eastern teams. The St. Louis Blues lost their only Eastern Conference game to the to the New York Rangers on opening night, while the Arizona Coyotes are 2-3-0 thanks to road losses to the Tampa Bay Lightning, Florida Panthers and Carolina Hurricanes.

The other 12 Western Conference teams are all at least .500 against Eastern Conference foes. The Edmonton Oilers most vividly illustrate the discrepancy between the two sides: they're 4-0-0 against teams from the East but have yet to win their first game against a Western Conference squad, amassing a record of 0-6-1 so far.

For their part, nine of 16 teams from the Eastern Conference are at least .500 against teams from the West and three have yet to lose in regulation to a Western Conference team: the Toronto Maple Leafs (2-0-0), New York Rangers (3-0-1) and Florida Panthers (2-0-1). Both the Montreal Canadiens (2-2-1) and Washington Capitals (1-3-1) were off to strong starts before their bumpy trips out west last week.

Statistical blips or real trends? We'll get a better idea this week. The Calgary Flames continue their eastern road swing through the old Southeast Division, the Oilers start a road trip with visits to four Eastern Conference cities and the Leafs travel to Arizona and Colorado.

Ducks' Depth Disappears in Goal

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Last year, the Anaheim Ducks had more goalies than they had playing time within their organization. By season's end, Viktor Fasth had been traded to the Edmonton Oilers and Jonas Hiller had left for Calgary as a free agent. Capable youngsters Frederik Andersen and John Gibson were entrusted to carry the torch.

Less than a month into the new campaign, the Ducks used a minor leaguer and a goaltending consultant to mind the store as they beat the Colorado Avalanche by a score of 3-2 on Sunday.

After picking up a 2-1 overtime win on Friday in Dallas, Frederik Andersen was pulled from the Ducks lineup with what was described as "leg tightness" by the Ducks' Twitter account. Jason LaBarbera was recalled from the Norfolk Admirals to back up John Gibson for Sunday's game.

When Gibson was injured during Sunday's warm-up, LaBarbera was pressed into duty in Denver, which still left the team one goalie short.

Luckily for the Ducks, goaltending consultant Dwayne Roloson had joined the team on the road trip. Once some paperwork was sorted out, according to Sean Leahy of Yahoo's Puck Daddy, the 45-year-old was able to watch the game from a front-row seat on the Anaheim bench.

As the top team in the NHL through the first month of the regular season, it's no surprise that even in these trying circumstances, the Ducks found a way to beat the struggling Colorado Avalanche. But the incident certainly changes the focus in Anaheim.

If Andersen or Gibson are out of the lineup for any significant period, Orange County might not be the NHL's happiest place on earth for very much longer.

What's the Impact of the Latest Injuries?

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As we wait to see how Andersen's and Gibson's situations unfold, Anaheim's management must be well aware of how badly a few key injuries have impacted the Columbus Blue Jackets, Carolina Hurricanes, Boston Bruins and Los Angeles Kings.

The Jackets and 'Canes weren't even out of the gate before they were putting important players like Nathan Horton, Brandon Dubinsky and Eric and Jordan Staal on the injured list. Carolina's now getting healthier and has won two straight games, but the Blue Jackets continue to get hammered at all positions, whether it's finger injuries to goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky and defenseman James Wisniewski or a concussion for center Artem Anisimov.

Meanwhile, Boston's in defensive trouble with Zdeno Chara, Torey Krug and Kevan Miller on the sidelines, while the deep Los Angeles Kings found themselves scrambling to fill their lineup and stay within the salary cap last week when Anze Kopitar joined Marian Gaborik on the sidelines.

Over the weekend, New York Rangers captain Ryan McDonagh was knocked out of action for an estimated three to four weeks with a separated shoulder, while Edmonton Oilers sniper Taylor Hall will be on the shelf for two to four weeks after an MCL sprain, both according to NHL.com. 

Some players' absences create gaping holes that simply can't be filled, but the impact of many key injuries is initially more subtle and only starts to snowball with time.

Over the next week, we'll start to see which teams look equipped to successfully weather their injury storms.

Breakout Blueliners

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A couple of weeks ago, I updated my ranking of Norris Trophy favorites, focusing mainly on the usual suspects—Shea Weber, P.K. Subban and Drew Doughty.

Those big-money superstars had better get moving if they hope to be in the Norris conversation at season's end.

Through the first month of the season, the NHL's defensive statistics are being dominated by a new group of challengers.

Newly returned to the blue line after spending a couple of years at forward, Brent Burns of the San Jose Sharks leads all defensemen in scoring with 13 points in 13 games. Of the next eight players who are chasing him, there isn't one traditional Norris contender in the mix.

Calgary Flames breakout defenseman T.J. Brodie is hot on Burns' heels with 12 points and a plus-eight, while teammate and captain Mark Giordano has 11 points. Keith Yandle of the Arizona Coyotes has 10 points, while five players have nine: Trevor Daley, Mike Green, Johnny Boychuk, Kevin Shattenkirk and Anton Stralman.

Stralman is also sitting at plus-13 through 12 games, tops in the NHL. He's proving to be another exceptionally valuable free-agent signing for the Tampa Bay Lightning, especially with Victor Hedman sidelined with a broken finger.

It's a bit of a relief to see Ryan Suter's familiar name in second place with a plus-nine, but even there he's tied with teammate Marco Scandella and the New Jersey Devils' Andy Greene.

Seeing so many new faces ascend to the top of the league's elite defenders at once is quite extraordinary. The question: Which of these defensemen will be able to maintain his hot start for the duration of the season?

Grow That Mo

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For the third year, the NHL and the National Hockey League Players' Association have partnered with the Movember Foundation to raise money and awareness for men's health as part of the Hockey Fights Cancer initiative.

Over the next week, we'll see plenty of typically clean-shaven players like the Vancouver Canucks' Nick Bonino (pictured above) take their best shot at growing a respectable moustache as part of their commitment to the cause.

Movember Foundation CEO and co-founder Adam Garone praises hockey players' attitudes and enthusiasm for the cause. "They usually take the approach, 'OK, I'll grow a moustache and I don't care what I look like because it's for a great cause,'" Garone told Mike G. Morreale at NHL.com.  "I see that type of mentality in the athletes that play rugby and cricket in other parts of the world. Often, the worst moustache is the best one in terms of creating a conversation."

Hockey has a great history of legendary moustaches, from Lanny McDonald to George Parros. The first week of Movember gives us a chance to see who's participating—and who can deliver the goods.