Red-Hot NHL Players Who Have Overcome Slow Starts to This Season

Through the long grind of an 82-game NHL regular season, most players experience peaks and valleys in their performances.

The hot streaks can be fueled by any combination of solid team play, surging linemates, favorable schedules or just plain luck. The dark stretches are typically triggered by injury issues or heavy workloads and can be quickly made worse once a player starts squeezing his stick. Insecurities can easily compound once a player starts to lose his confidence.

Once in a while, we see players experience Jekyll-and-Hyde seasons. Young players often start strong before hitting walls, but this slideshow is focused on the opposite—players who have picked up the pace since the beginning of 2017.

Every hockey team requires its members to play different roles, so the players featured here contribute to their teams in various ways. Some were already playing well but have recently taken their games to the next level, some are coming into their own as better all-around players and some are bouncing back after injuries or stretches of subpar play.

No matter which category they fall into, all of these players are treats to watch right now. They personify the best of the fastest game on ice.

Players are listed in alphabetical order.

Nicklas Backstrom, Washington Capitals

Nick Wass/Associated Press

Stats Through Dec. 31: 34 GP, 9-21-30, 0.88 points per game, plus-4

Stats Since Jan. 1: 21 GP, 8-22-30, 1.43 points per game, plus-12

Overview

The Washington Capitals ran away with the Presidents' Trophy as the top regular-season team in the NHL last season, and they've rediscovered that elite form since the calendar flipped to 2017.

Since Jan. 1, the Caps have collected 37 of a possible 42 points, thanks to a blistering 18-2-1 record. They've outscored their opponents by a more than two-to-one margin at 95-44, and they are deploying the NHL's best power play, with a 32.7 percent success rate.

Washington's success has come from every aspect—Alex Ovechkin, T.J. Oshie and Evgeny Kuznetsov have all put up impressive scoring numbers, and Brooks Orpik and Karl Alzner lead the defense with some of the best plus-minus numbers in the league. Braden Holtby has excelled in net, too.

The best showing of all has come from center Nicklas Backstrom. His 30 points in those 21 games lead the NHL in scoring so far in 2017 and have vaulted him up into fourth place in the Art Ross Trophy race, six points behind leader Connor McDavid. 

The best-ever season for the quiet 29-year-old Backstrom was 33 goals and 101 points when the Capitals won their first Presidents' Trophy back in 2009-10. If he maintains his current rate of production, he'll finish out this season with 37 points in his last 26 games, which will take him to 97 for the year and give him a real shot at the league scoring title.

Brent Burns, San Jose Sharks

Al Bello/Getty Images

Stats Through Dec. 31: 37 GP, 15-20-35, 0.95 points per game, plus-12

Stats Since Jan. 1: 21 GP, 10-16-26, 1.24 points per game, plus-14

Overview

It's not like Brent Burns started the 2016-17 season poorly. But Burns has been so good since Jan. 1 that he's making his numbers from the first three months of the season look mundane by comparison.

Burns scored his 15th goal of the year in the San Jose Sharks' 3-2 loss to the Los Angeles Kings on New Year's Eve. The bearded giant went into 2017 leading his team in both goals and points, as well as leading all defensemen in the league in both categories.

Since Jan. 1, Burns has only widened those gaps. His 61 points put him third in NHL scoring, five points behind leader Connor McDavid. He's 14 points ahead of Erik Karlsson in the defensemen scoring race, and there's talk that he's not just considered the front-runner for the Norris Trophy—he could also be the first blueliner since Chris Pronger in 1999-2000 to take home the Hart Trophy as the league's most valuable player.

With 24 games left to play, Burns is already just two goals shy of the career-high 27 that he recorded last season. If he keeps up his current production, he could hit 90 points—easily eclipsing not just his career high of 75 points from last season but also Karlsson's mark of 82 points, which had been the most by a defenseman since Brian Leetch logged 85 points in 1995-96, per QuantHockey.

Sidney Crosby, Pittsburgh Penguins

Paul Vernon/Associated Press

Stats Through Dec. 31: 32 GP, 26-16-42, 1.31 points per game, plus-9

Stats Since Jan. 1: 19 GP, 5-17-22, 1.16 points per game, plus-9

Overview

On Jan. 1, Sidney Crosby sat one point off the NHL scoring lead, but he'd given Connor McDavid and Evgeni Malkin a head start. Crosby's "slow start" was a result of missing the first six games of the season. The Pittsburgh Penguins captain suffered a concussion during a practice with his team after the World Cup of Hockey had concluded.

Concussion issues have previously sidelined Crosby for long periods of time, so it was feared that this latest injury was striking one of the game's best players just as he had regained peak form. Crosby collected the Conn Smythe Trophy as most valuable player of the playoffs as the Penguins won the 2016 Stanley Cup, and he followed that up with a gold medal for Canada at the World Cup of Hockey, where he was also the tournament's leading scorer.

When Crosby started his season on Oct. 25, he did it with a bang, recording four goals in his first three games. He quickly served notice that he was not going to hand over his title as hockey's best player to McDavid without a fight.

Crosby's points-per-game ratio has dropped slightly since Jan. 1, but overall, his 1.25 points per game is still the best number in the league for players with more than five games played this year. Currently two points behind McDavid in the NHL scoring race, Crosby's making a push to add a third Art Ross Trophy to his long list of accolades.

John Gibson, Anaheim Ducks

Nick Wass/Associated Press

Stats Through Dec. 31: 26 GP, 12-9-7, .908 save percentage, 2.58 goals-against average, 1 shutout

Stats Since Jan. 1: 18 GP, 10-6-1, .937 save percentage, 1.93 goals-against average, 3 shutouts

Overview

Since Jan. 1, the Anaheim Ducks are tied with the Washington Capitals for the title of league's stingiest team. Both squads have given up 44 goals in 21 games, an average of 2.10 goals per game.

Overall, Anaheim's 2.53 goals against per game ties the team for sixth in the NHL, which goes to show how much better the Ducks have been defensively since the beginning of 2017.

It's like goaltender John Gibson flipped a switch as the big ball dropped in Times Square at midnight. The 23-year-old has started 18 of the Ducks' 21 games in this calendar year. In those games, he gave up five goals to the high-flying Washington Capitals, four to the Edmonton Oilers and three to the Philadelphia Flyers, New York Rangers and Florida Panthers. In his other 13 outings, he surrendered two goals or fewer. That's how you build a record of Vezina-worthy numbers. 

The Ducks' shutdown game has been their calling card this season. It's not exciting, but it has been effective enough to keep the team near the top of the Pacific Division standings, even while sputtering offensively.

The question now is whether Gibson will be able to keep delivering strong performances come playoff time, where he has struggled in the past.

Jonathan Huberdeau, Florida Panthers

Mark Humphrey/Associated Press

Stats Through Dec. 31: None (injured)

Stats Since Jan. 1: 5 GP, 4-3-7, 1.4 points per game, plus-3

Overview

Never underestimate the power of a small sample size. Remember the beginning of the season, when Auston Matthews' four-goal debut put him on pace for a 328-goal rookie year?

Winger Jonathan Huberdeau of the Florida Panthers is currently enjoying the same sort of statistical bump, leading the entire NHL with a rate of production of 1.4 points per game. The thing is that Huberdeau has only played five games so far this season. He missed four months of action after suffering a skate cut to his lower leg during a preseason game against the New Jersey Devils.

Huberdeau finally rejoined the Panthers on Feb. 3 and made an immediate impact. Not only does he have four goals and three assists in his first five games, but he has also chipped in two game-winning goals. The Panthers have gone 4-1-0 since his return and climbed back within a single point of the second wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference.

It's not likely that Huberdeau will maintain his torrid pace of production all the way through to the end of the season, but his return to the lineup has provided a crucial boost at a time when it was desperately needed by the Panthers.

Nazem Kadri, Toronto Maple Leafs

Paul Vernon/Associated Press

Stats Through Dec. 31: 35 GP, 13-8-21, 0.60 points per game, minus-2

Stats Since Jan. 1: 21 GP, 10-13-23, 1.10 points per game, minus-3

Overview

The young Toronto Maple Leafs are defying expectations by making a serious push for a playoff spot in just their second year under head coach Mike Babcock. The team's crop of rookies tends to draw the headlines, but veteran Nazem Kadri has stepped up both his offense and his leadership to play an important role with this year's group, especially as the season wears on.

Though he was chosen seventh overall by Toronto back in 2009, Kadri hadn't developed into a true first-line player. His best season saw him collect 20 goals and 50 points in 2013-14.

But as the Maple Leafs' confidence has grown, so has Kadri's. His rate of production has almost doubled since Jan. 1. His 23 goals are already a career high, and his 10 power-play goals lead the team.

Compared to his teammates like Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner, Kadri's a graybeard at 26 years old, but the strides he's making this season are just as large as those of his rookie teammates.

The 2017 model of Nazem Kadri has a chance to finally live up to his draft position if he can maintain his current level of play and help the Leafs make some noise in the playoffs. 

Adam Larsson, Edmonton Oilers

Gerry Broome/Associated Press

Stats Through Dec. 31: 38 GP, 2-4-6, 0.16 points per game, minus-3

Stats Since Jan. 1: 19 GP, 1-7-8, 0.42 points per game, plus-17

Overview

Adam Larsson will always be in the unenviable position of being "the guy who was acquired for Taylor Hall," but he is showing signs of becoming the top-level, shutdown defenseman who Edmonton Oilers general manager Peter Chiarelli was targeting when he pulled the trigger on that controversial trade last summer.

Offensively, Larsson's doing about as well as could possibly have been expected. He has matched his career high of three goals and is on pace for 20 points, right in his usual ballpark.

But since Jan. 1, the impressive shift in Larsson's numbers comes in the plus/minus category. Though the Oilers got off to a strong start right from the beginning of the season, they allowed 98 goals in 38 games through the first thee months of the year—an average of 2.58 goals per game.

Since Jan. 1, Edmonton has cut that number down to 2.45 off 49 goals in 20 games—the fourth-lowest number of goals allowed in the league so far in 2017. Most Oilers are on the positive side of the plus/minus ledger since Jan. 1, but Larsson leads all his teammates by a long shot—his plus-17 dwarfs second place Connor McDavid's plus-11.

Playoffs are looking like they'll be a reality in Edmonton this spring for the first time since the Oilers reached the Stanley Cup Final in 2006. Once that postseason spotlight is turned up to high beam, Larsson will get his chance to show why Chiarelli was willing to pay such a high price to bring him to Edmonton.

Pekka Rinne, Nashville Predators

Mark Humphrey/Associated Press

Stats Through Dec. 31: 28 GP, 13-10-5, .915 save percentage, 2.53 goals-against average, 1 shutout

Stats Since Jan. 1: 15 GP, 9-4-1, .928 save percentage, 2.13 goals-against average, 1 shutout

Overview

Pekka Rinne was named the runner-up to Carey Price for the 2014-15 Vezina Trophy, but his numbers declined noticeably the following season. Rinne then flamed out quite spectacularly at the end of the Nashville Predators' 2016 playoff run, giving up 15 goals in his team's final four games and leading observers to wonder whether the 33-year-old was reaching the end of the road at the NHL level.

Rinne continued his subpar play at the beginning of the 2016-17 season, giving up 15 goals and recording just one win in his first five starts. After posting a 3.22 goals-against average and .906 save percentage in October, Rinne rebounded with a spectacular 9-1-2 month of November before struggling again in December.

Since the calendar turned to 2017, Rinne has finally dialed in that elusive consistency. His strong play has moved the Predators off the playoff bubble and back into the group of contenders in the Western Conference, and his personal numbers have been strong enough that he's now showing a 2.39 goals-against average and .920 save percentage for the year—both almost exactly in line with his career numbers.

In the 2016 playoffs, Nashville got bounced as soon as Rinne lost his way. The Predators will go only as far as he can take them again this year.

All stats courtesy of NHL.com and are current through Feb. 17.