The season is still under a month old, and we are seeing some interesting things in he standings. If you are ESPN or TSN only, you might know that the Montreal Canadiens and Pittsburgh Penguins are off to hot starts. This is a bit unexpected, certainly, but even when bad, the Canadiens and Penguins aren't going to fall out of the limelight. Their return to relevance, at least to start the year, is known by all.
We start to get a little funky out west. It is strange to see the Kraken in the top three of the Pacific, but not altogether bothersome. After all, they sit below Golden Knights, who are the benchmark of teams that forned and were shot out of a cannon. It's still stranger, I would say, than seeing the Canadiens on top out east.
The big winner for strangely strong starts in the traditional sense belongs to the Utah Mammoth. Yes, this is the first year of the Mammoth, but I just noted that it isn't strange any longer for new teams to ascend to the top of the heap right out of the gate. But this isn't just any new team. This is the rebrand of the Arizona Coyotes.
The Mammoth aren't exactly full of ne players to the organization, either. The leading scorer of that last team in Arizona, Clayton Keller, is no the captain for the Mammoth. Karel Vejmelka, the goalie, was the back up at Mullet Arena. Now, he is between the pipes most nights in Salt Lake City.
The team has reaped what was sowed in Arizona. They are young, and years of high draft picks are finally paying off for fans in a new market. This is the lesson in patience that has paid off for the Florida Panthers, who were terrible for so long , learned and embraced. Maybe the Utah Mammoth have always been on the long term plan.
Or maybe playing in the Phoenix suburbs is just that depressing, that even a move to play in Salt Lake City is an inspiration. If that's the case, it's a strategy that will be pretty hard to replicate.
