A bright spot in the Coyotes slow start …
The 2017-18 season couldn’t have started worse for the Arizona Coyotes.
They’ve lost eight consecutive games out of the gate, only one of which made it past regulation. They have been outscored by 16 in the process, and they are already seven points back of a playoff spot.
As the saying goes, though, there are positives in everything and, in the early going, none have been more evident than the play of Clayton Keller.
The 2016 7th overall pick is off to a tremendous start in his first full season having recorded six goals, eight points, and 30 shots on goal in his first eight games.
As impressive as his counting totals are, his underlying numbers may be even more encouraging. He’s been one of the league’s best offensive players at 5v5 and is keeping company with some of the league’s brightest stars in several key categories.
Whether Keller can go toe-to-toe with those guys over the course of the season remains to be seen, but it bodes well for the Coyotes that he’s even in the same realm.
The Coyotes are likely in for another long season but, on the bright side, it appears they have found something special in Clayton Keller.
Montreal is due for some positive regression …
Another team off to a horrific start are the Montreal Canadiens.
They were projected by many — myself included — to be a playoff team again this year yet, eight games into the season, they have just one win to their name.
While they have been a mess at times, they haven’t been as bad as their record suggests. There’s plenty of reason to believe things will turn for the good sooner than later.
For one, Carey Price hasn’t played like Carey Price. He owns a .891 save percentage on the year and hasn’t been able to stop a beach ball thus far.
Given he has a .920 career save percentage and has been above that number in four of the last five seasons, he started 40+ games in; it seems like only a matter of time before he bounces back in a big way.
The Habs have also been *extremely* unlucky. At 5v5, they’ve out-attempted their opponents by 56 and out-chanced them by 28, which is the 4th best differential in the league, yet been outscored by 16 and shot just 3.18% in that game state. No team has scored on less than 6.26% of their shots at 5v5 over the last three seasons, so it’s safe to say Montreal is due for some positive regression there as well.
Artturi Lehkonen is tied for 11th in 5v5 scoring chances with Nikita Kucherov, Sean Monahan, and Joe Pavelski, among others, yet hasn’t scored a goal in that game state. Brendan Gallagher is tied with the likes of Tyler Seguin in 5v5 chances and is yet to score in that game state. Andrew Shaw is tied with Vladimir Tarasenko and Nik Ehlers, among others, in 5v5 chances and is yet to score in that game state. There are other Canadiens players — like Max Pacioretty — generating a lot of good looks and not being rewarded for it, too.
These players and the team as a whole are due for some bounces to go their way and when they do, the wins should be there.
Don’t write off the Canadiens just yet.
Written by Todd Cordell (@ToddCordell)
