NHL Weekend Shockers: The Rangers’ Stark Divide and a Surprising Bottom-5 Turnaround

Hockey’s landscape is often painted with broad strokes of despair and grumbling, but let’s flip that script for a moment. This season’s opener? It’s been surprisingly refreshing—a panorama peppered with bright spots and emerging stars making waves rather than echoing the usual dirges. As someone who’s long championed the sunny side of the rink, I’m compelled to tip my hat to what’s unfolded in these opening weeks. From youthful phenoms shaking up the scoreboards to a notable uptick in offensive flair, the ice has been anything but dull. Sure, we’ve skirted around major controversies and devastating blows, striking a balance that leaves you curious—and a bit hopeful—about what’s next. So, before the chatter shifts again, let’s celebrate a November that’s been more about promise and less about pitfalls. LEARN MORE.

In the hockey world, any no-talent hack can cry about how bad things are. But it takes a true visionary to focus on the positive. And so far this season, there’s been a lot of positive stories to talk about. Since I’m known as a big sunshine and optimism type of guy, let’s take a few minutes to recognize a very solid first month of the season.

Bonus five: Reasons the first month has been pretty great

5. The kids are taking over – You’ve probably seen the updating leaderboards all weekend, but just in case, here’s one more:

NHL scoring leaders:
1. Connor Bedard, 25
t2. Macklin Celebrini, 24
t2. Nathan MacKinnon, 24
3. Leo Carlsson, 23

The next wave has arrived.

— Mark Lazerus (@marklazerus.bsky.social) November 9, 2025 at 3:46 PM

That’s just cool. And while the names are fun, the numbers aren’t too shabby either. That’s because…

4. Scoring is up – Not a ton, and not quite up to the same level it was when it peaked in 2022-23. But after last year’s dip, some of us were worried we might be seeing a new trend. So far, it doesn’t seem that way (although scoring does tend to drop as the playoffs get closer, so we’ll see). More offense makes for a more entertaining league, a universal sports truth understood by every except NHL leadership from 1995 through roughly 2017.

3. The absence of anything (really) bad – I’m hesitant to even bring this up, but … really, what was the worst story of the first month? There’s been just one suspension, and it was from a season opener. We’ve had injuries, some serious, but nothing catastrophic. And I’m not even sure we’ve had a true controversy from the officials. Maybe that weird overtime goal with the net knocked off, but that was the right call.

All in all, that’s a pretty clean slate. It all makes you wonder what the hockey gods are getting ready to drop on us. You know what, forget I brought any of this up.

2. You can see the season-long stories coming into focus – A fun October is nice and all, but we’ve still got five months to go. That’s why it’s nice to see some intriguing season-long storylines starting to form. You’ve got the Penguins trying to put together one last run with the old guard. The Panthers, proud two-time defending Cup champs, decimated by injury and trying desperately not to fall too far out of the race while they wait for their injured stars to return. The Bruins, staking a claim as a true “nobody believed in us” playoff contender. Utah, Detroit and Seattle all finally looking like they’re ready to make an impact. Must-win teams like the Oilers, Wild, Leafs and Canucks who aren’t winning enough yet. And of course…

1. We’re seeing a change at the top – OK, the Avalanche are opening up a lead on top of the Central. But in the Metro, we’ve got the finally-putting-it-all-together Devils and the surprising Penguins. The Atlantic, confusing as it may be, has the young Canadiens flexing on the established contenders. And the Pacific might be the best story of all, as the Ducks look like an absolute wagon, scoring their way into first place. Man, anyone who picked them to make the playoffs looks like an absolute genius right now…

Let’s get to this week’s rankings, where the pressing question might just be in the bottom five…

@DownGoesBrown Surely if the #Blackhawks upset #RedWings on Sunday, you will no longer have them in the bottom 5, right??!!?

— Marty – Team Canada (@MartyChenette) November 8, 2025

Only one way to find out. Let’s do this.

Road to the Cup

The five teams with the best chances of winning the Stanley Cup.

Nice goal, but they stole this play from one of my go-to moves in NHL ’94.

5. Vegas Golden Knights (7-3-4, +5 true goals differential*) – No, I don’t have the guts to drop a team like Montreal or Anaheim into this spot … yet. We’re getting there. For now, our commitment to the long-term view means one more week of the established Knights, even as they’ve lost three of four.

4. Winnipeg Jets (9-6-0, +8) – This week was Hall of Fame time. As part of those conversations, I learned that there are some of you out there who think Connor Hellebuyck doesn’t deserve induction because he’s not a winner or whatever, and I just want to say you’re out of your minds. He has three Vezinas – real ones, not the Bunny Laroque variety. No, he doesn’t have as many Cup rings as Antti Niemi or Matt Murray, but come on.

3. Carolina Hurricanes (11-4-0, +16) – If you missed it during the week, be sure to check out Cory’s piece on how the Hurricanes are managing to win with a blue line full of rookies. Meanwhile, they absolutely dominated the Leafs last night, far more than the 5-4 final score would indicate.

2. New Jersey Devils (11-4-0, +7) – Saturday’s shootout win briefly put them in first place overall, at least in terms of points. It was also their 11th win of the year, a mark they hit before any other team had made it to 10, and they’re also near the top of the league in regulation wins and regulation/overtime wins. It’s too early to start thinking too hard about potential tie-breakers, but file that away.

1. Colorado Avalanche (10-1-5, +24) – Yep, they’re good.

But with apologies to the Avs, who’ve been in the top five every week so far and show no signs of leaving any time soon, I’m going to hijack their section this week to talk about the team they blew out on Saturday.

What was that, Edmonton?

I don’t have a great answer beyond “nothing good,” but Daniel takes a deeper look in the aftermath of disaster. Instead, I’ll make the same point I’ve made a few times on the podcast: Imagine if Connor McDavid hadn’t signed yet, and we were doing the whole “Every game is a referendum on the future of the franchise” thing right now. If Oilers fans think this is bad (and it is), that alternative universe is infinitely worse.

*Goals differential without counting shootout decisions like the NHL does for some reason.

Not ranked: New York Rangers – There are two teams headed in opposite directions in the Metro. The first is pretty close to unbeatable, sitting at 7-1-1 with a +12 goals differential. That team has beaten some good opponents, including the Canadiens, Penguins, Red Wings and Oilers. That team is really good.

The other teams stinks out loud, sitting at 0-6-1 and a horrific -17. Worse, they’ve been shut out five times in those seven games. They lost to the Sharks and Flames. They got absolutely smoked by the Islanders.

The twist, of course, is that both teams are the Rangers. The first one, the good one, is the Rangers when they’re on the road. The second one is those same Rangers on home ice.

Does that make sense? It does not. Then again, this is the same team that went from winning the Presidents’ Trophy in 2024 to missing the playoffs in 2025, so maybe the whole duality thing is just kind of their vibe. The New York Rangers: They contain multitudes.

The problem is one of the multitudes is embarrassingly bad. We saw it again on Saturday, when the Rangers welcomed their arch-rival Islanders to Madison Square Garden. And I mean that literally — they were extremely welcoming. Come in, make yourself at home, score a few late goals to run up the score.

That said, the game did give us this thing of beauty:

Zoom in on the crowd. https://t.co/njZsaztaDZ

— Sean Cuthbert (@seanyhockey) November 9, 2025

Tag yourself, I’m a combination of the woman looking at her phone and the Oilers fan who doesn’t realize how much worse his day is going to get in a few hours.

Those five home shutouts are close to incomprehensible, especially since the Rangers aren’t exactly a team that should have a ton of trouble scoring. Think of it this way: Somewhere in New York, there might be a Rangers fan who’s spent a ton of money to go to five different home games this year, and if you asked them what the team’s goal song was they’d answer, “You know, it’s never actually come up.”

So what now? We can probably pencil ourselves in for another two or three J.T. Miller “this isn’t good enough” speeches, and that’s good because those have obviously been super-effective. Beyond that, the bad news is they’re at home tonight against the Predators, so start Juuse Saros in fantasy if you’ve got him. But after that, they’re on the road for seven of their next nine, which means we get the good Rangers. And Mike Sullivan and friends get a chance to figure out what exactly is going on with one of the league’s very weirdest teams.

The bottom five

The five teams headed towards dead last and the best lottery odds for Gavin McKenna.

Wait… is this about the race for Gavin McKenna? The teenage phenom has been the presumptive first pick in the 2026 draft for a few years now, but the early returns on his college career have been merely good instead of historically great. That’s led to some muttering about whether someone could catch him in the rankings by next summer. Our prospect guys talked it through on “The Athletic Hockey Show,” which you can watch here, and Scott has an article digging deeper.

5. Buffalo Sabres (5-6-4, -9) – They heard us all complaining about how ridiculous it was to have the entire Eastern Conference at .500 or better, and they volunteered as tribute. Ah well, at least their leading scorer is a pending UFA who’s apparently going to cost a trillion dollars.

4. Nashville Predators (5-8-4, -16) – This week, we officially hit a pair of important milestones in any nightmare season: Literally finding a brand-new way to lose, and a veteran leader looking like he regrets every life choice that led him to this. The good news is they get a fun trip to Europe this week, followed by a few days off. May I suggest booking a fun team activity? Maybe a concert?

3. St. Louis Blues (5-8-3, -18) – Speaking of bummed-out veterans, Brayden Schenn isn’t exactly thrilled with things either. The Blues become the tenth different team to earn bottom five honors so far this season.

2. San Jose Sharks (7-6-3, -2) – Somebody refresh my memory, did any of these guys turn out to be any good?

Most points by a teenager in first 14 games of a season

Steve Yzerman (1984-1985) 23
Wayne Gretzky (1980-1981) 23
Sidney Crosby (2006-2007) 22
Macklin Celebrini (2025-2026) 21
Bryan Trottier (1975-1976) 21 pic.twitter.com/mV6ercOZuR

— Sportsnet Stats (@SNstats) November 6, 2025

1. Calgary Flames (4-11-2, -19) – “The big question in the bottom five this year: Will any team other than Chicago or San Jose ever get a chance to hold down the one-spot?” That was me, in the first weekend rankings of the season. Four weeks later, we have our answer. Welcome to the one-spot, Calgary.

They actually had a decent week, at least by their recent standards. But with the Sharks winning three straight, this is as much about them climbing up as it is about the Flames falling. And if you’re a Calgary fan who wants to see them fight their way out of this spot, there’s good news — their next two come against the two teams we just listed, St. Louis and San Jose.

One last note: RIP to former Flame Mel Bridgman, the first pick of the 1975 draft, a 14-year NHL veteran and the first GM of the Senators, among other achievements. The NHL Alumni Association announced his passing over the weekend.

Not ranked: Chicago Blackhawks – Yeah, it’s time.

Specifically, it’s time to set the Blackhawks free from their spot in the bottom five. They’ve been here a while – we’ll get to that – and didn’t exactly come into the season with sky-high expectations. And to be clear, they’re not exactly anybody’s idea of a Cup favorite right now. But that’s OK, because the process of reemerging as a contender has to start somewhere. And in Chicago, it sure looks like it’s starting right now.

The big story over the weekend was Connor Bedard, who was briefly the league’s leading scorer before being passed by fellow top pick Macklin Celebrini. Seeing those two names on top of the list is great news for the NHL (and maybe also Team Canada), raising the possibility that we could be seeing a true changing-of-the-guard type of season that we haven’t really had since the start of the cap era.

That’s a big-picture question for down the line. For now, Hawks fans can just enjoy a team that’s playing well, and doing it with a non-zero amount of swagger. Mark had more on the mood around the team following their steamrolling of the Flames. They do indeed have some dawgs.

And yes, they deserve a week off from the list of shame. How long has it been? The last time the Hawks weren’t in the bottom five was almost three full years ago, in November 2022. That’s a streak of 68 straight rankings with the Hawks somewhere in the bottom. Back then, the Bruins were on top of the rankings and a team that no longer exists was on the bottom. It was so long ago that the headline on that week’s post was “Who won the Matthew Tkachuk trade?” Yes, children, there really was a time when that felt like an open question. But it was a very, very long time ago, which gives you a sense of how long a slog it’s been for Chicago fans.

And of course, they might be back. We said we were setting them free, and you know the old cliché about how that can go. Maybe the Blackhawks will cool off, go back to looking like a rebuild in progress, and decide they want to come home to the familiar embrace of the bottom five. If so, we’ll have a spot ready for them, with a blanket and a warm cup of tea.

But until then, they’ve earned a break. The streak is over. Now let’s see where this thing can go.