Let's be real for a moment here.
@MassHavoc has a lot of good points.
This team is around a single point per game, which at best puts them middle of the pack--which is not the best place to be during a rebuild. In fact, our point percentage (standings points) puts us tied for Nashville in the bottom 2 of the division.
Every team except Columbus in the division has games in hand.
We have yet to win in overtime. We're 4-4-4. 2 of those losses OTL are SOL, the other two are ROL. Our actual record is 4 wins, 4 losses, 2OTL, and 2 SOL. That is less of a .500 record and more of a losing record in terms of actual winning and possibly projecting it to playoff-type play.
We rank 16th in GF/GP with 2.92. We rank 19th in GA/GP with 3.03 and we rank 30th in SA/GP with 34.2. Comparing that to 'hawk teams since the 2016 season: This team so far ranks 4th in GF/GP--worse than last year so far. This team ranks 4th in GA/GP--worse than last year by a very slim margin, and 5th in SA/GP, only last year was worse.
The goal differential so far is -4. We were -6 last season. Slightly better but there's a ton of hockey left.
Only El Gato and Soderberg have a positive on-ice even strength goal differential, at 2 each. Carpenter, Zaddy, and Beaudin are even. Everyone else has a negative differential--DeHaan being the worst at -8.
Only Kampf is over 50% at the dot at even strength. Chances are we're chasing the puck at even strength unless the 4th line is out.
DeHaan is the worst in the league in turnovers. Keith is 4th worst. They each have 6 takeaways: they're coughing the puck up more then they're taking it back, and being defensemen that means that it'll ead to the opposition posessing it more and getting better chances.
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In other words, they are exactly what I thought they would be in the offseason--except for 1 major caveat: The O is respectable--especially without Toews and Dach. We suck at faceoffs...especially without Toews. Our D is embarrassing but maybe slightly better than last year with Zadorov in and Maata out, but it's not enough to make a dent in better vs. worse. It's still horrible.
Now, to be positive here, there are some good things I'm seeing...starting with the major caveat: Goaltending. Lankinen has great poise and is doing most everything right. He's been thrown to the wolves, but he looks like he belongs and it's his net to lose. Great for rebuilding, but it doesn't make the team better than last year. A lot of the rookies and 2nd/3rd year players are indeed doing well. That is also good. Debrincat looks better. Koob doesn't look like he's slowed down too much and has shown some ability to set guys up. The powerplay looks good and guys tend to be doing things right.
Ultimately though, I don't think this is a team going anywhere. Any team with a good offense is going to give the 'hawks fits (Florida, Tampa, and likely Dallas). Any team with good defense (Tampa, Nashville, likely Dallas) will contain our O. The tale of the tape so far proves this: Tampa held us to to or less, and scored 5 on us. Florida scored 5 on us, and held us to 2 and 4, respectively. Detroit we beat up--holding them to 2 and 1 and scoring 4 and 6. Nashville held us to 2 and 1, respectively, but scored 3 and 2--both required extra time. Columbus was held to 2 and 1, One game that held is to 1, and the other game we got 3. We let Carolina score 4--in one game they held us to 3 and it was a shootout loss, the other we scored 6.
Over the course of the year, I think we might be at worst, a 500 team and at best a bottom 3rd team. While there are many positives, those are long-run rebuilding positives. I doubt the team is a playoff team.