3. Last week, the Tampa Bay Lightning pummeled the Carolina Hurricanes 8-2, setting an NHL record for shooting percentage in a single game at 57 percent (not a typo). Even more impressive was Nikita Kucherov, who was on the ice for all eight goals — and just 10 shots. The Lightning shot 80 percent from the field with Kucherov on the ice, an absurdly impossible number. Funny enough, Kucherov didn’t even actually have the highest on-ice shooting percentage that night. His linemate Brayden Point went seven for eight.

I did some digging and it’s only the third time since 2009-10 a player has been on the ice for eight goals (Sam Gagner in 2012 and Shayne Gostsibehere in 2022 were the others). There have been 27 games where a player was on for seven or more goals in a single game — Kucherov is the only player who’s done it twice. Of those 27 games, he and Point were also the most efficient with the Lightning scoring on 80 or more percent of their shots. The next lowest was Gostisbehere in 2022, going eight for 12 — a 67 percent on-ice shooting percentage. The average for those games before Kucherov’s and Point’s performances was 46 percent.

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One other note on this: Of the 27 games, 23 of them were from the 2017-18 season and beyond — the year scoring took a massive jump. If scoring keeps trending up, is nine or 10 on-ice goals a possibility?

4. Detroit won the Patrick Kane “sweepstakes” on Tuesday, signing him to a one-year deal at $2.75 million. I don’t think he’s as cooked as some other analysts think, but it’s hard to get too excited after hip surgery and seeing him flop with the New York Rangers. There’s potential there — in both directions.

For now, here’s the best guess: He’ll be a secondary scoring winger who can put up 50 points while being a drag defensively. That’s worth a plus-1 Offensive Rating, but a minus-2 Defensive Rating — fine for a middle-six scoring role. There’s a lot of room in either direction though and that could dictate Detroit’s playoff push. The addition of Kane brought the Red Wings from 35 to 40 percent (though that’s dropped since with performances from other East teams in the hunt). That could be lower if his defensive issues hurt the team’s current balance more than expected, or higher if he finds a way to return to form as an offensive engine.

5. Sometimes a change of scenery works. Last year Simon Benoit had the second lowest expected goals percentage in the league at 35.6 percent. This year he has the highest for a defenseman at 64.7 percent. He’s only played seven games, sure, but that’s still a massive turnaround.

Of course, sometimes a change of scenery doesn’t work. Filip Zadina got a new lease on his NHL life in San Jose and it hasn’t exactly worked out as expected. At minus-5.6, Zadina has the second worst Net Rating in the league ahead of only teammate Mario Ferraro (whose minute difficulty is probably vastly undersold by any stat). Zadina has just five points in 20 games, a 30 percent expected goals rate and has been outscored 22-5 at five-on-five.

Maybe he needs a better environment himself, but being the worst player on the worst team isn’t exactly a ringing endorsement that Zadina has a whole lot to offer. 

6. In the month of November, Jackson Lacombe is being outscored 17-1 at five-on-five. Welcome to the NHL!

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Maybe saddling a rookie defenseman with the toughest minutes on the team isn’t quite the best strategy for success. The Ducks need Jamie Drysdale back badly.

7. The Kings have found something extremely real in their Matt Roy and Vladislav Gavrikov pairing. I was skeptical of the Gavrikov deal at the time, but am more than happy to eat a heaping bowl of crow on that because he’s been one-half of arguably the league’s best shutdown pair.

The duo has played 469 minutes together and in that time the Kings have outscored opponents 27-12, a completely sustainable rate considering their sterling 66 percent expected goals rate. That’s driven mostly by defense where the pair has allowed just 1.8 expected goals against per 60. 

While Gavrikov has been a perfect fit, I do believe Roy deserves a lot of credit here. He had a strong career before that of above average defensive impacts. This year he ranks ninth in Defensive Rating among defensemen at plus-2.

8. One other reason the Kings have been especially good this year: depth, depth, depth. Just two of their 18 regular skaters (Trevor Lewis and Mikey Anderson, both of whom are only barely below average, too) have a below average Net Rating this season. That means 16 of their skaters (89 percent) have performed better than a league average skater, by far the best mark in the league. The next best team is at 72 percent and the average of the other top 10 teams is 62 percent. 

With four players scoring at a point per game or higher, the league’s best five-on-five numbers and a return to form for Cam Talbot — the Kings are starting to look like the team to beat in the West.

9. Eeli Tolvanen was a fantastic find for the Kraken. That he was even put on waivers in the first place is a terrible look for Nashville and it’s been Seattle’s gain over the last year. He’s now played 71 games for the Kraken and has scored 21 goals and 42 points, a solid 49-point pace. He’s been a strong driver of the team’s depth scoring and has really pushed the pace this year on his usual line with Oliver Bjorkstrand and Yanni Gourde. 

With Seattle’s best starting slow, it’s been this line that’s been a consistent source of offense for the team. After a brief stint apart, the trio has been back together over the last 11 games. In that time Tolvanen has 10 points, Bjorkstrand has nine and the trio’s expected goals rate is clicking at a nearly 60 percent clip. If the Kraken make the playoffs, this line will be a big reason why.

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10. With so many other things to talk about in Oil Country, Leon Draisaitl’s turn as a two-way force has flown a bit under the radar. 

The principal complaint with Draisaitl has always been his defensive game. When he’s on the ice the Oilers have a tendency to bleed scoring chances, which minimizes his enormous impact with the puck. The Oilers have allowed over 0.2 more expected goals against per 60 in each of the last five seasons with Draisaitl on the ice. His impact there has been consistently near the bottom of the league and during that time frame ranks 10th worst in the league.

This year he’s flipped the script: The Oilers have allowed only 2.43 expected goals against per 60 with Draisaitl on the ice, 0.21 better than the team average. That’s a lot better and I wonder how much his teammates on the back end have to do with that. Edmonton’s defense corps has been less than stellar through most of Draisaitl’s career and maybe that’s been an under-reported issue all along. Draisaitl has spent 43 percent of his minutes with Mattias Ekholm this season, a huge upgrade from previous seasons spent playing with an over-taxed Darnell Nurse, or someone who would be a third-pair option on an actual contender.

11. With 12 points in his last three games (and three straight games with three-point periods), is it safe to say Connor McDavid is back? Not quite! His teammates are finally putting his passes in the net, but he’s still struggling in that regard himself. 

That stems from McDavid just not shooting the puck nearly as much as last season. At five-on-five his shots per 60 is at 6.1 this season, down from 9.5. On the power play, he’s at 14, down from 20.2. In both cases, his average shot quality has dropped as well. Last year McDavid scored 64 goals off of 48.5 expected goals. This year he’s on pace for just 35 off of 33.7 expected goals. 

McDavid isn’t back until that creeps back up and he’s actually been trending down in recent games.

12. It’s a similar story for Jason Robertson. Last year he scored 46 goals, took 312 shots and had 35.1 expected goals. His pace this year: 25 goals, 217 shots, 22.5 expected goals. Ouch.

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13. The Blues have a tendency to confound analytics and this year they’re doing it in very creative ways. Despite the team ranking 25th in expected goals at even strength, 24th in actual goals, 31st on the power play and 16th on the penalty kill — St. Louis is 11-9-1. That’s a solid 90-point pace despite a modest minus-4 goal differential.

Aside from good sequencing luck, the goal differential is also misleading given the team’s weaknesses in every score state. But there are two situations where the Blues excel that don’t get much attention: empty net and short-handed.

With a net empty, the Blues are genuinely excellent. They do a great job of putting games away (5-0) and fighting back (1-2). That plus-4 goal differential is one of the best in the league and is backed by a plus-6 expected goal differential. It’s a similar deal short-handed: six short-handed goals for and only two against. 

The team is plus-8 in situations most would overlook and minus-12 otherwise. It’s a bit unconventional — we’ll see if it’s sustainable. 

14. With the Blues staying competitive to start, any potential trade talks for Colton Parayko have obviously cooled down. But if you think a strong start is being fueled by his return to form, you’d be mistaken.

Parayko leads the team in ice time at 23:27, but what he’s done in that time hasn’t been great. He has just six points in 21 games, 44 percent of the expected goals and 32 percent of the actual goals — both team worsts among defensemen. His Net Rating of minus-3.7 is the 18th worst mark in the league.

15. Arizona is playing at a solid 86-point pace, a strong improvement over last season. There’s some potential for more growth too once the top line starts scoring as expected.

Clayton Keller, Nick Schmaltz and Barrett Hayton were a force last year earning 56 percent of the expected goals and 58 percent of the actual goals. This season they’ve upped the ante on the expected front clicking to the tune of 62 percent in 175 minutes thanks to improved defense. The results haven’t quite been there yet though as they’re only scoring 2.13 goals per 60 as a trio and earning just 41 percent of the goals as a result. Don’t expect that line to only score on 6.6 percent of their shots for long.

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16. With a quarter of the season in the books it will soon be time for this year’s first edition of Awards Watch. Before that gets put out into the universe, let’s start the hype train early on one award in particular: the Selke Trophy.

With Patrice Bergeron out of the picture, the race for best defensive forward has the potential to be one of the most fascinating this year. My pick from the first quarter? Aleksander Barkov. Easily.

He has the requisite reputation as a previous winner while also having the results to back it up. With Barkov on the ice, the Panthers have allowed just 1.74 expected goals against per 60 (ninth) and 0.72 goals against per 60 (fifth). That’s while continuing to be an elite force with the puck, taking on tough minutes and playing in all situations (his efforts on the penalty kill have been excellent, too). 

I mentioned above that the Panthers have done a good job battening down the hatches defensively this season — their captain is a massive part of that.

Data via Evolving Hockey, Natural Stat Trick, Hockey Stat Cards

(Top photos of Patrick Kane, Sidney Crosby and Leon Draisaitl: Danny Wild,  Timothy T. Ludwig and Perry Nelson / USA Today)