(photo via Yahoo Sports)
We are crawling our way to the quarter mark of the NHL season and man have there been some incredible surprises!
Jonathan Marchessault is top 10 in scoring and is on pace for 82 points.
It’s looking like Artem Anisimov might finally hit the 50 goal mark that he’s been striving for his entire career!
Jimmy Howard is back in Vezina form like we all expected.
The expected basement-dwelling Blue Jackets are looking like a playoff contender and the perennial losers of the NHL, the Edmonton Oilers, are tied for first in the west!
And …. well it’s been roughly 13 games so don’t take any stock into any of this. Which is why I’m especially irritated when someone will bring up the Taylor Hall trade… again. It’s been 13 games and yet people are ready to jump back to the conclusion that Hall was bad in the locker room, and was the reason this team couldn’t succeed on the ice.
Adam Larsson has been good, but by no means has he been a game changer. His numbers are all fairly average and nothing really stands out, apart from his hit totals. He is not the reason the Oilers have been winning these games, so to automatically assume that this hot start by the Oil is a direct result of that deal is incredibly ridiculous.
Don’t get me wrong, I believe the Hall for Larsson deal will work out in the long-term for both clubs, but to be jumping to conclusions of any sort after just 13 games is absolutely nonsensical.
You don’t need to go too far to find another example of this extreme conclusion jumping. The Montreal Canadiens are off to another hot start and are being led by the newly acquired Shea Weber. While the Nashville Predators have fallen flat on their face and struggled mightily at even strength.
So naturally you should know that the Canadiens success is 100% due to not having PK Subban around, while the only race the Predators will be in come the end of the year is the one for the 1st overall pick.
Once again, while this deal may look lopsided now, let me say it again: it’s been 13 games and I firmly believe the general view of this trade will be much different a year or two from now.
So show all the numbers you want to try to prove Shea Weber should win the Norris and present to me all the theories you want on how Taylor Hall or PK Subban were locker room cancers. But none of it matters until AT LEAST the 20 game mark. Even then I would argue it’s far too early in the year to measure an individual players success.
So don’t be running around making bold claims of the Oilers being Stanley Cup contenders or PK Subban being a bad teammate because that’s just absurd.
About as absurd as Artem Anisimov winning the Art Ross.
