Opening 10 games can be key measuring stick for season

The Coaches Room is a regular feature throughout the 2024-25 season by former NHL coaches and assistants who turn their critical gaze to the game and explain it through the lens of a teacher.

In this edition, Paul MacLean, former coach of the Ottawa Senators and assistant with the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, Detroit Red Wings, Columbus Blue Jackets and Toronto Maple Leafs talks about the importance of getting off to a good start and the early surprises this season.

Getting into the first 10 games of the season, everybody is always encouraged by what they did in the summer and everyone’s training camp went well and they ignore the exhibition play, that’s not going to be the way things go when the real games happen, they are actually going to play better.

But now that they’re actually playing real games, and some teams are saying, ‘Oh man we lost three or four,’ and other teams are going, ‘We won five, what’s going on?’

So, in that aspect of it for me, the Calgary Flames are the one team that was supposed to be at the bottom of the standings and have found a way to be at the top of the standings after missing the playoff last year. That would be a team that would be on the upgrade, Seattle is a team that is also playing well.

Then on the other side, is how the Edmonton Oilers and Nashville Predators have started.

Winnipeg is off to a great start in the Central Division along with Dallas. There is no big surprise with Dallas. I was a little bit concerned with Winnipeg and how they would come out of the gate but they actually found their game right away and it’s good to see for them.

Colorado has looked really confused and they’ve lost a lot of guys with injuries, but still they have really good players and they should be a better team than they are, so that’s a really big surprise. The other team that has surprised me is Nashville.

I watched them play the other night and they didn’t look like they had a whole lot of pace, they didn’t have a whole lot of game. They went out and signed Steven Stamkos and Jonathan Marchessault to help them. The unfortunate part about that is Steven Stamkos had Nikita Kucherov to pass him the puck for 10 years and now he has somebody else doing it and it’s just not the same.

If you’re a shooter, you need someone that can load the gun and you just need to pull the trigger, and right now it doesn’t look like they have the pace or the ability to get them the puck often enough, and flat enough that he’s going to be able to make a difference. I think Marchessault struggles to keep up in the game.

It’s important to try and get off to a good start. Tommy McVie (former NHL coach and scout) always said catch-up hockey is losing hockey, Heinz 57 hockey. You can’t make the playoffs in the first 20 games, but you can miss them.

The old saying is that by U.S. Thanksgiving (Nov. 28) where you are in the standings that’s where you’ll finish. We’re not that far from U.S. Thanksgiving, when you’re into the first 10 games. Everyone is getting close to the first 10 games, so 10 more games to play is going to tell a lot of teams where they are and how they’re going to be.

Getting off to a good start can really make your season way easier. It’s not going to put pressure on the team early in the season and force them to start playing playoff games before Christmas. So, getting off to a good start is always what everybody is looking for and it can be a great advantage late in the season if you bank those points in October and into November, you’re resting on those points when you get to April or May.

All the points count the same so get all you can. I remember being with the Red Wings and that was a big thing, to get off to a good start, the same when I was with the Ducks. Having a good start and getting out in the first 10 games and being well over. 500, like 8-2, or 7-3, you want to be three or four games over by the time you play 10 to 15 games and then continuing that getting in up to 20.

Ken Holland (former Detroit general manager) was the first person I heard talk about U.S. Thanksgiving, so he was big on that. If you go back through the years and go back in time, it’s pretty accurate that where you are on that date is where you are at the end of the year.

The New Jersey Devils are off to a good start. They have such a good team on paper and adding a goalie in Jacob Markstrom from Calgary has really given them a lot of confidence compared to their goaltending last year. But the guy that I think is really making a difference is having Dougie Hamilton healthy.

You have a No. 1 defenseman that can generate offense and play 30-some minutes and control the tempo of the game. History shows that teams that win Stanley Cup have that guy. They have a guy like that, which gives them such confidence having a goaltender like that back there and their young players are so good and so talented they’re going to score goals. Their biggest question mark with what they added is are they going to be willing to defend hard enough and keep up to what they score.

Sheldon (Keefe) has a way of playing and I think they’ve embraced the new coach and how he does things, and I think they’re full marks for where they are.

I am not surprised they got off to the start they did, just because of the changes they made and the quality of people they have, especially the quality of Dougie Hamilton coming back. Getting him back from injury and now having a good goalie, they’re going to be tough to beat, as well as the New York Rangers.

They are good, they have it going on and their goalie is proving he is worth it, give him $100 million, what’s the difference, he’s stopping all the pucks.

They’re really in a good spot and playing well right now, but again, it’s only 10 games in, but that Metropolitan Division is going to be tough.