Continuing the Dark Horses portion of my NHL Previews series, the Los Angeles Kings aren’t the same team they were in the earlier half of the decade. Jonathon King is still a premier NHL goalie but has slowed down considerably and is currently injured. Dustin Brown is also injured but doesn’t bring the same energy he did when he captained the Kings to Stanley Cup victories in 2012 and 2014. A bulk of the players are in their 30s, which means a rebuilding cycle is coming up. It will also be interesting to see if captain Anze Kopitar’s 92-point season was a fluke.
The Columbus Blue Jackets are sitting third in the Metropolitan Division but they have only played five games so far. It’s a good start, but don’t expect it to last. They have lost a few of their better players to free agency, such as Ian Cole, Thomas Vanek, and Jack Johnson. They still have Zach Werenski, Alexander Wennberg, Artemi Panarin and Boone Jenner, but the locker room seemed to be on the verge of exploding during the off-season, with both Panarin and star goalie Sergei Bobrovsky announcing they intend to test the market at the end of the season.
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Like Columbus, the Chicago Blackhawks are overachieving. The team is stacked with some of the best talents of the past two decades, such as Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews, Brent Seabrook and Duncan Keith. Like the Kings, all four players are on the other side of 30. However, they do have some surprising young players at their disposal, such as Alex Debrincat, who has already racked up nine points in his second NHL season. Even more surprising is the undrafted German player Dominick Kahun, a training camp invitee who now has four points in five games. Debrincat and maybe Kahun might just be the cornerstones the Blackhawks build the next cycle around.
The Colorado Avalanche made the playoffs last year for the first time since 2014, and will be trying their hardest to make sure it was no fluke. On paper, they have enough talent that says they can. Nathan MacKinnon proved last year with 97 points that he’s not just “the other guy from Coal Harbour,” Gabriel Landeskog does whatever is required of him, and Mikko Rantanen was silently one of the best players in the league last season. However, the Avalanche are sharing a division with the Nashville Predators, Winnipeg Jets and the Dallas Stars.
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Now for the Can Dos, or rather the most likely to get into the playoffs. The Calgary Flames made some big changes this year, such as adding Noah Hanifin and Elias Lindholm and getting rid of Dougie Hamilton. The latter will be missed, but the two players who have joined in his stead have already signed six years of their life to the Canadian club and are doing well, especially Lindholm, who may have his breakout season this year. With Johnny Gaudreau, Matthew Tkachuk, Sean Monahan, Mark Giordano, Travis Hamonic and even Sam Bennett, the Calgary Flames are almost ready to challenge for the Cup in the near future.
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