I'll pick the obvious story that most people would pick this time. Toronto is good. Anyone remember S53? We had a total of 6 wins then and people were making for of us (Tampa took that spot away a bit later with their 0-50 season). Look at us now.
This is a team that has worked hard and gone through a complete rebuild. Being on the team since the beginning: it wasn't easy. Especially not in this division when it was guaranteed before the season had even started that we would be in 4th place at the end of the regular season every time. By now everyone has heard about the Great Lakes and how we share this division with the top 3 teams in the SHL. We're not even done with our rebuild yet, so even if we won't make the playoffs this season, we've already shown that we're a top 5 team and unless something goes completely wrong, we will be Cup contenders soon. This shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone who's been watching us for the past 5 seasons either.