Hello and welcome to another weekly snapshot of the SHL standings article, this is the observations after week 1, let’s dig into it.

Pacific division – All according to plan

Pacific is roughly in a state I expected it coming into the season already. Seattle is currently 2nd in the league, very closely following the leaders so far, Calgary is left alone to capture 2nd in the division if they don’t collosally fall off from their last season performance and it seems they have experience a bit of a fall, but nothing absolutely major and are still a little overperforming compared to their roster, and then comes the not contending but not quite rebuilding anymore Edmonton, clawing ahead of San Francisco and LA to claim 3rd. The expected results are there, but Calgary isn’t really getting much clearance away from the bottom 3, and might be challengable by the 3rd place team, whoever claims that spot. Edmonton would certainly love to, and would certainly enjoy playing just a little bit more often at home (4 games, 3-1-0 record), than away, where they won 4, and lost 9 games totalling 13! of their 17 total games. SFP and LAP are, by all means, where they sort of want to be, I think neither really care about the playoffs, but it might be a nice final goodbye wave to the last bits of your competetive window as you kiss it goodbye, and so far, SFP is marginally ahead, although with the reversed fate of EDM, therefore having played way too many home games for this point of the season, so the expectations are they won’t really earn points quite at this rate further down the line.

The expectations here for week 2 are pretty simple then – Seattle attempts to catch and overtake for 1st, Calgary floats around hoping they don’t hit a cold streak and tank themselves badly out of the relatively free 2nd place, Edmonton likely shoots up a little bit as they start playing more and more of their home games and might start challenging Calgary if they float a bit too unconvincingly, and LAP might find themselves outtanked by SFP if SFP can’t find too much more in their upcoming away games, likely falling to the last place in the division.

Central division – Wind to the sails

I have been a little skeptical about putting Chicago 3rd in my predictions, and for now, they are proving that I was quite harsh to them. I didn’t expect though, that I would be this harsh, as Chicago currently occupies 1st, a point ahead but with a game more than Winnipeg, and enjoys a bit of a bounceback from the woes of last season. Winnipeg has started ridiculously strong, and then hit some rocks as home games haven’t been as kind to them as other top teams, and their offense didn’t quite start as hot as some teams, even though their defense is 2nd to none. In fact, the 3 best GAs of the week are coming from the Central, as New Orleans are the 3rd strongest defense in the SHL, but with a nasty twist of their offense being freezing ice cold. These three are however very close to each other, and for New Orleans, this is an interesting opportunity to jump to an unexpected 1st if their offense manages to refire and start pumping out goals at a more appropriate pace. Good words can be said about Minnesota, they are currently sitting at a relatively pleasant spot compared to their last few seasons, and even though the race for playoffs is a little close this early on, Minnesota is at least happily on the WC1 spot having played decently both home and away, so the indications are looking relatively strong. Texas, on the other hand, is so far not enjoying themselves as much, and even though LAP and SFP really would enjoy not being in the playoffs, it requires Texas to stop leaking as badly defensively as they did so far.

What does week 2 bring? Both Winnipeg and Chicago are likely to play a bit more at home, so the expected result is they will probably stay very close to each other throughout the time. They likely will run away from NOLA, that has done well away, but will play even more away games and might regress to mean if they can’t find their scoring. Minnesota will look for all the points they can get, and will very likely successfully defend their WC1 spot against Texas, that needs to figure out their defense, or the heavier away schedule might tank them even further back.

Atlantic division – Top and bottom

Just like the central division, it seems that even this early on, the top 3 playoff spots are somewhat decided already. Atlanta is again enjoying a very good season, and at 3rd in the league, are proving once again that the flame hasn’t gone out much at all. Philadelphia has performed very well at home, but hasn’t played quite as much away as other teams in their division, but is so far still 2nd, and ahead of their seemingly ever present rivals from downtown New York. Manhattan hasn’t had the hottest start in the world, and seemingly has had a lot of struggles with defensive structures leading to a lot of goals against, but have been winning games at home very reliably, just struggled badly away so far. Baltimore has landed themselves in 4th, seeing a small progression since last season, but mostly capitalizing on two things – not many away games yet, a thread very familiar and very important to remember in FHM 8, the home of home games, and Tampa falling of the sky all the way down to 5th.  Tampa hasn’t been doing well, plain and simple. Not home, not away, they haven’t really found a success plan yet and while there is a decent chunk of the season left to play, if they want to fight for a guaranteed playoff spot, the time is ticking relatively fast as Philly and Manhattan won’t let you breathe for too much longer, and they certainly do not want to leave their positions for cheap.

Week 2 might have very little in store for Atlantic. Atlanta will likely continue to excel in 1st, with Philly and Manhattan likely squabbling over 2nd with relatively balanced schedules and very little difference in terms of points unless Manhattan just keeps hanging their goalie out to dry. I would expect Tampa to utilize the upcoming away-heavy schedule for Baltimore to take over 4th, but that requires Tampa to win games – and they haven’t done very well doing that lately.

North East division – Surprises everywhere

The Toronto North Stars are currently the best team in the league. It’s pretty hard to argue with, yet very likely a little confusing to fully understand with the strong Western teams around. Maybe that is a part of the equation, since strength of schedule is something that’s kinda hard to properly follow, but Toronto has had a slightly disappointing offseason losing a big piece, and bounced back spectacularly. I expected them to lead the division regardless, but not with the style they are showing so far, to be honest. 2nd in the division is another small surprise, with Buffalo bouncing right up and having a fairly decent time home and even away, seemingly rejuvenated after the expectations have fallen off and not a lot of people expected much from them. Montreal on 3rd is so far a little similar to Manhattan, in that they had decent time at home, but nowhere near as much decent of a time in away games. Unlike Manhattan though, their main problem isn’t defense, but offense, which hasn’t been very active out of the gates and hopes to pick up a little bit as the season continues. The woes of Montreal have opened the door pretty wide open for New England, who are starting to look more and more dangerous after ending their rebuild, and are knocking on the doors of playoffs, even if with a help of a few OT points. They are certainly the healthiest looking of the non top-3 teams in the East so far, and it wouldn’t be a surprise to see them continue being a nuissance to the stragglers in the division. The last but certainly not least, although technically that’s true too, Hamilton has pretty much confirmed their position as the odd man out in the division to a T. They picked up some wins towards the end of the week, but are already so far out of the picture that expecting them to get to playoffs is starting to get pretty hard, and Hamilton might be very happy about that to be honest with you. I said this division had the most potential for upsets and was likely to get mixed up a little bit from what I predicted, and me doubting myself seems to have been the way to go here.

Week 2 is likely going to be as exciting here as week 1. Toronto might need to prove themselves away from Toronto for a little bit, but they seem pretty capable of doing so, while Buffalo, Montreal and New England are still way too close to each other to properly separate from each other, even though Buffalo’s offense might be the reason they stay 2nd ahead of them. Hamilton is not likely to move and most likely to enjoy that outcome aswell.

Well, that’s all from me, see you next week!