Tage Thompson is making the po...

Welcome to 10 Insights and Observations. Every Thursday, I’ll use this space to highlight teams, players, storylines, and general musings around the NHL, and perhaps at times, the greater hockey world.

This week we look at players and teams rebounding, Quinn Hughes being a ray of light for Vancouver and the Nashville defenseman factory and much more.

Tage Thompson is the NHL's newest star

Tage Thompson broke out with 38 goals last season, then signed a massive seven-year, $50-million contract with the Buffalo Sabres. Most people are well aware of who he is at this point. Before going pointless in the second game of a back-to-back, Thompson was on a run of 12 games where he put up 12 goals and 23 points. He had 72 shots in those 12 games. These are video game numbers. He’s had a number of highlight reel goals and assists over that stretch, combining his soft hands with his big frame to simply make plays that defenders can’t defend. He’s 6-foot-6; if he holds the puck out wide and he’s half a foot taller than you, what are you going to do? The answer is, very little. But one of the goals that oddly stuck out to me was one that was not really a highlight, on his side of things anyways, at all.

The Predators keep churning out defensive prospects

Nashville has been known as a defenseman factory over the years. From Ryan Suter to Shea Weber, from Ryan Ellis and Mattias Ekholm, followed by Roman Josi going turning into a top-three blueliner in the league. Alexandre Carrier won’t be nearly as good as any of those stars, but they’ve developed a nice little player in the 26-year-old. He is fourth among Nashville defensemen in time on ice per game despite being pointless through 18 games. He’s on a defensive pairing with Mattias Ekholm and they are controlling over 56 percent of shot attempts, and are at almost 70 percent in expected goals! A large part of that is Ekholm, to be sure, as he’s still a force out there.

Kraken's offense finally buzzing

One of the quieter trades in the offseason was the Seattle Kraken snagging Oliver Bjorkstrand from the Columbus Blue Jackets in a cap dump. He is a quality player that not only produces, but drives play as well. He’s doing exactly that on a Kraken team that’s off to a solid start. He has primarily played on a line with Alex Wennberg and Alex Burakovsky, they are on the plus side of controlling shot attempts and scoring chances at 5v5 (though slightly below average in expected goals), outscoring opponents by two goals in about 120 minutes together. Last season, Bjorkstrand had a career-high 28 goals, nine of which came on the power play. He has a sneaky good shot (one of the more underrated snappers in the league, by my estimation).

The Jets are back on track

One of the early surprises of the season? The Winnipeg Jets. They are sitting third in their division with a positive goal differential. They are strong at home, as usual. As with any Rick Bowness team, they just lock it down defensively. They are fifth in goals against per game and have the fifth-best penalty kill in the NHL. They are 25th in goals for per game. Last season, they were 16th in goals per game and 20th in goals against per game, with Connor Hellebuyck in net playing 66 games. I liked Bowness' answer after a 6-1 loss to Minnesota on Wednesday.

Can't get a feel for St. Louis

The strangest season so far has to belong to the St. Louis Blues. They started the season with a three game winning streak, then followed that up with an eight game losing streak. You could already start to see the vultures circling above. Ryan O’Reilly is a pending unrestricted free agent. Vladimir Tarasenko, too. To say nothing of productive depth players like Ivan Barbashev and Noel Acciari. Rival fans salivated at the thought of adding a Stanley Cup winner to their team to push them over the edge. But not so fast.

Timo Meier finding his form

Another strange start this season belongs to Timo Meier. He didn’t score a goal until his 10th game. In those goal-less nine games, he launched 43 shots on net. It’s not like he wasn’t getting chances; they simply weren’t going in. But the law of averages is real and if you look at Meier’s totals now, you’d never have guessed he started the season that snakebitten. He has scored 12 goals in 13 games since, giving him 12 in 22 total. He’s now, funny enough, on pace for a career high in goals. That would be great timing as his contract is set to expire at the end of the season (he will be a restricted free agent). Last season, Meier put up a career-high 35 goals and 76 points. He has found a spark playing with Tomas Hertl, and if San Jose wasn’t in the middle of a rebuild, a lot more people would be talking about how good those two are together. Since the start of last season, the Sharks have a -63 goal differential. In that same time, Hertl and Meier have played just under 900 minutes together at 5v5 and have outscored opponents by 20. That is absurd when you really think about it. One of the quieter trades in the offseason was the Seattle Kraken snagging Oliver Bjorkstrand from the Columbus Blue Jackets in a cap dump. He is a quality player that not only produces, but drives play as well. He’s doing exactly that on a Kraken team that’s off to a solid start. He has primarily played on a line with Alex Wennberg and Alex Burakovsky, they are on the plus side of controlling shot attempts and scoring chances at 5v5 (though slightly below average in expected goals), outscoring opponents by two goals in about 120 minutes together. Last season, Bjorkstrand had a career-high 28 goals, nine of which came on the power play. He has a sneaky good shot (one of the more underrated snappers in the league, by my estimation).

One step forward, two steps back in Anaheim

The early part of the season is always filled with silly stats. Among the silliest so far, though, is the Anaheim Ducks winning their first game in regulation in the 20th game of the season. After beating the Kraken in overtime in their season opener, the Ducks promptly went on a seven game losing streak. They have had multiple three game losing streaks already, too. Their record overall is 6-13-1. Their -31 goal differential is the worst in the league (Columbus is second at -25). The team is giving up 4.15 goals against per game, which is the second-worst mark in the league. They are, somewhat surprisingly, also scoring only 2.55 goals per game, which is fourth-worst.

Quinn Hughes is a passing magician

Another entertaining stat that leapt off the page to me was Quinn Hughes starting his season with 18 points in 16 games… and having zero goals along the way. Morgan Rielly is off to a similar start with 16 points - all assists - in 20 games. It’s not like Hughes isn’t shooting, either. He’s launching 1.94 shots on net per game so far, which is slightly above his career average of 1.86. Some level of goalscoring will come. He’s never been a goalscorer though; his career high in goals is eight, which he’s done twice. It doesn’t matter though, as his speed is his biggest weapon and he consistently produces. A lot of things have gone wrong for the Canucks so far this season, but one bright spot at the team level is their fifth-ranked power play. Nobody plays more on it than Hughes, who is averaging 4:18 on the power play per game. That puts him at 20th in the league. His skating is such a weapon, it can suck in and mesmerize defenders. You have to respect it. And there’s just so much subtlety to his game. You watch this goal the first time and wonder how J.T. Miller can be so wide open.

Time to get rid of the points system?

Every season we see countless examples of why the current point system is problematic. The NHL is the only league among the “big four” in North America (which soccer would have something to say about) that even has a point system. In the NFL, MLB and NBA, you are what your record says you are. In the NHL, points can be had all over the place. There is a reward just for being tied after 60 minutes of play. In all three other sports, if you lose, you get nothing. 

Scheduling done right

One thing the league has gotten right - scheduling around American Thanksgiving. There were 15 games on the Wednesday before the extra long weekend. Zero games on the Thursday - don’t even try to compete with the NFL on that day. And then on Friday, games start at 1 p.m. EST. This makes complete sense across the board and is not exactly new to the league (they do something similar every year). It’s good to see. I just wish they did more of this throughout the season.