It’s been an interesting NHL season to date, with plenty of storylines to distract from the fact that the
Tampa Bay Lightning are the best team in the league by a pretty wide margin.
They have the most wins and points in the league. They have the highest points percentage in the league. They have the sixth-best 5-on-5 possession numbers in the league, which is made even more impressive by the fact that they’ve had about 130 more minutes leading in their games than the next-closest team.
They have the best goal difference, and second-best expected-goal difference. They have an 11-4 record in the past month — and play a bad Rangers team at home tonight — while only one of those wins came in a shootout. They have the second-best power play. They have the eighth-best penalty kill.
This despite the fact that the play in a tough division, with a number of teams that got out to notably hot starts (Toronto, Buffalo, Montreal). And the fact that their All-Star goaltender and a high-end defender have both been missing for about a month, plus
Victor Hedman, the reigning Norris Trophy winner, missed seven games earlier this season, while
Ondrej Palat missed 16.
And yet, people don’t seem to be paying a particularly large amount of attention.