The first month of the 2019-20 NHL regular season is over, with every team playing at least ten games. As we probably should have expected, what we saw in the preseason did not always translate to the regular season as some teams have started off terribly (New Jersey, San Jose), while others have been surprising (Buffalo, Edmonton, Vancouver). Of course, we’re talking about one-eighth of the schedule and as we’ve seen as recently as last season with the St. Louis Blues, a poor start can be turned around in short order, and the reverse can always happen too.

Early last month, during one of the few brief stretches of time when I could even think about hockey, I conjured up some power rankings for the Metropolitan and Atlantic Divisions. I decided to go by division because I think putting all thirty-one teams into the same list can be a little confusing; after all, teams from either conference infrequently play each other, and those games don’t have the same impact as an interdivision matchup.