Bottoms up in the NHL standings? Some Stanley Cup contenders are struggling early this season
The first two weeks of the season have not been kind to a few of the top Stanley Cup contenders
Peter DeBoer was worried. The experienced coach now in his fifth NHL job was concerned his Dallas Stars would get off to a slow start after back-to-back trips to the Western Conference Final.
“Is it going to take a while to get going?” DeBoer wondered. “Are we going to have some type of hangover?”
While the Stars are doing more than fine, some of the other Stanley Cup contenders in the West are not faring so well. Colorado, Edmonton and Nashville combined to lose 13 of their first 17 games, turning the league's standings upside down through the first two weeks of the season.
“There are teams that are struggling to find their game a little bit,” Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said. “I don’t think year-to-year, you can look at it and be like, ‘Oh, I can’t believe top teams are struggling.’ ... I just think it just sort of depends on a lot of details of your game.”
