The first week of the NHL season has already produced a few loud storylines, and none of them are subtle. Alex Ovechkin’s return to Washington came with a twist, Maple Leafs fans are already spiraling after four games, and Evan Bouchard is making the Oilers look brilliant for never moving him.
Ovechkin’s situation is the most layered of the three. He had originally planned to step away before this season even began, but Washington’s offseason changed his mind.
He said on TNT that when he saw the moves the Capitals made, it gave him and his family a reason to chase one more Cup run. That is a long way from a player hanging on out of habit.
He was ready to go until the front office gave him a reason to stay.
Elliotte Friedman added another angle to that picture. Washington brought in Alex Tuch and Jordan Kyrou, and while nobody was ever going to push Ovechkin aside, the reality of his role was always going to shift.
The moves that convinced him to return may also have made it clear that his influence on games was going to shrink. The Capitals didn’t force him out; age and roster change did what they always do.
Now he gets one more shot with a contender, a chance to leave on his own terms, and he may end up playing in Russia next.
In Toronto, the mood has already gone sour after a 2-2 start. Howard Berger leaned into that anxiety with a satirical look at a Maple Leafs board meeting, where everybody in the room is apparently in a state of panic.
The owner is worried about money, the coach is worried about leadership, the GM is defending the first overall pick, and Matthews jersey sales somehow become the most important number in the building. The joke lands because there’s a real point underneath it: a rough October and a scoreless stretch for McKenna do not need to become a full-blown crisis.
The bigger takeaway is that Toronto can change the roster faster than it can change the noise around it. The old expectations linger, even when the names on the ice do not.
The conversation has been about moving on from the Marner and Core Four era, while Berger sounds far less convinced, especially about how much gets pinned on Matthews. Still, there is no reason to decide after four games whether McKenna, Hiller or the whole setup is working.
The smarter move is to let it breathe.
Then there’s Edmonton, where Bouchard is turning the early season into his own personal highlight reel. He has six goals in four games, which leads the league, and 11 points, trailing only Connor McDavid’s 12.
Only one other defenceman in NHL history has scored that many goals through his first four games of a season. Scott Wheeler of The Athletic called him the best player in the league so far, and the numbers on the ice make that sound less like a hot take and more like a fair read: the Oilers are outscoring opponents 11-1 at five-on-five with him out there.
Friedman also passed along a text from someone who skipped the Norris conversation entirely and went straight to the Rocket Richard. Mike Babcock said he didn’t realize Bouchard was this good, though he also believes there’s even more coming if Bouchard sharpens things up defensively.
Draisaitl laughed about how the league still underrates him. And the biggest reminder of all for Edmonton is the one that has to sting a little: the Oilers once talked about trading Bouchard to Carolina in a deal for Mikko Rantanen.
They held off, Rantanen ended up in Dallas, and now Edmonton is very glad it never made that move.
In Other News...
Bruins Fans Have A Real Matthew Poitras Trade Question Again
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Still, interest is only part of the equation. Edmontons pursuit has not turned into a completed deal, and the gap between checking in on a player and actually landing him can be the difference between a useful depth addition and a story that stays in the rumor pile. For now, Poitras remains one of the more intriguing names tied to the Oilers, with the real question being whether the sides ever get close enough to make it happen. [Read more 🡒]
Mike Babcock Is Already Changing A Familiar Oilers Problem
The early returns under Mike Babcock have given the Oilers a better opening than they have had in a while. Edmonton is off to its best four-game start in five seasons, and even with key forwards missing, the club has settled into the kind of rhythm that had been elusive in recent years when the season usually began with more frustration than momentum.
Babcock has already made a noticeable adjustment to a familiar problem by leaning harder on his top talent in the same spots, rather than spreading it around and hoping the depth holds everything together. With Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl driving one line, Edmonton has looked more stable through the first week, but the bigger question is how long that approach can hold while Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Zach Hyman and Matt Savoie remain out. [Read more 🡒]
Oilers May Not Be Done Addressing One Key Need At Center
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For now, the conversation has not gotten simple enough to close, and that is where things stand for the Oilers as they keep evaluating their center depth. Poitras remains on their radar, and the possibility of revisiting talks later still hangs over the situation depending on how the market shifts and what happens elsewhere on the roster. [Read more 🡒]