NHL trends that will (or won’t) stick: Oilers missing the playoffs? Kucherov winning the scoring title?

The start of the NHL season is rife with panic and overreaction — and not just in Edmonton.

Players get benched. Teams get called out. Fans start to wonder whether their championship dreams have been shattered after a month of hockey. Others hope surprising starts are more inspiration than aberration.

Not all of these reactions are going to turn out to be unwarranted. Every season, a trend or two established early becomes a through line to the end of the season. Like the Boston Bruins‘ hot start or Connor McDavid‘s early point production last season. Or, on the flip side, the slow starts for the Pittsburgh Penguins or Jonathan Huberdeau that would inform the rest of their campaigns.

That established, here are 10 trends from the 2023-24 season thus far that we’re testing with our patented (OK, patent-pending) “Trend-O-Meter” to see how valid they are — from certain to stick (10) to probably just a blip (1).