NHL December 2022 Review

2022 is now in the past, and it ended with an amazing December in the NHL season. While the month saw Alex Ovechkin continue to make history and surpass Mr. Hockey himself, Gordie Howe, for 2nd place on the all-time goals list, the Washington Capitals are not the team making the most noise in the Metropolitan Division. Here are the teams who made the biggest impact (positive or negative) in each of the NHL's four divisions (Atlantic, Metropolitan, Central, and Pacific).

De-clawed Panthers

My, how the mighty have fallen. I swear, with each game that the Florida Panthers play, I feel more and more like an idiot for actually saying that they won the trade with the Calgary Flames. Now don't get me wrong, this is definitely not Matthew Tkachuk's fault. He is defintely a consistent producer in his first year with the Panthers; 34 games, 43 points (17 G/26 A). Here's the thing: the lead he has in points? It's by a country mile. Carter Verhaeghe and Brandon Montour are tied for second place with 30 points. That's a huge gap. At least in Verhaeghe's case, 18 of them are goals, and he leads the team in that category, but even so, this Panthers team is not the same one that won 59 games and the Presidents' Trophy last year.

About that: I can't help but feel some semblance of happiness that Florida's struggling. The reason is simple. Last year, the last two teams remaining in the Presidents' Trophy race were the Panthers and the Colorado Avalanche. After that, the Avs went on a losing skid at the end of the season, and the Panthers won the trophy running away, and as soon as that happened, the Avs were suddenly dismissed as a Stanley Cup threat, with everyone hopping on Florida's bandwagon. What they failed to remember was that bad week was by design. The Avs were not concerned with that trophy. Yet the sentiment was, "This was Florida's year." Yeah, how did that work out? They barely survived a sputtering Caps team and got smothered by the Tampa Bay Lightning, who reached the Cup Final and were defeated by...what do you know? The Colorado Avalanche! What's causing the Panthers' problems? Is it the trade? Is it shaky goaltending? Or should they have kept Andrew Brunette as coach? It could be all of the above.

Eye of the Storm

Don't look now, but the Carolina Hurricanes are tearing up the league. It wasn't easy. Many wondered what the Hurricanes had in store for us following their home-ice defeat against the New York Rangers in Game 7 of last year's Metropolitan Division Final. It had been up and down this season, as the Canes had been dealing with injuries. Max Pacioretty was out to start the season, and the injury bug hit their top star player, Sebastian Aho later on. A big blow came in net, as their top goaltender, Frederik Andersen, went on injured reserve. However, even that hasn't deterred the Hurricanes, as they ended the calendar year on a 10-game winning streak, and lead the Metropolitan Division after the New Jersey Devils dominated the first two months.

Even with Andersen out, goaltending has remained strong for Carolina. The two-headed monster in net, Antti Raanta and Pyotr Kochetkov, has dominated, racking up a combined five shutouts this season. In the case of Raanta, his two shutouts were back-to-back, coming in the final games of the calendar year. The team seems to be on a pace to capture the Jennings Trophy for the second straight year, as they emerge as one of the league's best teams.

J-E-T-S, Jets, Jets, Jets!

During the last offseason, I had the Winnipeg Jets as a playoff team in 2022-23. I predicted that the Jets would finish in the Central Division's Top 3. People thought I was nuts. "They didn't make any moves"; that's the main response I received. There's a reason why they didn't make moves: they didn't need to. The Jets have an absolutely amazing (and underrated) core; Blake Wheeler, Kyle Connor, and Mark Schiefele, with Pierre-Luc Dubois in his third year with the team. They also have Connor Hellebuyck in net, a Vezina winner. Yet I was told that the Jets would suck this season. I guess if you call second place in the Central "sucking," then yeah.

However, the main story from the Jets isn't any of the players I named. One Jet who seems to be making the most noise is defenseman Josh Morrissey. In the last three years, I've taken Morrissey on fantasy hockey because he can rack up points if needed. This season, Morrissey seems to be scoring points at will. He not only leads Jets defensemen in points, his 42 points (6 G/36 A) stands at second on the team behind Kyle Connor, and he is actually second among all NHL defensemen, behind the resurrected Erik Karlsson. There's a good chance Morrissey could be in the running for the Norris Trophy this season. If he keeps this up, he could end up nabbing that honor.

Hail to the Kings, Baby

When the Los Angeles Kings reached the playoffs last year, I was very happy. I still remember their Cup runs, but with their recent seasons, they seemed to be distant memories. Yet somehow, the Kings surged and finished in third place in the Pacific Division, which is a playoff position. Despite the fact that this team wasn't expected to be playoff team, they took the Edmonton Oilers to the limit, but ran out of gas in Game Seven. Now, I did pick the Kings to be a playoff team this year, but I'll be honest, I was doubtful. Could they do it again? Or was last year just an aberration?

From what we're seeing, last year was not a one-off for this Kings team. Not only are they set to be playoff bound again, but the Kings are in pace with the Vegas Golden Knights for the division lead. This is all in spite of their goaltending being quite shaky; they sent Cal Petersen down, Jonathan Quick's glimpses of his old glory days are few and far in between, though Pheonix Copley has been coming through lately. So who has been leading the team this season? None other than Kevin Fiala, who is in his first year with the Kings. Fiala leads the team in points with 37 (10 G/27 A), and that honestly doesn't surprise me. I watched him during his time with the Predators and the Wild, and he's quite the player. The Kings are quickly proving that last year's playoff berth was not an accident. Time will tell if they actually take over the Pacific.

As I said before, it's not only a new month, but a new year as well. January is a very important month, because now, we can no longer say, "it's early." January is the final full month before All-Star Break, and teams need to step it up, because if you're behind the playoff line entering the break, then you could be in trouble. This will be quite the fascinating month.

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