Now that the regular season has commenced, we are going to look at each team and focus on some key players, new players and each team’s power play so far. It is very early, so things will change but early success can be a good sign of things to come.

Anaheim Ducks

Early ice time leaders in the forwards were Troy Terry (19:24), Trevor Zegras (18:25) and Ryan Strome (17:19) while Adam Henrique (13:32) and Jakob Silfverberg (12:30) appear to have been pushed down the lineup from last season. On defense, Cam Fowler (24:45), John Klingberg (23:09) and Dmitri Kulikov (20:35) played the most while Kevin Shattenkirk (16:59) has seen his role diminish.

The top unit of the power play has been Terry, Zegras, Ryan Strome, rookie Mason McTavish and Klingberg. This doesn't bode well for Jamie Drysdale who has only played 8.9 percent of the time with the man advantage.

Rookie Pavol Regenda only averaged 10:43 per game, but saw power play (24.1%) and penalty killing (45.4%) time, so it appears that he has some versatility to his game and is getting opportunities.

Terry led the team with seven shots on goal (SOG), Max Comtois and Max Jones led the team with six hits each while Kulikov led with seven blocked shots.

In goal, John Gibson started both games but was pulled in his last start. Gibson will need to improve over last season to not lose starts to Anthony Stolarz.

Arizona Coyotes

Ice time leaders in the forwards were Travis Boyd (20:00) and Clayton Keller (19:08) while rookie Mattias Maccelli (16:33) emerged with a top six role after two games. Nick Schmaltz was injured in the first game with an upper body injury which is always concerning as it might be day to day or weeks.

Leaders on defense were J.J. Moser (25:30)  had two assists, Shayne Gostisbehere (24:26) had three points while Troy Stecher (22:18) and Josh Brown (20:01) were getting top four minutes.

The first unit of the power play was Gostisbehere, Nick Ritchie (two PPGs), Moser, Boyd and Keller. Second unit players have been Dylan Guenther, Lawson Crouse, Barrett Hayton and Maccelli.

Rookie Dylan Guenther dressed in the Coyote's second game of the year and had an assist.

Gostisbehere led with eight SOG, Liam O'Brien led the Coyotes with 10 hits while Brown led with eight blocked shots.

Karel Vejmelka dressed in both games and allowed 11 goals with an 88.4 save percentage. It's going to be a long year for him and the Coyotes.

Calgary Flames

Ice time leaders in the forwards were Elias Lindholm (20:18) and Mikael Backlund (17:37) as both saw power play time and penalty kill. On defense, Rasmus Andersson (23:21), Chris Tanev (21:47), Noah Hanifin (20:52) and Mackenzie Weegar (21:09) all saw more than 20 minutes per night.

Michael Stone (11:52) led the team in scoring with three points in two games along with Nazem Kadri.

The top unit of the power play was Kadri, Lindholm, Tyler Toffoli, Jonathan Huberdeau and Andersson. The second unit had Andrew Mangiapane, Dillon Dube, Backlund with Weegar and Hanfin.

Backlund led with nine SOG, Kevin Rooney led the team with eight hits while Blake Coleman led with four blocked shots.

Dan Vladar and Jacob Markstrom split the first two games, which could give Darryl Sutter the confidence to limit Markstrom between 50-55 games this season.

Chicago Blackhawks

Tyler Johnson has had a good start to the season with three points in three games, while being joined in points by Jason Dickinson (only played the one game) and Sam Lafferty. Patrick Kane has had a relatively slow start with only one assist in three games.

Leaders in ice time in the forwards were Patrick Kane (19:05), Max Domi (17:51) and Andreas Athanasiou (16:16), while on defense the leaders were Seth Jones (25:24) and Jack Johnson (21:00).

Skaters on the first unit of the power play were Tyler Johnson, Taylor Raddysh, Kane, Domi and Seth Jones. Skaters on the second unit were Jonathan Toews, Philipp Kurashev, Athanasiou, Mackenzie Entwistle, Filip Roos and Alec Regula.

Kane led with nine SOG, Jarred Tinordi led the team with 13 hits while Connor Murphy led with nine blocked shots.

Petr Mrazek started two of the first three games and won one with a save percentage of 88.5. Alex Stalock got the one start and kicked out 36 of 37 shots but lost the game. Monitor this split as it could be closer to 50/50 as the season progresses.

Colorado Avalanche

The Colorado offense won't suffer this season because of their imposing power play. They already have five PPGs in their first two games with Valeri Nichushkin getting three and Artturi Lehkonen getting the other two. Mikko Rantanen had five power play assists in two games.

Leaders in ice time in the forwards were Nathan MacKinnon (21:03), Mikko Rantanen (20:32), Lehkonen (20:34) and Nichushkin (22:04). I'm not sure Lehkonen and Nichushkin will be able to maintain this much time on the ice, whereas MacKinnon and Rantanen have done it for years.

On defense, Cale Makar (25:23) is no surprise nor Devon Toews (20:47). Samuel Girard has averaged 17:10 which is less than he has had in the past (21:38 last year), so something to monitor.

The first unit of the power play was MacKinnon, Rantanen, Lehkonen, Nichushkin and Makar. It will be interesting to see who comes out when Gabriel Landeskog comes back from his injury.

The second unit of the power play was split between Toews, Bowen Byram, Girard, Evan Rodrigues and Alex Newhook. It's not quite what it looks like with three defenders being out at the same time as it is more than likely that Rantanen was out for a whole power play or one of the three slotted in for someone else at some point. It will become clearer as they play more games.

MacKinnon led with nine SOG, Kurtis McDermid led the team with 13 hits while Toews led with seven blocked shots.

Alexandar Georgiev and Pavel Francouz have split the two games with Francouz struggling in his start and Georgiev only having to face 17 shots in his start.

Dallas Stars

The line of Jason Robertson, Joe Pavelski and Roope Hintz appear to have picked up right where they left off last season as they had 11 points between them after two games. Newcomer Mason Marchment has had a great start as a Star with three goals in his first two games.

Ice time leaders in the forwards were Tyler Seguin (16:07), Robertson (15:46), Hintz (15:25) and Pavelski (15:03). Jamie Benn is down to 12:36 after two games, so monitor his time going forward. On defense, Miro Heiskanen (25:07) and Ryan Suter (22:06) are the only two over 20 minutes per game, but expect Esa Lindell (19:33) to get there sooner than later.

The first two units of the power play have split time with the extra man fairly evenly so far. After two games, Heiskanen leads with 51.4 percent of power play time followed by newcomer Nils Lundkvist at 51.3 and then Ryan Suter at 50.6. Tyler Seguin is next at 49.4, Wyatt Johnston 47.9, Robertson 45.9, Hintz 44.7, Pavelski 43.4, Marchment 41.8 and Jamie Benn at 41.2. Marchment and Johnston have the only power play goals so far. With the departure of John Klingberg it was expected that Heiskanen would see his time increase but that hasn't been the case to date.

Robertson led with 10 SOG, while Jani Hakanpaa led the team with 10 hits along with four blocked shots.

Jake Oettinger has started both of the first two games, winning both with only two goals allowed and having a 96.8 save percentage. He might see 55-60 starts this year.

Edmonton Oilers

It is never too early to have a goalie controversy after two games. Jack Campbell played well in the Oilers first game and won, but was pulled in the next game against Calgary and was replaced by Stuart Skinner who entered the game and stopped all 31 shots he faced in 48 minutes of playing time.

Leaders in ice time in the forwards were Connor McDavid (23:35), Leon Draisaitl (23:24), Zach Hyman (20:11), Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (19:34) and Evander Kane (19:26). On defense it was Darnell Nurse (24:44), Cody Ceci (23:32) and Tyson Barrie (20:45). Evan Bouchard struggled a little after two games and was only averaging 15:56 while Dylan Holloway only received 8:16 per game after such a fantastic pre-season.

The first unit of the power play is much like it was last season with McDavid, Draisaitl, Nugent-Hopkins, Kane and Barrie, with the second unit (for what it is worth) being Nurse, Bouchard, Hyman, along with Holloway, Puljujarvi and Ryan McLeod getting looks. Kane is the choice over Hyman and Barrie over Bouchard at this point.

McDavid and Evander Kane led the team with nine SOG while Kane led with 12 hits, but of note are Puljujarvi and Bouchard at eight hits and McDavid and Holloway at seven hits. Darnell Nurse is no surprise with nine blocked shots to lead the team.

Ryan McLeod is someone to keep on your watchlist as he has played 14:24 per game and is playing up the lineup a little this year. Kailer Yamamoto missed the first game of the season but played in the second and had an assist.

Los Angeles Kings

It appears that Gabriel Vilardi has arrived this season as he had two goals and two assists after three games. He averaged 16:22 of ice time and was on the first unit of the power play. All good signs for continued success.

Top ice time earners in the forwards were Anze Kopitar (19:43), Phillip Danault (19:05), Adrian Kempe (18:16), Trevor Moore (17:46) and Kevin Fiala (17:31). On defense it was Drew Doughty (26:39), Sean Durzi (22:30), Mikey Anderson (20:33) and Matt Roy (20:18).

Arthur Kaliyev only averaged 9:18 per night but still managed a goal and an assist in three games. Alexander Edler has seen his role diminish to a sixth or seventh defender as he has averaged 13:15, which might be ideal for him to stay healthy for 60 plus games.

At this point, the first unit of the power play has been Kopitar, Vilardi, Kempe, Fiala and Doughty while the second unit has split between Alex Iafallo, Durzi, Kaliyev, Moore, Danault and Viktor Arvidsson.

Brandt Clarke saw his first two NHL games and averaged 13:53 per night and saw some limited power play time. I think they will send him back to junior after nine games.

Trevor Moore led the team with 11 SOG followed by Fiala with 10. Doughty and Kopitar both had six hits while Matt Roy led with seven hits and eight blocked shots. This is not an overly physical team.

In goal, Jonathan Quick started the first two games and lost and Cal Petersen started the third game and won even though he let in six goals. It appears that early on, this is Quick's crease to lose and he should see 60 percent of the starts.

Minnesota Wild

No one wants to panic about goaltending after two games but the Wild have allowed 14 goals in two games. Of course it is never just the goaltending as the team defense has struggled mightily as well. Marc-Andre Fleury and Filip Gustavsson will need to be better obviously.

One change to the power play that the Wild seem to have done so far is match teams like Edmonton and Colorado and let their best players out on the ice for 80 to 85 percent of every man advantage. After two games the top unit for Minnesota was Matt Boldy, Mats Zuccarello, Kirill Kaprizov, Joel Eriksson Ek and Calen Addison. The team had four PPGs in the first two games, so this formation should stick for the short-term. On the second unit are Frederick Gaudreau, Marcus Foligno, Jared Spurgeon, Ryan Hartman and Marco Rossi. Matt Dumba has seen no minutes yet on the power play.

Leaders in ice time from the forwards were Kaprizov (21:46), Zuccarello (21:09), Boldy (19:20), Eriksson Ek (19:14) and Gaudreau (18:02). On defense they were Spurgeon (20:21), Dumba (19:55), Brodin (19:29) and Addison (18:47). Alex Goligoski is down to 16:28 with no power play time.

Marco Rossi has only averaged 7:29 per night while Marcus Foligno is down to 12:58 after being at 16:25 last season. Hartman averaged 18:11 last season and is down to 15:03 after two games. It is very early in the season, but continue to monitor.

Eriksson Ek led with nine SOG, Foligno led the team with six hits while Jacob Middleton led with four blocked shots.

Nashville Predators

Newcomer Nino Niederreiter has had a very good start with the Predators as he had four goals in his first four games.

Leaders in ice time in the forwards were Mikael Granlund (19:58), Filip Forsberg (18:18) and Matt Duchene (17:57), while on defense it was Roman Josi (24:26), Mattias Ekholm (21:04) and newcomer Ryan McDonagh (20:51).

Dante Fabbro (15:28) and  Alexandre Carrier (18:27) have both given up a bit of ice time with the arrival of McDonagh.

The top unit of the power play was Ryan Johansen, Josi, Forsberg, Duchene and Granlund while the second unit consisted of Niederreiter, Eeli Tolvanen, Cody Glass, Carrier and Tanner Jeannot.

Josi led with 14 SOG with Forsberg just behind at 13. Jeannot led the team in hits with 16 while Tolvanen led with nine blocked shots. Nashville is a very physical team with six players over eight hits so far.

In goal, Juuse Saros has been less than slightly below average in his three starts while Kevin Lankinen won his only start saving 31 of 33 shots on goal. This should be a 75/25 split moving forward, unless Saros falls on his face.

San Jose Sharks

The Sharks have lost their first four games of the season and have only scored six goals in those games. They might struggle for offense this season.

Leaders in ice time amongst the forwards were Timo Meier (19:28), Tomas Hertl (19:25), Logan Couture (18:58) and Luke Kunin (18:45). The Sharks are really giving Kunin a chance to succeed this season as he's never averaged more than 15:53 in a season.

Leaders on defense were Erik Karlsson (24:38), Mario Ferraro (23:32) and Marc-Edouard Vlasic (18:57). Vlasic averaged 15:13 last season, so it might not be a good sign that he is playing a bigger role this year than last at 35-years of age. 

Steven Lorentz has had a decent start to his time with San Jose as he had two points in four games and averaged 14:05 per game.

The team sent William Eklund and Thomas Bordeleau to the minors. For a team struggling for offense it might be a short stay for one or both.

Meier led the team with 19 SOG and 12 hits while Ferraro led with 10 blocked shots.

James Reimer started two games while Kaapo Kahkonen started the other two. Reimer was the better of the two with a 92.4 save percentage compared to Kahkonen's 81.4. I think this will play out much like last season in that the better goalie will get 45-50 starts.

Seattle Kraken

Philipp Grubauer has not had the start he would have hoped for after last season. He was pulled in his second start this year and has an 84.8 save percentage after two games. Martin Jones was a little better in his two games with a win and an 88.2 save percentage.

Matty Beniers is the real deal. After three games he had a goal and three assists while playing 18:08 per game. 

Leaders in ice time on the forwards were Alex Wennberg (19:28), Oliver Bjorkstrand (19:12) and Beniers. On defense it was Adam Larsson (24:01) and Vince Dunn (22:47) with Justin Schultz (19:03) and Jamie Oleksiak (18:52).

Players on the first unit of the power play were Beniers, Bjorkstrand, Wennberg, Jared McCann and Schultz, but the second unit was almost getting 40-45 percent of the power play time with Jaden Schwartz, Andre Burakovsky, Ryan Donato, Dunn and Jordan Eberle.

Eberle has seen his ice time go from 17:57 per game to 13:58 last season to this one, while Yanni Gourde has seen his ice time go from 18:28 to 15:37 with no power play time yet.

Shane Wright dressed for the first game of the year but only played 6:43. He might get nine games and be sent back to junior.

Bjorkstrand led the team in SOG with 15, Oleksiak in hits with 15 and Larsson in blocked shots with seven.

St. Louis Blues (26.0)

The Blues have only played one game this year so far and it was a 5-2 win.

It appears that the Blues are splitting their power play about 55/45 after one game. The first unit was Pavel Buchnevich, Vladimir Tarasenko, Ivan Barbashev, Robert Thomas and Torey Krug. The second unit was Brayden Schenn, Jordan Kyrou, Brandon Saad, Ryan O'Reilly and Justin Faulk. The Blues have some pretty good depth no matter which unit they put on the ice.

Robert Thomas led all forwards with 19:12 of ice time while Colton Parayko led the defense with 24:01.

Jake Neighbours played his first game and had a goal in 13:26 of ice time on one SOG and four hits. Noel Acciari led with six hits, followed by Alexey Toropchenko with five.

Jordan Binnington was solid in net and made 23 saves on 25 shots for the win.

Vancouver Canucks

J.T. Miller is already in the crosshairs of Vancouver media and fans as he had been on the ice for all eight goals against over the two games the team had played this year. He does kill penalties, so some of it can be attributed to poor luck. He needs to be better and he knows it.

The forwards that have led the team in ice time were J.T. Miller (21:52), Bo Horvat (21:51) and Elias Pettersson (20:20). On defense the leaders were Quinn Hughes (26:33), Oliver Ekman-Larsson (21:40) and Luke Schenn (19:10) as Tyler Myers is out for a few weeks with an injury.

The top unit of the power play was Pettersson, Miller, Horvat, Hughes and Brock Boeser and Andrei Kuzmenko splitting time. The second unit was Conor Garland, Tanner Pearson, Nils Hoglander, Ekman-Larsson and either Boeser or Kuzmenko. The first unit has already given up two shorthanded goals in two games and only gone one for 13.

Kuzmenko led the team with nine SOG, and Luke Schenn led with 11 hits and six blocked shots.

Tucker Poolman has had a recurrence of his migraines from last season and Jack Rathbone will get an opportunity this week as Poolman might be forced back on to the LTIR.

Thatcher Demko has been OK in his first two starts but the Canucks need him to be very good in every game. He will still play 60-65 games if healthy as I expect Spencer Martin to play in one game of their current five game road trip to start the year.

Vegas Golden Knights

The Golden Knights have started the season with three straight victories and both Adin Hill and Logan Thompson have played well with Thompson winning the first two games and Hill winning the third. The split will depend on the hot hand.

The ice time leaders at forward have been Mark Stone (18:50) and Chandler Stephenson (17:41). Jack Eichel has averaged 16:18 which should increase as the year progresses. On defense, Alex Pietrangelo (23:03), Shea Theodore (21:32), Brayden McNabb (20:27) and Alec Martinez (19:55) have led.

Like a few other teams listed, Vegas has split their two power play units ice time about 55/45 so far. The first unit was Eichel, Reilly Smith, Theodore, Stone and William Karlsson. The second unit was Jonathan Marchessault, Pietrangelo, Stephenson, Nicolas Roy and Phil Kessel.

Reilly Smith led the team in SOG with 14, followed closely by Marchessault at 13 while Keegan Kolesar led with nine hits and Alec Martinez led with nine blocked shots.

Paul Cotter had a goal in three games on six SOG and seven hits, while playing 13:24 per night.

Nicolas Hague is back in the lineup in place of Ben Hutton after Hague re-signed as an RFA.

Winnipeg Jets

Winnipeg has only played one game and were 4-1 winners.

Connor Hellebuyck was very solid making 40 saves on 41 shots for the win. He should get 60-65 starts this season.

Early ice time leaders for forwards were Mark Scheifele (20:08), Kyle Connor (19:39) and Mason Appleton (18:42). On defense it was Neal Pionk (22:29), Brenden Dillon (22:09), Josh Morrissey (20:35) and Dylan Demelo (20:13).

The first unit of the power play appeared to be Scheifele, Connor, Pierre-Luc Dubois, Nikolaj Ehlers and Morrissey. The second unit was Blake Wheeler, Sam Gagner, Cole Perfetti, Pionk and Nate Schmidt.

It was only one game but Wheeler averaged 19:32 last year and was on the first unit of the power play. He played 15:01 in the first game and was on the second unit of the power play. He did manage an assist.

These are very, very early observations, but sometimes a player suddenly getting 16 minutes instead of 14 or vice versa is the difference of 8-12 points in a year along with an increase or decrease in peripheral stats like SOG, hits and blocked shots. These are always good things to look for each game when reading the box scores.

Thanks for reading and if you have any questions or players you'd like me to look at please message or follow me on Twitter @gampbler15.