Welcome to another edition of the Eastern Edge — coming to you from the Dominican Republic. The family and I are on vacation but that hasn't stopped the East from changing shape. Let's break down some trends in the Eastern Conference:

Florida Panthers // 7-3-1 // L7 Days: 3-1-0

Alexander Barkov is back, and Anton Lundell is back to Line 3. While this bodes poorly for Lundell's overall production, the majority of his production was at even strength. The quality of linemates and time on ice will unfortunately dictate his production going forward. 

Adam Boqvist was a healthy scratch Monday night (10/28). ATOI moving from 10 minutes a night to 0:00. Uvis Balinskis was taking PP1 reps.

New Jersey Devils // 6-4-2 // L7 Days: 1-2-1

Luke Hughes has returned from an offseason shoulder injury totaling 1 assist in 3 games played. Dougie Hamilton's power play percentage during these 3 games averages 79.5%, Luke's average is 20.9%. Despite Dougie's slow(ish) start on the power play, he continues to be leaned on as QB1

Jack Hughes' shot attempts have gone down 2/gm compared to last year – his shooting percentage has gone down close to 25% too. While details of his injury are not clear, studies have shown that shooting percentage, goals per 60 and points per 60 are typical of players who have undergone Arthroscopic Shoulder Labral Repair. Again, there is no confirmation that this was the procedure Jack went through, but is worth noting. 

New York Rangers // 6-1-1// L7 Days: 2-1-0

Alexis Lafrenière has signed long term in New York – 7 years, $52.15 million or $7.45M AAV. Good on the Rangers to sign him before he starts piling on points from a first power play unit role.

Mika Zibanejad seems to have woken up with six points in eight games on the season, and he's snuck six points into four games. That stretch is bookended by 0 point/2 game stretches to start the season and also his most recent two GP. Zero Hits on the season is a bit strange, but one has to expect that as puck possession goes up, hits go down. You don't look for hits when you have the puck – and the last year Mika broke 100 hits was also the last year his CF% was below 50%. 

Tampa Bay Lightning // 6-3-0 // L7 Days: 3-2-0

Anthony Cirelli and Brandon Hagel have been a powerhouse together boasting a 60% shot attempt share as a pair. Hagel is tied with big names Kirill Kaprizov, Artemi Panarin, Sam Reinhart and Tage Thompson in 5v5 points, and has recently added Tampa's top Power play to his 2024-25 repertoire. Hagel is 8th in All Stengths G/60, 28th in Pts/60, 56th in High Danger Chances but also 28th in Shooting percentage – so sustainability comes into question. You'd be hard pressed to find an underlying stat that isn't a career high this year, it should be a great year for him. 

Toronto Maple Leafs //  5-4-1 // L7 Days: 2-2-1

Joseph Woll has returned from injury, in the interim Anthony Stolarz has stolen the throne. Stolarz has been exceptional for Toronto, also the only goalie on the Leafs with a positive goals saved above expected. Stolarz should see volume if/when the hot hands cool off – the 31-year-old has never seen more than 28 games in a season. 

Morgan Reilly has reclaimed the top power play. The PP shakeup in TOR has also relegated William Nylander and John Tavares to power play two. These units look an awful lot like units that will split time than they do a stacked top unit. The expiration date on this experiment may be close by the time it hits the shelf. 

Carolina Hurricanes // 5-2-0 // L7 Days: 3-0-0

The oft-injured Frederik Andersen is injured. He'll be evaluated when Carolina returns from their season-long 6-game road trip in Vancouver Monday Night. 

Jack Roslovic has been skating alongside Sebastian Aho and Andrei Svechnikov. Rod Brind'Amour isn't known for keeping his lines together for long, keep your eyes on the lines. 

Washington Capitals // 5-2-0 // L7 Days: 2-1-0

Pierre-Luc Dubois has padded his stat line with a game against Philadelphia. Individual expected goals and High danger chances look good, but nothing else to suggest there might be a comeback just yet. 

Charlie Lindgren's four starts beat out Logan Thompson's three. Lindgren has been the better goalie, though neither have stats worth calling "good" yet.

Columbus Blue Jackets // 4-3-1 // L7 Days: 2-0-1

Kirill Marchenko, Yegor Chinakov, and Sean Monahan are all very quietly putting together very nice offensive starts to the season. One of the benefits of being in Columbus is that everything you do is under the radar. All three are a point-per-game or better. 

Elvis Merzlikins is struggling early. Daniil Tarasov is making a case to be the better choice on a game-to-game basis.

Detroit Red Wings // 4-4-1 // L7 Days: 2-1-1

Detroit doesn't have much going for them in the underlying stats department. They hold the 5th highest xGA/60, the least SF/60, the most SA/60, and are being bailed out by goaltending. Alex Lyon has been a bright spot for them, he's 2-2-0 with a .940sv% and is second in GSAA/60.

Montreal Canadiens // 4-4-1 // L7 Days: 2-1-0

Lane Hutson is impressive. A 46-point pace feels like just the beginning.

Juraj Slafkovsky is due to be reevaluated early this week.

Samuel Montembeault seems to have come back down to earth – 1-3-1 in his last four starts with an .861 SV% – heavily weighed down after being pulled against NYR after letting in four goals on 10 shots. Cayden Primeau stopped 32 of 35 in relief. 

Boston Bruins // 4-4-1 / L7 Days: 1-2-0

Charlie McAvoy, Elias Lindholm, and Pavel Zacha are frustrating players to roster this year in Fantasy Hockey/  

Pavel Zacha and David Pastrnak have a 45% shot share together, Patrnak on the ice without Zacha is at 53% and Zacha without Pasta is at 33%. There is a lot of space between where we are and where the mean should regress towards – enough space to really start to worry. 

McAvoy on the other hand, is violently underperforming his 3-year average: He is getting in on 18% less of the on-ice goals for, controlling offense 9% less, 5v5 time on ice is down 16%, and all sorts of other red lining stats I could share that all basically circle back to the fact that McAvoy has 0 5v5 assists on the year. Confidence should be high that he will right the ship. The Bruins find themselves in uncharacteristic territory, tied with Montréal, Pittsburgh and Seattle in GF/gm. 

Buffalo Sabres // 4-5-1 // L7 Days: 2-1-0

Jack Quinn got his first goal of the season against Detroit on Saturday, albeit an empty netter. Hopefully he can find his confidence soon. As we await Dylan Cozens' first goal, the top line of Tage Thompson, J.J. Peterka and Alex Tuch don't seem keen on sharing – this line accounts for almost half of Buffalo's total goals on the year.

Ottawa Senators // 4-4-0 // L7 Days: 1-2-0

Josh Norris doesn't get enough respect. Only 29% rostered in Yahoo! leagues – perhaps because he is Center only, he is tearing it up and it needs to be acknowledged: seven points in eight games, 3 PPP, 20 Hits, 10 Blocks in the same span… he should be raising some eyebrows. 

New York Islanders // 3-3-2 // L7 Days: 1-2-0

The Islanders are still searching for an identity. Every day is a new set of line combinations, every practice had new power play units, every period has new players desperately trying to spark Mathew Barzal and Bo Horvat out of atrophy. 

Most recently, Head Coach Patrick Roy has stacked the top Power Play unit: Noah Dobson, Barzal, Brock Nelson, Bo Horvat and Kyle Palmieri. Fingers crossed that isn't out of date before I finish writing this article. 

Anders Lee and Kyle Palmieri are having renaissance starts to the season. Lee is 12th in SOG with fewer games played than all but two players ahead of him – 6th in SOG per game.

Anthony Duclair is out for 4-6 weeks, he was placed on LTIR retroactive to October 19th. 

Pittsburgh Penguins // 3-6-1 // L7 Days: 0-2-1

Tristan Jarry has been sent to the AHL for conditioning. Joel Blomqvist may be the only bright spot in net this season for Pittsburgh. The Penguins xGA is at the bottom of the league, none of the goalies are getting help defensively, but Blomqvist has given them a chance. He has gotten close to 50% of the starts for the Penguins between all three goalies. 

Mike Sullivan seems to be trying to change things up as well, a Malkin-Crosby-Rakell line was sighted today:

The last time Malkin and Crosby started on a line together was 10 years ago, December 31st 2014.

Philadelphia Flyers // 2-6-1 // L7 Days: 1-3-0

Aleksei Kolosov got his NHL debut suddenly this past Sunday with 20 saves on 24 shots against Montréal – a tough start to his career. But not the last we will see of him. 

Matvei Michkov's nine points in nine games is 2nd on the team behind Travis Konecny.  Six of Michkov's nine points are on the power play. The last time anyone scored 20PPP or more was 2019-20 – Michkov is on pace for 55. 

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That's your Eastern Edge Eastern Conference update for the week. Thank you for reading, feel free to chirp me in the comments below or feel free to reach out on X – @FHFHockey. In the meantime, you can catch updates from me on the Five Hole Fantasy Hockey Podcast.