Welcome to the Eastern Edge, the landscape of the Eastern Conference has changed shape quite a bit over the last week. Carolina has jumped to the top, Washington is among the best, and Montreal continues to slide. Let's look at the teams and what has changed (or not).  

Florida Panthers // 9-3-1 // L7 Days: 3-0-0

Sam Reinhart is currently tied with Kirill Kaprizov and Cale Makar for the league lead in points. His role has changed over the last couple of years. He's being utilized at the net front on the power play, an extremely high danger area where xG and shooting percentage tend to swell. A 132-point pace with 63 goals is an easy under to bet, but selling high might be hard to do considering how few players might outscore him this year. 

New York Rangers // 8-2-1 // L7 Days: 2-1-0

A major facelift to the line combinations have taken place in New York. Alexis Lafreniere is lining up with Mika Zibanejad and Artemi Panarin on the top line, banger extraordinaire Will Cuylle is with Vincent Trocheck and Reilly Smith, and Chris Kreider is down on Line 3 with Filip Chytil and Kappo Kakko. The Rangers have the sixth-most efficient power play in the league, so Alexis Lafreniere on the top power play is still a little ways out. 

Carolina Hurricanes // 8-2-0 // L7 Days: 3-0-0

In the midst of a six-game win streak, Carolina is a beast right now: 27 goals for, 12 goals against in this span – and a 63.1% Fenwick For percentage. 

Martin Necas is quickly becoming the steal of the draft. With a Yahoo ADP of 123.9, he has 18 points in 10 games, shooting almost 30% with under 2.5 shots per game. The long-term sustainability isn't there, but the production is. Unsustainable does not mean impossible!

Washington Capitals // 8-3-0 // L7 Days: 3-1-0

Connor McMichael is a wagon! Four goals in as many games on 21 shots – 4.2 shots on goal per game?! The time on Ice is rising steadily as well, McMike is well worth a roster spot. 

New Jersey Devils // 7-5-2 // L7 Days: 1-1-0

Jacob Markstrom had a week: Three quality starts, a shutout, and a 2-1-0 in his last 3 starts – it definitely helps that the starts were against Anaheim, Vancouver and Calgary. 

Tampa Bay Lightning // 7-5-0 // L7 Days: 2-2-0

Brayden Point was injured in the first period of Sunday's game versus the Jets. Mitchell Chaffee took his place on the top power play unit in that game, but chances are after a practice a new face will be in the spot. The Bolts did not practice Monday, therefore there was no update on Point. 

Toronto Maple Leafs // 6-5-2 // L7 Days: 2-1-1

Joseph Woll and Anthony Stolarz both have three games played in the last six Toronto games. Stolarz's .957 5v5 sv% gives him the edge, but at all strengths the .892 and .889 SV% edge goes to Woll. Something to watch as the season progresses, we might have a true 1A:1B Goalie turf war for the crease. 

Boston Bruins // 6-6-1 / L7 Days: 2-2-0

David Pastrnak was benched for the third period on Sunday – reading between the lines from an interview with Pastrnak in the locker room, it sounds like it was due to a bad turnover. 

The Bruins have signed veteran forward Tyler Johnson to a one-year $775k contract. It will be interesting to see where he fits into the lineup, because it's not to say he is a ringer, but this signing almost feels like it has that effect. I doubt Boston's brass would be making signings if they were happy with the current production of the team. 

Ottawa Senators // 6-5-0 // L7 Days: 2-1-0

Jake Sanderson's two points in his last six games have Fantasy GM's starting to worry – a fantastic time to buy low if you can. Keep in mind that seven of Sanderson's nine points are on the power play – a 52-point pace on the power play. The last time an Ottawa defenseman scored over 50 power play points was, well, never. There is some negative regression coming regardless. 

Columbus Blue Jackets // 5-5-1 // L7 Days: 2-2-0

Another week, another plea for Columbus forwards to get some respect. After 91% Yahoo! Rostered Zach Werenski, not a single CBJ skater is >30% rostered. Both Kirill Marchenko and Sean Monahan are point per game, and are 24% and 29% rostered respectively. 

Detroit Red Wings // 5-5-1 // L7 Days: 1-1-0

Three Power play goals in two games for Dylan Larkin and three power play assists in two games for Lucas Raymond – something's clicking. 

Despite being dead last in Corsi For percentage, dead last in expected goals for and dead last in shots for, the Detroit Red Wings are fifth by 5v5 SV%. Alex Lyon and Cam Talbot continue to win them games. 

Pittsburgh Penguins // 5-7-1 // L7 Days: 2-1-0

Bryan Rust will travel with the team on their upcoming three-game road trip. Rust was labeled Week-to-week a week ago. 

The Malkin-Crosby-Rakell line is still a thing. 

New York Islanders // 4-6-2 // L7 Days: 1-3-0

Mathew Barzal is on the long-term injury reserve retroactive to October 31st – his timeline is 4-6 weeks. 

I don't even want to comment on their lines or power play units as they'll be different by tomorrow anyway. It is worth noting that Jean-Gabriel Pageau and Oliver Wahlstrom were on the 12.5% efficient NYI top-power play unit most recently. Wahlstrom saw a season high 11:25 TOI on Sunday. 

Buffalo Sabres // 4-7-1 // L7 Days: 0-3-0

Zach Benson is a possibility to return on Tuesday, he was practicing on the second line and getting second power play reps. 

Montreal Canadiens // 4-7-1 // L7 Days: 0-3-0

Both the Canadiens and the Sabres are in the midst of three-game losing skids. Juraj Slafkovsky returned from injury, in Saturday's game Slafkovsky took a hit from Pittsburgh's Noel Acciari and underwent concussion screening protocol – everything is okay and he was practicing again today. 

Since Samuel Montembeault's season opening shutout, the Montreal Canadiens own the league's worst team save percentage with an .852, and a league high Goals Allowed Average of 4.56. 

Philadelphia Flyers // 4-7-1 // L7 Days: 2-1-0

According to Elliott Friedman, Philadelphia will be without Samuel Ersson for "about a week". Ivan Fedotov and Aleksei Kolosov get a chance to run things. 

A strange tweet circled around Flyer's water coolers today:

Outside of some humorous responses suggesting it could be Jaromir Jagr, Phil Kessel or that the Flyers somehow snuck a Claude Giroux trade under the radar, it's all speculation. Speculation is all we have, but the likely candidates are Cam York, Egor Zamula or Samuel Ersson. Cam York will likely travel with the team on their three-game road trip, but Head Coach John Tortorella was not certain that he would play. 

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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.