Biggest surprises from the first quarter of the NHL season

Hello and happy Saturday. Let’s check in with some random thoughts and the biggest surprises from the first quarter of the 2023-24 NHL season.

1. Boston is still this good. I kept going back and forth on what I expected from this Bruins team. On one hand, any team with David Pastrnak, Brad Marchand, Charlie McAvoy and some strong goaltending is still going to have a chance to be really good. But I also looked at all of the talent they lost from last year’s team, especially at center, and what I thought was going to be some major regression from their goalies and I also saw a team that could be in line for a big drop in the standings. But here they are still having one of the best records in the league while the goaltending has not really regressed. At least not yet.

I still question how long Linus Ullmark and Jeremy Swayman can keep up this level of play, and I will also point out that after their 9-0-0 start they are a more reasonable 6-4-3 in the games that have followed. But they still look like a legit contender.

The goaltending performance still has me side-eyeing some things (is it masking flaws? How long can they play at that level?) and I do think they need another big-time center for the playoffs, but they still look legit.