A lot can change over the course of a weekend and that was the case for six of the seven winless teams in the NHL. Toronto, Anaheim, Carolina, Los Angeles, Edmonton and New Jersey all picked up at least their first wins of the 2015-16 season.
The Oilers and Kings have each won two straight after 0-4 and 0-3 starts respectively. Edmonton in particular must be happy as number overall pick Connor McDavid led the charge in his first ever Battle of Alberta matchup with Calgary.
The heralded rookie scored twice while adding an assist. For the game, all four number one overall picks the Oilers have had since 2010 scored goals in the 5-2 victory.
They backed up Saturday's win with a 2-1 overtime victory in Vancouver on Sunday. Lauri Korpikoski scored on a breakaway just 1:46 into the three on three extra session.
Devilishly good first win
New head coach John Hynes and the New Jersey Devils earned their first win of the 2015-16 season with a 2-1 overtime victory of their own against the New York Rangers on Sunday. Lee Stempniak scored the game winner at 3:07 of overtime.
The Rangers have now lost three straight games since a 3-0-0 start to their season.
One and One
The Columbus Blue Jackets remain the lone winless team in the NHL right now. Columbus has not registered a point on the season going 0-6-0. The Jackets (-)17 goal differential is eight worse than the next closest team.
Former Vezina Trophy winner Sergei Bobrovsky is 0-5-0 with a 5.07 goals against average and a .835 save percentage.
One the flip side, The Montreal Canadiens remain the league's lone unbeaten. Montreal made it 6-0-0 over the weekend with a 4-1 victory over the Detroit Red Wings on Saturday. Each victory will continue to extend the franchise record for wins to begin a season.
St. Louis streaking
Overshadowed by the Canadiens, the St. Louis Blues have quietly won four straight and sit at 5-1-1 and atop the central division. During the current four game winning streak, the Blues have scored four goals in each game. They have a pair of 4-3 and 4-2 wins each.
The 21 goals St. Louis has scored is most in the NHL. They lead both Winnipeg and Montreal by one in the category.
Regular season success is nothing new for St. Louis and their bench boss Ken Hitchcock. The Blues are typically one of the top teams in the league every year but have yet to make a deep run at Lord Stanley.
Bad Break
The San Jose Sharks were off to a flying start this season. New starting goalie Martin Jones is making the most of his chance. He is 4-0-0 with a .982 save percentage and a .049 goals against average.
Things will get a little tougher for the Sharks though as the team announced Friday second line center Logan Couture will miss the next four to six weeks with a broken fibula. The injury happened during a practice drill this past Thursday.
Couture is coming off his best season as a pro as he netted 27 goals added 40 assists for 67 points in 2014-15.
League Leaders through 10/18/2015
Goals – Tarasenko, Benn, Parise, Plekanec (5)
Assists – Karlsson (8)
Points – Tarasenko, Krejci, Zetterberg (9)
Plus/Minus – Markov, Pacioretty (+8)
Bill Minchin is a contributing writer for Flyerdelphia. Follow Bill on Twitter @wtfd103074
