Every NHL team wants a strong start, but these are the 10 teams that need one

We’re five games into the 1,344-game NHL season. Have you torn up you preseason predictions and completely changed your view of a few teams yet?

You should have. After all, that’s your job as a fan, not to mention what makes the first few weeks of a new season so much fun. We watch a team play a handful of games, and then we re-evaluate. And by re-evaluate, I mean we all freak out.

It works that way for every team. But some have even more riding on the first few games this year. The narrative comes for us all, but it spends more time chasing some teams than others. And that’s true no matter how many smart people remind us about small sample sizes.

So let’s mark the start of the new season with a look at 10 teams who have the most riding on a strong start to the season. We’ll cover all the narratives – the ones the team is facing to open the year, the one they’ll hear if they start strong, and the one that will haunt them if they don’t. And we’ll even sneak a peek at their starting schedule, to see if it offers any clues about which side the early-season coin might land on.

In no particular order, here are 10 teams with a lot on the line over the next few weeks.

>> Read the full post for free at The Athletic