Collapsing Canucks, unlucky Leafs, and the biggest NHL storylines to watch in January

Credit: Bob Frid-Imagn Images

On New Year’s Day, the New Jersey Devils became the first NHL team to reach the halfway point of the 2024-25 season, and, in a few short hours, the San Jose Sharks will join them at the 41-game mark.

It’s not exactly the home stretch, but by now, certain trends have become facts; we don’t need another 40 games to decide whether the Capitals are the real deal or the Predators’ free-spending offseason was a dud.

That said, there’s still plenty we don’t know as the calendar turns over. Can the Maple Leafs hold onto a precarious lead in the Atlantic Division? Will the upstart Canadiens continue to surprise? And are the Canucks primed for an implosion? Read on for more on these questions and the other storylines that will define the first month of 2025.

How much more bad luck can the Maple Leafs survive?

A lack of resilience has plagued the Toronto Maple Leafs come playoff time during the Auston Matthews era. It was the primary motivating factor behind the team’s appointment of former NHL enforcer and Stanley Cup champion Craig Berube as head coach last offseason. That decision has proved fruitful, as a less resilient group might have faded in the race for the Atlantic Division by now.

After Oliver Ekman-Larsson missed Tuesday’s tilt with the New York Islanders with an illness, the number of regular Leafs players who haven’t missed time dwindled to just four: Morgan Rielly, William Nylander, Mitch Marner, and Steven Lorentz. Despite all their bad luck, the Maple Leafs lead the Atlantic thanks to Marner’s heroics (51 P in 38 GP), John Tavares’s resurgence (19 G, 38 P in 37 GP), and the excellent goaltending battery of Anthony Stolarz and Joseph Woll (.920 combined SV%).

One half of that tandem, Stolarz (2.15 GAA, .927 SV%), could miss another four weeks after a mid-December knee surgery. Captain Auston Matthews should return much sooner, but a nagging injury has hampered his effectiveness during a stop-start 2024-25 season (11 G, 23 P in 24 GP). With their starting goalie shelved and their best player struggling for health, the Leafs will continue to ride Woll and the 34-year-old Tavares hard over the next month. As the Florida Panthers and Tampa Bay Lightning bear down, injuries to either player could sink Toronto.

It’s time to take the L.A. Kings seriously

After the Los Angeles Kings got nuked by the Edmonton Oilers in the first round of the 2024 postseason, most onlookers dismissed their offseason commitment to size and toughness as the desperate play of a team that had already missed its best shot. That was a mistake; the watertight Kings entered 2025 with the third-most points in the Western Conference.

Grinders Warren Foegele (11 G, 23 P in 37 GP) and Tanner Jeannot have clicked with Quinton Byfield (6 G, 9 P in last 8 GP) on a massive second line that has outscored opponents 11-1 (!) at 5-on-5 since linking up last month. On the blueline, Joel Edmunson’s physicality has opened the ice for talented young partner Brandt Clarke (21 P in 37 GP); the big man is playing his best hockey since his first season in Montreal.

Fights at practice

Joel Edmundson scoring goals

Now all we need is Jordan Nolan and we can recreate the Blues cup runpic.twitter.com/NqsBbbh9ka

— Toxic Kings Fan (@fialafallo) December 5, 2024

For a club whose talent levels don’t stack up with those of the rival Oilers or Golden Knights, adding gritty vets like Jeannot, Foegele, and Edmunson seemed like a step backward. Instead, the moves have added well-needed sandpaper to head coach Jim Hiller’s defensive scheme, which moved away from the 1-3-1 trap to a tighter-checking 1-2-2. The result has been the league’s fourth-best scoring defense. With victories over the Stars, Wild, Oilers, and Devils in the past month, the Kings aren’t just padding stats in a so-so Pacific Division. How good will this club be after future Hall-of-Famer Drew Doughty makes his season debut?

Things could get ugly for the snakebitten Vancouver Canucks

The Canucks’ season was already teetering on the brink when captain Quinn Hughes went down week-to-week. Elias Pettersson (28 P, -3 in 34 GP) had wilted under the pressure of his franchise-player price tag, and all indications were that he and fellow star center J.T. Miller couldn’t get on the same page. Thatcher Demko’s long-awaited return was supposed to calm things down, but he got off to a lukewarm start in goal (2-1-3, 3.43 GAA). Then, as rumors swirled around Miller and Brock Boser’s trade availability, Hughes busted his hand.

It’s not an exaggeration to say the eldest Hughes brother is the most impactful 5-on-5 player in the NHL. That’s not just because of Hughes’s individual brilliance (he leads the team in scoring and ice time), but also Vancouver’s inability to function when he’s on a shift change, let alone injured. When the 2024 Norris winner is on the ice at 5-on-5, the ‘Nucks control more than 58% of scoring chances and an even 65% of goals. Without Hughes, both of those shares plummet below 44%.

The Canucks of 2024-25 have been dysfunctional at the best of times. With their captain stringing together another outstanding season, there was always hope that a talented roster would eventually pull it together. Now, with both Hughes and partner Filip Hronek out, a six-game stretch against heavy hitters from Jan. 8-18 could plunge their season into chaos.

Don’t look now, but the Habs are in the playoff hunt

The Montreal Canadiens were never supposed to make the playoffs this season. A more realistic goal was to hover around the .500 mark and sell from a position of strength at the trade deadline, and even that seemed unlikely two months ago. After their first 15 games, the Habs were an NHL worst 4-9-2, and their 4.07 team GAA would have been worse without Team Canada backup Sam Montembeault in net.

Since then, introducing trade additions Patrik Laine and Alexandre Carrier into the top six and top four, respectively, has given Montreal its most coherent lineup of the rebuild era, and success has followed on the ice: on a 7-3-0 heater over their last 10, the Canadiens have fought their way to .500. In a muddled Eastern Conference, that might represent more than a moral victory.

The Canadiens are one of four Eastern Conference teams sitting exactly at the .500 mark along with the Columbus Blue Jackets, Philadelphia Flyers, and Pittsburgh Penguins, who sit just three points adrift of the wild card. Of those clubs, the Habs have the stablest crease, the fewest OT losses, and the fewest games played. Their depth would take a hit if Christian Dvorak and David Savard are traded in the coming months, but there’s a path for Montreal to make some noise in the second half. Fueled by contributions of Cole Caufield (19 G in 37 GP) and rookie D-man Lane Hutson (26 P, 22:26 ATOI), the Canadiens are starting to look like a real team again.

It’s prove-it time for Mackenzie Blackwood and the Colorado Avalanche

Since the Colorado Avalanche traded for Mackenzie Blackwood to solve their goaltending woes once and for all, they’re 8-2 with a +19 goal difference and a team GAA of 2.00. Josh Manson is back healthy on the second pair, Jonathan Drouin is back healthy on the second line, and slumping Casey Mittelstadt is back on the scoresheet for the first time in nearly 20 games. Life is good in Denver, where GM Chris MacFarland has already seen enough to hand Blackwood a fat new contract. Have the rest of us seen enough to buy that the Avs are going back to the Stanley Cup?

As easily as the Avalanche bowled over their December opponents, they weren’t exactly matched up against a murderers’ row. Their 5-2 victory over the Winnipeg Jets on Tuesday was their first victory over a playoff opponent since Dec. 8, the night before they traded for Blackwood, and featured three goals past backup Eric Comrie and another two into an empty net.

The Avalanche are a recent champion with MacKinnon, Makar, and Rantanen on the payroll, and rolling through a soft part of the schedule is a sign of a focused, professional outfit. Still, Colorado’s (mostly) healthy roster and shiny new goaltending tandem (Blackwood and Scott Wedgewood) has yet to face a stiff test. A January slate that pits them against playoff teams from both conferences including the Panthers, the Oilers, and their old friends the Jets will go a long way toward proving that the revamped Avs can go all the way.

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