I don’t think anyone saw this coming. Sure, the Ottawa Senators are going on one crazy streak — thanks mostly to the line of Daniel Alfredsson, Jason Spezza, and Dany Heatley — but we already knew that they had a ridiculously high-powered offense last year. And even though the Philadelphia Flyers have been basement dwellers these past few seasons, we knew that they had cap room to spend this year, unloading on a guy like Daniel Briere. It’s not all that surprising that the Flyers are currently among the top in the league.

But what about the Minnesota Wild? Unlike so many other teams, the Wild didn’t really do much in the off-season in terms of grabbing new players or losing any critical ones. The core group remains much the same, so why is that while they finished 7th in the Western Conference last year, they’re right at the top of the Conference (thus far) this year? Up until earlier tonight, they hadn’t even been handed a loss in regulation. That changed a few hours ago with a 5-3 road loss to the Calgary Flames. That still leaves them with a current record of 7-1-1. Mighty impressive.

Leading the pack in terms of points are Brian Rolston, Marian Gaborik and Pavol Demitra. Solid players, to be sure, but I wouldn’t exactly qualify them as superstars. You’ll never hear the name Brian Rolston mentioned in the same sentence as a Alexander Ovechkin or a Sidney Crosby, because he’s just not flashy enough. The Minnesota Wild are a relatively quiet team that has largely flown under the radar, but when you get off to such a hot start, it’s hard to not get noticed. At least they grabbed my attention.

I don’t foresee the Wild maintaining this sort of 90% win rate. It’s just not possible. The same can be said about the high-flying offence in Ottawa. It’s great now, but as the season progresses, the other teams in the league will adapt and be better equipped to challenge these top squads. Nonetheless, I’m very astounded by the play of the Wild thus far. Like, where the hell did they come from?!!?

On the flip side, the hometown Vancouver Canucks were a team that everyone was watching. With Roberto Luongo between the pipes, a solid defensive unit in front of him, and an adequate (albeit struggling) forward unit, it looked like all the pieces were falling in place. Instead, the Canucks have fallen well south of .500. Of course, Canucks fans are used to being disappointed.