21 takes, thoughts, trends from the first 21 days of NHL action

Are you not entertained?

The first three weeks of the 2019-20 NHL season have given us plenty to think about and gawk at. Here are some of the many eye-catching developments from the first 21 days of action:

Scoring > fighting

The NHL has made a distinct move from decades past. Fighting's importance to the game is dwindling, while scoring continues to surge. Both trends have carried on through the first few weeks of the final season of the 2010s. There have been 21 fighting majors, according to HockeyFights.com, which is a 197-fight pace or a scrap roughly every six-and-a-half games, which would be a historic low. Meanwhile, the average 2019-20 game has featured 6.1 total goals, the highest rate since the 2005-06 campaign.

Front offices acting fast

Nico Hischier's seven-year contract extension was a tidy piece of business for New Jersey Devils general manager Ray Shero. Hischier, who will make $7.25 million starting next season, has been lost in the shuffle in a league ruled by more flamboyant players. The two-way center is an integral part of what New Jersey is building, forming a one-two punch down the middle with Jack Hughes. He joins Chicago Blackhawks winger Alex DeBrincat, Ottawa Senators defenseman Thomas Chabot, Winnipeg Jets rearguard Josh Morrissey, and Arizona Coyotes winger Clayton Keller on the list of 2020 restricted free agents who've inked an extension far in advance of July 1. The 2019 RFA crop taught GMs a lesson, apparently.

Carlson on fire

John Carlson finished fourth in Norris Trophy voting last year. In his previous nine seasons, he cracked the top five just once. It's safe to say he's the clubhouse leader now. Carlson tops all skaters - yes, that includes Connor McDavid - in points (five goals and 15 assists for 20 points in 11 games). If Carlson can remain healthy and average a point per game for the remainder of the season, he'll become the first defenseman since Ray Bourque in 1993-94 to crack the 90-point mark. Video game numbers for a 29-year-old in the second season of an eight-year deal. For the Capitals, it's $8 million well spent.

Sharks dress to impress

Bravo to the San Jose Sharks. Those Los Tiburones warmup jerseys hit all the right notes.

Oilers stars stretched thin

Hockey is infinitely more entertaining when McDavid is on the ice. Sprinkle in plenty of Leon Draisaitl and the Edmonton Oilers become must-watch. Still, how long can coach Dave Tippett continue this insane early-season deployment? Through 10 games, Draisaitl (23:42 average ice time) and McDavid (22:43) are flirting with diminishing returns over the 82-game regular-season marathon. Tippett is in a tough spot. He must balance the daily motivation to win the next game with the short-, medium-, and long-term needs of the Oilers' greater picture.

Schedules gone wild

It's hard to recall an NHL season in which so many teams had scheduling glitches right off the hop. A few examples: the Minnesota Wild are on the road for 13 of their first 18 games; the Flyers played Game 1 in Prague, their second contest in Philadelphia five days later, and then the third in Vancouver three days after that; the Sharks and Buffalo Sabres, teams based in opposite parts of the continent, had a home-and-home over a four-day period; while all of that was going on, the New York Rangers had a week off between Games 2 and 3.

Hintz of a promising future

Unless you're a Dallas Stars fan or a prospect aficionado, you probably didn't know a single thing about Roope Hintz at this point last year. The big, speedy Finnish center broke out in March and has continued to demonstrate he is on the verge of stardom. Hintz, a second-round pick in the 2015 draft, has quietly bagged six goals in 11 games to lead Dallas' attack. Not groundbreaking stuff, but relative to team performance, he's doing quite well for himself.

Mighty Duck between the pipes

John Gibson can't do it all. Through his first seven starts, the perennial Vezina Trophy contender allowed just 13 goals on 214 shots for a sparkling save percentage of .939. In the eighth, he conceded four goals on 19 shots. Upcoming games against strong conference foes - the Stars, Colorado Avalanche, and Vegas Golden Knights - should reveal more about the dynamic between team and goalie. Overall, it's happy days for Ducks fans - unexpectedly, Anaheim is off to a 6-4-0 start - but is Gibson doing more harm than good in the long run? A club that could sorely use a high draft-lottery position is playing in front of a world-class goalie.

More thunder than Lightning

Since Brayden Point made his season debut on Oct. 10, the center has skated at even-strength with wingers Nikita Kucherov and Steven Stamkos and defenseman Victor Hedman for roughly 23 minutes. That collection of talent is bordering on absurd. Four top-50 (top-30?) players on the ice at the same time. The hockey world should be talking about the Tampa Bay Lightning foursome ad nauseam, but the results haven't been ideal. The stat line through five games of experimentation: 23 shot attempts for, 29 shot attempts against, two goals for, two goals against.

Canes still surgin' under Rod

After a deep playoff run, the Carolina Hurricanes have burst out of the gates in 2019-20. The catalyst in Raleigh always seems to be Rod Brind'Amour, the assistant coach for seven years before he was promoted to bench boss in May 2018. A longtime NHL coach once explained the difference between the two positions. The assistant is an uncle type for players (arm's length from discipline, a listening ear, etc.) while a head coach is closer to a father figure.

In the case of Carolina, stud defenseman Jaccob Slavin reports few hiccups in Brind'Amour's transition to team dad: "His personality and how he operates as a person, how he respects you as a player, did not change from assistant coach to head coach. That's rare to find. He genuinely cares about us as players, and as people too. It’s something special that we have with him."

Freshman struggles

Rookies from the 2019 NHL Draft are stumbling out of the gate. Top picks Jack Hughes and Kaapo Kakko have combined for two goals and two assists in 15 games. Kirby Dach (third overall, Blackhawks), Ville Heinola (20th, Jets), and Tobias Bjornot (22nd, Los Angeles Kings) are the only other 2019 picks to appear in an NHL game. Heinola, a super-smart defenseman, leads the pack in production with five points in eight outings, getting scratched three times. What an odd group and strange early-season development.

Stone-cold stud

Mark Stone has been an absolute game-changer for the Vegas Golden Knights since arriving prior to last season's trade deadline. In 29 regular-season games, Stone has put up 25 points while guiding the team to a 54.5% share of the even-strength shot attempts when he's on the ice. When asked in September how the Golden Knights might benefit from a full year of Stone, fellow forward Jonathan Marchessault wasted no words: "You get a No. 1 forward, that's what you get. He's an unbelievable player. He does everything well on the ice."

Everything, indeed, including one-punching Nashville Predators captain Roman Josi and reacting appropriately to the roller coaster that is the NHL shootout.

Out with the old

Mike Sullivan's take on morning skates is perfect. The Pittsburgh Penguins coach used the power of storytelling to explain why the tradition is "overrated" and why slowly but surely it's being eliminated from a number of NHL programs, including his own.

"It's like, 'Why does the whole league have morning skates?' It reminds me of why my mother cut the side of the hams off before she cooked 'em," Sullivan told Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. "I asked her, 'Why do you cut the sides of the hams off?' She said, 'I don't know. Because that's how my mother taught me.' So I asked my grandmother. I said, 'Why do you cut the side of the hams off before you put 'em in the oven?' She said, 'That was easy. I didn't have a pan that was big enough.' That's my analogy."

Bench boss update

From scorching to warm to lukewarm, a ranking of three head coaches believed to be on the hot seat:

1. Bruce Boudreau, Wild (3-6-0)
2. John Hynes, Devils (2-4-2)
3. Jim Montgomery, Stars (3-7-1)

And, from freezing to chilly to brisk, here are three head coaches on the other end of the spectrum (the cold seat?):

1. Ralph Krueger, Sabres (8-1-1)
2. Dave Tippett, Oilers (7-1-1)
3. Bruce Cassidy, Bruins (6-1-2)

Another slow start for DeBrusk

Jake DeBrusk and October is not a match made in heaven. The Boston Bruins power forward has failed to hit the ground running in each October of his young NHL career. In 2017-18, he put up four points in 10 games. Last year, over a 12-game month, he pitched in just three goals. This season, through nine contests, he has three points, two of which came in Games 8 and 9.

"I don't know what it is," he said over the weekend, prior to scoring against Toronto. "I don't really necessarily like where my game's at right now overall, let alone statistic-wise, so I'm just trying to build and find my game."

DeBrusk tends to turn it on as the season progresses. In October, he's averaged 0.32 points per game, compared to 0.67 in the other combined months of the regular season.

Souperman is in the building

Mike Babcock is notoriously difficult to win over, but Russian rookie Ilya Mikheyev has quickly endeared himself to the Toronto Maple Leafs coach. Mikheyev, who has three goals and four assists in 11 games, has not once seen his nightly ice time dip below 13 minutes. This past Saturday, he played a career-high 18:22 as a second-line winger and first-unit penalty killer. Not bad for a 25-year-old who last year was a complete unknown to North Americans.

"Ilya's fast and he's strong, which are two important things on the penalty kill," Maple Leafs winger Trevor Moore said of his new, beloved teammate. "He reads the play well and he's got good instincts. He's been great."

Seattle's math movement

Shrewdly, Seattle's NHL team has chosen to build out the geek squad years ahead of its debut in 2021. In June, ownership tapped former Wild analytics guru Alexandra Mandrycky to be its director of hockey administration. Ron Francis, who was hired a month later, has always been considered a numbers-friendly GM. And, just last week, the club announced it's searching for a quantitative analyst, data engineer, and developer to help shape expansion-draft strategy and assist in player acquisition, roster construction, and in-game tactics.

Maurice joins exclusive group

Jets coach Paul Maurice is a member of the 700-win club. He's spent more than two decades running benches for three franchises - Hartford/Carolina (twice), Toronto, and Winnipeg - that have been filled with varying levels of talent. Here's a stab at an all-time lineup of Maurice-coached players:

Goal of the year?

With all due respect to Sidney Crosby's, Blake Coleman's, and David Pastrnak's wonderful tallies, the goal of the year front-runner is Columbus Blue Jackets winger Sonny Milano's between-the-legs snipe. Milano flashed both finesse and guts on the Oct. 16 play, pulling the puck back while two defenders chased him down before roofing it on goalie Ben Bishop.

In Crosby we trust

A basic hockey lesson: Never, ever doubt Crosby. With Evgeni Malkin sidelined and Phil Kessel in Arizona, the 32-year-old has willed the Penguins to a 6-4-0 record to start the season. His performance this year, his 15th in the NHL, has underlined his ability to rise to the occasion. McDavid may be the best player in the world, but Crosby is the grand master. Interestingly, though, neither should be dominating the way-too-early Hart Trophy conversation. No, the MVP of the first few weeks is Jack Eichel, McDavid's old draft classmate.

West Coast rivalry

Please, give us a few more chapters of this Drew Doughty-Matthew Tkachuk rivalry. At this point, both guys seem genuinely into the WWE-style tiff. Let's hope they stay interested between now and Dec. 7, when the Kings and Calgary Flames meet for their third of four meetings this season.

John Matisz is theScore's national hockey writer.