Happy Sunday. The New Jersey Devils do not play today, as they have returned home to prepare for a stretch of largely home games in the coming weeks. It will be good for the Devils to get off the road,
considering their poor injury luck and far better home performances. Aside from the Devils, though, how has the Metropolitan Division performed since the last Snapshot? As many of us have heard the mantra over the years, the teams in a playoff spot at Thanksgiving tend to still be in a playoff spot at the end of the season, so this is really the time to start paying attention to how things are shaking out.
So, aside from the Hurricanes and Islanders, the Metropolitan has largely stagnated over the last two weeks or so. And here are their schedules over the next two weeks:
Now, let’s get into all of the teams.
Carolina Hurricanes
What Happened Since the Last Snapshot: The Carolina Hurricanes have found their game. Out of the games they have played since the last Division Snapshot, the Hurricanes have been held to fewer than three goals just once. That was their only regulation loss, to Washington. With the Devils circling the drain a bit without Jack Hughes, and with Pittsburgh tumbling down with the Global Series and some losses, Carolina has jumped back to the top spot. And with their number of regulation and overtime wins, they deserve it.
What’s Coming Up This Fortnight: The Hurricanes have an easier schedule over the next two weeks. They only have to travel to Buffalo for today’s game. Then they have five games at home, with only Winnipeg presenting a playoff-level challenge to them. Everyone else — the Rangers, Flames, Leafs, and Predators — is having a rough season. If the Hurricanes stay on their game as they have been in recent times, it would be hard to foresee anything other than two more weeks won for them.
New Jersey Devils
What Happened Since the Last Snapshot: Ha ha. Ha. Ha. Oh my goodness. It was looking good. The Devils beat Pittsburgh in a shootout to keep their Division lead before taking three points out of four against the Islanders and Blackhawks. Then Cody Glass smashed his shoulder into the boards against Chicago, which did not even turn out to be the most devastating injury the Devils suffered in the Windy City. Jack Hughes sliced up his pinky with glass, and is now out until late December or early January. The Devils, of course, are 1-3-0 without Jack Hughes now, and frustration is bubbling over from both the players and the head coach.
What’s Coming Up This Fortnight: The Devils have a reprieve. They have been a much better home than road team this season, and they get six out of the next eight at home, with the two road games being short travels to Buffalo and Boston. However, they have to be sure that the back-to-backs with those road games don’t lead to any pointless stretches, or they might find themselves out of a playoff spot by the next Snapshot. Yes, the line between a Division spot and an outsider position is two points right now. On the bright side, the Devils have played the highest percentage of games on the road (13 out of 21) of any team in the Metropolitan (the Flyers, at 7 of 20, have the lowest percentage), so better times may be ahead.
New York Islanders
What Happened Since the Last Snapshot: Big credit to the New York Islanders for these last two weeks or so. With seven of eight games coming on the road, the Islanders won six of seven on the road and lost at home. They did have three overtime wins, so they were happy to get back into the regulation win column this week, but their core of Horvat, Barzal, Palmieri, and Schaefer have been remarkable for them. Meanwhile, Ilya Sorookin has a .923 save percentage since the Islanders fired their goaltending coach seven games into the season. If Sorokin continues to look like the Sorokin of old, the Islanders may have a legitimate playoff team on their hands.
What’s Coming Up This Fortnight: Rewarding their hard work on the road, the Islanders are in the midst of a seven-game homestand. After that, they go down to Tampa to play the Lightning. The Islanders look to turn around their home fortunes, as they are currently 4-4-1 on home ice. Still, any team that goes 6-1-0 on a seven-game road trip should be good enough to win some games at home. In this stand, they have two Division games with the Flyers and Capitals, so it will be interesting to see if they can bury the Capitals a bit while taking some air out of the Flyers’ sails.
Philadelphia Flyers
What Happened Since the Last Snapshot: Last Snapshot, I said that the Flyers are the team I least believe in. I still stand by that, with their five regulation wins in 20 games. They are a lucky team, yes, and they have had an easy travel and rest schedule through 20 games. With two overtime losses, a regulation loss, a shootout win, and an overtime win before running into Jake Allen last night, they are serial abusers of the Bettman point system so far this season. Their regulation record is 5-6. If they continued the entire season at this pace, they would finish the season with 37 overtime games. But with this pattern of play, they have actually maintained their fourth spot in the Division. They are, however, further from first place (five, versus three points) than they were last time out.
What’s Coming Up This Fortnight: Philadelphia finally gets their road test in the coming week. They have a four-game road trip against the Lightning, Panthers, Islanders, and Devils before going home to face the Penguins and Sabres in the latter week of the fortnight. Currently, they are only 3-3-1 on the road compared to 8-3-2 at home. We’ll see how these games shake out, but the Flyers will also be building up a games at hand advantage with their continually light early-season schedule.
Pittsburgh Penguins
What Happened Since the Last Snapshot: The Penguins have disappointed me. After being tied by points atop the Division last Snapshot, Pittsburgh only won one game over the last two weeks. They have played a lot of close games, though, with three overtime and shootout losses and a one-goal loss in regulation to the Kings. These last two games also came after the team traveled to Stockholm to play the Predators, so I am interested to see if things even out again for Pittsburgh now that they are in the United States once more.
What’s Coming Up This Fortnight: Pittsburgh has the dreaded flip-flopping home-road schedule over the next two weeks, so they may have a tougher time getting into a rhythm. On the bright side, the only real playoff team they have lined up over the next two weeks are the Tampa Bay Lightning. Their games against the Jackets and Flyers are big, though, as they will help determine the middle-of-the-Division picture for two weeks from now.
Columbus Blue Jackets
What Happened Since the Last Snapshot: The Jackets are staying afloat in the Metro thanks to the loser point. At 4-2-3 since the last Snapshot and 4-3-3 in their last 10 total games, Columbus has managed a packed and heavy schedule, staying respectable on the board. I do not believe they will stay above the Capitals forever, though. Like the Flyers, Columbus has trouble winning in regulation, with only six regulation wins through 22 games. There’s just no way I can see a team rising above the bubble when they are on track for 22 or 23 regulation wins across 82 games.
What’s Coming Up This Fortnight: The Blue Jackets have a huge couple of weeks coming up: they have three Division games. Going against Washington and Pittsburgh in the first week, Columbus can prove me wrong and climb up to fifth or even fourth in the Division. Then, they play the Devils next week. To their credit, Columbus has a top line that can hang with other squads, and they have not gotten the Sean Monahan of last season yet. If they get Monahan going, the decent goaltending they have gotten from Jet Greaves and Elvis Merzlikins can turn Columbus into a more interesting team two weeks from now.
Washington Capitals
What Happened Since the Last Snapshot: The Capitals are unpredictable. Since the last Snapshot, they have gone 4-3-1. Those games include 7-4 and 8-4 wins over the Oilers and Canadiens (on back-to-back nights), a 6-3 loss to the Panthers, and a surprising 4-1 road win over the Hurricanes. They are at least starting to show that they have the high-end offense to be a playoff team again, but it is not all there. Supremely aided on offense by their top pair of Jakob Chychrun and John Carlson, who have combined for 10 goals and 38 points through 22 team games, the Capitals are riding their best players. Defensively, they are able to fall on stalwarts like Matt Roy to get them across the finish line most of the time. If they figure their bottom six out, they can easily rise up the Division board.
What’s Coming Up This Fortnight: Washington only has one Division game over the next two weeks. With three at home this week, and the California road trip in the second week, the Capitals need to stand their ground at home before taking at least two or three points from California if they want to stay in position to make a run at a Wild Card spot. Aside from the Hurricanes and Penguins, the Capitals are the third team in the Division to 10 regulation wins, while they only have two loser points from shootout losses. We’ll see if that turns into better fortune down the stretch.
New York Rangers
What Happened Since the Last Snapshot: The New York Rangers were in last place in the first Snapshot, and they are still in last place. This is remarkable, considering their 9-4-1 road record: I cannot imagine the thoughts going through the heads of a fanbase that has seen their team lose eight of nine at home through the first quarter of the season or so. Unfortunately for the Rangers, these last two weeks included a four-game losing streak that featured three road losses, so their luck may be beginning to run out there. Aside from Panarin, Fox, and Gavrikov, the highest-paid skaters on the team are still largely having bad seasons. If they just had better defensive involvement from their top sixers, they would probably be in the middle of the pack or better.
What’s Coming Up This Fortnight: The Rangers have a tough schedule over the next two weeks. With four home games and three on the road, their aging squad may have a tough time managing rest. Worse for the Rangers, six of these seven games are against current playoff teams (though Boston has the most games played in the league), including games against the Hurricanes, Stars, and Avalanche. If the Rangers can go .500 during this stretch, their season may remain at least somewhat interesting. But considering that Thanksgiving is in the coming week, a bad two week stretch could be an early nail in their season’s coffin.
Your Thoughts
We now have two Division Snapshots in the books for the 2025-26 season. There has been quite a bit of shuffling, but the New Jersey Devils are still in a top spot. In fact, New Jersey is still tied with Vegas for the fifth-best position in the league by points and games played. So, the sky is not falling…yet. This is a critical juncture, though, and Sheldon Keefe and his squad need to amp their games up to make sure that they are still above the Wild Card cluster two weeks from now.
But what do you think of the state of the Metropolitan? Are there teams surprising you? Any teams you think are due to rise or fall? Leave your thoughts in the comments below, and thanks for reading.
