With less than a week left in the regular season, it's time for a bit of reflection before we turn our attention to the best time in any pro sport: the NHL playoffs -- and specifically, the madness of the first round.
At the beginning of each season we project, we hypothesize and, in the end, we are sometimes -- often? -- proven horribly wrong.
Herein, 10 things we did not see coming in 2015-16:
No one could have predicted the wacky season enjoyed -- well, maybe enjoyed doesn't quite cover it, more like endured -- by Pittsburgh Penguins captain Sidney Crosby. He was written off in some quarters when he started the season in un-Crosby-like fashion with just two goals in his 18 games before tearing up the second half of the season to establish the Penguins as a legitimate Cup threat and to shoulder his way into the Hart Trophy discussion as league MVP. No surprise that he's among the league leaders in points (33 goals and 49 assists in 78 games), but no one could have imagined how he got there.
Hands up by those who figured Jaromir Jagr, who turned 44 this season, would not just remain a useful player for the Florida Panthers but would be leading a renaissance in South Florida? (Dale Tallon, sorry, you don't count.) Jagr might be one of the most compelling stories anywhere in sport, leading the team in points and being tied for the team lead in goals. The Panthers set a franchise record for wins in a season, they might end up with the Atlantic Division crown and they have a legitimate shot at their first real playoff success since 1996.
Watching Evgeny Kuznetsov in the playoffs last year left me in awe of the young center's skill set, but his emergence this season as one of the most dazzling players on the NHL's runaway best team, the Washington Capitals, has been an unexpected treat. Kuznetsov leads the Caps with 75 points and is a whopping plus-25. His dramatic evolution is one of the main reasons many are picking the Capitals to win their first Stanley Cup this spring.
With days left in the regular season, no one expected the Philadelphia Flyers -- under rookie head coach Dave Hakstol and with rookie-of-the-year contender Shayne Gostisbehere -- to be throwing a monkey wrench into the playoff works. Terrific story of a team doing things its own way under general manager Ron Hextall and getting early, unexpected dividends instead of vying for the first-overall draft pick, which is where most observers had pegged the rebuilding Flyers.
Was there a greater horror show this season than the collapse of the Montreal Canadiens? Yes, Carey Price is the world's best goaltender, but come on. After the Canadiens started the season with nine straight victories that had folks thinking Stanley Cup, Price was felled by nagging injuries that saw him play his last game on Nov. 25. The Habs' collapse was epic and has shone an unyielding spotlight on former wunderkind GM Marc Bergevin as the Habs roster has been revealed as wholly lacking, setting up an offseason of much introspection and likely significant change.
I wasn't surprised that Nashville Predators GM David Poile would make a bold move to bolster his offense, but I didn't see him swallowing hard and sending former No. 4 overall draft pick Seth Jones to the Columbus Blue Jackets for struggling young center Ryan Johansen. If the Preds end up upsetting one (or more) of the top teams in the Pacific Division this spring -- and that is a distinct possibility -- this trade will go down as one of the most important in Predators' history.
I liked the Anaheim Ducks to be a Western Conference power from the get-go. But I admit I had no sense of the struggles they would have to overcome to get there and are even more surprised that GM Bob Murray would show such restraint in not making a coaching change when the team could not find its offensive legs for the first third of the season. Kudos to head coach Bruce Boudreau for reforming the Ducks' identity on the fly. Heading into the last week of the regular season, the Ducks are in first place in the Pacific Division, which is where I thought they'd be. Just didn't figure on their torturous path to what could be a fourth straight division title.
I didn't think the Habs were capable of winning a Cup. Nor did I like any of the Canadian teams to make a serious run at ending a Canadian Cup drought that extends to 1993. But that all seven Canadian teams would tumble to the very bottom of the standings, leaving the playoffs bereft of Canadian representation for the first time since 1970, well, that's off the believable charts. Next season I'm sure this anomaly will be corrected, but the hard truth is there isn't a Canadian team that looks even remotely close to ascending to contender status.
I figured the Toronto Maple Leafs would still stink. And they do, tied with Edmonton Oilers for the fewest points in the NHL. But I did not know they would become such lovable losers. Nary has an unkind word been spoken about this team from the moment Mike Babcock stepped behind the bench last fall, as though this was an expansion team just happy to be playing with the big boys and not an Original Six team that has managed one playoff berth and zero playoff series victories since the 2004-05 lockout. Guess that tells you how ugly things really were in the center of the hockey universe.
I did not really expect much from the Oilers, but it remains one of the most baffling realities in sports that regardless of how much talent they have on paper, the on-ice product remains wildly inferior. Another season of chaos on the ice and in the standings reveals just how steep the mountain is that GM Peter Chiarelli and head coach Todd McLellan must traverse in getting the Oil out of the pit fashioned by years of mismanagement. Oh well, there's always the prospect of yet another No. 1 draft pick to consider as we head toward the April 30 draft lottery.