Under the heading: “Do not adjust your set,” here’s what we found at the top of the National Hockey League standings Friday morning. The Vancouver Canucks (4-0-0) and the Edmonton Oilers (4-1-0).

Of course, you predicted this, right?

It’s hockey heresy: the team that never wins (Edmonton) and the team that, this year, was picked perhaps most often as a 30th-place finisher by “experts” across the NHL.

We know, it’s early. But here are a few stats that make Vancouver’s perfect record even more a roll of the dice:

• Vancouver didn’t hold a regulation lead until the second period of their fourth game, coming back in the first three to win in overtime.

• While Edmonton leads the NHL with 20 goals heading into the weekend, Vancouver has 10 in four games. Just seven of those goals have come in regulation time.

• All four of the Canucks wins came at home. Last season they won their fourth game at Rogers Arena on Dec. 7.

One of the things we missed on Vancouver was the impact Brandon Sutter would have, after only playing 20 games last season. He’s got four points, which means he’s been in on 40 per cent of the Canucks goals so far.

“He only played the first 20 games last season, which is always tough when you come to a new team,” Daniel Sedin told the Vancouver Province. “Those first 20 games, we only saw 80 per cent of what he can do. Now we see how big he is going to be for our club.

“It puts everyone back in a role where they can succeed.”

Sutter is the No. 2 centre and that makes Bo Horvat a No. 3. If Loui Eriksson (just two assists so far) can click with the Sedins, the Canucks could end up with more depth than people gave them credit for.

So far, Vancouver and Edmonton have opposing issues. We would wonder how long the Canucks can survive on two goals per night, particularly once they start playing road games. They’re going to have to figure out how to score, without opening up the floodgates to their own net.

The Oilers, meanwhile, are scoring plenty, yet giving up almost as many. The Oilers averaged 3.2 goals against per game in their first four games. It’s not as bad as Arizona (5) — or Calgary and Winnipeg (4) — but that will have to come down when the Oilers hit the road for 10 of their 15 games in November.

We suspect the NHL will revert to being a 3-2 league by mid-November, so giving up more than three goals per night is a death sentence.

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Calling Moose

Then there’s the Calgary Flames, the team I saw as the most stable of Canada’s three Western-most clubs coming out of the pre-season. That prediction, of course, was predicated on Brian Elliott giving the Flames the same high-level goaltending he gave St. Louis last spring. Alas, that has been an issue in Cowtown thus far.

After four games the Flames are 1-3-1, and Elliott’s numbers are below expectations: he’s 0-3 with a 4.72 goals-against average and an .839 save percentage.

Calgary’s power play is 1-for-22 heading into Saturday’s visit by St. Louis, and now the schedule begins to get tough. The Flames’ next five games are against St. Louis, at Chicago, at St. Louis, at home to Ottawa and at home to Washington.

It’s the old story right now in Calgary: You can’t win a playoff spot in October and November, but you can certainly lose one. Or at least bury yourself so deep that the ol’ American Thanksgiving rule comes into play, where only one or two teams not in the playoffs on Nov. 24 climb in by April 9, the last day of the regular season.

“I think it’s more frustrating right now,” Flames centre Sean Monahan told reporters in Calgary. “I mean, we’re working hard, it’s just we have to get on the same page here. Some things aren’t going as well as they should be, and we have to get on the same page and work together here.”

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Not A Quick Start

For teams like Winnipeg, Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver to make the playoffs, someone in the West has to fall out. Early in the season, the two Southern California teams look most vulnerable.

Particularly the Los Angeles Kings, who have lost goalie Jonathan Quick for three months to a groin injury. Jeff Zatkoff and Peter Budaj will try to hold the fort in his absence, but after a 1-3 start, Zatkoff has already given way to Budaj, who backstopped L.A.’s first win at Dallas Thursday.

This was Minnesota coach Bruce Boudreau, after his Wild pumped five goals past Zatkoff on 16 shots.

“All I know is if I was playing, I’d shoot from everywhere,” Boudreau told the L.A. Times. “When you know that you’ve got a goalie who’s a little bit rattled, you’ve got to get pucks at the net.”

Do the Kings swing a trade here? You know the Jets would love to unload Ondrej Pavelec on L.A., even if they had to eat a bit of his salary. We can’t see Budaj being the answer, but with the expansion draft ahead, the goalie market is a difficult one for Kings GM Dean Lombardi to navigate. I wonder if they’ll look at Mike Condon, who is in Pittsburgh behind Marc-Andre Fleury and Matt Murray?

Flightless Birds

Meanwhile, the Anaheim Ducks are off to another sluggish start at 1-3-1, without un-signed defenceman Hampus Lindholm. From here it looks like Ducks GM Bob Murray threw his offer of six years and $22.8 million on the table, and told the agents for holdouts Lindholm and Rickard Rakell to fight over it.

Rakell took the deal and is expected in Anaheim this coming week. Lindholm passed, as he is believed to be looking for Rasmus Ristolainen money — near $35 million over six years. The Ducks have less than $400,000 in cap space left though, so somebody has to move in a trade, putting a new spin on the ol’ trade-and-sign with Lindholm.

On the less bright side, the Ducks traded Frederik Andersen to Toronto, handing the No. 1 job to American John Gibson. The problem? He’s got an .890 save percentage so far this season. If Gibson can’t be a legit No. 1, this could be the season Anaheim misses the playoffs for the first time in five years.

If that happens, we’re already hearing that firing another coach won’t suffice. It’s time for Murray to get this team over the top.

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A Turning Point For Hitchcock

The stories of coach Ken Hitchcock trying to tame offensive stars like Brett Hull in Dallas or Vladimir Tarasenko in St. Louis are legendary. But where Hitchcock first learned that true offensive players are different animals was back in Kamloops with future Pittsburgh Penguin Rob Brown, who had 385 points over his last two WHL seasons.

“I learned a lot from dealing with Rob Brown. A lot of things that have really helped me in my career,” Hitchcock said this week. “I wanted him to pay attention to a certain element, and as I got him to pay attention to that he lost everything else.

“Finally I said, ‘Well, why don’t we go the other way? What you’re strong at, do.’ The rest will take care of itself, ‘cause he was so competitive.”

Here’s a piece I wrote on Hull and Hitchcock from Dallas last spring. Some good stories inside.

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Dell Thrives in Silicon Valley

A shout out to Airdrie, Alta., native Aaron Dell, who won his first NHL start at age 27 on Tuesday for the San Jose Sharks, beating the New York Islanders in Brooklyn.

Dell stopped 21 of 23 shots to win 3-2. He left the University of North Dakota, slugged it out through the Central Hockey League (Allen Americans), the East Coast Hockey League (Utah Grizzlies) and three different AHL towns before earning the backup job to Martin Jones in San Jose this season.

He was like a pitcher working a no-hitter on game day, his teammates steering clear.

“They kind of left me alone a little bit today,” said Dell. “Not sure I like that.”