The tides are a changing around the NHL, where the defending champion Pittsburgh Penguins are coming off yet another lopsided embarrassment and the Vegas Golden Knights continue to make expansion history.

While the Pens are stuck in the middle of the pack thanks to their up-down, up-down start, the Golden Knights are rising, and so, too, are the Tampa Bay Lightning, whose full-fledged attack -- i.e. Steven Stamkos and Nikita Kucherov -- has caught the league by storm. Even with Jeff Carter down for the count, the Los Angeles Kings are also on the upswing, and that's not exactly what any of us expected before the season.

The Montreal Canadiens, meanwhile, are down in the dumps -- the lowest of dumps -- after Carey Price's stick-on-net meltdown, and their upcoming schedule doesn't look a whole lot better with the scrappy Florida Panthers and surging Kings on deck. In an early-season stretch that's seen some competence from the Colorado Avalanche, only the lost Arizona Coyotes look much worse than the Habs.