The Sabres’ streak, the Ducks’ slide, and the biggest NHL storylines to watch in January

Hockey fans (and, sometimes, executives) tend to fixate on the NHL season’s mile markers as a way to introduce some order to the chaos of a long season. Proximity to U.S. Thanksgiving, the holiday roster freeze, the All-Star/international break, and the trade deadline help determine the importance of a team’s triumphs and struggles.

As we flip the calendar to 2026, an oft-overlooked benchmark approaches: the halfway point. Different for every club, the 50% mark is already in the rearview for six clubs, including the New York Rangers, Edmonton Oilers and Detroit Red Wings. For everyone else, Game No. 41 will arrive during the New Year. After that, the runway gets shorter and the mistakes louder.

For the streaking Buffalo Sabres, that sounds like a positive; another week or two of points in the bank would put them in a great position to end an infamous, record-breaking playoff drought. For the leaky Anaheim Ducks, it’s a grim reminder that early-season results, like their flying 11-3-1 start, are often mirages; the end of the Ducks’ own lengthy drought might not be the foregone conclusion it looked like in November.

Read on for more on the Sabres’ unlikely heater, the Ducks’ winter funk, and the most significant NHL storylines to monitor this January.

What’s gotten into the Sabres, and can they keep it up?

There was a lot to like about Buffalo’s roster in the offseason, especially on the wings and along the blueline. Still, health concerns, questionable depth at center, and 14 years’ worth of failure didn’t leave a lot of room for optimism among the fanbase. It seemed the Sabres, last in the Eastern Conference and 31st overall by mid-November, were in for another season of Murphy’s Law in 2025-26 after a procession of early-season injuries. 

Erstwhile GM Kevyn Adams, long maligned in Western New York for his perceived deference to meddlesome owner Terry Pegula, was fired a month later even as Buffalo clawed its way back to .500. Ironically, Adams’ dismissal seems to have finally jolted the roster he constructed for coach Lindy Ruff into action; hard-shooting center Josh Norris (12 P in 12 GP since return from injury on 12/1) and brawny D-man Mattias Samuelsson (21 blocks, +9 in 24:35 ATOI since 12/9) are just two Sabres bent on proving they’re part of the solution to new GM and former Columbus boss Jarmo Kekalainen.

The Sabres’ win streak that began on Dec. 9 tied a team record 10 games Wednesday night in Dallas and vaulted Buffalo back into the playoff picture, but the real work starts now for Samuelsson, Norris, and the rest of Ruff’s men. A quartet of “four-pointers” throughout the month against Atlantic Division opponents Florida (on 1/12) and Montreal (3X) that will help determine if the Swords’ scorching December was a turning point or more fool’s gold.

The Ducks can’t outscore their problems forever

Joel Quenneville didn’t become the second-winningest coach of all time by being stubborn. Though each of Quenneville’s three Cup teams in Chicago boasted a smothering forecheck and top-five scoring defense, he knew when he took the Anaheim job that the greenhorn ‘Ducklings’ didn’t have the horses to run such a tight ship. Instead, he’d let the Ducks’ embarrassment of young talent play through mistakes in the hopes of unlocking their offensive potential, which predecessor Greg Cronin failed at for two seasons.

While there’s little doubt Quenneville’s loose grip on the reins has gotten the best out of Leo Carlsson (42 P in 38 GP) and Cutter Gauthier (19 G in 40 GP) on the scoresheet and helped Anaheim take an early lead on the Pacific Division field, the club’s propensity to bleed chances has only gotten worse; the Ducks give up the most goals (3.47) and scoring chances (31.35) per game of any team. Anaheim is living and dying with the ebbs and flows of a young offense and suffered the consequences of a low ebb in December (2.82 G per game, 10th-worst) with a pedestrian 6-7-2 record.

3.8 goals per game went in at the other end during a month that dropped the Ducks below Edmonton and Vegas in the Pacific, and Quenneville isn’t quite as content to “let the kids play” anymore. “You’re going to have stretches where you’re ordinary, and we’ve been in that stretch,” Quenneville said after a 6-1 thumping at the hands of the rival Kings last Saturday. “It’s not [acceptable] in our eyes … you’re not going to be able to make the playoffs at that level.” With matchups against the Wild, Stars, and Avs looming, you wonder if January will prove Coach Q’s pessimistic bluster right.

When does the other shoe drop for the Minnesota Wild?

Just months after the unexpectedly hairy (and expensive) contract negotiation that kept Kirill Kaprizov in the Twin Cities, Minnesota GM Bill Guerin delivered a second superstar player in the form of Quinn Hughes on Dec. 13. A recent Norris Trophy winner and one of the best stickhandlers in the sport, Hughes is on the shortlist of the best players to be traded this century. He instantly makes the Wild, third in points in both the NHL and the Central Division, a genuine threat to escape the Western Conference. 

With Hughes and steady Swede Jonas Brodin on the left, and hometown hero Brock Faber and captain Jared Spurgeon on the right, the Minnesota blueline is suddenly the most loaded in the league. The goalie battery is in a similar tier; both incumbent starter Filip Gustavsson (2.47 GAA, .912 SV%) and rookie phenom Jesper Wallstedt (2.21 GAA, .928 SV%) have been excellent. The firepower beyond Kaprizov, however, is limited. 

Matt Boldy (25 G, 47 P in 41 GP) is a star in his own right, and his chemistry with two-way power forward Joel Eriksson Ek (26-12 game score as linemates) gives coach John Hynes an effective unit away from Kaprizov. “The Thrill” himself has been centered either by rookie Danila Yurov or grinder Ryan Hartman since Marco Rossi went the other way in the Hughes trade, though; neither player would inspire much confidence in a potential playoff showdown with the Stars’ bevy of top-six pivots (Hintz, Johnston, Duchene). Could Guerin try to bring in, say, Nazem Kadri to even the odds before leaving for the Olympics, where Guerin will double as GM of Team USA, in February?

The Avs’ chase for the all-time points record is getting serious

It’s poor form to spike the ball on your successful predictions (goodness knows I have my share of misses), but I did warn you that the Avalanche were only going to get better. That Brock Nelson, who has 11 goals and 21 points in 20 games since I published that piece, would break out. That the training wheels would eventually come off for captain Gabriel Landeskog, who’s scored 15 points, averaged more than 18 minutes a night, and jumped back up to Nathan MacKinnon’s line since then. That a healthy Mackenzie Blackwood, 11-1 with three shutouts and a .937 SV% since Nov. 19, would reclaim his place as the A-side of his split with Scott Wedgewood.

If there was one thing I got wrong, it was my hesitance to christen Colorado a contender for the Bruins’ all-time points record (135 in 2022-23). On pace for nearly 141 points, the Avalanche are healthy, deep, and past the toughest part of their schedule (28th remaining strength-of-schedule, per Tankathon). 

‘Landy,’ MacKinnon, and superstar blueliner Cale Makar have yet to lose their third regulation game in 39 tries. Their quest for history could go from possible to probable if they can escape a tough Eastern road trip against conference heavyweights Carolina (1/3), Florida (1/4), and Tampa Bay (1/6) unscathed to start 2026. Perhaps more importantly, another big month for Colorado would increase the likelihood of a first-round war between division rivals Dallas and Minnesota.

Can the Ottawa Senators survive another year in the “goalie graveyard?”

The long-suffering Sens’ pursuit for high-end goaltending seemed to finally end when 2023 Vezina winner Linus Ullmark arrived from the Boston Bruins via trade in June 2024. Despite a shaky start and, later, a lengthy injury absence, Ullmark’s steadying presence in goal from December on (20-7-2, .918 SV%) helped bring playoff hockey back to the Canadian capital. Keeping Ullmark around, even at a premium, was a no-brainer for Ottawa GM Steve Staios, but things haven’t gone to plan; Ullmark has struggled mightily (.881 SV%, -12.1 GSAA) with one of the NHL’s heaviest workloads.

Worse yet, just as it seemed Ullmark was rounding the corner ahead of the Christmas break (5-2-1, .908 SV% from 12/1-12/23), the Swede was shellacked for five goals by the rival Maple Leafs on Dec. 27 before stepping away from the team for personal reasons two days later. While the paramount concern in the Sens’ locker room will be for the well-being of a beloved teammate, Ullmark’s absence poses serious questions on the ice. 

The Senators are last in team SV% (.872), and their inability to get stops has wasted the elite defensive structure (24.38 scoring chances against per game, fewest in NHL) that coach Travis Green has built around two-way ace Shane Pinto and blueline burner Jake Sanderson. Backup Leevi Merilainen was crucial to last year’s playoff charge, but his struggles (4-7, .869 SV%) this season are part of the reason Ullmark was so busy. The Sens need saves, whether they come from Merilainen, veteran AHL standout Hunter Shepard, or a hired gun, to keep the playoffs in striking distance until Ullmark’s personal situation is sorted. It’s a frustrating situation, but hardly an unfamiliar one for the Ottawa faithful.

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