3. The Sabres' cutting-edge power play

Victor Olofsson has been a dynamic force on the Sabres' power play. Sara Schmidle/NHLI via Getty Images
This one is technically cheating because the player in question was already on the team at the end of last season, but let's just roll with it for the sake of this exercise. After all, it was just a six-game cameo in the last days of a miserable campaign in Buffalo, and it was under a different coach and different set of circumstances.

The list of players who have turned more heads and generated more buzz than Victor Olofsson has to start the season is a rather short one. It's all been well deserved, because he and his shot are a big reason the Sabres have been such a positive surprise early on.

Early-season, small-sample size disclaimers aside, Buffalo's power play looks unstoppable at the moment. They've already scored nine times on their 21 total opportunities, generating a league-best 15.9 goals per hour with the man advantage. To put those two figures into some perspective, last season's Tampa Bay Lightning boasted a historically great power play and they had a 28.2% conversion rate and 11.1 goals per hour. Doing so for six games compared to the full 82 are entirely different animals, and there's no question that the Sabres will come back down to earth eventually here.

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But even when they do, the process itself looks completely legit and the success should be replicable to some degree moving forward. Similar to what the aforementioned Lightning do so well, the Sabres' power play succeeds by arming itself with shooters all over the board. They aren't equipped with the same type of talent overall, but it's a close enough replica of a lethal strategy.

What they're doing is allowing the opposing penalty kill to pick its poison, acknowledging that they won't be able to take every single scoring threat away. In the past, they were too focused on funneling point shots by Rasmus Ristolainen; now, they're zinging the puck all around the ice until a clean shooting lane materializes. The best example of this came in last week's home game against the Montreal Canadiens. In the first period, Jack Eichel used the threat of his shot to freeze the goalie, before firing the puck across the ice to Olofsson for what is hockey's equivalent of an alley-oop dunk. In the second period, once the Canadiens overplayed the passing lane in an attempt to prevent Olofsson from getting another easy look, Eichel used the additional time and space to pick a corner with a perfectly placed shot himself.

There's no question that Eichel is the catalyst through which everything runs for the Sabres' power play, just like Nikita Kucherov is for Tampa Bay (even though they operate from opposite wings). But having all of the other threats strategically sprinkled around the zone is just as crucial in keeping the penalty killers honest, almost paralyzing them with the fear of the repercussions of whichever decision they make. They have Rasmus Dahlin playing the role of Victor Hedman, with the green light to hammer the puck from the point if the defensive shell sags in too much. They have Jeff Skinner controlling the bumper spot in the middle of the ice, similar to what Brayden Point does for the Lightning. And most importantly, they now have Olofsson manning the Steven Stamkos spot as the trigger man from the opposite circle. He already has proved to be money in the bank from that right circle, scoring all seven of his career goals on the power play.

If the NHL really is a copycat league, then any other teams with floundering power plays should be taking stock of what teams like the Lightning and Sabres have set out to accomplish whenever they get the opportunity. Then again, it's easier said than done, because you ultimately still need the right chess pieces to pull it off.

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