Through the long grind of an 82-game NHL regular season, most players experience peaks and valleys in their performance.
The hot streaks can be fuelled by any combination of solid team play, surging linemates, favorable schedules or just plain luck. The dark stretches are typically triggered by injury issues or extra-heavy workloads and can be quickly made worse once a player starts squeezing his stick. Insecurities can easily compound once a player starts to lose his confidence.
Once in a while, we see players experience Jekyll-and-Hyde seasons. Young players often start strong before hitting a wall, but this slideshow is focused on the opposite—players who have picked up the pace since the beginning of 2017.