It's been a revealing six weeks.
And while the usual stick-wielding suspects from Boston, Vegas, Carolina and Tampa Bay are among the NHL's top 10 teams heading into the weekend before Thanksgiving, there are several others surprisingly still lingering with the elite.
Two teams that failed to reach the playoffs in 2021-22 and weren't forecast to fare much better this time around—the New Jersey Devils and Winnipeg Jets—were within two and nine points of the league-leading Bruins through Thursday's games, while the Seattle Kraken, Detroit Red Wings and Philadelphia Flyers are each in early contention as well.