It's early but they are now beating good playoff teams, winning close grimy games (like the 2-1 against Minne last night), and winning them on the road (7 in a row). And they are doing this with an extremely young roster still learning how to win consistently in different ways. The 8-yr Dylan Guenther contract is paying off in Year 1. He's got 6 goals in his last 4 games, 16 Gs on the season and leads the team in Pts.

After all the injuries to their defense (Durzi, Marino, Bortuzzo, Lamerouex...) they've been able to plug in fixes like Olli Maataa that have melded into the roster nicely and performed right away. Sergechev has been everything advertised. He plays a TON of minutes, blocks shots, scores goals, plays all special teams. He may be the most important skater on this team right now.

I think the biggest surprise is the stellar goaltending they are getting from Vejmelka. Veggie is putting up a fantastic .918 save% and 2.29GAA. He was putting those numbers up all season, but the team is finally rewarding him with much better goal-scoring.

We're not quite halfway through the season, but this team is showing signs that the young guys are figuring it out. If you aren't a fan of UHC yet it may be a good time to get on board with this team seemingly turning the corner on the season and hopefully not looking back.