A couple disclaimers before we begin:
1. Among our commenters, we seem to have a reputation as being pessimistic. I am writing this line of text without having decided on the thesis of my article and whether I will conclude if the team is or is not ahead of schedule. I look at stats because numbers are objective.
2. You should all read Alex's article from two weeks ago, because it gives a lot of important comparisons to last year. I will be looking more at where we stand relative to the rest of the NHL.