The preseason often offers only fleeting glimpses of a hockey team’s true form, as rosters swell with excess players vying for limited spots. With so many athletes competing for limited ice time, early-season scrimmages rarely reflect the depth, chemistry, or strategy that will define a squad once the regular season begins. Coaches frequently shuffle lineups, testing combinations that may never see the light of day once the focus shifts to performance. Fans and analysts alike must resist reading too much into preseason play, as the real story of a team’s identity often unfolds only when the stakes rise.

The preseason doesn’t usually tell us much about what a hockey team will look like when the games start counting. Too many lineups, too many players trying to make the…