6 teams that underperformed expectations in the first month of play

Last week we took a look at teams that had been outperforming our preseason projections for them heading into the year. The Buffalo Sabres found their way onto the honourable mentions section, after stringing together a series of decent showings out of the gate. 

For those keeping score at home, they've promptly dropped all four of their games following that write-up, conceding a whopping 19 goals against along the way. Even after that rough stretch, they're still ahead of where we thought they'd be in totality, so it's important to remember that this is all relative really.

As you'd imagine, this list is similarly pretty fluid by nature. If we'd run it even as recently as two weeks ago, both the Toronto Maple Leafs and Tampa Bay Lightning surely would've been prominently featured on it. Since then, they've each rattled off a handful of wins, and are back to getting the types of results we'd expect from them. 

With that in mind, let's take stock of the current landscape. Here are six teams that have been falling short of expectations through the first month of the season, what's been causing their disappointing performance, and how likely they are to turn it around moving forward.