NHL catch-up: Canadian players hot, Canadian teams cold

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The NHL regular season officially hit the quarter mark last Thursday. So far, it's been Colorado and everyone else as the Avalanche have won nine in a row to run their record to 16-1-5 and open up a seven-point lead on the rest of the league. Meanwhile, 25 of the other 31 teams are within six points of each other heading into tonight's action.

Here's a look at some other early-season trends around the league:

The injury bug is biting hard.

The list of stars currently out of the lineup with significant injuries includes Toronto's Auston Matthews, Ottawa's Brady Tkachuk, Florida's Matthew Tkachuk and Aleksander Barkov, Vegas' Mark Stone and William Karlsson, Tampa Bay's Victor Hedman, New Jersey's Jack Hughes and Winnipeg goalie Connor Hellebuyck.

Matthews and Brady Tkachuk are expected back this week — the latter after missing all but the Senators' first three games due to a thumb injury on Oct. 13 that required surgery. But the Stanley Cup champion Panthers will likely be without Barkov for the entire season after the captain tore two knee ligaments during training camp, while Matthew Tkachuk won't be back until probably mid-December after surgery in August to repair a torn adductor muscle and sports hernia. With its two best players sidelined, Florida (12-9-1) sits 12th in the Eastern Conference.

Along with the Panthers, the U.S. Olympic team has been especially hard hit by injuries, as the Tkachuk brothers, Matthews, Hughes and Hellebuyck are all expected to play starring roles for the Americans at the Winter Games in Italy this February. Hughes is likely out