Dallas Stars coach Lindy Ruff has no intention of putting a No. 1 goalie label on either Antti Niemi or Kari Lehtonen any time soon, if ever.

"I told them at the start of the year if they're playing well they're both going to play," Ruff said.

Lehtonen and Niemi have equally split the starts through 20 games this season, which wasn't intentional but is a byproduct of how they're playing, Ruff said.

Dallas entered its game Thursday against the Washington Capitals with 30 points, first in the Central Division, arguably the deepest and toughest division in the NHL this season.

The Detroit Red Wings have been front and center in Hockey Hall of Fame weekends for much of the past eight years because of what they accomplished in winning the Stanley Cup three times in a span of six years in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

The Chicago Blackhawks also have won the Stanley Cup three times in a span of six years and are heading down a similar path that could lead to their being the dominating presence at several Hall of Fame weekends to come.

Nicklas Lidstrom and Sergei Fedorov became the fourth and fifth players who played on all three of Detroit's Stanley Cup championship teams from 1997-2002 to be inducted into the Hall of Fame when they were enshrined Monday in Toronto. They were the eighth and ninth players from the 2002 team to be inducted. A 10th player from that team, Pavel Datsyuk, could get into the Hall eventually.

All the talk about the top-flight rookie class this season has led to early season debates about whether Edmonton Oilers center Connor McDavid or Buffalo Sabres center Jack Eichel can be caught by a trailing pack of contenders for the Calder Trophy.

But why debate the Calder Trophy race now? Why not do a more constructive exercise, such as trying to figure out what the lineup would look like if you could have a team of rookies this season?

Doesn't that seem like more fun than a trophy debate that won't be decided until June? Yes, yes it does. So let's do that instead before getting into this week's rankings, which are flooded with rookie influence.

Take your finger off the panic button and remember two important words:

Sample size.

The early-season challenges have been obvious for four teams with high expectations: the Anaheim Ducks (0-2-1), Los Angeles Kings (0-3-0), Pittsburgh Penguins (0-3-0 going into their game Thursday) and Columbus Blue Jackets (0-4-0).

All four were ranked in the preseason Super 16, including the Ducks at No. 2 and the Penguins at No. 6. Eight of the nine people tabbed as NHL.com prognosticators predicted the Ducks to win the Pacific Division; five had them representing the Western Conference in the Stanley Cup Final; and two had them winning the Cup.

It can still happen; the Ducks, Penguins, Blue Jackets and Kings can have good seasons and make the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Three or four games do not make a season, even if these teams have looked dreadful in those three or four games.

Again, remember, sample size.

This is the preseason edition of the Super 16. It will return on Oct. 16, nine days after the start of the regular season, and will run every Friday for the duration of the season.

"The goal should just be the same as it was last year, just getting to the [Stanley Cup] Playoffs," Stamkos told NHL.com. "It's so hard now that it's wrong to start thinking we made it to the [Stanley Cup] Final and we'll be right back in that position."

The months following the 2013-14 NHL season were dubbed "The Summer of Analytics" as teams scrambled to add experts in the field to bolster hockey operations departments with new ideas in an attempt to close the gap on competitors which had already embraced the movement.

The 2014-15 season has been a fascinating one on multiple fronts as NHL teams attempted to weave new concepts and new thinkers together with more traditional ideas and "old school" employees. 

That same process is happening for many fans of the sport. Access to advanced statistics is expanding exponentially, and interest, whether it is a passing fancy or a desire for deeper understanding, is driving forward analytics in the public sector.

By the end of the 2013-14 season, the top teams in the NHL had distinguished themselves.

The top of the West was pretty clearly a group of five teams: the Chicago Blackhawks, St. Louis Blues, Los Angeles Kings, San Jose Sharks and Anaheim Ducks. The top teams in the East was a smaller group, with the Boston Bruins and New York Rangers leading the way.

Save for the Bruins losing to the Montreal Canadiens, those other five teams that didn't win the Stanley Cup had their season ended by the Kings or the Blackhawks.

Two seasons ago, the Blackhawks went wire-to-wire but Chicago, Los Angeles and Boston were the three best puck possession teams to make the Stanley Cup Playoffs and all reached the final four. Even the Detroit Red Wings, a No. 7 seed facing the team with the second-most points (Anaheim), was tied for fourth among playoff teams in score-adjusted shot attempts percentage (SAT%) and they were the de facto fifth-place finishers, taking the eventual champs to seven games in the second round.

There have been some crazy championship marches in the NHL in the past four seasons.

The Boston Bruins needed three Game 7s, including two decided by one goal and one that went overtime, to win the Stanley Cup in 2011. The Los Angeles Kings tore through the Stanley Cup Playoffs in 2012 like no team had in the sport's history, and did so while becoming the first No. 8 seed to win a title.

Two years later, the Kings might have upped the ante, rallying from a 3-0 series deficit in the opening round and playing the full 21 games against a gauntlet of elite teams (San Jose Sharks, Anaheim Ducks and Chicago Blackhawks). Even in 2013 when the Blackhawks essentially went wire-to-wire in a shortened season, the Stanley Cup Final was filled with overtimes and incredible games.