The early NHL season has had plenty of surprises so far. The Vegas Golden Knights have set an NHL record for success of an expansion club, despite going through goaltenders as fast as Spinal Tap goes through drummers. They’re not the only surprising club. The Devils and Canucks were supposed to be doormats, but both are playing well. Meanwhile, expected contenders like Edmonton and Buffalo have struggled in the early going.

Knowing when to shift expectations on a surprising data point is an important consideration for the participants in a swarm. In other words, at some point a surprising start in hockey becomes the reality of how well a team is playing. Our swarm took a look at the three games being played tonight and the five on the schedule for tomorrow and came up with these predictions.

Two of the surprises in the NHL this year so far play one another in the NHL Swarm’s pick of the week. Detroit was expected to be at the bottom of the Eastern Conference standings, but they’ve hung in well this year. Meanwhile in Arizona, the Coyotes were expected to still be rebuilding, but it’s fair to say no one saw them with just one win in the first month of the season. The swarm assigned a fairly high brainpower to the prediction, and if you look at the magnets in the replay below, almost all of them are on the Detroit side of the hex for the duration. Although only predicting a 1-goal margin gives some pause, the swarm made this their pick of the night, which adds just enough confidence for us to make it a best bet.

We’ll be holding weekly NHL swarms and paying $25 to the highest performing member of the Swarm? Want to join the Swarm or see the picks? Click the button below…

Want to learn more about our Swarm AI platform? Check out our TED talk…