One of the tired aspects the preseason is that storylines get recycled ad nauseam. The beauty of opening week is that we get new things to talk about. And that was indeed the case this season. It's no surprise that Connor McDavid was outstanding in the first week, but several other opening-week performances did surprise -- or underwhelm -- us:

Highs

1. Richard Panik, Chicago Blackhawks: Panik makes $875,000 and got picked up off waivers from the Toronto Maple Leafs last season. But has the 25-year-old finally figured it out? Panik's four goals in three games led the NHL during the season's opening week -- but just as important was the physical side he’s shown. "His issue has always been consistency," said one Western Conference executive. "His best game is dominant, but it came out too infrequently in the past."

The salary-cap-fueled offseason trades of Teuvo Teravainen and Andrew Shaw screamed opportunity for a few Chicago forwards to step up this season, and so far Panik is taking advantage of it. Added another Western Conference executive, "He’s got good players putting the puck on his stick right now."

Will Panik keep his foot on the pedal and keep going to the net hard, using his power and speed? Or will he regress like he has in the past? Blackhawks general manager Stan Bowman has shown a knack for finding talent in different places. Looks like he's done it here again.

2. Paul Stastny, St. Louis Blues. When Stastny signed a four-year, $28 million deal with St. Louis back on July 1, 2014, I worried that deal might weigh on him. I think it did for a while. I also think the Blues struggled to find the right fit for him in terms of the proper top-six role.

Either way, two sub-50-point seasons isn’t what you’re supposed to get for $7 million a year. But Stastny began playing much better in the second half last season and certainly in the playoffs, where he put up 13 points in 20 games. He’s off to a great start with six points in three games this season. He’s a smart two-way center with loads of skill. Perhaps he’s found a place where he’s mentally comfortable too.

Lows

1. Cam Talbot's miscue. The Edmonton Oilers goalie allowed a center-ice knuckler from Buffalo Sabres center Ryan O'Reilly to beat him on Sunday night. It broke open a 2-2 game, which the Sabres went on to easily win 6-2. But you just hope it doesn’t negatively affect Talbot moving forward.

"No matter who you are, it’s going to hurt," former star NHL goalie Marty Turco told ESPN.com Monday. "I always think of that [Vesa] Toskala one, that was a tough bounce. You’re like a second baseman, you have to time the bounce. There’s nowhere to hide out there, that’s tough. I feel bad when I see that happen."

Turco had a plan for those long, bouncy ones.

"What I would always try to do is not let that first bounce beat [me], get real close to the first bounce,” he said. "You can’t have anything land five or six feet in front of you. I was fortunate I never had one of those get past me, although I had some close calls. Man, those are tough to practice and sometimes you take them for granted."

2. The Calgary Flames are winless in their first three games. This is a team I picked to make the playoffs. Don’t worry, the Flames still have lots of hockey to play yet.

"It’s early," said a rival Western Conference executive. "When you lose probably your most talented player for all of training camp [Johnny Gaudreau, to a contract dispute], I think it affects your team a little bit at the start. It takes time to find continuity. Sometimes it takes a while for that player too, to rediscover that rhythm and chemistry with his team after missing all of camp."

High and Low

1. Sabres absorbs body blows, keep fighting. I’ll put Buffalo in this category because, while the Sabres have suffered the lows of losing two front-line forwards (Jack Eichel and Evander Kane) to long-term injuries, I love the way they reacted in their first game of a road trip, a 6-2 win at Edmonton. Veteran captain Brian Gionta, who scored twice Sunday, told me Friday after practice in Buffalo that the players talked about things at a meeting Friday morning and vowed that they would persevere through the early-season adversity. It’s a reminder that there’s good leadership on that team, in both Gionta and Josh Gorges, for example.

2. The NHL’s parity. Last season I often referred to the "crushed-beer-can standings." This is the 12th season since the salary cap went into effect, in 2005. The impact of limiting the financial spending on payrolls was never going to be an overnight thing. But, 12 years later, the fact that the spread is now spread across 30 -- and soon to be 31 -- teams is all too apparent. The difference between No. 1 and No. 30 has never been smaller, and that’s going to be obvious more than ever this year.

"It’s nuts," said one Western Conference executive, when asked about the league's parity.

What it means is that injuries are going to have a greater impact than ever before. Stay healthy, and you have a chance. Get hammered by injuries, and you’re likely toast. It’s extremely difficult to horde talent under this CBA. You lose guys on waivers. You lose players to free agency because you can no longer afford them.

The NHL is now the NFL. No one knows what will happen from week to week. It’s fun on many levels for fans, but it’s also going to make many coaches and GMs gray-haired before their time.