Columbus has been surprisingly good this year. As of this writing, the Blue Jackets are first in the league in points and goal differential with games in hand. Remember: Columbus, in terms of preseason predictions, was pegged as more like a 5-8 finisher in the Metropolitan division (e.g. see here, here, here, here, and here).
That said, it’s still early. If it might take 70 games for skill to overtake randomness in terms of contribution to the standings, and if teams like the 2013-14 Avalanche and 2013 Maple Leafs (to name two prominent examples) can fool us for so many games, it doesn’t seem so unbelievable that a team could do it over just 32. (And the Blue Jackets aren’t the only example this year, either–Minnesota is under 48% possession and has a 103+ PDO right now.)
Hockey Graphs 