Any # of websites will give you the #s that scoring is up to start the season, that PPO up, PP% is down.  Save % also down.  Not much of a leap in logic to hypothesize that if given more PPO, teams would generate more scoring chances, more so-called quality scoring chances, and that there'd be more scoring.  

If penalties continue to be called at the same rate for the remaining 97.5% of the season as they were for the first 2.5%, then can this columnist explain how coaches can possibly strangle the life out of this?  

This is asked not rhetorically, but to challenge this columnist to prove his link between certain data and coaching, as no link to draw the conclusion he has come to has been established.

It is otherwise foolhardily to draw any conclusions as to how the upcoming season is going to unfold based on such a minuscule sample life.  Except for ticking off a box that a column had to be submitted, there's no other reason for this article to have been written.