Hurricane Sandy wasn't out of season, or really even that unusual. Traditionally, hurricane season is considered to last until 30 November. Here's a chart from the NOAA website showing hurricane activity.
Late October is definitely on the outer edge of that curve, but it's within the norm. Sandy wasn't even a particularly strong storm, only reaching category 2 at its peak. It was just a huge deal because it hit a vulnerable area that really wasn't prepared for such a storm.
As far as the "nor'easter" (what a stupid term, they should come up with something better) that was really only notable because it came right after Hurricane Sandy. I'm actually having trouble finding any proper data on it because the only thing being talked about is the power outages, mainly leftover from Sandy.
So yeah, I'm just going to go with horrible coincidence here. I'm not an expert on weather though, so I could be completely wrong. I just haven't seen any good reasoning beyond "well it's been bad so far..."