Well start growing your hockey beards it’s that time of year. Let’s take a look at the match-ups and try and break it down. In the East, Washington and Pittsburgh are the same seeds they were last year and Philadelphia and Boston flipped their seeds but are still in the same seeding match-up. Also of note is that 5 of the 8 season series between the teams are tied.

If you are curious last year I predicted:

“As for Stanley Cup Final prediction I say Washington/Pittsburgh winner against Chicago. I’m not sure who I would pick and I know it’s a cop out not to pick a winner and not to pick between Pittsburgh and Washington but it really depends on how the goaltending for Washington and Chicago fair in order to pick. Part of me wants Chicago to lose in the finals so that Marion Hossa can be on the losing side three years in a row. The hilarity that would ensue for everyone but him, I know Schadenfreude, I’m a bad person.”

1 Washington Capitals vs. 8 New York Rangers

Season Series: 3-1 Rangers

Playoff Series History: 3-2 Capitals

Star to Watch: Alexander Semin, again, because he mustered up a whopping zero goals last year in seven games. If the Capitals hope to go anywhere, he needs to produce something. Marion Gaborik on the other hand has had a fairly disappointing season. He has sometimes been hot but he has also been cold. With Callahan gone, Gaborik will need to step it up.

X-Factor: Deja Vu? The Capitals never make things easy for themselves in the playoffs. In fact their last 4 playoffs series have gone 7 games each. Everyone remembers last season’s collapse. They also went the distance against the Rangers two years ago. How they prepare mentally for this series will determine how far they go.

Goalie Problem: The Capitals said they plan on rotating between Semyon Varlamov and Michal Neuvirth. Sound familiar? It should. Last season they planned on rotating between Jose Theodore and Semyon Varlamov. I think they really ought to go with Varlamov. He had slightly better numbers and he has more experience. As for the Rangers will it’s not a problem when you have Lundqvist and his league leading 11 shutouts.

Fun Fact: The Rangers actually scored more goals than the Capitals, if you can believe it, and they had a better goal differential.

Prediction: The Rangers are just lucky to be in the playoffs this year, of course last year they were just as unlucky to not make it; losing in the shootout in the final game of the season. Washington has tried a new defensive approach this season. While it didn’t seem to be working at certain stretches, the Capitals found themselves back as the top seed. I think the Capitals have found the right balance of what works. Capitals in five or six.

2 Philadelphia Flyers vs. 7 Buffalo Sabres

Season Series: tied 2-2

Playoff Series History: 5-3 Flyers

Star to Watch: Thomas Vanek because he is the Sabres most potent offensive threat. He is also a streaky player and is currently fairly hot. He will need to produce for the Sabres to have a chance. The postseason means it’s Danny Briere time. Watch for him to blow your mind a few times.

X-Factor: Can you say different directions? The Sabres went on a tear down the stretch to make the playoffs and where arguably the hottest team the last month. The Flyers went in the opposite direction… off a cliff and almost cost themselves the division crown. This series will truly dictate if momentum matters.

Goalie Problem: The Flyers goalie situation reminds of a lot of last years, very cloudy. A lot of options but no real good one. They will probably trot out their three headed monster clearly not what they had in mind and a stark contrast from earlier in the the year when Bobrovsky looked to be the guy. What the goaltending produces will determine the Flyers fate. I think it will be either Leighton or Boucher between the pipes. The Sabres counter with Ryan Miller. You might have heard of him. He should be 100% recovered for the series.

Fun Fact: Neither team had any player score over 80 points. They each had only one score over 70 points. Nothing new at all for the Sabres but kind of surprising for the Flyers.

Prediction: Despite the momentum being in the Sabres favor, I’m going to have to go with the Flyers. Though the Sabres clearly have the goaltending advantage, making me somewhat regret my decision. I think the Flyers overwhelming experience advantage will help. Flyers in seven.

3 Boston Bruins vs. 6 Montreal Canadiens

Season Series: Montreal 4-2

Playoff Series History: These teams have never met in the playoffs… jk . 24-8 Montreal. They last met two seasons ago when the Bruins swept them in the 1st round.

Star to Watch: Michael Cammalleri had a down season after an exceptional postseason. How will he do this year. Also the legend of P.K Subban was born last postseason. He has been brilliant at times this season and also played so poorly he was benched. How will he handle himself? He tends to let his emotions get the best of him.

X-Factor: I think these two teams might not like each other. The media in Montreal I’m sure will be at a fevered pitch. While the Canadiens took the season series, they came up flat in their “revenge” game. It should be interesting to see how each team controls their emotions.

Goalie Problem: The Bruins boast the best goalie duo and Tim Thomas should wrap up the Vezina this season. I see no reason why Thomas won’t continue his exceptional level of play. Although Thomas has actually posted some of his worst numbers against the Canadiens this year (3.22 GAA, .907 SV%). As for the Habs well lets just say that Carey Price has some big shoes to fill, as if he needed any additional pressure (See Halak circa last year). I seriously hope that if the Habs lose he plays well, so that he might be spared.

Fun Fact: This is actually the most played match-up between two teams in the NHL. The Bruins had 12 players score 10 goals or more, tops in the league. Both teams are tied for last in winning games after trailing in the 1st period.

Prediction: Really tough to say but I think it’s Boston’s turn to have the kind of run the Canadiens had last year. I think the Bruins just have a better all around team. Plus the Bruins have something to prove after being embarrassed in last year’s playoffs. Bruins in 7.

4 Pittsburgh Penguins vs. 5 Tampa Bay Lightning

Season Series: tied 2-2

Playoff History: Zilch

Star to Watch: I’m going to have to say Tyler Kennedy and Steven Stamkos. Stamkos is making his first playoff appearance. He was also pretty cold in the last month of the season. It will be interesting to see how performs. With no Malkin or Crosby, Kennedy has taken advantage of his opportunity and he had a breakout year. He will need to continue to carry the Pens offensive load with Jordan Staal. Those two will need to step up their game for the Pens to advance.

X-Factor: There’s a guy named Sidney Crosby that may or may not play. If he does play, advantage Pittsburgh. Of course there’s always the question of how will he play if he does come back? I think he probably won’t play until the 2nd round if the Pens advance. Strange how he lead the team in scoring when he only played half the season.

Goalie Problem: Mac-Andre Fleury proved me wrong and had a great season. He usually posts worse numbers in the playoffs but he finds a way to win tthe big games, except of course in Game 7 last year against the Canadiens. I’m really not sold on Dwayne Roloson being a playoff caliber goalie but apparently the Lightning are. He has only been to the postseason three previous times. The last time was five years ago with the Sabres.

Fun Fact: The Penguins have no wins when trailing after two periods, with a 0-19-1 record this season. The Penguins led the league in hits and the Lightning had the 2nd fewest.

Prediction: I have to give the edge to Pittsburgh in what should be a widely entertaining series. It could go either way really. But I can’t help but feel that the Penguins didn’t overcome all of those injuries and almost get 2nd place to lose in the 1st round. It just wouldn’t seem right. Penguins in seven.

1 Vancouver Canucks vs. 8 Chicago Blackhawks

Season Series: tied 2-2

Playoff Series History: 3-1 Blackhawks, including the last two seasons in which the Hawks bounced the Canucks in the 2nd round both times

Star to Watch: Toews and Kane had great long playoff runs last season. The question is what will they do for an encore? They find themselves in new territory in being the hunted as opposed to the hunter.

X-Factor: Dustin Byfuglien…. wait what? He isn’t on the Blackhawks anymore. That’s precisely the problem. The Blackhawks will find out exactly why they needed to keep him in this series. He was able to effectively get in Luongo’s head and knock him off his game. The Blackhawks don’t have anyone to do that anymore.

Goalie Problem: Both of these teams feature goalies that have something to prove. Luongo has to prove that he can actually deliver in the postseason. Having great regular seasons, he is coming off arguably his best season ever, is nice but it really only matters what you do in the playoffs. Crawford, while just a rookie, will be under some pressure to duplicate Niemi’s success who Chicago let go. The front office will probably get a lot of slack if the Hawks don’t do well in the playoffs and rightfully so.

Fun Fact: The Sedins are the first brother combo to win the Art Ross trophy back to back. They may also add the Hart trophy to that list. Speaking of back to backs, the Blackhawks hope to do what no other 8th seed has ever done, win the Stanley Cup.

Prediction: Truly one of the more compelling series because of the Hawks just making the playoffs and trying to defend their cup. Through in their recent history and the Sedins claiming more hardware and you have watch should be an awesome match-up. This is the year the Canucks revenge their past losses against the Blackhawks. It will be made all the more sweeter because they are knocking out the defending champions in the 1st round. Canucks in six. (Just to stick it to Chelsea Dagger)

2 San Jose Sharks vs. 7 Los Angeles Kings

Season Series: tied 3-3

Playoff Series History: Zilch

Star to Watch: Drew Doughty was simply sensational against the Canucks last postseason but he had a pretty average regular season. He will need to regain his form to help shut down the Sharks top line. Dustin Penner is also on the watch list for the sheer fact that he needs to do something.

X-Factor: The injury bug rears its ugly head. I can’t help but think that the Kings would be slightly higher if it wasn’t for all their injuries down the stretch. But such is life. Losing your top two scorers is never easy but the Penguins have been able to deal with it, so now it’s the Kings turn. Justin Williams should be coming back to play in the 1st round though. Getting by without Kopitar won’t be easy however.

Goalie Problem: Antti Niemi is back in the postseason just wearing a different jersey. He has turned out to be a great pickup and was red hot down the stretch. He will now use his experience to further propel the Sharks. On the flip-side Jonathan Quick will need to rebound from a fairly poor playoff performance last year. He should be more comfortable having a postseason under his belt.

Fun Fact: The Sharks are playing their 7th different team in as many series. In fact the Sharks have now played every team in the playoffs in the West except for the Wild, Canucks and Blue Jackets.

Prediction: The Sharks top line produced less that last year and in the postseason they don’t always produce at their best. The Sharks are a deep experienced team though, that has seven players with at least 20 goals. The Kings are still getting their feet acclimated to the post season and I don’t think they are mentally where they need to be. Still it should make for an interesting series. Sharks in six or seven.

3 Detroit Red Wings vs. 6 Phoenix Coyotes

Season Series: tied 2-2

Playoff Series History: 2-0 Detroit

Star to Watch: With Zetterberg out it will be Datsyuk’s job to carry the Wings scoring load. He will be matched up with Norris trophy candidate Keith Yandle.

X-Factor: Probably how the Coyotes as a group handle themselves mentally. Here’s a team that rarely makes the playoffs and now they find themselves in on back to back trips. They are also seeking revenge against the team that knocked them out of a hard fought series last postseason. They also might be moving, again.

Goalie Problem: Jimmy Howard now has a year of playoff experience under his belt and Ilya Bryzgalov now has three. Bryzgalov didn’t play all that well last year and he will need to play better for the Coyotes to have a chance. Howard had a down year this year and will need to pick up his game as well.

Fun Fact: Detroit has been to the playoffs the past twenty seasons and 56 times (not including their days as Cougers or Flacons) and Phoenix now seven times including two in a row. The Coyotes have never made it to the 2nd round. I think the Red Wings may have made it out… a few times.

Prediction: This is a match-up between two of the lower hitting teams in the league. I think we will have a repeat of last season, a close wild affair that goes the distance. The Red Wings are all a year older and that isn’t something working in their favor but I think they will prevail anyway. Red Wings in seven.

4 Anaheim Ducks vs. 5 Nashville Predators

Season Series: Nashville 3-1

Playoff Series History: Zilch

Star to Watch: Teemu Selanne has generally been lukewarm at best in the playoffs. This possibly being his last season, again, it will be interesting to see how he plays. The Ducks will need to have the 2nd line continuing to score and Selanne was hot down the stretch.

X-Factor: It will be interesting to watch Shea Weber battle against quick wingers in Bobby Ryan and Corey Perry. This battle will go a long way in determining who wins the series. The Ducks’ playoff experience also outweighs the Predators’ by a considerable margin.

Goalie Problem: Pekka Rinne was probably the best kept goalie secret of the season. If it wasn’t for Tim Thomas he would have gotten more recognition but since he played in Nashville probably not. He should get a Vezina nod for his production. On the other side Jonas Hiller was having one of his best seasons before he got vertigo and well that’s been pretty much it. The Ducks have relied on pickups of Dan Ellis and Ray Emery to backstop them this far. Ellis will probably get the bulk of the load with Emery still recovering from his injury. Ellis has only been in the playoffs one other time as a member of the Predators. He was on their team for a few other postseason appearances but he never played in any of those games.

Fun Fact: The Ducks have the 2nd best power play and the Predators have the 5th worst. The Ducks have the 5th most penalty minutes and the Predators have the 2nd fewest. Both of these teams are tied for 4th in wins when leading after the 1st.

Prediction: The Predators are 0-5 in getting out of the 1st round and I don’t see that changing. The Ducks are red hot and they are loaded with prime time players that excel in the playoffs. Still I think it’s likely all the home teams will win. Ducks in seven.

My Stanley Cup prediction is Washington over Vancouver. Washington will probably play Boston in the conference finals and assuming Vancouver can beat Chicago, I really only see San Jose and Anaheim as threats. It’s highly unlikely it will be 1 vs 1 but you never know.

Second during the Canucks vs. Ducks game, Curtis McElhinney was cut badly by a slapshot and fell to the ice and the Canucks scored on the rebound with McElhinney unable to make a play. Since it happened so fast, I realize that the ref probably didn’t notice what had happened and that is fine. The problem is a replay can clearly tell you what happened. Under the rules I guess you can’t go to a replay in that situation even though you should be able to. There is no reason why every goal shouldn’t be reviewable. Also it brings up the perfect reason to have coach’s challenges like they do in football. One goal can greatly effect the outcome of a game, or swing momentum, so they should not be taken lightly. One or two coach’s challenges for both teams would be sufficient. The challenges should be allowed to be used on any goal or penalty. There was a situation in another Ducks game where they ruled Jason Blake had touched the puck with a high stick and then bounced the rebound into the net. The ref ruled no goal because of the high stick. The replay however showed that it may not have been played with a high stick. At that point it can’t be overturned but a coach’s challenge would allow it to be reviewed for the correct call.

Some might say allowing coach’s challenges would slow the game down. But goals that may have been kicked in are reviewed and honestly how long does that take? It doesn’t take that long and I think that making sure the correct call was made is more important than how long it takes. Hockey is the fastest sport there is and slowing it down a bit would help make sure the right calls are made.

Goalie Spotlight

Kari Lehtonen – Dallas Stars

Lehtonen was born in Helsinki Finland and like the other great Finnish NHL players he started his career in the SM-liiga league. He played for Jokerit and during the 2001-02 season he started out as the backup but ended up taking the starting job and the Urpo Ylönen trophy, given to the best goalie. He followed that up by wining the MVP trophy in the postseason en route to winning the title and he had one more stellar year before coming to North America. In the 2002 NHL Entry Draft he was selected 2^nd overall by the Atlanta Thrashers. Making him the the highest drafted European goalie and Finnish player ever.

He played for the Chicago Wolves, the Thrashers’ AHL affiliate, in 2003-04 but was called up for four games. He won all of those games and posted a 1.25 GAA and .953 SV%. Despite his impressive performance he was sent back to the Wolves for the rest of the season and all of the following season, though that was because of the NHL lockout. Lehtonen was slated to become the Thrashers’ starting goalie during the 2005-06 season but suffered a groin injury when Nathan Horton slammed into him on opening night. He came back later that season but in April but was injured again when Chris Dingman collided with him. The Thrashers started five different goalies that season. Lehtonen tried it again and played in 68 games for the Thrashers. During this season he set many Thrasher franchise records, of course the Thrashers weren’t that old at this point. Nevertheless he broke the shutout streak record and, became the Thrashers’ all time winningest goalie. He also started the Thrashers’ first playoff game ever.

2006-07 was the only season in which Lehtonen start over 50 games for the Thrashers. He was injured partially in 2007-08 and played about as much the following season. At this point the Thrashers had drafted Ondrej Pavelec and the writing was on the wall for Lehtonen. He didn’t play at all for the Thrashers in 2009-10, except for four games with the Wolves affiliate. He was traded to the Dallas Stars in early 2010, where he ended up playing 12 games for the Stars. Lehtonen has the difficult task of following after Marty Turco, who was with the Stars the past nine seasons. So far this season he is off to a pretty decent start with the Stars, posting a 2.59 GAA and .915 SV%. He has yet to record a shutout so far. He is currently injured since December 8^th with back problems and Andrew Raycroft has been filling in. The Stars are hoping Lehtonen will play a big part for them, as they hope to return to the playoffs. If not, they do have many young goalie prospects waiting.

Fights of the Week

Special thanks to hockeyfights.com for making this section a little easier to do.

Tim Jackman vs. Kyle Clifford

Not your normal fight by any means but still fun to watch.

Jared Boll vs. Cam Janssen

A decent scrap that would have been better if more shots connected.

Brad Staubitz vs. Kyle Clifford

This was one of those one sided fights.

Goats of the Week

Jason Spezza – Ottawa Senators

I’m not really quite sure what Spezza was doing. It looks like a no look pass, which is never a good thing to do in overtime and Bryan Little demonstrates why that is. Little picks up Spezza’s gift and takes it down to the other end for the breakaway goal.

Jonathon Quick – Los Angeles Kings

In this installment of when the goalie leaves his crease… Quick goes out to play an incoming puck which is fine but his decision of where to play it was not. Mikko Koivu says thank you very much.

Quick wasn’t done though. A mere 10 seconds after the Kings tied it, Quick goes behind the net to stop the puck but instead does not and Cal Clutterbuck says thanks.

Marc Savard – Boston Bruins

I don’t really blame Savard for this miscue as he was just fighting for possession along the boards and it wasn’t his fault the defenseman wasn’t there. Still it will make this section and I loved Thomas’ reaction after the goal.

Things I like

1. The Penguins are a lot better than _______ (insert any team name here, except maybe the Flyers) and Sidney Crosby is a much better play than ________ (insert any NHL player name here). Marc-Andre Fleury has rebounded very nicely since his awful start and has a SV% of .942 during the just ended 12 game winning streak. Evgeni Malkin came back from his injury and scored two power play goals against the Flyers. Jordan Staal might possibly be coming back soon as well.

2. Besides sharing the last name with a popular fashion company, Logan Couture is having a tremendous “rookie” season. I put that in quotes because he played 25 games last year but he is still considered a rookie this season. Couture had a five game point streak recently snapped. He is currently the rookie leader in goals and points. With Thornton and Marleau getting up there in age, the Sharks will be glad they have Couture and Joe Pavelski to lead them in the future.

3. The Kings had a November they would like to forget and Quick had a game he would like to forget against Minnesota. They both redeemed themselves though. The Kings have now won four of five and also picked up a point in the aforementioned game against Minnesota. Quick was instrumental in the Kings blanking the Red Wings 5-0 on the road. Quick stopped all 51 shots in the win and had many great saves. Even better news was that Willie Mitchell was able to rejoin the Kings’ lineup.

Things I don’t

1. The Ducks recently found themselves with a two goal lead in the 3^rd period three games in a row, which they then squandered in the 3^rd period three times in a row. All three of them went to a shootout. They won two of them and lost one to the Canucks. Some of it has do to with inexperienced defense, sum of it to bad luck and some of it to attacking less. In the 3^rd period against Vancouver they were out shot 15-2. You won’t win many games that way. They rebounded in a big way against Minnesota and there is hope the new faces will continue to gel.

2. If you had to pick on team with the most pressure on them this season, I’m pretty sure you would pick the Capitals. The Capitals started out with there usual high scoring offense and added some improved defensive skills for a winning combination. Lately though things have gone south. The Capitals have now lost six in a row. Coach Bruce Boudreau said of the recent slump, “I don’t have an answer right now. It’s unfamiliar territory. I think we have a lot of people feeling sorry for themselves.” The Capitals have also surprisingly been shutout twice in the last three games. Though they were also shutout two times in a three game span the previous month. But losing really is new territory for them. They have only loss two or more games three times this season. Their current six game slump is the aforementioned third time. The latest 7-0 drubbing at the hands of the Rangers was a new low though. Alex Ovechkin was so frustrated he actually fought. The Capitals have out shot all of the opponents they have lost to (some by a wide margin) so they aren’t getting manhandled. This season we already had a superstar, Sidney Crosby, of a struggling team drop his gloves to fight against the Stars. The Penguins responded by first losing to the Ducks the next game and then they promptly reeled off 15 victories in the next 17 games. Eerily the Capitals next opponent is also the Ducks. So will the Capitals lose to them as well and then reel off 15 victories in the next 17 games? We shall soon find out.

3. I don’t care for all this “controversy” over Linus Omark’s shootout spin-o-rama. Disrespectful? Please. To who? The Lightning? I don’t see it. Unless it’s done right in front of the opposing team or it’s some kind of inappropriate gesture like a middle finger, I say bring it on. The more character and color a player brings to the game the better, I say. I would have loved it if he did a snow angel first and then took a shot.

Stat Line of the Week

12/12/10 Anaheim 6 vs. Minnesota 2

Corey Perry and the Ducks top line in general were on fire against the Wild. Perry figured into everyone of the Ducks’ goals except for one. He also had his first NHL career hat trick. His goals came on even strength, penalty shot and power play. Hard to imagine it took him six seasons to get his first hat trick.

Did You Know?

In 1999-2000 the Detroit Red Wings became the first team in NHL history to have players score their 300th (Fedorov), 400th (Shanahan), 500th (Verbeek) & 600th (Yzerman) career NHL goals while playing on the same team.

Numbers, Numbers

544 – Games played (now 545) by captain Rick Nash, The Blue Jackets franchise leader in games played now

7 – The now ended streak of number of wins for Corey Crawford, just one win shy of tying the Blackhawks franchise rookie record for consecutive wins

2 – Wins by Antti Niemi over his former team this season

19 – Games of Sidney Crosby’s current scoring streak

27.17 – GAA for Steve Manson against Calgary where he had two goals allowed on four shots before being yanked

5 – Goals scored by Henrik Sedin, the only player in the top 20 in scoring who doesn’t have double digits in goals

Quotes of the Week

“We have a situation where we are going with young players, and I’m not going to deviate from the plan to rebuild through the draft. I’m not going to trade our young prospects, whether they are in Bridgeport, junior hockey, college hockey or in Europe, for a quick fix.”

—GM Garth Snow, before the Isles fell to an NHL-worst 5-17-5 with a 5-4 loss Saturday to Atlanta.

Kudos to Snow for sticking with that. The players they have drafted recently should come together, they just need time.

“It’s not an easy pill to swallow. But I can’t beat myself up. It takes time. The game feels really fast, too fast. They’re going 100 miles an hour and it’s like my feet are in cement.”

—Canadiens defenseman P.K. Subban on his struggles after missing three games as a healthy scratch.

“He slashed me twice and I just turned around and go. If I saw it was a tough guy maybe I don’t go, but I saw he was a normal player, so I go.”

- Thrashers center Alex Burmistrov on his fight with New York’s John Tavares in Saturday’s win over the Islanders.

This Week in Hockey History

Special thanks to the Hockey Hall of Fame site for making this section a little easier to do.

December 09, 1988 New Jersey’s John MacLean scored three goals in his second consecutive game (for his third career hat trick) as the Devils won 6-5 over the visiting NY Islanders.

December 10, 1997 Michel Petit became the first player in NHL history to score a point for 10 different teams, when his first assist of the year helped the Phoenix Coyotes to a 3-3 tie at Chicago.

December 11, 2000 NHL officially appoved the sale of the Phoenix Coyotes to Wayne Gretzky and partner Steve Ellman.

December 12, 1992 L.A. Kings rookie goalie Robb Stauber ran his record to 9-0-1 (and his winning streak to a team-record tying seven straight) when the Kings beat the Blues, 6-3 at the Forum.

December 13, 2001 Patrick Lalime became the Ottawa Senators all-time leader in career shutouts, with his 14th as a member of the team, a 6-0 win against Phoenix. Lalime broke the mark of 13 held by Ron Tugnutt. Martin Havlat a hat trick for the Sens.

December 14, 1997 Teppo Numminen became the Coyotes’ franchise all-time leader in assists by a defenseman, when he picked up the 250th of his career in a 3-3 tie against the Red Wings, in Phoenix. Numminen broke the mark of 249 set by Fredrik Olausson.

Rankings

The rankings are based on how the teams are currently playing.

Top 5

1. Pittsburgh

2. Atlanta

3. Nashville

4. Philadelphia

5. Los Angeles

Bottom 5

30. N.Y Islanders

29. New Jersey

28. Columbus

27. Ottawa

26. Washington

During the Islanders heyday Bill Torrey was the GM. His last few bigger deals included Kelly Hrudey for Mark Fitzpatrick, Pat LaFontaine for Pierre Turgeon essentially and the acquisition of Darius Kasparaitis. While they were not that bad, they weren’t all that great either. Torrey left when the Islanders changed management.

Next up was Don Maloney whose deals included trading Pierre Turgeon for Kirk Muller and Ron Hextall for Tommy Soderstrom. Soderstrom never panned out as the Islanders would have liked and Hextall ended up leading the league in GAA. Kirk Muller ended up playing a whopping 27 games total in his two seasons with the Islanders before being traded in a big mess. Maloney was shortly fired.

Then came everyone’s favorite GM Mike Milbury. Milbury was able to help guide the Islanders to three straight playoff appearances between 2001-2004 the first time that happened since 1985-1988. On the down side all of the appearances was they were all 1^st round exits. The Islanders could have been even better if Milbury had an eye for talent. Milbury’s most notable blunders include trading Roberto Luongo and Olli Jokinen for Oleg Kvasha and Mark Parrish. He also acquired Alexei Yashin for Zedno Chara, Bill Muckalt and the 2^nd overall pick in the 2001 draft, which ended up being Jason Spezza. He also traded Bryan McCabe and Todd Bertuzzi for Trevor Linden. While Linden was a great player, he was definitely on the downside of his career while McCabe and Bertuzzi were just starting their careers. Personally I think a team of Chara and McCabe on defense, a line of Spezza, Bertuzzi and Jokinen, with Luongo in net wouldn’t be that bad. Even with Luongo’s and Jokinen’s problems.

Drafting wise the Islanders haven’t done any better. Bertuzzi and Brett Lindros were drafted under Maloney. Bertuzzi was of course traded before being developed and Lindros was a bust who had a career ending injury. Wade Redden was also a bust but regardless of that, he never even played for the Islanders in the first place.

Milbury didn’t draft much better. His first 1^st round pick of Jean-Pierre “J. P.” Dumont, ended in a contract dispute that saw Dumont get traded. He followed that up with drafting Luongo and Eric Brewer. Luongo played one season with the Islanders and wasn’t given time to develop and Brewer’s short two year run was a disaster. Michael Rupp was picked the next year in the draft and you can guess how that went. Between 1994 to 1998 the Islanders had six draft picks in the top ten spots. Three of them never even wore an Islanders sweater during a game and the other three all played two shortened seasons or less before being traded or they had their career ended by injury. In 1999 the Islanders had four 1^st round picks but rather than write about it, I’m going to let you guess how those panned out. Here’s a hint, they weren’t any better than the previous ones. Then there was the Rick DiPietro pick to start the century off. That actually wouldn’t have been a bad pick if not for DiPietro’s injury problems.

When Milbury finally left Neil Smith took over for a whopping 40 days and then was replaced with current GM Garth Snow. I actually like the last few Islanders’ draft picks of Kyle Okposo, Josh Bailey and John Tavares. A good sign is that they are all still on the team. This years pick of Nino Niederreiter seems like he will develop into a great player, though still too early to tell. I also like the recent pick-ups of James Wisniewski and Michael Grabner.

The main thing the Islanders need is a GM with a good eye for talent. I think Garth Snow has that. The next step is to actually let the players develop. So while they aren’t winning now, results can’t be expected to happen overnight. I realize if you are an Islanders’ fan, it seems like you have been waiting forever but just give it a little more time.

Goalie Spotlight

Rick DiPietro – NY Islanders

Since we are on the subject of the Islanders, I figured I would spotlight Rick DiPietro. DiPietro was born in Winthrop, MA and played just one season for Boston University. But what a season it was. He was named to the All-Rookie Team, named to the Second Team All-Hockey East and was awarded the Hockey East’s Rookie of the Year. He also stopped 77 of 80 shots, just one save short of the record, in a quadruple overtime loss to St. Lawrence University during the NCAA regional final. He was also named MVP of the Beanpot tournament, which is a tournament participated in by the four major Boston area colleges. After his one stellar season the Islanders made him the 1^st overall pick of the 2000 draft. Milbury’s desire to draft DiPietro is what prompted him to trade Roberto Luongo.

He played in only 20 games is rookie year and manged just three wins and a .878 SV%. He was subsequently sent down to the Chicago Wolves of the IHL and then the Bridgeport Sound Tigers of the AHL. He didn’t fare any better with the Wolves but the next two seasons with the Sound Tigers he progressively improved. He also saw 10 games of action with the Islanders in 2002-03 in which he was slightly better than his last NHL go around. He was called up for good the next season and posted a 2.36 GAA with a .911 SV%.The next three seasons he played 60+ games. The 2006-07 season was his best season and he recorded a career high five shutouts. In March of 2007 DiPietro suffered a concussion which him caused him to miss a few games but he was able to play most of the playoff games that season.

In the summer of 2007 he underwent hip surgery to repair a torn labrum but the next season during the All-Star Game competition in 2008 he injured his hip again. He played most of the rest of the season with his injury. The next two seasons the played a combined total of 13 games mostly due to knee related injuries, swelling and surgeries. This season he is back and presumed to be 100%. He has so far split the goaltending duties with Dwayne Roloson. He has not played well this season. In fact he only played well during a win against Tampa Bay and a loss against the Thrashers. Otherwise he has been mediocre at best. His current numbers are a 3.93 GAA and .870 SV%. DiPietro is still only 29 and has a good chance to play a decade or so if he can stay healthy. It’s important for the Islanders organization that he bounces back this year after all that time and money has been invested in him.

Fights of the Week

Special thanks to hockeyfights.com for making this section a little easier to do.

Darcy Hordichuk vs. Shawn Thornton

Decent fight between these two, advantage Thornton.

Krys Barch vs. Colton Orr

A nice long fight that Orr clearly domaintes.

Kevin Westgarth vs. Chris Neil

Decent scrap despite Westgarth’s balancing issues.

Goats of the Week

Jaroslav Halak – St. Louis Blues

Even great goalies like Halak can make bad judgments from time to time, though if he wouldn’t have hit it accidentally for the 2^nd time it never would have went in. Mostly players are chosen as goats because their blunder cost their team the game. In this case, the Red Wings won by so much it didn’t really matter but I thought it deserved a mention anyway.

Corey Perry – Anaheim Ducks

Perry tries to center the puck in the closing seconds of the game with the goalie pulled but ends up scoring a goal… into his own net, a good 200 feet away.

Things I like

1.Loved the high scoring affair that was Tampa Bay vs. Philadelphia. I think we need to have games like that more often. It really showcases the awesomeness and excitement of the NHL. I’m not saying a defensive goalie duel isn’t exciting, it is, but this adds a different level of excitement. Too many games like that would be bad, as the fans would expect them too much.

2. Jerome Iginla has struggled mightily with the Flames so far this season. However since management has told him he wouldn’t have to wave his no trade clause, he has been on fire. I’m not sure why that would make a difference but I guess it has psychologically. Though if he and the Flames had started better, I don’t think the idea of trading him would have ever crossed their mind in the first place. Iginila has six goal in his last three games.

3. The 34 year old Milan Hejduk is on pace to have his best year since 2002-03. He is an integral part of the Avalanche’s offense and power play and brings much needed experience to the young Avalanche forwards.

4. Anytime you shutout the high scoring Capitals, except if your name is Jaroslav Halak, I think you deserve a special mention. So congratulations on making 30 saves goes to Johan Hedberg, a mostly career journeyman and the owner of a just below career .900 SV%.

Things I don’t

1. After the Blackhawks shed a few people off their roster, most notably Dustin Byfuglien, you would think the Canucks would have an easier time with the Hawks. But that is certainly not the case. After losing 2-1 in overtime to the Hawks earlier this year, Vancouver followed it up with an atrocious 7-1 loss at home. The Canucks were dominated in ever facet of the game except at the face-off circle. Not a good sign for the Canucks, especially if they have to meet the Blackhawks in the playoffs again.

2. Teams on the West Coast. The Canucks have lost their last four, the Kings have lost four of their last five, the Sharks have lost their last three and the Ducks have lost their last five. Maybe it’s something in the Pacific Ocean. I will admit the Kings received a couple of questionable calls against Ottawa.

3. After Ryan Smyth’s no goal because he was called for high sticking, I think it’s necessary the NHL invests in additional cameras so they can show more angles. I also think the NHL should grant each coach one challenge during the game. The idea was brought up during the GM meetings but was shot down. I think it’s time we had it. This challenge could be used for goals or penalty calls.

Stat Line of the Week

11/18/10 Tampa Bay 8 vs. Philadelphia 7

I suppose I could have picked a player form another game but I took the easy way out. Stamkos converted all three of his shots into goals for his 3^rd career hat trick. All of his goals were setup by nice passing by his Tampa Bay teammates. Stamkos is almost averaging a goal a game.

Did You Know?

In 1964-65, Red Wings’ Roger Crozier was the last goaltender to appear in all of his team’s games for an entire season. Crozier ended up playing in all but 33 minutes of the Red Wings 70 games that year. A feat that will surely never be done again in this day and age. Of course now they play 12 more games a season. Brodeur came pretty close a few years ago, having played in 78 games.

Numbers, Numbers

0 – Minus games for Toni Lydman thus far this season

0 – Regulation losses for the Blues at home

7.5 – The power play percentage of the Florida Panthers, dead last in the NHL

.945 – SV% of the Blues at Home, tied for 1^st in the NHL

.872 – SV% of the Blues on the Road, last in the NHL

4 – Shutouts by Cary Price in 20 games, the same number of shutouts he had the previous 3 seasons or 134 games

Quotes of the Week

“I don’t know what they were looking for.”

- LW Chris Kunitz, on word he received from officials on what the Toronto crew was looking for when they reviewed his goal in the third period Friday against Carolina.

“It always seems when I make a mistake, we pay for it somehow. I just can’t make those.”

- Sabres goalie Patrick Lalime on his costly turnover that led to Tampa Bay’s winning goal. “If we talk about that I’ll break down.”

Seeing as how you are the goalie, mistakes would be costly.

“I don’t want anyone feeling sorry for me. I’ve had a great life. I’ve been around a great sport. I didn’t want to be a celebrity, I just want to be myself.”

- Pat Burns, in the days before his death from terminal cancer.

You will be missed Pat Buns.

“What have you guys been doing for 10 years?”

- Blue Jackets coach Scott Arniel, when told by a staffer that Saturday’s win in San Jose was the franchise’s first regulation win in HP Pavilion.

This Week in Hockey History

Special thanks to the Hockey Hall of Fame site for making this section a little easier to do.

November 18, 1979 Vancouver Canucks earned their first ever home victory over Montreal, 5-2. The win snapped a streak of 21 home games (0-15-6) without a win versus the Habs. Glen Hanlon stopped 34 of 36 shots for the win, the 4th straight for Vancouver.

November 19, 1998 Mike Keenan became just the sixth coach to record 500 career NHL victories, and Garth Snow recorded his 5th career shutout as Vancouver won 5-0 at Colorado, to end a 15-game winless streak against the Avalanche, (0-12-3 since December 1995).

November 20, 1988 Blackhawks retired the jerseys of goaltenders Glenn Hall (#1) and Tony Esposito (#35) in a pregame ceremony at Chicago Stadium. Hall had played 15 years in Chicago, and Esposito 10 years. Blackhawks lost 7-4 to the Canucks.

November 21, 1987 King Olav V of Norway watched from behind the Montreal bench, as the Canadiens beat the Devils 2-1 at the Forum. Bobby Smith and Chris Chelios each scored a goal and added an assist in the second period for Montreal.

November 22, 1983 Brian Sutter had five assists to set a new club record for assists in a game, as the Blues won 7-4 over the visiting Toronto Maple Leafs, to end a 6 game winless streak (0-4-2).

November 23, 1974 Goaltenders Rogie Vachon and Gary Inness traded shutouts as the Kings and the Penguins played to a 0-0 scoreless tie, at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh. It was the 25th shutout of Vachon’s NHL career.

Rankings

The rankings are based on how the teams are currently playing.

Top 5

1. Detroit

2. Phoenix

3. Columbus

4. Philadelphia

5. Colorado

Bottom 5

30. N.Y Islanders

29. Edmonton

28. Calgary

27. Anaheim

26. Carolina

ANAHEIM DUCKS

One of the most dynamic fantasy lines is the combination of Ryan Getzlaf- Corey Perry-Bobby Ryan but this season the veteran second line of Saku Koivu-Teemu Selanne-Jason Blake are showing they are fantasy options also.

The line combines for 41 years of NHL service, 1,023 career NHL goals and 2,432 career NHL points.  This season they have proven that they still have some scoring left in them. The Finish Flash paces this line with seven goals and 19 points followed by his countryman Koivu with seven goals and 11 points, lastly Blake has three goals and seven points.

Teemu is an obvious ownership in all leagues as he continues to see time on the top power play unit and produces, shown in his already seven power points.  The question turns to his centerman and winger if they are viable fantasy options playing on a second line that is sometimes overshadowed by such a dominant top line.

Lost in the Ducks terrible season last year was the production of Koivu in his first year on the west coast.  The former lifetime Canadiens had 19 goals and 52 points continuing his great two-way hockey with a +14.  He also had 16 power play points, three shorthanded points and six game winning goals.  He is only owned in about 66% of leagues, according to ESPN.com, and should be owned in much more.  The 35-year-old is continuing to show he still has some fuel left in his tank and still playing over 18 minutes per game.

Jason Blake is only benefiting from playing with two such talented players and should only be owned in an injury fill in or if the Ducks schedule shows them playing more games than another player that week. He is only playing about 14 minutes a game and gets limited ice time on the power play.

NEW YORK RANGERS

Now with sniper Marion Gaborik healthy what has been the Rangers most productive line is now considered their second line. The line of Brandon Dubinsky-Ryan Callahan-Artem Anisimov has been making some noise early and a big reason the Rangers stayed competitive during their leading scorer’s absence.  Those three are 1-2-3 in scoring with Dubinsky at the top with 17 points followed by Callahan’s 16 points and Anisimov’s 14 points.

We have seen this before from the 24-year-old Dubinsky who has his most career points in the month of October with 31. The difference this year is we have not seen the dominance that the former 2^nd round pick has shown in all situations.  He leads the team with six power play points and three short handed points, and he continues to rack up those important fantasy penalty minutes.

The red hot Ryan Callahan has 12 points in his last 11 games and is now a legit fantasy option.  The 25-year-old has had back-to-back good seasons and now seems poised to become a breakout star for the Rangers in his fourth full season.  Last season he showed he can produce on the man advantage with 20 points and already has three points early.  He also has two shorthanded points and two game winning goals and is really starting to have chemistry with Dubinsky, just watch their game winning goal against the Penguins on Monday.

The 22-year-old Anisimov is the wild card in this threesome.  In his rookie year last season the Russian produced a disappointing 12 goals and 28 points.  This season the former 2^nd round pick is starting to show his offensive capabilities and taking advantage of the extra ice time playing with the talents of Dubinsky and Callahan.  Anisimov is second on the team with five power play points and already has half of the points (14) that he had last season.  Still owned in only 45% of leagues, according to ESPN.com, you should be picking up this talented player as long as he continues to play with Dubie and Cally.

WASHINGTON CAPITALS

When the Capitals made the decision to reunite the All-Star line of Alex Ovechkin-Nicklas Backstrom-Alex Semin the fantasy focus shifted on if any other player could be a fantasy option on this offensive talented team.

The immediate attention for owner’s shifts toward Brooks Laich, who is owned in 100% of leagues, according to ESPN.com, and for good reason the power forward has 12 points in the first 18 games.  The 27-year-old early on is proving that his 25 goals and 59 points were not a fluke last season.  The 6’2’’ forwards obvious worth is his time cleaning up the garbage in front of the power play.

Laich has not had solid linemates this season but one of the most consistent players he plays with is Tomas Fleischmann. The 26-year-old has started out slowly with only eight points in the first 18 games and even saw some time on the fourth line in the Capitals last game.  But this could be the motivating factor for the Czech that had 23 goals and 51 points last season.  Keeps an eye on Fleischmann if he starts to get regular shifts centering the second line with Laich.

The other wing on the second line has been a revolving door with veteran Mike Knuble getting some time there as well as former first round pick Eric Fehr.  Both of those players are fringe fantasy players with Knuble having some more value due to his power play time.  The Capitals have the potential to have fantasy studs on both of their top two lines especially when they decide to split up the All-Star line giving some of the mention players a much needed fantasy boost.

Hockey is back (in Edmonton) – There are two ways to build a long term successfully team in any sport. Drafting well in the lower rounds and/or trading down to acquire more picks as you continually make the playoffs as the Red Wings do and the New England Patriots do in the NFL. These teams have to draft really well because since they generally make the playoffs, they don’t receive high draft picks. The other way is to tank for a bit and stockpile high 1st round draft choices. O wait that’s right, teams don’t tank on purpose *wink*. This would be the Penguins method and now the Oilers method. In fairness to the Oilers, they didn’t get four years in a row of a number one or number two selections like the Penguins did.

Either way there hasn’t been this much excitement in Edmonton Alberta since a young doey eyed player graced the number 99 jersey back in 1978. For the home opener in Rexall Place Thursday, the crowd was rocking like a playoff game. Magnus Paajarvi (10), Taylor Hall (1) and Jordan Eberle (22) are three young former 1^st round draft picks that are looking to help return the Oilers back to respectability. Gretzky wasn’t even playing for the Oilers anymore when they were all born. Khabibulin, the 37 year old 16 year veteran, is the oldest on the team but he’s been playing like he was 27 again. Through two games he has a shutout and a blistering 9.69 SV%. Eberle is off to the best start of the young bunch, with two electrifying goals. Hall has one assist and Paajarvi has yet to produce a point but it’s still early. It’s a total team effort though with Shawn Horcoff, Sam Gagner, Dustin Penner and Ales Hemsky all relative veterans chipping in. Ryan Whitney acquired in the trade with Lubomir Visnovsky has fit in even better than the Oilers had probably hoped. He has two assists thus far. The Oilers hope to repeat the Colorado Avalanche’s success last year by going from last place in the conference to making the playoffs the following year.

Goalie Spotlight

Semyon Varlamov – Washington Capitals

Varlamov began playing goalie at the age of eight in Kuybyshev Russia. He was the dominant teenage goalie in various leagues before he made his way to the Lokomotiv Yaroslav junior farm club. Varlamov was then drafted with the 23^rd overall pick in the 2006 draft by the Capitals. He stayed in Russia leading Lokomotiv Yaroslav to the Russian Superleague Finals in 2008. At that time the Russian SuperLeague was the premier professional league in Russia. It has since disbanded and the KHL is now the premier league.

When he came to North America Varlamov played for the Capitals affiliate Hershey Bears. He played in six games for the Capitals during the 2008-09 season winning four and losing one game in overtime. He was named the star of the game in his debut, a 2-1 victory of the Canadiens. He was the 3^rd goalie until backup Brent Johnson had a hip injury. When the playoffs came around, Varlamov saw action when Jose Theodore was pulled after allowing four goals. Varlamov remained the starter posting respectable numbers and two shutouts as he help lead the Capitals to the second round. Ironically he was pulled himself in favor of Theodore after giving up four goals in Game 7 against the eventual champion Penguins.

The next season Theodore was the starter but it was widely expected that Varlamov would end up wining it by season end. Unfortunately an injury derailed that and Varlamov had to rehab back in Hershey when he was healthy. He rejoined the club for the playoff stretch run and ended up making most of the playoff starts. Varlamov played well in last years 1^st round exit to the Canadiens. But you wouldn’t know it because his counterpart Jaroslav Halak was stopping 40+ shots a game. Now with Jose Theodore gone, Varlamov is the man in net. He is also tasked, like the rest of the Capitals, with the seemingly daunting task of getting past the 2^nd round of the playoffs. He was also the 3^rd goalie selected for the 2010 Russian Olympic team. Currently Varlamov is injured but he is expected to regain his stating position within the next week or so. The Capitals hope that he can bounce back and even improve his still maturing skills.

Fights of the Week

Special thanks to hockeyfights.com for making this section a little easier to do.

Raitis Ivanans vs. Steve MacIntyre

We already have blood on the first day of the season. Ivanans knocks out MacIntyre and leaves him bloody and needing assistance to get off the ice.

Ilya Kovalchuk vs. Mike Green

Yes these two actually fought and for pure comical reasons, this fight was great.

Goat of the Week

Kris Letang – Pittsburgh Penguins

Letang’s lazy and errant pass never made it to intended recipient Paul Martin, Claude Giroux saw to that. The goal ended up being the Game winner.

Things I like

1. Don Cherry being back and telling it like it is, complete with loud plaid suit and a western daffy duck tie. Cherry was spot on with the whole Carey Price thing and I will paraphrase what he said. Price will be a good goalie but not in Montreal, where he gets booed for the littlest thing, even when it is not his fault. As for Halak, he single handedly won two playoffs series, his jersey was a hot number, fans made stop signs with his name on it and he was beloved. The Canadiens traded him away for practically nothing. More than likely, I believe it will come back to haunt them for a long time.

2. Few said it could be done and many questioned some of Brian Burke’s moves but he has helped to bring the Maple Leafs back to respectability. Jean-Sebastien Giguere is having a career revival in Toronto. Giguere said after the 1^st game with a laugh, “I’m not that old, people.” We’d have to agree with you there. Phil Kessel is leading the Leafs as expected but they are also getting help from unlikely sources like Clarke MacArthur. The true test for the Maple Leafs happens when the Leafs travel to Pittsburgh to take on the Penguins tonight.

3. Cam Fowler making his debut against his hometown Red Wings for the Ducks. The Ducks got manhandled 4-0 but it wasn’t Fowler’s fault. The eighteen year old 12^th overall section of the 2010 draft racked up 21:20 minutes in his first game with 5 blocked shots and a +/- of 0. Its unlikely Fowler will be sent down to the minors so Fowler will be a key component in the Ducks season this year and for the next decade. He did make a costly turnover in his 3^rd game that led to a short handed goal but the future is bright for Fowler on a team that sorely needs defensive help.

4. James Wisniewski’s “inappropriate” gesture to Sean Avery. Personally I found it funny and I believe that hockey players are the most colorful athletes around. The ability to almost do what you want and not really get penalized (or just receive a minor) for it, is what makes hockey very unique. Wiz ended up getting suspended two games for it anyway. I think it’s a bit harsh since there are much worse offenses that don’t receive a suspension.

Things I don’t

1. Ondrej Pavelec collapsing on the ice just two minutes into the Thrashes vs. Capitals game. It is always a scary scene to watch any athlete collapse unprovoked. Pavelec regained consciousness later in the ambulance. The current cause is a fainting spell but more tests will be done as a precaution.

2. The Ducks “top” line of Ryan Getzlaf, Corey Perry and Bobby Ryan have three Olympic medals and over 25 million in salary combined. However neither has produced any points so far through three games and they have a combined +/- of -12. Also new captain Getzlaf doesn’t seem to be keeping his composure or leading very well. In fairness the whole team, coach staffing and upper management deserve a huge F thus far for the product they have put on the ice.

3. I like fighting and I think it has a place in the game and that players should be able to defend themselves or retaliate. What I don’t like is when games get out of hand on scoreboard turn into UFC on ice. The Ducks against the Blues and to a lesser extent against the Redwings and the Capitals against Devils were games that were blowouts that basically just turned into fights in the 3^rd period. Obviously it’s frustrating to be down by four or so goals in a game but the NHL needs to implement a rule that discourages players from trying to make a statement with their fists when they can’t make it with their stick. I’m thinking a one game suspension for any player involved would do the trick.

Stat Line of the Week

10/09/10 N.Y Rangers 6 vs. Buffalo 3

Rookie Derek Stepan in his first game recorded a hat trick on only three shots. He became the first to do it in his debut since Dallas’ Fabian Brunnstrom on Oct. 15, 2008. The feat was made all the more impressive coming against All World goalie Ryan Miller.

Did You Know?

As the Ducks pile up PIM at an alarming rate, did you know the most PIM for one game is 419 set by the Ottawa Senators vs. the Philadelphia Flyers on March 5^th 2004. 409 of those minutes came in the final 11 minutes of the game. By the end of the game, 20 players had been ejected for their role in the brawl, leaving a total of five players left in the game. Officials took about 90 minutes to sort out all of the penalties that each team had received in the final brawl.

Numbers, Numbers

5 – PIM for Pavel Datsyuk in his first game

18 – PIM for Datsyuk in 80 games in the 2009-10 season

2 – Number of goals scored thus far by the Anaheim Ducks, the lowest in the league

145 – PIM for the Ducks, the league leaders by a wide margin

2 – Games in a row with a too many men on the ice penalty for the Ducks. Not the best way to start a season.

11 – Years since the last time the Maple Leafs started out 2-0

Carey Price vs. Jaroslav Halak

As if Carey Price doesn’t get roasted enough in the Montreal media, I thought I would give him some extra scrutiny in this column. This season we will see how Price does for the week and compare his numbers to Halak, the guy Montreal ran out of town because they still think Price is their guy. Who knows he still might be.

Halak has the edge so far with a .955 SV%, 0.99 GAA and 2 wins. Price has .919 SV%, 2.52 GAA and a 1-1 record. Price has also faced 18 more shots and he was able to beat the Penguins though game 2 of the regular season is much different than round 2 of the postseason.

This Week in Hockey History

Special thanks to the Hockey Hall of Fame site for making this section a little easier to do.

October 07, 2001 Florida Panthers’ goaltender Roberto Luongo recorded his 7th career shutout in a 5-0 win against the Lightning at Tampa Bay.

October 08, 2001 Alexander Mogilny scored :53 seconds into the game then added another to give him 400 goals in his NHL career, as the Maple Leafs won 6-1 against the visiting Anaheim Mighty Ducks.

October 09, 1997 New York Rangers became the first team in NHL history to tie their first four games of the season when they battled to a 1-1 draw against the Flames, at Calgary.

October 10, 1973 Montreal rookie Bob Gainey played in his first NHL game, when the Canadiens beat the North Stars 5-2, in their 1973-74 season opener, in Minnesota. The victory extended the Canadiens’ opening night undefeated streak to 11 straight games (8-0-3).

October 11, 2000 Washington’s Adam Oates became the 29th player in NHL history to record 1,200 career NHL points, when he picked up an assist in a 3-3 Capitals tie against the Atlanta Thrashers.

October 12, 1985 Charlie Simmer scored his 6th career hat trick (and his first with Boston) and added an assist as the Bruins extended their road undefeated streak against the Red Wings to 10 straight games (7-0-3) with a 9-2 win, at Detroit.

Rankings

The rankings are based on how the teams are currently playing.

Top 5

1. Toronto
2. Detroit
3. St. Louis
4. Edmonton
5. Philadelphia

Bottom 5

30. Anaheim
29. Ottawa
28. New Jersey
27. Minnesota
26. Florida

I’ll leave you with my favorite comic strip talking about hockey.

Next up the deep position of Left Wing and the sleeper filled position of Right Wing

Fantasy LW Rankings

1.)    Alex Ovechkin

2.)    Daniel Sedin

3.)    Iyla Kovalchuk

4.)    Zach Parise

5.)    Patrick Marleau

6.)    Alex Semin

7.)    Henrik Zetterberg

8.)    Patrick Sharp

9.)    Lou Eriksson

10.)  Taylor Hall

11.)  Jussi Jokinen

12.)  Wojtek Wolski

13.)  Michael Cammalleri

14.)  Alexandre Burrows (IR)

15.)  Simon Gagne

16.)  Ryan Clowe

17.)  Thomas Vanek

18.)  Alex Frolov

19.)  Patrik Elias

20.)  Kris Versteeg

Honorable Mention:  Tyler Ennis

===========================================================================================

Fantasy RW Rankings

1.)     Martin St Louis

2.)    Patrick Kane

3.)    Dany Heatley 

4.)    Corey Perry

5.)    Marion Gaborik

6.)    Rick Nash

7.)    Jarome Iginla

8.)    Bobby Ryan

9.)    Daniel Alfredsson

10.)   Nikolai Zherdev

11.)  Marian Hossa

12.)   Nathan Horton

13.)   Ales Hemsky

14.)   Phil Kessel

15.)   Daniel Briere

16.)   Kyle Okposo

17.)   Shane Doan

18.)   Jason Pominville

19.)  Johan Franzen

20.)  Martin Havlat

Honorable Mention:  Jordan Eberle

The White team (guest) was led by Dan Sexton and Emerson Etem and the Black team (home) was led by Devante Smith-Pelly and Cam Fowler. The White team simple dominated the first 10 minutes of play as the puck was always in the Black end. But wouldn’t you know it the Black team led 2-1 after 10 minutes, basically converting on their only two scoring opportunities. The rest of the game was about even. Goaltending in this game was average at best, to put it nicely. Other than a couple of nice saves it wasn’t pretty. Despite being a mostly friendly game, there were a handful of really great hits. Justin Vaive, who had a few hits, is one big guy coming in at 6’5” and around 210 pounds. He could eventually replace George Parros as the enforcer on the Ducks. He would also bring a more offensive upside to the team than Parros does. Devante Smith-Pelly was a force around the net, hitting people and scoring. The star of the scrimmage and the only player that I can say for certain will be on the opening day roster is Dan Sexton. He was everywhere on the ice and had some nice slap shots and passes. He also scored I believe one goal. I particularly loved his heart and enthusiasm that in a pretty much meaningless scrimmage game, he was banging his stick on the ice in frustration on a missed play. All in all a great game and the Ducks have selected and signed a nice assortment of young players.

Let’s take a look at the possible opening day Ducks roster. The biggest question mark for the Ducks is obviously on defense. Just two years ago the top defensive pair boasted future hall of famers Chris Pronger and Scott Niedermayer. Now with both gone, it’s time for the Ducks to turn a new page on the defensive end. The old men of the group are 10 year vets Lubomir Visnovsky and Toni Lydman. Visnovsky will assume the leadership rule of the defensive unit and Lydman while a great talent, was probably brought in more to coax Teemu Selanne into playing another year. Next is where the real question marks begin. The next spot up for grabs would more than likely be filled by James Wisniewski, who is headed for arbitration for the second year in a row. More than likely that will go well and he will be back. The 4^th spot is more than likely going to go to Sheldon Brookbank who hasn’t really impressed me all that much in his short career. But maybe increased playing time and responsibility will improve his game. The last two spots are up for grabs. It’s rumored and a likely possibility that Luca Sbisa will get one of the remaining spots. Sbisa acquired in the Pronger trade, played eight games for the Ducks before being sent down. Coach Carlyle had wanted Sbisa to receive the maximum amount of playing time possible to further his development which he was not going to get in the Ducks lineup. With Niedermayer retired and the Ducks looking to shake things up, Sbisa should be ready to help fill the void. He was conspicuously absent from prospect camp, which I thought was quite odd. Hopefully this means the Ducks think he’s ready and he will definitely be in the starting six. I don’t think top draft pick Cam Fowler will be ready to grab the last spot so the ducks will more than likely look to acquire another player. There’s always Brett Festerling but I sure hope not.

Offensively, if things go correctly, you could be look at the most stacked offensive collection ever assembled on the Ducks and rivaling some of the all time great NHL teams. Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry will return the question is will Bobby Ryan join them? Ryan and the Ducks have hit a standstill in their contract talks but I have hope that it will eventually work itself out. On the second line we may possibly see one of the best second lines ever. Saku Koivu is the only definite coming back to anchor the line. On the one side you could have future hall of famer and 600 goal scorer Teemu Selanne, who I think will come back. On the other side you could have Joffrey Lupul who skated for the first time in a long time the other week. His back looks like it may be fully recovered in time for the start of the season. I know the Ducks and Lupul both hope that it is. Underrated Todd Marchant would anchor the third line with probably Dan Sexton and Jason Blake. The 4^th line is anyone’s guest at this point, until the Ducks management finishes making the roster. But the top three possible lines would give any opposing netminder and defense fits.

The goalie tandem of Jonas Hiller and Curtis McElhinney are as solid as they come. I believe McElhinney is an improvement over former back-up Justin Pogge, though Pogge never really played. I really think that Hiller will bounce from a fairly average year from him. After tearing it up in the Olympics most of that momentum carried over down the stretch for the Ducks. With the number one spot now firmly his and lower expectations coming into this season than last years, I think pressure will be a lot lower for Hiller and his focus will be a lot higher. I am looking forward to the Ducks getting better team chemistry and making a deep run into the playoffs.

Below are a few images from the scrimmage.

Yes, in some ways there is. In the last 20 years we have never had a Stanley Cup winner with less than a plus 25 goal differential in the regular season. How about the loser? Well for the losers there have been various goal differentials. For the most part they’ve all had a positive goal differential too. There are three exceptions. Carolina in 01-02 lost to Detroit and had a 217/217 GF/GA. In 92-93 Los Angeles lost to Montreal with a negative differential 338/340 GF/GA. The Kings gave up a lot of goals that year, only three teams gave up more goals than them that season. In 90-91 the Minnesota North Stars (remember them) had a negative 10 differential 256/266 GF/GA and a 27-39-14 record (yikes!). Of course that year there were only 10 teams in the West so all but two teams got in the playoffs. It’s a good thing the NHL has expanded so things like that don’t happen anymore. Of course it begs the more interesting question, how did they get to the Finals and how sad would it have been if they had won?

So what does all that mean for this season? In the East that means no Cup for Ottawa (negative), Montreal (negative) or Boston (about even). Atlanta (negative) and the Rangers (negative) would also be no if they managed to somehow get in. Philadelphia (about +10) would also be a no. Washington and Buffalo (just over) have the best shots and New Jersey and Pittsburgh are on the bubble with about a +20.

Out West it’s a little more crowded. None of the playoff contenders are negative. Two are about even Calgary (if they get in) and Nashville, so no for them. Detroit is only about a +10, by far their lowest goal differential in sometime, so no for them as well. Vancouver, Chicago and San Jose are the best bets. Los Angeles, Colorado and Phoenix are all on the bubble at around a +20 each.

So that means if we cut out the bubbles teams, though there are still five to seven games left so a lot could change, your Stanley Cup Champions will either be Washington, Buffalo, Vancouver, Chicago or San Jose. Keep in mind last year’s winner, Pittsburgh, had a differential of +25 the lowest in some time and where I got the cutoff point from. Let’s see if the pattern holds true this year.

Goalie Spotlight

Next week, hopefully.

Fights of the Week

Special thanks to hockeyfights.com for making this section a little easier to do.

Adam Burish vs. Derek Dorsett

Fists of fury in front of the Blackhawks bench with these two.

Cory Sarich vs. Jason Chimera

Sarich knocks down Chimera with one punch. I’m not really sure what Chimera thought was going to happen, he’s in a fight and he isn’t doing anything.

Goats of the Week

Antoine Vermette – Columbus Blue Jackets

Well I probably could have put a goal or two that Huet gave up but I figured that would be too easy. Dave Bolland, who deserves his own goat props on the play, fans on his rebound attempt and Vermette comes sweeping in and knocks it in his own goal. A shame really, if he had gotten his stick on the other side of the puck he would have saved the goal.

Jimmy Howard – Detroit Red Wings

The curse of the strange bounces continues as Owen Nolan casually dumps the puck in but Howard’s misplay coupled with the odd bouncing puck leads to a goal. The Red Wings were up 4-0 in the 3rd at that point, so it didn’t really matter.

Things I like

1. The top four teams from last years playoffs should make the playoffs again this year (San Jose, Detroit, Vancouver, Chicago), while the five through eight seeds will not. Interesting that all those top teams moved on to the second round last year except for San Jose. Furthermore it’s interesting that they again hold the top three spots this year, except for Detroit which is now in 6^th.

2. We have races in the points and goals stat categories. Barring any miracle Henrik Sedin should win the assist crown. Alex Ovechkin has an unfair advantage of missing 10 games more than everyone else, though a lot of those were his fault for getting suspended. Despite that he is still right in the thick of things at the top for the points and goal crowns, tie goes to Ovie.

3. That my prediction of the Rangers not making the playoffs this year is becoming a reality. I’ll have to take it because almost all my other predictions are wrong, except for Washington winning their division but who didn’t have that?

Things I don’t

1. Calgary’s playoff chances anymore. With Detroit winning (of course it’s now about Los Angeles and Colorado) it was unlikely the Flames would get in, but they showed almost no drive to want to get in. Losing to teams like Minnesota and the NY Islanders, teams they are better than, is one thing but coming to Boston and dropping a major goose egg of 5-0 is pretty bad. Hard to imagine you could play that bad in a game you must win. Also what is up with the Flames scheduling? They went from Denver to Calgary to Minnesota to Calgary to New York. I don’t see why the two home games couldn’t have been next to each other and then had the Denver and Minnesota games next to each other and then went to the East Coast from there that would have made much more sense.

2. Cristobal Huet yikes! It’s a shame really. The season started out well for Huet, he had a good October, other than the 10/12 game against the Flames, and November. Things started to go downhill after that and they reached the bottom this month. I really think they should make a play for Chris Osgood, otherwise it’s Niemi time.

3. Evgeni Malkin missing games with injuries. He didn’t miss any games the past two seasons and his first in the league he only missed four. This year hasn’t been so lucky for him. He’s fun to watch and the Penguins aren’t really the same team without him. I hope his foot will be ready to go come playoff time.

Stat Line of the Week

03/27/10 Buffalo 7 vs. Tampa Bay 1

Back to back weeks of Sabres in the stat line box and both against Tampa Bay. After being called out by his coach for lack of effort in the previous game, Derek Roy responded with his 4^th hat trick of his career. He has points in every game this March except four. The Sabres have been hot offensively as of late and it reminds me of the Sabre teams with Dominik Hasek.

Did You Know?

That when Colorado beat New Jersey in the 2000-01 NHL Stanley Cup Finals their combined regular season GA/GF ratio was a positive 278. This was the highest combined ratio, by far, in the past twenty seasons.

Numbers, Numbers

(hey they’re all under 10, go figure)

1 – Number of seasons over 100 points for Henrik Sedin in nine seasons

2 – Number of seasons the Coyotes have made it to the Playoffs this decade

9 – Number of seasons the Red Wings will inevitably make the Playoffs this decade (only 9 because one season was lost due to the lockout)

9 – Number of seasons the Devils have made the playoffs this decade

0 – Number of times the Florida Panthers will have made the playoffs this decade (the only team not to make it)

This Week in Hockey History

Special thanks to the Hockey Hall of Fame site for making this section a little easier to do.

March 25, 1982 Wayne Gretzky set an NHL record for fastest two shorthanded goals, scoring twice in :27 during the second period of a 7-2 Oilers’ win at Calgary.

March 26, 1960 Dickie Moore scored twice and added an assist and Doug Harvey got the winning goal at 8:38 of overtime to lead the Canadiens to a 4-3 win over the visiting Chicago Black Hawks, in Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Semi-Finals.

March 27, 2003 Patrick Roy recorded his 66th (and final) career shutout and his 547th victory, tops in NHL history and 100 more than second-place Terry Sawchuk as the Avalanche won 3-0 against the visiting Los Angeles Kings.

March 28, 1974 Islanders’ rookie defenseman Denis Potvin scored to set an NHL record for most goals by a rookie defenseman, as the Islanders lost 4-1 at Los Angeles. Potvin’s 16th of the year broke the record of 15 set by Montreal’s Guy Lapointe in 1970-71.

March 29, 1983 Vancouver’s Stan Smyl scored twice to set a new club record with 88 points in one season, as the Canucks lost 7-4 to Edmonton.

March 30, 1979 The NHL announced the expansion of the league from 17 to 21 teams, with the addition of four clubs from the WHA – Edmonton, Hartford, Winnipeg, and Quebec City.*

*Ironically there all gone now except for Edmonton.

March 30, 1925 Victoria Cougars of WCHL beat the Canadiens 6-1 to become the last non-NHL team to win the Stanley Cup. Victoria won the best of five series 3-1 over Montreal.

Rankings

The rankings are based on how the teams are currently playing.

Top 5

1. Detroit
2. Phoenix
3. Nashville
4. Atlanta
5. Montreal

Bottom 5

30. Tampa Bay
29. Edmonton
28. Florida
27. Chicago
26. Philadelphia

Anaheim Ducks Watch

Playoff hopes looking slim Anaheim took on Vancouver at Vancouver. Despite being a game for their season basically they didn’t really seem to try to hard. The Sedin twins figured into the first three Vancouver goals and it wasn’t until the 3^rd, when Anaheim scored there first and only goal. Getzlaf re-injured his ankle when Henrik Sedin fell on it. Just an awesome game, note sarcasm. Anaheim isn’t much of a road team, with only six teams having fewer wins on the road than them, and they showed it in the past two games.

Next was the epic grudge match against Edmonton. Luckily Anaheim won this game because otherwise we’d be looking at some serious issues. George Parros, of all people, got the 1^st goal in the game. BTW Parros is really not a good fighter, he’s just big. In the 3^rd Perry had two power-play goals in a row to propel the Ducks to a 3-1 lead. Edmonton got a goal in the final minute with a six on three advantage. Let’s face it if you can’t score on a six on three, you have major problems. Speaking of the six on three, you sure don’t see that very often. Former teammate Ryan Whitney got into it with Troy Bodie during and right after the game. Whitney was also standing in the Ducks bench at one point jawing at Bodie.

The Stars at Anaheim were next up and since the game was at Anaheim, they did a little celebration for Teemu’s 600^th goal. I was at a game where they honored him with something else about a year or two ago; I can’t remember what it was though shame on me. Anyway Nick Bonino started his second game ever. He also anchors the top line with the injured Ryan Getzlaf out. Bonino was of course not drafted by the Ducks. Which brings up the question, where do all the players the Ducks pick in the first few rounds end up? The certainly don’t make the team. Only Perry, Getzlaf and Ryan are 1^st rounders that are actually on the team. Matt Beleskey was drafted by the Ducks but not until the 4^th round. Dan Sexton and Rob Bordson are undrafted. Way to go Ducks, you sure know talent when you see it. Anyway the Ducks jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the 3^rd period with a bunch of quick strikes. Getting the first goal of the game was Nick Bonino on the power play. The assists on the goal were Teemu Selanne and Corey Perry. Not to shabby to have your first goal of your career assisted by a future hall of famer. Perry got the game winner with his 27^th goal of the year and Dallas scored one goal right after Anaheim’s three and that was it. Curtis McElhinney started his second game in a row, in place of Jonas Hiller, and he has played extremely well. He is now on a three game winning streak, counting the game he won in relief of Hiller. They keep their faint playoff hopes alive against Colorado.

The Coyotes are hot and have now won nine in a row. They are also contending for the top spot in the West. It actually makes my head hurt thinking about it because I never would have guessed this in a million years. I’m not really surprised about the Avalanche, the other darlings of the West who have since fallen, because they just had some bad injuries last year and then had some great picks in the off-season and a great goalie acquisition. But the Coyotes gunning for the best record in the West!?! The Coyotes haven’t made the playoffs since 2002 and even more telling, they have never been out of the 1^st round as a franchise.

Other than the superb goaltending duo of Ilya Bryzgalov (the current leader in wins and shutouts) and Jason LaBarbera it’s hard to see how they are having this much success. The Coyotes only have one player on the team with over 20 goals, Radim Vrbata who I don’t think strikes fear into opposing goalies. They would have two players over 20 goals if you add on the goals Wojtek Wolski has with the Avalanche. Offensively and defensively they are just a bunch of rag tag blue collar guys. They do have Mr. Everything Shane Doan and sniper Ed Jovanovski, though. It will be interesting to see how the Coyotes do in the playoffs. They don’t boast much experience in the playoffs and the West is especially tough this year. Even if they have a 1^st round exit, which seems likely, Phoenix should be proud as they have accomplished a lot this season, including transforming the franchise, no matter the playoff outcome.

The rematch against the Blackhawks didn’t go quite as well. The Coyotes lost 2-0 and were unable to set the franchise record for wins, still nothing to be ashamed of.

Goalie Spotlight

I would like to keep doing this section but I haven’t been in the mood with all the other crap going on in my life.

Fights of the Week

Special thanks to hockeyfights.com for making this section a little easier to do.

Cam Janssen vs. Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond

Wow sums this fight up, with everyone’s favorite frenchie. If you like long fights this one clocks in at over two minutes of action.

Brad Winchester vs. Brandon Prust

A unique fight in which Prust was outsized by a lot but managed to hold his own.

Ryane Clowe vs. Jarome Iginla

A decent fight between these two heavy hitters. Iginla drops his helmet and Clowe does not despite having plenty of time to do so.

Goats of the Week

Lots of goats this week, enjoy.

Thomas Vokoun – Florida Panthers

We’ve had a few really long goals this year and this would be another. The difference is nobody blamed the goalie (Vokoun) this time, they all blamed the bad ice. Except this goal cost them the win because it forced overtime which the Panthers lost in a shootout.

Corey Crawford – Chicago Blackhawks

Crawford goes out of his net to play a puck coming into his zone with Chipchura and Former Duck Boynton chasing after. Crawford fails miserably at whatever he was trying to do and Chipchura makes a nice pass to Marchant who gets the goal. In all the epic fails this year, I think this one is right up there.

Joel Quenneville – Chicago Blackhawks Coach

In the final minute of the game Quenneville pulled his goalie in a game against Anaheim, despite the fact that Anaheim had position of the puck and no Blackhawks were in sight. Even though it was behind the Anaheim net it was still a bad decision, as two passes later Anaheim had an empty net goal.

Things I like

1. The dominance of New Jersey over Pittsburgh is quite interesting this season. The Devils are 6-0 and have outscored the Penguins 22 to 5. That’s a huge differential. Marc-Andre Fleury only has one game against the Devils this year with a SV% above .900. Johnson had the best performance against the Devils only giving up one goal on 32 shots in a 2-0 loss (the other goal was an empty net). Don’t be surprised to see a lot of Brent Johnson come playoff time with Fleury’s struggles. But averaging less than a goal a game of offense is quite putrid for Crosby, Malkin and company.

2. This should be filed under Things I don’t, since I can’t stand them, but here it is anyway the Detroit Red Wings are hot and trying to keep their consecutive playoff streak alive. Personally I was hoping the Red Wings wouldn’t make it but alas that doesn’t look to be the case. They will be a tough 1^st round out for any of the possibilities, Phoenix (inexperience), Chicago (bad goaltending) and San Jose (umm they’re San Jose). Jimmy Howard continues to excel in his first full season. I’m surprised a goaltending needy team didn’t make a run at Chris Osgood. Unless the Red Wings didn’t want to part with him.

3. Teemu Selanne’s 600^th goal. It couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy. It’s been a long Hall of Fame career for the Finnish Flash and this was the icing on the cake for his career. I’m also happy that he could at least etch his name on Lord Stanley’s cup once.

4. How about the Washington Capitals clinching their division a week ago and they currently have an over 30 point lead on the Thrashers in the standings. Just a few more wins and the can lock up the top spot in the East. I am looking forward to a Capitals vs. Devils or Penguins conference finals.

Things I don’t

1. James Wisniewski’s suspension. I think eight games are a bit excessive. If the NHL is serious about cutting down on headshots and defenseless hits, I expected him to get suspended. But it wasn’t that bad of a hit and it pales in comparison to the suspension that Ovechkin received, proving preferential treatment for the stars. The biggest problem with the suspension is that Brent Seabrook’s hit on Corey Perry was almost as bad and it was the whole reason that Wisniewski hit Seabrook. Seabrook took out Perry’s head and Perry could not see him coming because his back was to Seabrook. Where as Wisniewski’s hit was able to be seen by Seabrook, even for just a second, and was more of a total body check, thought it was made worse by him leaving his feet. But had he not left his feet, I wouldn’t even have seen anything wrong wit the hit in my own opinion, I’m sure others disagree. It’s the typical double standards garbage by the NHL.

2. Well I won’t say I didn’t tell you so (I did), but San Jose has started their annual slide to mediocrity. Their latest offense was losing to the Oilers 5-1, which ups their losing streak to six games. Someone should tell the Sharks they are losing a month early though, as it’s not April yet. Evgeni Nabokov’s poor Olympic showing seems to have carried over to the Sharks. Not a good sign for the Sharks as I’m not sure Thomas Greiss is up for the playoff challenge, but who knows. At least the Sharks finally snapped their losing streak against the Wild.

Stat Line of the Week

03/18/10 Buffalo 6 vs. Tampa Bay 2

Ever hear of Jason Pominville? Well I haven’t but other than Ryan Miller, Derek Roy and Tyler Myers, I couldn’t name any Buffalo Sabres. But the Sabres have found some offense as of late and in this game Pominville picked up his 2^nd career hat trick.

Did You Know?

That after Selanne the next active player with a shot at 600 is Mark Recchi with 560, Mike Modano with 556 and Keith Tkachuk with 537. None of these players seem likely to get it though. At Recchi’s current scoring pace he would need another three seasons or so to get it. Modano would also need another three seasons at his current pace. It’s unlikely either will play another three. Tkachuk is most likely retiring at the end of this year, so barring some miracle he won’t get it either. Jerome Iginla with 441 has the best shot to reach it next, but he isn’t getting any younger.

Numbers, Numbers

The Teemu Selanne edition, in honor of his 600 goals

97 – Career game winning goals

76 – Goals scored his first season, the most of any season

3 – The number of times he has scored over 100 points in a season

216 – Power-play goals, 10^th all time

16 – The lowest amount of goals he has scored in a season that he played more than 30 games in.

46 – Goals against the San Jose Sharks, the team he has scored most on

This Week in Hockey History

Special thanks to the Hockey Hall of Fame site for making this section a little easier to do.

March 18, 2000 Ray Bourque became the first defenseman in NHL history to score 400 career goals. His milestone came in a 4-3 loss against the visiting Atlanta Thrashers.

March 19, 1991 Brett Hull became the third player in NHL history to score 80 goals in a season, in a 2-1 Blues win over the Caps, at Landover, Maryland. Hull joined Gretzky and Lemieux as the only players in NHL history to accomplish the feat.

March 20, 1969 Boston’s Bobby Orr set a new NHL record for defensemen with his 21st goal of the season (breaking the mark set by Flash Hollett in 1944-45). It came at 19:59 of the third, on Orr’s 21st birthday, in a 5-5 tie against the Black Hawks, in Boston.

March 21, 1983 Darcy Rota scored two goals to become only the second player in Canucks’ history to score 40 goals in a season. It came as Vancouver defeated Pittsburgh 7-3.

March 22, 2004 L.A.’s Luc Robitaille picked up an assist to set an NHL record for most career points by a left wing with the 1,370th of his NHL career (passing John Bucyk) as the Kings lost 2-1 to the visiting Edmonton Oilers.

March 23, 1983 Mark Messier became the third player in Edmonton Oilers history to score 100 points in a season, when he picked up a goal in a 7-4 loss to the Jets, at Winnipeg.

Rankings

The rankings are based on how the teams are currently playing.

Top 5

1. Phoenix
2. Washington
3. Detroit
4. Montreal
5. Nashville

Bottom 5

30. Tampa Bay
29. Ottawa
28. NY Rangers
27. San Jose
26. Minnesota

Anaheim Ducks Watch

After choking forever after the Olympic break, Anaheim beats the top two teams in a row in the Western Conference. Proving that if they actually tired hard enough they can beat anybody. Proving that since the Ducks aren’t trying hard enough, most of the time, the coach needs to go. Of course I have wanted Carlyle to be canned for awhile now, so I’m not holding my breath. Anyway, on with the recap.

Bobby Ryan starts Anaheim’s scoring off with his 30^th goal of the season. He is the only Duck besides Teemu Selanne to score 30 goals in back to back seasons. Seabrook ties the game. Marchant scores an easy short handed goal when goat of the week Crawford stupidly handles the puck way outside his net. Then all hell broke loose as Seabrook hit Perry and then Wisniewski hits him back. After Chicago ties the game the Ducks show some heart and in the 3^rd to win the game. In a weird play Sopel goes up to play a puck high, Perry gives him a nudge, Sople oversells the nudge and then everyone goes after Perry. Except that Perry made a nifty pass to a wide open Koivu, who nets the game winner. Bobby Ryan adds the empty netter. Hiller had some nice saves in the game and made 39 in all. If Corey Perry wasn’t Corey Perry (a jerk) I’m not sure the Ducks would have won.

Next were the Islanders in a game that was probably harder than it needed to be. Park scores for the Islanders and then less than a minute later Beleskey scores to tie the game. Then we reverse and Anaheim scores first with Visnovsky and then about a minute later Okposo ties it up. Then things start to get hairy as the Islanders score on the power play and Hiller is pulled. Hiller rarely gets pulled but most of the goals he let in were pretty lame. After giving up another goal things looked bleak in Duckville, but Anaheim clawed their way back with their new look never give up attitude. A power-play goal off of Jason Blake inches the Ducks closer. With the goalie pulled Visnovsky scores again with the magic touch and with help from some pretty awesome screens in front. In overtime Koivu takes a turnover and beats Biron on a one on one breakaway. Selanne had some really nice chances in the game to get 600, but alas it was not to be.

Next up was Colorado and a game that for once everything just seemed to go the Ducks way. Capping off the final game of a seven game home stand, the Ducks increased their winning streak to four games. They jumped out to a four goal lead and Teemu Selanne had the game winner for his 600^th goal, which was fittingly on the power-play. Troy Bodie even had a nice shorthanded goal. Colorado started to claw back and cut the deficit to 4-2, but Anaheim put the game away with a Ryan Getzlaf power-play goal to seal the 5-2 win.

Calgary was next up in a huge game at the Saddledome. Anaheim was able to tie the game up in the 2^nd period but a few minutes later Corey Perry’s costly turnover allowed Rene Bourque to come in alone and beat Jonas Hiller. Perry was none to please about it, nor should he be, as he took his frustrations out on his stick. Hagman scored later for the Flames and the Ducks just either didn’t shoot when they could or they just missed their chances. They had some that is for sure but they just couldn’t connect. Hiller has been pretty streaky in goal this season. Some games he makes some awesome saves, other games he just isn’t on and looks frustrated. That pretty much does it for Anaheim’s playoff chances. While they aren’t mathematically out, they pretty much are. A true shame with all that talent, Olympic talent, they just can’t get it together.

I hate that Marc-Andre Fluery and Jonathon Quick won medals even though they did absolutely nothing. Same can be said for Tim Thomas but at least he stepped onto the ice, even if it was in garbage time.

Russia was hugely disappointing but then again they did lose to a talented Canadian team in the tournament. BTW I did mention how Russia wouldn’t win because they were the favorites in my last column.

I feel bad for the USA in some respects as they went in to the goal medal game undefeated. But it is hard to beat any team twice in a tournament like this especially twice on the road, hats off to their accomplishments.

As for NHL thoughts, seriously watch out for Colorado and Chicago, though the Blackhawks do have that goalie problem. Both will be really tough outs come playoff time. San Jose is all smoke and mirrors they will find a way to bounce early again. Not sure what to make of the Los Angeles Kings yet. They have a lot of talent, but they have almost no playoff experience on the roster. Also one night they look like world beaters, the next night they don’t show up. I’m iffy about Vancouver still. The beasts of the East are Pittsburgh and Washington. Washington has the same problem as Chicago though, goaltending. New Jersey has all the talent necessary but they haven’t been able to pull it all together, they may be running out of time.

Goalie Spotlight

Brian Elliott – Ottawa Senators

One of the surprises this year has been the Ottawa Senators. Nobody expected them to do much of anything this year especially after they traded Dany Heatley. But here they are fighting Buffalo for the division crown. Consistency in net has not been Ottawa’s strong point over the years. Ray Emery had started the majority of the games in the 06-07 season, only to make way for Martin Gerber the next year, who gave way to Alex Auld next and finally this year it seems to be Brian Elliott.

Elliott was drafted in the 9^th round by Ottawa in the 2003 draft as the 291^st pick overall, or the next to last pick of the draft. Because of his extremely low drafting, not much was expected of him. He ended up playing for the University of Wisconsin-Madison after being drafted for four years. The first two years he was not the starter. In the 05-06 season Elliott became the starter and took full advantage of his opportunity. He was a finalist of the Hobey Baker Memorial Award, awarded to the men’s top collegiate hockey player, posting a 1.55GAA and eight shutouts. He also led the Badgers to the NCAA National Championship that year. After his stellar collegiate career, Elliott was signed by the Binghamton Senators of the AHL and played the end of their 06-07 season.

He was invited to the Ottawa Senators training camp but was reassigned to Binghamton. He was recalled by the Senators for one game only, which he won against the Thrashers. He played the whole season at Binghamton and the following 08-09 season. That would be his last season at Binghamton and he went out with a bang like in college. He was named AHL goalie of the month for December and he started in the AHL All-Star game. He finished up the 08-09 season in Ottawa starting 30 games. This season he has split time with Pascal Leclaire. However, Elliott has started more games than Leclaire and has posted better numbers. He also had a nine game undefeated streak in January and February.

Looking to make a playoff run, the Senators hope that Elliott continues to improve his game. They also hope that Elliott is the answer to their goalie of the future problem. At just 24 years old, Elliott could bring much needed stability to an always changing position for the Senators.

Fights of the Week

Special thanks to hockeyfights.com for making this section a little easier to do.

Erik Johnson vs. Jamie Benn

Johnson was holding his own until Benn just decks him.

Jared Boll vs. Brad Staubitz

Starts off slow but a pretty decent fight, Staubitz had the better punches.

Goats of the Week

Jonathon Quick – Los Angeles Kings

Silver medal winning Quick goes out to play a puck behind the boards and well I have no idea what he was trying to do. He weakly stops it with his badly positioned stick then it takes a funny bounce and J.P. Dumont scores an easy goal as the puck bounced to him.

Michael Ryder – Boston Bruins

In the final minute of overtime Ryder tries to get back on defense and slides to block the pass which he does, unfortunately he keeps sliding and takes out Tim Thomas leading to a wide open net and giving the Maple Leafs an easy win.

Things I like

1. Ryan Miller’s huge ovation in Pittsburgh, even bigger than Sidney Crosby’s. It’s nice when fans acknowledge accomplishments even when it wasn’t from someone on their team or in this case since it was for Team USA it kind of was.

2. The Phoenix Coyotes will to live and surprise everyone. Despite no one coming to games and not having an owner, the Coyotes will continue their quest for the cup. For the first time in forever the Coyotes were buyers at the trade deadline. They made seven deals at the deadline including picking up Wojtek Wolski for Peter Mueller (no relation) and Kevin Porter.

3. Speaking of Peter Mueller, he has so far flourished in his new home in Colorado, picking up four points in three games thus far. Sometimes a change of scenery does a player good and I definitely thought that would be the case in this situation. Colorado has an abundance of young talent, including top tier talent at the center position. Mueller makes for a better fit in Colorado than in Phoenix where he will also get more time to develop. So far he has flourished picking up 6 points in 4 games for the Avs.

4. The Florida Panther’s David Booth making his comeback with a Gordie Howe hat trick. Booth took on the man who knocked him out Mike Richards in a fight that was, well not much of a fight. Kudos to Booth for wanting a measure of revenge, as long as he has now moved on from it.

5. Sean Avery, of all people, mocking Maxine Talbot’s retaliation fighting. Was quite funny, if you haven’t seen it yet, and it even made Talbot laugh.

Things I don’t

1. After riding the pine during his Gold medal win Marc-Andre Fleury is what you might call rusty. He was supposed to start against the Sabres but showed up late to practice, hard to imagine, so his punishment was not starting. He did start the next game against the Rangers and gave up 4 goals on 12 shots, yikes. It will take awhile for Fleury to get back into the groove.

2. The Ducks losing their first 4 games back in true Ducks fashion. You can read about it in the last section if you like.

3. Marc Savard’s concussion by Matt Cooke’s elbow. Hits to the head are never good and while you’d like to ban them, accidents will still happen. The NHL should look into better helmets like the NFL is doing.

Stat Line of the Week

03/06/10 Colorado 7 vs. St. Louis 3

Former 1^st round pick in the 2006 draft, Chris Stewart is having a break out year. The game against St. Louis could be considered his break out game as he notched his first career hat trick. His final goal came on a penalty shot that he was awarded when Erik Johnson tripped him. He also added a helper on T.J. Galiardi’s goal. Watch out for this young and deep Avalanche team.

Did You Know?

The latest a Stanley Cup Finals has gone is till June 24^th in 1995. Of course that was the owners’ lockout year that cut the season short. The latest for a non-lockout threatened season would be June 19^th in 1999 and again in 2006. I for one, hope it never gets any later, as Hockey in July is quite absurd. June is already bad enough as it is.

Numbers, Numbers

1786 – Shots by the Avalanche last in the league

2211 – Shots by the Blackhawks first in the league

10.7 – Shooting percentage by the Avalanche, tied for 2^nd in the league

7.5 – Shooting percentage of the Bruins, last in the league

This Week in Hockey History

Special thanks to the Hockey Hall of Fame site for making this section a little easier to do.

March 04, 1991 Pittsburgh Penguins acquired Ron Francis, Grant Jennings and Ulf Samuelsson from the Hartford Whalers in trade for John Cullen, Jeff Parker and Zarley Zalapski.

March 05, 1953 Gordie Howe scored twice and added three assists to lead the Red Wings to a 7-1 win against the Rangers, at the Olympia. With the five points Howe broke his own NHL record for most points for a single season (86).

March 06, 1993 Playing in his final NHL game, Jets’ veteran defenseman Randy Carlyle scored the only goal of his 17th NHL season to get his 500th career point. It came in a 4-2 Winnipeg loss at Toronto, where Carlyle’s career had begun in 1976.

March 07, 2002 Teemu Selanne scored his 400th career NHL goal in the Sharks 5-2 win against the visiting Ottawa Senators. It was also San Jose’s 300th victory in franchise history.

March 08, 1997 Mario Lemieux picked up an assist to become the first player to get 100 points in the 1996-97 season, as the Penguins won 3-2 in overtime over the visiting Philadelphia Flyers. It was the 10th 100-point season of Lemieux’s NHL career.

March 09, 1990 NHL President John A. Ziegler Jr. terminated the suspension of Detroit Red Wings player Bob Probert after Probert served one year without pay of his combined expulsion and suspension.

Rankings

The rankings are based on how the teams are currently playing.

Top 5

1. Carolina, yes really
2. Vancouver
3. Philadelphia
4. Pittsburgh
5. Washington

Bottom 5

30. Edmonton
29. NY Islanders
28. Florida
27. New Jersey
26. Buffalo

Anaheim Ducks Watch

So the Ducks traded Ryan Whitney to the Oilers for Lubomir Visnovsky. This is funny because I remembered when Whitney was acquired and how it was a huge deal that they got a young defenseman of the future to eventually replace Scott Niedermayer and Chris Pronger. They also gave up Chris Kunitz who is a fairly decent goal scorer, let’s not forget. One season worth of games later and Whitney is history. The timing is even more hilarious because Whitney just won a Silver medal. All in all not a bad move by the Ducks because Whitney didn’t really pan out like they had hoped and Visnovsky is a decent player. I’m glad they didn’t trade Wisniewski and I hope the resign the Wiz when the season is out. Backup goalie Justin Pogge was also dealt. You might remember Pogge best for being called up and sent back every time Giguere was injured and right after he was traded. He basically sat on the bench and never played, you will be missed Pogge. In other news I am so happy they got rid of Nokelainen. A 6^th round pick was probably the best they could do.

So you’d think that a team boasting 7 Olympic medal winning players, 6 now without Whitney though if this was last year they would have had 8 with Pronger, could win some games and make the playoffs. Of course if you’re the Ducks that’s a huge challenge. The Ducks first opponent back from the break was Colorado. The Ducks also had an eleven game winning streak at home going, but not anymore as they fell 4-3. Jason Blake had a nice powerplay goal to give the Ducks a 1-0 lead. Selanne made it 2-0 with goal number 598. This goal was special because Selanne was about a mile offsides, with someone else I think it was Koivu, but the linesman said everyone was fine, umm okay. Then came the case of the stupids. Bad penalties and bad defense gave the Avalanche the opportunity to tie up the game and then take a 4-2 lead. The Ducks crept with in one on a four minute powerplay. Right before the third goal and afterwards they had numerous chances to get another goal. Ryan had a nifty move that missed somehow, Getzlaf had a wide open net that he some how missed and then he later fumbled a pass when he was wide open in front of the net. Truly they are Olympic heroes… not. I think some others also botched some chances. Either way tough loss to swallow considering that A) they were hot going into the break B) they had a 2-0 lead C) you’d figure they have some Olympic momentum with all those medals D) there home streak was snapped and E) everyone else that needed to lose did and they could have been just one point shy of the 8^th and final playoff spot. Seriously Anaheim wake up! Kudos though to the recently recalled Dan Sexton who was everywhere on the ice and he should be on the Ducks for good now.

Next up was Phoenix who the Ducks seem to have a problem with, I have no idea why. The Ducks lost 4-0 in a game I couldn’t watch and therefore didn’t. Just as well, as I think I would have hurled. I have nothing else to add to that game.

Next up was Montreal and I got to watch the game online in French, Oui oui! The Ducks clearly listened to my tweet as they jumped out to a 3-0 lead. Hiller had a stretch of awesome saves in the 3^rd. The Canadiens got within one goal, or but, and Bobby Ryan had a chance to ice the game with an empty-netter but he misses by about six inches. He should have made it because A) he was past the blue line B) no one was on him and C) wouldn’t you know it the Canadiens manage to tie it up a few seconds later, ugh. Corey Perry, in true Perry fashion, punches a celebrating Markov right in the face, funny but also dumb. Luckily it didn’t end up a powerplay for the Canadiens. I think the last 30 seconds of the game sums up the Ducks season quite well. But wait Duck fans, it only gets better from here! With a 1-0 lead in the shutout in the third round all Hiller needs to do is stop Montreal and they win. He stops the shot but of course he doesn’t know where the puck is and he starts sliding back and moves his arm and the pucks falls off from his arm, or wherever it was, into the net, prompting a big you have got to be kidding me. The Ducks promptly lose in the next round. I really don’t know what to make of these last three games; I’m at a loss for words. I’m also starting to lose hope that they will make the playoffs, if there ever was hope to begin with.

Next up was Columbus and I just can’t bring myself to recap it. The Ducks lost 5-2, they suck and that’s all there is to it. No I will recap it a little the Ducks found themselves down 3-0, Hiller was pulled and things looked bleak. I still watched and the Ducks cut it to a 3-2 lead and I was into it again. A couple of dumb penalties by the Ducks, what else, late in the game sealed the victory for Columbus. Even though they lost 5-2 it wasn’t as thought Columbus played that much better. The Ducks out shot the Blue Jackets 38 to 20 and had way better scoring chances. Mathieu Garon was just on for the Blue Jackets with some amazing saves.

Well I generally document Anaheim’s problems on a weekly basis. I will sum it up with injuries, not being able to win key face-offs, dumb penalties, inconsistent goalie play, poor penalty killing and not clearing the zone when they have the opportunity. Selanne, Giguere, Koivu, Wisniewski, and Lupul have all been injured. Various other minor players have also been bitten by the injury bug. Lately they have been blowing 3^rd period leads which happened in a stretch of three games in a row. They are 2^nd in the league in giving up the most goals in the 3^rd period. They need to have that killer instinct and shut teams out in the 3^rd period when they have a lead. One bright spot for the Ducks is their power play. After struggling in the beginning of the year, they now have the 3^rd best power play in the league. The Ducks need to start doing the little things better and get everyone back healthy and playing consistently.

Philadelphia had high expectations after being bounced in the playoffs two years in a row by the Penguins. Chris Pronger in the eyes of the Flyers was that missing piece to get in the way of Crosby and Malkin and they gave up a lot to get him. Pronger has played well though. His +/- is near the top of the league and his scoring pace is higher than his previous two seasons. So we can’t blame Pronger. Mike Richards and Jeff Carter are on the same pace for points this year as they were last year. They did lose Joffrey Lupul and his 25 goals a year but Danny Briere is healthy this year and picking up that slack. So what’s the problem? Well I haven’t watched all that many Flyers games, so I can’t say with certainty. Having Simon Gagne, and his 30+ goals, injured for much of the year hasn’t helped the Flyers. Ray Emery’s numbers are worse than the man he replaced, Martin Biron. In the most recent game against the Canadiens Brian Boucher, subbing for Emery, gave up 3 goals on 13 shots, yikes. So goaltending which has generally been the Flyers Achilles’ heel is still a problem. The penalty killing could be improved as well.

Carolina has the honor of having the worst record in the league. They also went 14 games without a win in one stretch, ouch. Starting goalie Cam Ward has been out for a month so far. Neither of his backups are performing well. In fact the Hurricanes have the worst SV% and the 2^nd worst GAA. Eric Staal has really struggled this year and is just recently starting to play better. Veteran Rob Brind’Amour is also struggling. Carolina’s powerplay is 2^nd to last, which is never a good sign. The Hurricanes are also tied for 2^nd with the Ducks in giving up the most goals in the 3^rd period. Hmm… let’s see, bad powerplay, check, struggling 1^st line, check, starting goalie injured, check, giving up tons of 3^rd period goals, check. It’s hard to win games when those things are happening. On the bright side the Canes have won 2 in a row, although they have done that two other times this year only to go on losing streaks again. They should be getting back Cam Ward this week, which should help the Hurricanes immensely. Of course Ward will need to work off his rust.

All these teams have the talent to make a run for the playoffs. The season is only a third of the way done, so there is still plenty of time to turn it around. However if things don’t start to improve expect changes to be made. Whether it’s dealing some players, or following the Flyers lead and making a coaching change, shakeups will occur. Expectations for these teams are too high this year to sit around and be content with being in last place.

Goalie Spotlight

Miikka Kiprusoff – Calgary Flames

Kiprusoff is a Finland native and was selected in the 5^th round by the San Jose Sharks in the 1995 entry draft. Before joining the Sharks in 2000, Kiprusoff was already an established international star. Kiprusoff led TPS in the Finnish league SM-liiga to gold in 1995 and 1999. He won the Urpo Ylönen trophy, for best goalie, in 1999 a year after fellow NHLer Tim Thomas (Goalie Spotlight Week 7) won it. His numbers in the postseason that year were a 9-1 record, 3 shutouts, and a 1.55 GAA. He also led Finland to silver placing finishes in the 1999 and 2001 World Championships and in the 2004 World Cup of Hockey.

Kiprusoff moved to North America in 1999 and played for the Kentucky Thoroughblades in the AHL, and made the All-star team his first year. He played briefly for the Sharks during the 00 to 03 seasons. In the 2001 playoff series against the Blues, Kiprusoff became the 1^st Finnish goaltender to win a playoff game. Having lost the starting goalie spot to Evgeni Nabokov, the Sharks traded him to the Flames in 2003 for a 2^nd round pick.

Rejuvenated by the trade to the Flames, Kiprusoff was named defensive player of the month for December of 03. Despite battling injuries he led the Flames to the postseason for the first time in eight years. He also led the league in GAA with a 1.69 mark, setting the tone for a stellar career with the Flames. This was the lowest GAA in the modern era and 24^th best all time. He went on to lead the Flames to the Stanley Cup Finals, including beating his former team along the way, against the Tampa Bay Lightning where they lost a close series in 7 games. The year after the lockout, Kiprusoff won the Vezina (best goalie) and Jennings (lowest team GAA) trophy. He set the record for most wins for a Flames goalie with 42 and then broke it himself 3 years later with 45 wins. Other Flame franchise records he holds include: Most shutouts in one season (10), most shutouts all time (30) and most games played in a season (76).

Despite losing in the 1^st round the past 4 years, the Flames look poised to go deep in the playoffs this year. With Kiprusoff, captain Jarome Iginla, and new additions from last year Olli Jokinen (fellow Finlander) and this year Jay Bouwmeester the Flames have a great core. Off to a great start this year the Flames hope it can land the Stanley Cup in Canada for the first time since the Canadiens brought it home in the 1992-93 season.

Fights of the Week

Special thanks to hockeyfights.com for making this section a little easier to do.

Didn’t like that many fights this week and I’m strapped for time.

Matt Bradley vs. Daniel Carcillo

Technically not a fight as Bradley didn’t get any penalty minutes. Carcillo punches Bradley right as he drops his gloves. Carcillo racked up 29 minutes in penalties with the check and fight.

Brian McGrattan vs Raitis Ivanans

The 5^th bout between these two, dating back to their AHL playing days, had some slow moments, but still pretty decent.

Goat of the Week

Brian Elliott – Ottawa Senators

Brian Elliott for giving up this fluke goal off the glass to Ryan Getzlaf, you might want to position yourself better Brian. No harm done as the Senators won in the shootout.

Things I like

1. Happy Birthday to the Montreal Canadiens who had their 100^th anniversary on Dec. 4^th. I’m sure their fans would like their most recent teams to rival their past success but you can’t have everything.

2. People say that the Sharks have the best line, but they would be wrong. The Devils actually have the best line. Zach Parise, Travis Zajac, and Jamie Langenbrunner (when he’s on the line) have a combined +/- of +43, tops in the league for a forward line.

3. Alex Ovechkin says he won’t change his style of play. Good for him I say, he only knows how to play one way and he isn’t going to change that. He plays with passion and I really don’t find his style that reckless.

4. The Carolina Hurricanes got their first road win of the season against the defending Stanley Cup champs of all teams, extracting some revenge from last years playoff sweep.

Things I don’t

1. Teemu Selanne is injured for about 4-6 weeks in what could very well be his last season. This is a huge blow to an already injured and struggling Ducks team. It will also affect how high Selanne can climb on numerous scoring records. Here’s hoping he doesn’t call it quits after this year.

2. Keith Ballard, a.k.a goalie annihilator, has taken his next victim in Craig Anderson. Ballard knocked Anderson out of the game when he slid towards the net and sent Anderson’s head to the goal post, at least he didn’t send him to the hospital though he is still day to day. Maybe Ballard was tormented by goalies as a kid. If you’re keeping track at home that’s two starting goalies down and 28 to go for Ballard.

3. Hard to imagine but the Pittsburgh Penguins’ power play is 28^th overall, yikes. With all the talented scorers on that team you figured they could find the net more.

Stat Line of the Week

12/03/09  Capitals 6 vs. Panthers 2

Mr. Duco racked up 27 minutes of penalty minutes on four penalties on one play against Alexandre Giroux and was ejected from the game. He was getting Giroux back for the elbow he laid on Dmitry Kulikov. Personally I didn’t find Giroux’s hit all that bad. Lesson to be learned don’t mess with the Duco. You can see both hits below.

12/05/09  Capitals 8 vs. Flyers 2

The Capitals Swede racked up 5 points, 3 assists on the powerplay, against the Flyers. Ovechkin who?

Box Score of the Week

This won’t be a regular feature, I just thought it was too interesting to pass up. In the Flyers vs. Islanders game, if you look below, 4 players each scored 2 goals back to back without anyone else scoring in between. If they had scored 3 goals each that would have been 4 natural hat tricks in a row. I have no way to look it up but I’m pretty sure the below has never happened before.

1st Period

Philadelphia  9:47, Mike Richards 12 (power play) (Kimmo Timonen, Scott Hartnell)

Philadelphia  15:14, Mike Richards 13 (shorthanded) (unassisted)

2nd Period

Philadelphia  4:21, Jeff Carter 10 (power play) (Danny Briere, Matt Carle)

Philadelphia  7:04, Jeff Carter 11 (Danny Briere, Kimmo Timonen)

NY Islanders 10:52, John Tavares 12 (power play) (Jeff Tambellini, Kyle Okposo)

NY Islanders 14:55, John Tavares 13 (power play) (Matt Moulson, Kyle Okposo)

Philadelphia  17:29, Claude Giroux 4 (power play) (Mike Richards, Chris Pronger)

3rd Period

Philadelphia  2:35, Claude Giroux 5 (Scott Hartnell)

Did You Know?

Speaking of penalty minutes Randy Holt holds the record for most penalty minutes in one game with 67 set in 1979. He also has the record for most penalty minutes in a period since he got all 67 of those in the 1^st period in a game against the Flyers. 45 minutes came on a bench clearing brawl at the end of the period instigated by Holt. He doesn’t hold the record for most penalty minutes for a season though. That record goes to Dave Schultz with 472 penalty minutes set in the 1974-75 season.

Numbers, Numbers

0 – Number of overtime losses for Vancouver.

14 – Number of goals scored by the Capitals in the 2 games Ovechkin was suspended.

103 – Career shutouts for Martin Brodeur tying Terry Sawchuck’s NHL record.

15 – Career shutouts by Ryan Miller who was in the other goal when Brodeur tied the record.

13 – Anze Kopitar’s goalless game streak

This Week in Hockey History

Special thanks to the Hockey Hall of Fame site for making this section a little easier to do.

December 03, 1999 Ottawa’s Kevin Dineen picked up a misconduct penalty to become the fifth player in league history to get 300 goals and 2,000 penalty minutes in his NHL career. The milestone came during a 7-4 Senators loss at New Jersey.

December 04, 2001 Peter Bondra scored his 400th and 401st NHL goals to become the 5th active player to score 400 goals with one team in the Capitals 5-2 win against the visiting New York Rangers.

December 05, 1988 Detroit’s Steve Yzerman set a new team record with a goal in his ninth straight game, a 7-2 Red Wings’ loss at Montreal. Yzerman broke the team record of goals in eight straight games set by Gordie Howe in 1952.

December 06, 1995 Colorado Avalanche obtained goaltender Patrick Roy and Mike Keane from the Montreal Canadiens, in exchange for Andrei Kovalenko, Martin Rucinsky and goalie Jocelyn Thibault.

December 07, 1977 New England Whalers’ Gordie Howe scored his 1,000th professional goal (counting the NHL and WHA) in a WHA Whalers’ game against Birmingham.

December 08, 1999 Pavel Bure scored his 12th career hat trick in the third period to lead the Panthers to a 6-1 win at Phoenix. Panthers set a team record with five goals in the final period, as Mikhail Shtalenkov won in his first start with Florida.

December 08, 1967 Two months into their first NHL season, the “California” Seals officially changed their name to the “Oakland” Seals.

Rankings

The rankings are based on how the teams are currently playing.

Top 5

1. Washington
2. Chicago
3. Phoenix
4. Boston
5. Minnesota

Bottom 5

30. Philadelphia
29. Columbus
28. Tampa Bay
27. Florida
26. NY Rangers

Anaheim Ducks Watch

The Ducks suck, there I’m done. Anyway the Ducks were leading 1-0 against the Stars when they let the Stars score 3 unanswered goals in the 3^rd including an empty netter. It was a tough loss for the Ducks who played a good game. To make matters worse Selanne broke his hand in a game he almost sat out because of the flu. Corey Perry’s point streak also came to an end; I think I may have jinxed him. Then there next game against Minnesota taking a 2-1 lead into the 3^rd the Ducks were able to make it 4-2. Then they gave up two goals in the final 5 minutes to force overtime, which they of course lost in the shootout. Against Ottawa the Ducks decided to lose differently. They never led in the game and every time the Senators would score, they would tie it within a minute. They then lost in the shootout again.

Next up was the Dallas Stars, again, and the Ducks started off the game in typical Ducks fashion slow. The Stars were up 3-0 before you knew it and it seemed like another loss. But then Joffrey Lupul, who has been on fire since coming back from his injury, scored when Turco made the save on the breakaway but couldn’t put on the breaks as he slid behind the goaline. In the 3^rd period instead of sucking as usual, the Ducks dominated the Stars outshooting them 14 to 2 and recently called up rookie Dan Sexton scored 2 goals to force overtime. In the overtime the Ducks continued to dominate and Saku Koivu scored on a 3 on 1 breakaway. All in all a very entertaining game and the Ducks scored 4 unanswered goals, which hopefully gives them something to build upon.

NHL Point Standings System – It sucks. In all seriousness I think it’s a joke you get a point for losing. Why reward failure? You lost? Here have a point. I like the old way where if you lose in overtime you get nothing, if you win you get two points and if you tie you each get a point. Somewhere along the line the NHL decided it didn’t want ties. That kind of makes sense because no one comes to any sporting event to watch a tie game. However football has ties, though it mostly never happens. Of course football doesn’t have 5 minute overtimes they go the full 15 minutes of a quarter. Not sure why the NHL shortened its overtime to 5 minutes. I mean you would get a lot less ties if you let the game go another period worth of time. It would be more exciting too. The shootouts are an exciting way to break the tie. It’s just a bit unorthodox to end a team game in a 1 on 1 situation. I mean what if after one overtime, the NBA went to a 1 on 1 between their best players? I’m just glad the playoffs don’t have shootouts as the multiple overtimes provide some of the most thrilling games. I’ll never forget the 4 overtime classic between the San Jose Sharks and the Dallas Stars in 2008. If they want to keep it as it is, then award no points for overtime or shutout losses. You could also award no points for an overtime loss but a shootout loss could be worth one point since that is a different format.

But the way I see it the NHL has 9 possible options for games that are tied after regulation:

A)    Keep it the way it is (5 min. OT with shootout same point system)

B)    Keep it the way it is but no points for any loss

C)    Keep it the way it is but only one point for shootout loss

D)    Go back to the old way (tie after overtime, no points for loss, no shootout)

E)    Change the OT to 20 min., ties, no shootout, no points if you lose in OT

F)     Change the OT to 20 min., ties, no shootout, one point if you lose in OT

G)    Change the OT to 20 min., shootout if still tied no points for loss

H)    Change the OT to 20 min., shootout if still tied, one point for either loss

I)     Change the OT to 20 min., shootout if still tied only point for shootout loss

Now these are all the possibilities, I may have missed one; I’m not really in favor of most of them, since we are trying to eliminate points for losing. I understand the NHL wants to award 1 point for something just to make it more interesting. My personal choice is the last one, I. It would give the game a chance to end more likely in a non shootout. But it would still have the shootout if necessary since it’s exciting. You don’t reward failure in the overtime but you do in the shootout. However at the point the losing team has played a strong hockey game and I don’t really believe the shootout is part of a game, it’s more like a supplement to a game.

Goalie Spotlight

Evgeni Nabokov – San Jose Sharks

Evgeni Nabokov was born in Russia but where he was born has since become Kazakhstan, the place made famous by the Borat movie. As such he has played internationally for both nations, something that normally doesn’t happen. He has also been the main cog in goal for the Sharks during their prosperous and at the same time under achieving decade.

Nabokov was taken in the 9^th round in 1994 by the Sharks. He was mostly drafted because of the highly successful and long career his father, Viktor Nabokov, had in Russia. In 1997 he made his way stateside to play for the Kentucky Thoroughblades and the Cleveland Lumberjacks in the AHL and IHL. After successful seasons there, he was called up in 2000 to play with the Sharks. In the first start of his career he dueled with Patrick Roy to a 0-0 tie. Not bad for your first start, something I’m sure he will never forget.

In the 00-01 season when starting goalie Steve Shields went down with an injury, most thought Miikka Kiprusoff would get the starting nod. The Sharks highly regarded Kiprusoff but decided he needed more seasoning in the AHL so they gave the nod to Nabokov, and they never looked back. Nabokov posted impressive numbers and won the Calder Trophy, for rookie of the year, and made the All-Star game in 2001. Ironically Nabokov and Kiprusoff, Calgary Flames, are now foes in the western conference and the playoffs. They have each won a playoff series against each other (Nabokov in 08, Kiprusoff in 04).

Since Nabokov has been the Sharks starter he has amassed many of the Sharks franchise goalie records and a few more all-star appearances. Though he did have a down year in the 05-06 season and was regulated to a backup role for a bit. He was also the first goaltender to score a power play goal in 2002. In 2008 he won gold with Russia in the IIHF World Championships and was named the best goalkeeper of the tournament.

Nabokov and the Sharks would like to add a Stanley Cup to their resumes, which has proven to be quite hard the past few years. Nabokov numbers in the playoffs have been fairly consistent with his regular season numbers. If anything it has been the Sharks offense that has sputtered come playoff time. Particularly heartbreaking for the Sharks was losing 3 of 4 overtime games to the Stars in the second round of the 2008 playoffs. Including the 4OT thriller I mentioned above. Nabokov is off to another fine start this year, as are the Sharks. Hopefully it will translate into a better postseason success this time around in an extremely tough western conference.

Fights of the Week

Special thanks to hockeyfights.com for making this section a little easier to do.

Craig Rivet vs. Daniel Carcillo

This fight is nominated because these two fought about 8 minutes earlier and they wanted to fight some more even before the face-off and the refs moved them away from each other. After the puck was dropped they went straight for each other. Bonus points for the enthusiastic announcing.

Cam Janssen vs. Krys Barch

This fight is made better by the soundtrack. Seriously who picked the PA music for the fight?

Goat of the Week

Keith Ballard, see up top. He can win Goat of the Year.

Things I like

1. Teemu Selanne on the power play is gold. Teemu had 2 more goals on the power play against the Blackhawks. He now needs just 2 more to tie Joe Nieuwendyk for 10^th place on the all-time list.

2. Zach Parise continues to provide solid results, yet stay relatively under the radar. The 5^th leading scorer last year Parise continues to lead the Devils in points and goals this year. He also has a +19 for the year, tops in the league. He could work on his shooting percentage though.

3. Cristobal Huet (Goalie Spotlight in Week 3) had won 7 straight games for the Blackhawks until his streak was snapped by the Ducks. It’s a nice turnaround for the always under pressure Huet who lost his starting job last year and didn’t play all that well at the beginning of the year. He and Antti Niemi have formed a nice tandem for the rising Blackhawks.

4. Marian Hossa, or Maid Marian as he likes to be called, scored two goals (one shorthanded) in his debut against the Sharks. Not a bad way to work off the ring rust. I’m betting the Blackhawks hope he doesn’t bring his Stanley Cup curse with him.

Things I don’t

1. Is it me or is it cold in here? No wait that’s just Anze Kopitar. The former NHL leading scorer has only 3 assists in the past 9 games. “Kope” also has an appalling -6 in that span. Losing Ryan Smyth obviously didn’t help but superstars find a way to raise their game. In a related note your off my fantasy team “Kope”.

2. Craig Anderson has really begun to cool, after his hot start helped propel the Colorado Avalanche. Anderson has only won 2 out of his last 9 starts. His GAA is 3.75 and his SV% is about .879 during that span. As he goes so do the Avalanche as Peter Budaj is not considered much of an option. The Avalanche might want to give him a breather though as he has played the most games of any goalie in the league. Even Martin Brodeur has had more nights off. Of course Anderson shut me up with his shutout against the Lightning on Monday night.

3. Ales Hemsky is gone for the year, a really tough break for an already slumping Edmonton Oilers team.

4. Phoenix is still dead last in attendance by a mile. I realize the future of the team is hazy but, regardless if they go elsewhere at the end of the year, management can’t take away the enjoyment you had when you went to the game.

Did You Know?

I’ll try something new this week and see how long it lasts. Hopefully this will last longer than tweet of the week did.

Bobby Orr has the single season record for +/- at +124. He is however second on the all time +/- career list to Larry Robinson who had +730 to his +597. Nicklas Lidstrom is the only active player in the top 70. His mark sits at +414 as of this writing.

Double did you know if you read this week in hockey history. You will find out Mario Lemieux has a brother, I sure didn’t know that.

Stat Line of the Week

Another new one

11/28/09 Penguins 8 vs. Rangers 3

Nice line for Sidney Crosby who recorded his 4th career hat trick. Not sure why the Rangers left Stephen Valiquette in for all 8 goals. I know they wanted to give Henrik Lundqvist the night off, but it seems a bit much.

Numbers, Numbers

19 – Corey Perry’s current point streak, an Anaheim Ducks franchise record.

28 – The number of chances the Carolina Hurricanes have left to get their first road win.

2 – Number of game Alex Ovechkin was suspended for his knee hit

5 – Number of game Georges Laraque was suspended for his knee hit

0 – Number of games Keith Ballard was suspended for whacking his own goalie and sending him to the hospital

This Week in Hockey History

Special thanks to the Hockey Hall of Fame site for making this section a little easier to do.

November 26, 1983 Edmonton’s Wayne Gretzky began an NHL-record 17 consecutive game assist streak, at St. Louis. It came in the midst of his NHL record 51-game point scoring streak (during which he scored 153 points). Oilers lost 8-6 to Blues.

November 26, 1999 Jaromir Jagr scored a natural hat trick (the 5th of his career) in a 7:01 span of the first period and added an assist for his 900th career point, and Tom Barrasso recorded his 35th career shutout in the Penguins 5-0 win against visiting Ottawa.

November 27, 1943 Montreal beat the visiting NY Rangers 6-3 to extend the Rangers losing streak to 11 games since the start of the 1943-44 season, the worst start to an NHL season by any team in league history. Rangers ended the streak with a tie the next night.

November 27, 1997 Michel Petit became the first player in NHL history to play for 10 different teams, when he made his first appearance with the Phoenix Coyotes in a 4-1 loss to Dallas.

November 27, 1984 Alain Lemieux (Mario’s brother) scored his first career hat trick to lead the Blues to a 6-1 win at Vancouver. Lemieux played 119 NHL games with the Blues, Quebec Nordiques & Penguins, and scored 28 goals and 44 assists.

November 27, 1969 Detroit’s Gordie Howe became the first player in NHL history to score 1,700 career points, when he picked up two assists in a 5-1 win against Los Angeles. Howe reached 1,700 points in 1,567 NHL games.

November 28, 1982 Ron Sutter made NHL history when he played in his first game, with the Flyers. It was the first time in league history that five brothers from the same family all played in the NHL. The Flyers tied the Canucks, 5-5 at Vancouver.

November 29, 2003 Chris Chelios became the 11th NHL defenseman to score 900 career points, when he picked up an assist as the Red Wings beat the Blues, 2-1 in St. Louis.

November 30, 1977 Phil Esposito scored a hat trick and Wayne Thomas had his 7th career shutout, as the Rangers won 4-0 at St. Louis. The three goals gave Esposito 605 in his career, one more than Bobby Hull, and second most in NHL history (behind Gordie Howe).

December 01, 1997 Montreal Canadiens became the first team in history to play 5,000 NHL games, when they took on the Pittsburgh Penguins, in a 1-0 loss, in Montreal. The loss gave the Canadiens a record of 2,625 wins, 1,603 losses and 772 ties since 1917.

Rankings

The rankings are based on how the teams are currently playing.

Top 5

1. Chicago
2. Nashville
3. Atlanta
4. New Jersey
5. Pittsburgh

Bottom 5

30. Carolina
29. NY Rangers
28. Toronto
27. Edmonton
26. Colorado

Anaheim Ducks Watch

The Ducks played the Hurricanes on 11/25.They were able to beat them in regulation, though they sure found a way to make it suspenseful. After Teemu Selanne scored with about 90 seconds left to make it a 3-1 game you figured it was basically over. But then Carolina scores with 60 seconds left. You could hear the crowd deflate in Anaheim after that. But the Ducks hung on to win. Next was a tough game against the Chicago Blackhawks who just soundly gave the Sharks a thumping. But much to everyone’s surprise, the Ducks shut out the Blackhawks and their loaded top lines with a 3-0 win. Giguere was great in getting his first shutout of the season.

Next up was Phoenix who the Ducks seem to have problems with. Regulation was not enough to decide a winner and neither was OT so the game went into a shootout. The Ducks lost the shootout and have now lost 3 shootouts in a row to Phoenix. Including the shootout last year where if they would have won, they would have been the 6^th seed instead they dropped to the 8^th seed.

Next up was round 1 of the freeway series against the cross town rival Los Angeles Kings. I have to say that Evgeny Artyukhin takes some of the dumbest penalties around. In this game he took three offensive zone penalties. This is also not his first game taking bad penalties. I have no idea why Teemu Selanne requested him on his line. The Ducks lost the game 4-3 when the Kings scored the game winner in the final 2 minutes. A really tough game to lose for the Ducks, as they played really well for the most part. I also have to say this was one of the most exciting games so far, the scoring chances on both sides were quite exciting. Corey Perry kept his streak alive with a goal and an assist.

San Jose Sharks Dany Heatley, Joe Thornton, and Patrick Marleau:   The Sharks made fantasy owners feel like they’re in heaven by putting all their top guns on the same line. 

This line has lived up to the hype as they have contributed 20 points in the month of November.  Heatley, in his first season in San Jose, has fit in nicely with team high 18 goals, Joe Thornton leads the NHL in assists with 30 and Patrick Marelau is playing for a contract with 17 goals and 31 points in first 28 games.

Anaheim Ducks Ryan Getzlaf, Corey Perry, and Bobby Ryan:   Another west coast team putting all of their eggs in one basket.  Even though the team has been struggling for wins, this line has not been struggling to contribute to fantasy teams. 

Corey Perry is in the midst of a franchise best 18-game point streak.  Bobby Ryan had 7 goals in the month of November and Getzlaf has been an assist machine with 23 assists in 25 games.  This line was the hottest line in November contributing 35 points in the month.

Washington Capitals Alex Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom, Alexander Semin:   I know Semin is hurt right now and that is not helping fantasy owners right now, but put these dynamic players together and fantasy nirvana happens.  I also know that any line that has the league’s top goal scorer will make the other line mates instant scorers, just ask the fill-in guy Chris Clark.  Bruce Bourdreau has bought into the philosophy of having his superstars all play together and they have contributed 20 points together this season.

Pickup of the Week: Tomas Plekanec  Canadiens C:
The Canadiens have been hit with the injury bug, one player taken advantage of the increase playing time is center Tomas Plekanec.  The 27-yer-old center has filled in for Scott Gomez on the top line and has 14 points (3G, 11A) in his last 13 games including chipping in 3 power play points. 

The Czech forward has been a steady producer with three straight 20 goals he has even been a career plus player (+28).  Although Scott Gomez has returned to practice and seems ready to play and will hurt Plekanec power play time, I don’t think it will hurt his production for he was producing with second line minutes before the injury.

O San Jose – As we just pass the quarter mark in the NHL and we look at the standings, who has the best record in the NHL? None other than the San Jose Sharks. Of course the Sharks finished with the top overall record last year and ended up being bounced in the 1^st round. Now we still have a good chunk of the season left but if I was this team I don’t think I would want to finish with the best record in the league or even the 2^nd or 3^rd best. This team has had really high expectations the last few years and this past year was their biggest. They have not gotten past the 2^nd round since the 03-04 season and I think the lower they fly on the radar, going into the playoffs, the better. Would I really suggest tanking games in the Shark Tank? Yes I would. Current honors held by the Sharks this season including no losses at home and tied for the most goals scored with Washington (though Washington has played one less game). They also have three players in the top 7 for points (see things I like below). The Heatley acquisition has worked out well for them this year. Question is come playoff time will they advance further? Last year the West was pretty tough but this year it has gotten even tougher. Depending on how the rest of the season goes they could even possibly play Detroit in the 1^st round, which you know will not be an easy round. Time will tell how well the Sharks play in the postseason as it’s never easy to predict postseason success, especially when it comes to this team.

Goalie Spotlight

No goalie spotlight due to the holidays this week, it’ll be back next week.

Fights of the Week

Jared Boll vs. Aaron Voros

Decent back and forth fight. Watch them nearly trip over the goalpost and Lundqvist bolt out of the way.

Eric Godard vs. Chris Neil

There were some good slugs by both men, fairly entertaining.

Nate Thompson vs. Nathan Smith

Okay fight if you can get past the fugly uniforms, a lot of spinning in this one too.

Trickshot of the Week

David Perron for his neato stickhandle between the legs goal against the Islanders.

Things I like

1. Well up to Monday night’s games three of the top 5 point scorers were on the Sharks. That’s impressive anyway you slice it. The last time we had three teammates in the top 5? The 00-01 season, the Pittsburgh Penguins had Jaromir Jagr 1^st with 121 pts. and Alexei Kovalev and Martin Straka tied for 4^th with 95 pts.

2. Don’t look now but Nashville has won 6 in a row. What you didn’t notice? Well neither did I, until I looked it up. Despite the winning streak they are only tied for 7^th place in the conference. It’s a mighty tough year out west this season.

3. Don’t look now again but the Panthers have strung together a nice winning streak. You probably didn’t notice since they were so far down in the bottom. Alas they are still pretty much down at the bottom despite going 5-0-2.

4. Corey Perry’s 15 game point streak, keep it coming since he is on my fantasy team.

Things I don’t

1. Well I hate to say I told you so but the Rangers have now fallen out of the top 8 spots in the conference, after spending a good portion on top. Of course it’s still really early. But all things considered, I don’t think they have skilled enough players to make the playoffs.

2. Georges Laraque’s hit on Niklas Kronwall, play the puck George not the knee.

This Week in Hockey History

Special thanks to the Hockey Hall of Fame site for making this section a little easier to do.

November 19, 1929    Pittsburgh’s Johnny McKinnon and Toronto’s Hap Day each set a new NHL record for goals in a game by a defenseman. They had four each as Pittsburgh beat Toronto 10-5. The current record of 5 goals is held by Ian Turnbull. Day also had an assist.

November 20, 1999    Washington Capitals set an NHL record by going 12 consecutive games without allowing a power-play goal, in a 3-0 win at Boston. Craig Billington recorded his 100th career victory (and 8th career shutout).

November 20, 1999    Steve Yzerman picked up an assist to become the 7th NHL player to reach 1,500 career points. The milestone came in the Red Wings 2-1 loss at Edmonton. Yzerman joined Gordie Howe as the only NHL players to score 1,500 points with one team.

November 22, 1972    Penguins set an NHL record with five goals in a span of 2:07 during a 10-4 win over the Blues, in Pittsburgh. Scoring were Bryan Hextall, Jean Pronovost, Al McDonough, Ken Schinkel & Ron Schock, on goalie Wayne Stephenson.

November 22, 1967    34-year-old Scotty Bowman was named as the new head coach of the St. Louis Blues, replacing Lynn Patrick, who resigned. It was Bowman’s first head coaching job in the NHL. He lost in his debut behind the bench that same night, 3-1 to Montreal.

November 22, 1986    Wayne Gretzky scored his 39th career hat trick and added two assists, to give him 500 career NHL goals. The milestone came in a 5-2 Oilers’ win over the Canucks in Edmonton. Gretzky’s 500 goals came in just 575 games.

November 22, 1985    Gil Perreault scored three goals (in a span of 4:01 in the third period) as the Sabres beat the Quebec Nordiques 7-5. It was the 18th (and final) hat trick of Perreault’s NHL career.

November 23, 1991    Boston’s Ray Bourque became the fourth defenseman in NHL history to record 700 career assists. #700 came in a 7-4 Bruins win over Buffalo.

November 24, 1926    Detroit Cougars (before being re-named the Red Wings) recorded their first win in franchise history 1-0 over the Black Hawks at Chicago. Frank Frederickson scored the game-winner, while Hap Holmes recorded the first shutout of his rookie season.

November 24, 1989    Mario Lemieux improved his career penalty-shot record to a perfect 5-for-5 when he scored against Bob Mason (and added two assists) in a 7-4 Penguins’ win at Washington.

Rankings

The rankings are based on how the teams are currently playing.

Top 5

1. San Jose
2. New Jersey
3. Chicago
4. Nashville
5. Florida

Bottom 5

30. Edmonton
29. NY Rangers
28. Carolina
27. Anaheim
26. Colorado

Anaheim Ducks Watch

The Ducks got a much needed win against Tampa Bay on Thursday, of course they never make anything easy. After leading 3-0 the Ducks let the Lightning back into the game as they scored three unanswered goals and forced overtime. The Ducks were able to salvage the win when Scott Neidermayer scored on the power play about a minute into the OT. The Ducks are having a hard time putting together a solid 60 minutes of consistent hockey.

They followed up with a loss to the Sharks 3-2. A tough loss in a very tight game they needed to have. Towards the end of the game they were unable to secure the puck in the Sharks end in order to pull Hiller. They finally got Hiller out of the crease with about 15 seconds left. The power play, which had been struggling, is now clicking. The bad thing is they haven’t played defense that well and they are now struggling to score even strength goals.

The Ducks won the game against the Flames on Monday night, of course they win in true Ducks fashion but giving up a goal in the final 20 seconds of the game to the Flames to force overtime. The Ducks ended up winning in the shootout, when Teemu Selanne had the only shootout goal. It’s nice they got the win but the problem is the Flames also received points. Even if the Ducks keep winning the overtime games, if they play western conference teams that also receive points this will affect their playoff chances and positioning.

A Tale of Two Cities – Detroit and Pittsburgh will be forever linked in hockey lore because of playing each other in back to back Stanley Cup finals and having some of the highest ratings in some time in those games. This year both teams started out in opposite directions. They have now both reversed directions since those starts. Of course Pittsburgh, with Evgeni Malkin back, has seemingly stopped the bleeding.

Detroit started out 3-4-2 not a bad record but being Detroit you would expect more. Of course they had to open up the season overseas in Europe, which is always tough on any team. Pavel Datsyuk started out slowly, with only 4 pts in the first 7 games, which didn’t help matters. They also had huge injuries to Valtteri Filppula and Johan Franzen, two key players who are still out. Detroit has now won 6 of 7, their only loss in that span was to umm.. Toronto. Yes you read that correctly, perhaps they fell asleep. Datsyuk has since shaken off his slow start and Zetterberg has been his usual productive self. Goaltending is still iffy. Chris Osgood hasn’t really looked all that sharp and neither has his replacement Jimmy Howard.

Pittsburgh started out red hot and had the best record in the NHL. They also had a perfect 7-0 road record. Things were looking good. Then Malkin got injured and they lost 5 of 6 games, before rebounding with a tough win against Boston and then a win against Anaheim. Also starting in the last week of October their defenseman started dropping like flies. It started with Sergei Gonchar, then Kris Letang, Brooks Orpik, and Alex Goligoski followed. I can’t imagine many teams playing all that well without their top four defenseman. In fact I’m sure many teams wouldn’t win for a long time or until one of them came back. I think Malkin has a great chance to win his first Hart trophy this year as evident by the slump the Penguins suffered while he was out. Though I do realize the missing defensemen also contributed to that, Malkin is the Penguins rock. While Crosby is talented, he tends to be streaky, Malkin is generally more consistent.

Now don’t get me wrong, I think both will end up in the playoffs and both will be one of the top seeds. I also think that another rematch is possible. Although I personally don’t want to see the same teams three years in a row, I mean Marion Hossa won’t even be on the losing team if that happens. The Devils and the Sharks might have something to say about it, as they currently hold the top spots in the standings. But neither has had much postseason success recently, and of the course the Sharks playoff problems are well documented. Now teams can and have come out of nowhere to go to the Finals but, generally speaking, teams have been on the brink for a few years before they finally get there. It should be an interesting finish to the season.

Brendan Shanahan – I like to bid a fond farewell to Brendan Shanahan as he retires from the NHL after 21 seasons. Shanahan finished his career 23^rd in points (1354) and 11^th in goals (656). He is also the only player in NHL history to amass more than 2,000 penalty minutes and 600 goals. Like Joe Sakic he will be missed.

Goalie Spotlight

Tim Thomas – Boston Bruins

Tim Thomas has the distinction this week of being in the goalie spotlight and also the goat of the week (see below).

Tim Thomas was the winner of the Vezina Trophy (top goalie) and the William Jennings trophy (best GAA for a team) with Manny Fernandez last year. However it took a long time for success and recognition to come to Thomas at the professional level. He won the Vezina trophy at the age of 34. He was the oldest first time winner in 43 years since Gump Worsley did it at age 36 in the 1965-66 season for the Montreal Canadiens.

Michigan born Thomas played at the University of Vermont. He was a two-time All-ECAC Conference selection and a two-time NCAA East All-American. He also holds many Vermont records including; games played (140), wins (81), and minutes played (3,950). He is also second in the NCAA Division I record book in career saves (3,950). Thomas was drafted by the Quebec Nordiques in 1994 but nothing ever came of that. He finished up his four years of playing at Vermont. After playing briefly in ECHL and IHL, Thomas made his way to Finland where he played for HIFK in the SM-liiga league. He led them to the championship that year.

He signed with the Edmonton Oilers in 1998 and joined their AHL affiliate only to end up in Finland again. He came back to the states to play for the Detroit Vipers only to end up in Europe again this time playing in the Swedish league. He then signed with the Boston Bruins but elected to play a year in the SM-liiga Finnish league again. He then came back to the states to play for the Bruins affiliate the Providence Bruins. He played a few games for the Bruins too during the stint and ironically his first NHL win came against the Oilers, the team that drafted him. He returned to Finland for the 4^th time and racked up a league high SV% and broke the league shutout mark for a season. He led his team to a 2^nd place finish that year. Finally done with Finland, Thomas came back to the Bruins (both Providence and Boston.) Due to injuries to two goalies he was supposed to backup in different seasons, Thomas emerged as the number one goalie. His last two seasons were his statistical best in the NHL and he was also named to the All-Star game both times, the first time as a replacement and the second time as a starter.

Thomas led the Bruins to their best record in some time in the 08-09 season and despite suffering a tough 7^th game lost in the 2^nd round to the Hurricanes, expectations are high this year in Boston. Boston has struggled this year but Thomas for the most part has held up his end. Already recording 3 shutouts this season Thomas should easily pass his career high of 5. Look for Thomas to continue leading his team in the chase for a playoff spot.

Fights of the Week

Special thanks to hockeyfights.com for making this section a little easier to do.

Some really good fights this week to choose from. I narrowed it down to four though, two with bloodshed.

Rick Rypien vs. Brad May

High intensity fight, I love the way Rypien fights with his fists of fury. Brad May is getting older and you can tell. May gets his head caught in his jersey.

Brandon Prust vs. Adam Mair

Pretty decent fight, the refs should have let them go longer though. Prust lands some nice blows to the face at the end.

Matt Bradley vs Aaron Voros

Stick around until 40 seconds to see Bradley sporting the crimson mask.

Brian McGrattan vs Colton Orr

McGrattan gets a nice bloody nose for his troubles. Bonus points for his blonde Mohawk.

Goat of the Week

Tim Thomas for letting in a goal in the final second against the Penguins (Bill Guerin) and then giving up the game winning overtime goal (Pascal Dupuis) after misplaying the puck badly.

Trick shot of the Week

Rick Nash in his shootout winning goal against the Ducks, started to lose his balance, but he was able to regain it and score the game winner anyway.

Things I like

1. As noted above watch out NHL, Detroit is starting to heat up, Hockey’s version of the Death Star or the New England Patriots.

2. Carolina won! Sure, barely in a shootout but a win is a win. Next up they can try for a road win.

3. The Phil Kessel addition in Toronto. Sure the Maple Leafs gave up a lot to get him and they had to wait a bit until he played, but he has been productive since entering the lineup. He has 8 pts in 7 games and is one of the few players on the team with a positive +/-.

4. Chris Pronger has been quite a force in Philadelphia. Leading all defenseman on the team in scoring and 2^nd on the team in the all important +/-. Not sure why Anaheim didn’t keep him and dump Scott Neidermayer or make Scott take a huge pay cut like they make Teemu Selanne take.

5. Corey Perry (ongoing) and Ryan Getzlaf (snapped) both had 11 game scoring streaks. The longest for two teammates since Pittsburgh’s Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin had 13-game streaks in 2007.

Things I don’t

1. There have been a lot of blowouts this week and I am not a fan of them. It makes games harder to watch on TV and in person. Obviously if one team is playing better, that’s the way it goes but I still don’t have to like it. We had Vancouver (8) vs. Colorado (2), Atlanta (7) vs. Los Angeles (0), Detroit (9) vs. Columbus (1), Philadelphia (5) vs. Ottawa (1).

2. If Boston has hopes of making the playoffs again, David Krejci is going to have to step it up. Having lost Kessel to Toronto and Marc Savard to an injury, Krejci is needed more to prove that last years successful season was not a fluke.

3. If the playoffs started today only one Canadian team would be in it, Calgary. I’m sure that doesn’t sit well with most Canadians and I think that would only make it harder for them to win their first cup in 17 years. Good thing it’s still early.

This Week in Hockey History

Special thanks to the Hockey Hall of Fame site for making this section a little easier to do.

November 12, 1931     The first NHL game was played at the Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto. Black Hawks won 2-1 over the Leafs.

November 12, 1910    At the annual meeting of the National Hockey Association (a forerunner of the NHL) a new rule was passed changing hockey’s playing time from two 30 minute periods to three 20 minute periods (with two ten-minute intermissions).

November 13, 1947    For the first time in NHL history, the league initiated the policy of having players raise their sticks to signify the scoring of a goal. Montreal’s Billy Reay became the first to do so as the Canadiens beat Chicago, 5-2 at the Forum.

November 13, 1934    St. Louis’ Ralph Bowman scored the first penalty shot goal in NHL history. It came during a 2-1 Maroons win over the St. Louis Eagles. It was Bowman’s first NHL goal, and just the second penalty shot attempt in NHL history.

November 13, 1992    Goaltender Pat Jablonski recorded the first shutout in Tampa Bay Lightning history (and the first of his NHL career) to lead the Lightning to a 1-0 win over the Ottawa Senators, in Tampa Bay.

November 14, 2001    Patrick Roy became the first goaltender in NHL history to win 200 games with two teams (Montreal and Colorado) when the Avalanche won 1-0 against the visiting Minnesota Wild. It was Roy’s 54th career shutout.

November 15, 1973    Boston’s Bobby Orr had three power play goals and added four assists to become the first NHL defenseman to score seven points in one game, as the Bruins beat the New York Rangers 10-2.

November 15, 1995    Rookie Alex Hicks scored on the first shot in his first career NHL game, then added another goal along with an assist to lead the Mighty Ducks to a 7-3 win over the Avalanche, in Anaheim.

November 17, 1979    Rookie Wayne Gretzky played against Gordie Howe for the first of four times in their NHL careers. Gretzky went scoreless while Howe picked up one assist in the Hartford Whalers’ 4-0 win over Edmonton.

Rankings

The rankings are based on how the teams are currently playing.

Top 5

1. San Jose
2. New Jersey
3. Detroit
4. Chicago
5. Calgary

Bottom 5

30. Carolina
29. Edmonton
28. St. Louis
27. Anaheim
26. Edmonton

Ducks Watch

The Ducks are in last place in the western conference and that doesn’t sit well with me. They lost the first game on an east coast road swing against the Devils. They looked like they were still on west coast time, they didn’t play well. They lost a heartbreaker in the shootout to Columbus. True they still got a point but they played well and they should have won. They don’t do real well in shootouts, not sure why, but they don’t.

Then they had their playoff rematch against Detroit. They played well but somehow every time they had tied the game and had momentum, Detroit would literally come right back and score. Tied at 4-4, Hiller allowed 2 horrible goals in a row which cost them the game. Also of note were the first few horrible penalties the Ducks took. The refs are never fair to the Ducks but these aren’t to be blamed on the refs these are just stupid penalties. Only two types of good penalties; ones that prevent goals and breakaways and ones that stick up for your teammates, these were neither. I find it disturbing that GM Brian Burke says that coach Randy Carlyle won’t be going anytime soon, he is a proven winner. All I know is the since the Stanley Cup win, all the Ducks ever do is start slow and take dumb penalties. If that isn’t a sign of undisciplined coaching I don’t know what is. A coaching change did wonders for Pittsburgh. I think it would here as well.

Next up the defending champs again and they made sure the Ducks stayed winless on this road trip. While Corey Perry’s point streak continued (12 games now), Ryan Getzlaf’s (11 games) did not. Getzlaf also uncharacteristically was in a fight against Bill Guerin, a man 15 years older than him. Of course when you take 3 penalties in the first 8 minutes of the game, you don’t exactly give yourself a great start. Worse though was the fact that Pittsburgh was without its top 4 defensemen and the Ducks could only manage 2 goals. This team is too talented to be in last place in the conference. They need to wake up and start doing the little things better. They turn the puck over way to much in their own zone and of course all those dumb penalties. Now comes a long home stand and make or break time for their seasons playoff hopes. In a related note, I’m shopping for some brown bags with eyeholes in them.