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.

In the last 20+ years, we have never had a Stanley Cup winner with less than a +25 goal differential in the regular season. The Penguins win over the Red Wings in 2009 was the lowest of the 20 years with a +25. 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.

Last year I wrote “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.” and what do you know Chicago won the cup. They had a +62 while their Stanley Cup opponent, the Flyers, had a +11. Naturally it was a foregone conclusion that the Blackhawks would win.

This year I don’t see why the pattern won’t hold true again. So sorry any team with a less than a +25 goal differential, you won’t be winning the Stanley Cup this year. In the East we have Washington, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Boston and surprisingly the Rangers. A stark contrast from last year when the East only had two teams with a +25 goal differential.

In the West we have Vancouver, San Jose, Chicago and the umm Predators. Hmmmm aren’t those the same three teams (minus the Predators) as last year in the West? Surprising, when you consider where Chicago is standingwise. Los Angeles has a chance to get to the +25 mark but it probably won’t happen.

I can’t see the Rangers winning it all, if they actually get in which now doesn’t seem likely, and for some reason I can’t see Philadelphia having the same run. The Flyers don’t have the goaltending and they are really moving in the wrong direction at the wrong time. Washington, Pittsburgh and Boston are your best bets in the East. Out West I really don’t like any of the teams. Sure Vancouver is by far having the best year but considering their past luck, I can’t really see them winning it all. Same with San Jose. It’s hard to look past all of those other dismal playoff performances and think that for some reason it will be different this year. On the other hand, the Sharks do have a much needed upgrade in goal with Niemi and you can’t really argue with the Canucks dominance. I think that one of three above mentioned Eastern teams will knock out the West this year in the Stanley Cup Finals. No I didn’t even mention the Predators because I mean come on.

So how did I do with my predictions from the beginning of the season?

Stanley Cup Finals

Pittsburgh over San Jose

I got all but two right in the East and all but two right in the West (assuming the Blackhawks win or the Stars lose). Not sure I’d keep those conference finals now but who knows. I’m still puzzled on how Nashville keeps making the playoffs every year and to a lesser extent Buffalo. I’m pretty sure the Predators will get knocked out of the playoffs in the 1^st round (again) and no one will care (again). Sorry if I offended the 5 Predator fans throughout this article.

Stay tuned for my mini 1^st round playoff preview which will be up in a few days.

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

Goalie Spotlight

Tim Thomas – Boston Bruins

(Note:This is a repeat spotlight from last year, somewhat updated.)

Tim Thomas was the winner of the Vezina Trophy (top goalie) and the William Jennings trophy (best GAA for a team) with Manny Fernandez two seasons ago. 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 4th time and racked up a league high SV% and broke the league shutout mark for a season. He led his team to a 2nd 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 (2007-08, 2008-09) 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 7th game lost in the 2nd round to the Hurricanes, expectations were high in 2009-10 for Boston. Boston struggled somewhat that season but rebounded to make the playoffs before suffering their embarrassing collapse against the Flyers. Tuukka Rask ended up taking over the number one goalie position that year, not because Thomas necessarily struggled but because Rask was hotter. This season it was assumed to be Rask’s job to lose. Which is exactly what Rask did when he struggled to start the year off. Thomas was given the opportunity to take back the starting job, which he did when he was off to his best start in his career. Already recording 5 shutouts this season, Thomas should easily pass his career high of 5 set the previous two seasons. It’s likely he will also add another Vezina to his trophy collection.

Fights of the Week

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

Derek Dorsett vs. Patrick Kaleta

Dorsett plays the part of human punching bag in this fight.

Shawn Thornton vs. Jody Shelley

Decent scrap that would have been better if more had landed.

Goats of the Week

Mike Weber – Buffalo Sabres

This one cost the Sabres dearly as Weber’s giveaway in the final minutes of the 3^rd allowed the Bruins to tie the game and then go on to win it in overtime.

P.K Subban and Michal Cammalleri – Montreal Canadiens

This was one of the those play/passes you’d just like to forget. Subban has a risky pass to Cammalleri who handles it poorly and Dustin Penner picks it up for the game winner in overtime.

Mike Smith – Tampa Bay Lightning

I have no idea what Smith was doing on this play, either way he wasn’t doing what he should have been doing.

Mike Smith and Victor Hedman – Tampa Bay Lightning

You may have noticed this wasn’t Mike Smith’s best game of his career. I have no idea what these two were doing on this play.

Things I like

1. Atlanta is doing what Tampa Bay can’t do, beat Washington. The Thrashers are now 2-0 against the Capitals this season, with a combined score of 8-1. Impressive for a Thrashers team that will be competing for a playoff spot maybe a season before many thought they would.

2. Taylor Hall started out slow but it’s never easy for an eighteen year old rookie (now 19) to adjust to the NHL. Hall had his first multi-goal game against Toronto and then followed that up with the game winner in overtime against St. Louis. He also almost has the same amount of block shots in the past three games (5) as he did in the previous 23 games (6).

3. The Canucks actually beat the Blackhawks. More importantly Roberto Luongo actually had a shutout. While it’s just a regular season game, it has to do wonders for the Canucks confidence against a team that generally has had their number. The two will square off one more time this season in Vancouver.

4. Welcome Back Joffrey Lupul. Lupul played in his first NHL game since recovery from all of his complications from his back injury almost exactly a year after his last game. He didn’t produce any point but he did have three shots on goal. It’s great that he was able to make a recovery to continue to do what he loves.

5. Loved the goalie duel between the Sabres and Bruins last night. Thomas had some great stops, especially one from point blank range. This was a great goaltending battle last year in the playoffs with Rask vs Miller.

Things I don’t

1. The Calgary Flames now find themselves at the bottom of the conference. Probably not what they envisioned when they “retooled” this offseason. Of course most Flames and hockey fans in general are not surprised because all they did was basically bring back guys (Olli Jokinen, Alex Tanguay and so on) that didn’t work out in the first place. Surprisingly, however, is that Miikka Kiprusoff is on pace for as many shutouts as he had during the best season of his career a few years ago. I really hope if they don’t make any progress this year, they blow it up. (okay not last anymore, as they just beat the Lightning to leapfrog the Oilers)

2. San Jose Sharks are a team with talent obviously, they are also a team that can’t play consistently well. Let’s break down their last eight games. L, W, L, W, L, W, L, W. Judging by this pattern, I assume the Sharks will lose to the Flyers tonight before rebounding with a win in Buffalo. Just one of the many reasons the Sharks are 4^th in their division instead of their usual 1^st place spot. Though the West and the Pacific are very tough.

3. The Patrick Kane injury will be a tough thing to overcome for a Blackhawks team that looked like it was just starting to gel, winning four of their last five. It will be tough to cope without their second leading scorer but the Blackhawks have many skilled players (Kopecky, Stalberg, Skille, Bickell) to help fill the void. In the long run this might actually help the Blackhawks and give somebody else a chance to step up and shine.

Stat Line of the Week

12/02/10 Pittsburgh 3 vs. Atlanta 2

Sidney Crosby is in the midst of a remarkable run. But there is one thing he hasn’t accomplished in his still young career. That would be the natural hat trick, until the game against the Thrashers. Crosby accounted for all of the Penguins goals and notched his 7^th career hat trick just two games after his 6^th.

Did You Know?

On October 17, 2008, Zach Harrison of the Minnesota State University Mavericks recorded a shorthanded natural hat trick against the University of North Dakota Fighting Sioux. Harrison scored the three consecutive short handed goals over a span of 29:54. According to the Hockey Hall of Fame, they were not sure that this feat had ever been accomplished before at college level, and have since put Harrison’s stick on display at the Hockey Hall of Fame. However, C.J. Young of Harvard is believed to have accomplished a shorthanded natural hat trick in 1988 against Dartmouth.

Numbers, Numbers

0 – Regular strength goals in the Flames vs Blackhawks game. 5 power play goals and 1 empty net goal ( I don’t count the empty net goal as an even strength goal)

16 – Straight games with a point for Sidney Crosby

40 – Giveaways by Ryan Getzlaf tops in the NHL

10 – Rounds of shootout between the Oilers and Ducks, which was highly entertaining to watch

16.90 – GAA for Brian Elliot after giving up a goal in four minutes of relief duty against Montreal

0 – Regulation losses for Boston and Carolina when scoring first, the only two teams that can say that

Quotes of the Week

“It’s not fun until it’s over.”

- Coach Dan Bylsma, on watching a blowout victory at Columbus after the Penguins scored four goals in the opening period.

“If you’ve got the answer, let me know.”

- C Jason Spezza, after the Senators were shut out for a second straight game in Saturday’s 1-0 shootout loss to the Sabres.

“When we come into games now you can just tell in the dressing room, everyone is a lot more vocal. Before, we’d come in the dressing room and it would just be kind of down. That’s how we’d start games. It’s always been a fun feeling in here, but sometimes before games you’d just get a little down.”

—Taylor Hall, on the recent change in the Oilers.

“They must have run out of bodies.”

- Flyers RW Andreas Nodl on why he was used for the final 20 seconds of a power play, during which he scored his first career power-play goal.

This Week in Hockey History

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

December 02, 1989 Toronto’s Ed Olczyk began a team-record 18 game point scoring streak in the Maple Leafs’ 7-4 loss to the Flames, at Calgary.

December 03, 1991 Joe Nieuwendyk scored his 200th NHL career goal in a 5-2 Flames loss at Detroit. Nieuwendyk became the 4th player in franchise history to score 200 goals in a Calgary uniform.

December 04, 1971 Rookie goaltender Ken Dryden recorded his third career shutout, Jacques Lemaire scored his second career hat trick and added two assists and Frank Mahovlich picked up four assists as the Canadiens won 7-0 against the visiting Vancouver Canucks.

December 05, 2001 Mike Keenan became just the second man in NHL history to coach seven different NHL teams, when he led the Florida Panthers to a 2-0 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets in his first game behind the bench. Roberto Luongo picked up the shutout.

December 06, 2000 Ron Francis became the fifth player in NHL history to record 1,100 career assists. He picked up the milestone point during Carolina’s 5-3 win over the Thrashers, in Atlanta. It was also Francis’ 900th game with the Hurricanes’ franchise.

December 07, 1961 Jean Beliveau wore the “C” on his Montreal sweater for the first time in his career, when he played his first game of the season in a 4-1 win over Toronto, at the Forum.

Rankings

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

Top 5

1. Pittsburgh

2. Detroit

3. Dallas

4. Atlanta

5. Chicago

Bottom 5

30. N.Y Islanders

29. Minnesota

28. Columbus

27. New Jersey

26. Ottawa

The Goalie tandem issue runs every fantasy team.  Do I try to own both goalies?  If I own one what do I trade to get the other or get back in a trade to an owner who has the other tandem?  In this week’s Pucking Awesome Fantasy Focus we will break down the strategy an owner should have with some of the hot goalie tandems out there right now.

San Jose Sharks

Antero Niittymaki: 4 GP (3 GS): 2-0-1, 1.80 GAA, .932 save percentage

Antti Niemi: 4 GS: 1-3-0, 4.49 GAA, .854 save percentage

The Blackhawks Stanley Cup hero is struggling out of the gate with his new team, as the goalie the team originally signed to be their No. 1 has taken the reins.  Surprisingly enough you search the waiver wire and it is Niemi who is owned in more leagues than Niittymaki, 80 percent to 40 percent.

My take on this tandem is that Niittymaki is usually good in spurts of action; he has never been able to prove that he is the No. 1 guy.  That being said, this is a great spot for him to outperform his countryman and become the best fantasy option on this team.  Niitty in the last three years has a GAA of 2.84 and a save percentage of .909, those numbers do not happen unless you are talented.

Let’s not forget Niemi on the other hand only played in 39 games last season and rode a very good team to a Stanley Cup and was hoping do duplicate that in San Jose.  In conclusion, the Niemi owners should be banging down the door to acquire Niittymaki by trade or waiver wire pick up.  While, the Niittymaki owners should be knocking softly to the Niemi owners to see if they could acquire him only for injury insurance.

Washington Capitals

Michal Neuvirth: 8 GP (7 GS): 5-2-0, 2.53 GAA, .919 save percentage

Semyon Varlamov: 2 GP (1 GS): 0-1-0, 2.91 GAA, .896 save percentage

This tandem is one of the hardest to pin down as it features two upstart goalies that we do not have a big track record to go on, only that Varlamov is hurt every two weeks or so.  Like the Sharks, the Capitals have high hopes of a team that won the President’s Trophy last season, thus making any player that stands between the pipes an instant fantasy start.  This is evident when Neuvirth, who has started seven out of the first eight games, ownership went from almost 40 percent to 90 percent from the start of the year.

Now the news is that the Capitals playoff goalie the last two seasons will not travel with the team this weekend due to a groin injury, the same injury that caused the Russian to spend the first couple of weeks on IR.

This is a perfect case that you should try your best to own both goalies.  The organization has made it apparent that they want Varlamov to be the franchise goalie and when healthy expect that to be the case, but the key word is “when.”  The constant trips to IR because of a groin injury have to be worrisome for a goalie.  With that in mind, Varlamov owners should make every effort to acquire Neuvirth and vice-versa.  Neuvirth has backstopped Hershey to back-to-back Calder Cups and has looked decent to start the season.

Pittsburgh Penguins

Marc-Andre Fleury: 4 GS: 1-3-0, 3.25 GAA, .859 save percentage

Brent Johnson: 5 GS: 4-0-1, 1.39 GAA, .951 save percentage

Talk about taking advantage of an opportunity, as the career backup Brent Johnson has busted onto the fantasy scene by starting the season on a tear.  The goalie that has not started more than 30 games since his early years in St. Louis all of a sudden has started five of the last seven games.

The biggest question has to be will this trend continue?  I believe it will not as this is just the case of the Penguins struggling offensively out of the gate and picking up their play as the season has progressed early.  Though, Marc-Andre Fleury owners cannot be happy with how the former first overall pick has responded to such a bad playoff last spring.

Hopefully MAF owners jumped on the BJ bandwagon and picked him up when they started to notice the trend of him getting the starting nod.  If not, do not worry as soon enough the flower will have his starting job back and we will watch Johnson’s ownership fall from its peak of 60 percent right now.

Do not let fantasy studs pass you by holding onto players that are not producing.  This week we look at some players that need a big weekend or should hit the waiver wire soon. So let’s break down the Weekend Warriors of could be fantasy studs to watch out for.

Teams with 2 games this weekend: Thrashers, Sabres, Flames, Blackhawks, Blue Jackets, Predators, Devils, Rangers, Senators, Blues, Sharks, Lightning

Forwards to watch:

Tim Connolly, Sabres C: The talented but often injured Connolly is coming off a year that saw him play 73 games and become a fantasy start with 17 goals and 65 points.  This season the 29-year-old has only three points in the first seven games and it is not because he is not getting the ice time playing 16:19 minutes a game with 3:35 of that coming on the power play.  The veteran is owned in 97% of leagues and was benched last week, with two games against the Senators and Devils this weekend if he doesn’t produce should be benched by your fantasy team.

Jamie Langenbrunner, Devils W: The Devils captain has continued his late season slump last season into this season.  The 35-year-old is a -4 and has only four assists in the first seven games, which is one goal in his last 19 games played.  Langenbrunner is playing on a line with Patrik Elias and Jason Arnott, with those line mates he should be producing as both of those players have nine points combined on a team that is struggling to score.  The veteran is owned in 95% of leagues and has games against the Sabres and Rangers, two tough goalies this weekend and needs to start producing or he will start being released.

Simon Gagne, Lightning W: The big off-season acquisition for the Lightning has yet to score a point and is a -8 in his first six games in Tampa.  The former 40-goal scorer stock is dropping with the recent injury that has slowed line mates Vincent Lecavalier.  With two games against the Thrashers and Predators this weekend, if the scoreless draught continues so will the decline 94% ownership of this talented forward.

Defenseman To Watch:

Jay Bouwmeester, Flames: How is this guy owned in 100% of leagues?  I am guessing the answer is because he use to be a fantasy stud in Florida but has a dud in Calgary.  In 82 games last season the 27-year-old had only 29 points and was a -4 this season he has no points in six games.  The kid plays over 26 minutes a game, which is way too much ice time to not be producing.  The Flames face the Blue Jackets and Sharks this weekend and as the slide continues for the team so should the ownership of Bouwmeester.

Erik Karlsson, Senators: The former first round pick burst onto the scene with 26 points in 60 games last season and big things were expected with the addition of Sergei Gonchar.  So far the 20-year-old has struggled one point in the first six games and worst off a -4.  The 15^th overall pick of the 2008 NHL Entry Draft is still seeing time on the second power play unit and has back-to-back games against division rivals Buffalo and Montreal.  Karlsson needs to start producing or his ownership will continue to fall like it has the last couple of weeks from almost 50% to 28%.

Erik Johnson, Blues: The former first overall pick had a career year last season with 10 goals and 39 points but so far has yet to see any production with one assist in the first five games.  This is one player who should not worry fantasy owners yet, but with two games against the red hot Blackhawks and Penguins this weekend the scoring draught could continue.  The 22-year-old has now been moved to the second power play unit as Carlo Colaiacovo has taken over his top spot and this hurts his fantasy value.

Goalies To Watch:

Antti Niemi, Sharks: With all the controversy this off-season that this Stanley Cup goalie caused it was important for the goalie to come out sharp with his new team.  That has not been the case as in his first three starts with the Sharks the 27-year-old has giving up 11 goals and a .879 save percentage.  The team has back-to-back games this weekend so expect Niemi to get into a game this weekend and needs to prove his worth as he is owned in 95% of leagues.

Antero Niittymaki, Sharks: The other end of the Sharks tandem has been playing like the number one goalie he was paid to be before Niemi became available.  The 30-year-old won in his second start by stopping 29 of 31 shots against Colorado, a good offensive team.  The Finnish goalie is only owned in 27% of leagues and again with back-to-back games this weekend against the offensive challenged Oilers and Flames expect Niittymaki’s ownership to sky rocket by next week.

Cory Schneider, Canucks: With the much publicized struggles of Roberto Luongo has brought Cory Schneider name to attention to fantasy owners.  The former first round pick and AHL goaltender of the year has a win in his only start this year.  With a game against the Wild this weekend, a team that has given Luongo fits, shown in his six goals against last start in Minnesota, expect Schneider to get the nod.  Luongo is a top notch fantasy goalie and will be fine this season but keep an eye on Schneider for the team will look to start Bobby Lou less this season and give this capable backup some fantasy value.

The Devils haven’t advanced past the 1^st round of the playoffs the last three years. They haven’t been out of the 2^nd round since they last won the cup in 2003. Now not all of it is Brodeur’s fault but last year against the Flyers was just a disaster. Two years ago against the Hurricanes we all remember the two goals in the final two minutes of Game 7. Once again not entirely Brodeur’s fault as the first goal was just great passing and the second goal was partially deflected off of the Devils defenseman’s stick. Still you have to wonder that maybe those were not the best signs. This year the Devils and Brodeur (3.18 GAA, .887 SV%) are not off to a very good start. The last game against the Bruins, Brodeur gave up four goals. Some weren’t his fault but a couple of the goals you think in his heyday he would have stopped them. Sure problems plague the Devils in general. First there was the Kovalchuk contract thing, then them not resigning Paul Martin and then the failure to be able to afford enough players but it just seems like the Brodeur and Devils magic has run its course. The Devils play in the tough Atlantic division, so while they may have the talent they may not get the record to show it this season.

I realize it’s not easy for a seventeen year NHL veteran who has been surround with hockey his whole life, including when he was a kid from watching his dad play. to just stop playing but at some point he will need to make that decision. Dominik Hasek retired only to come back a season later and then retire again. Of course he recently came out of retirement again to play for the Czech Extraliga League and now the KHL at the age of 45. The reason Hasek retired from the NHL the second time was about motivation. Hasek said, “I’m glad I can make my decision. I’m not ready to compete [anymore] on the highest level.” I guess Brodeur is still motivated to compete but when you have two Olympic Gold Medals, three Stanley Cup championships and you hold almost every major goaltending record, what else do you need to prove?

Goalie Spotlight

Brent Johnson – Pittsburgh Penguins

Despite being in his 2^nd year with the Penguins, Penguins fans might wonder who is Brent Johnson and where is Marc-Andre Fleury?

A product of Farmington, Michigan Johnson was drafted by the Colorado Avalanche in 1995 with the 129^th overall pick but he never actually played for them. He played for the Owen Sound Platers in the OHL but didn’t produce the best numbers. Next up was the Worcester Ice Cats of the AHL where he fared a little better. In the 1998-99 season with the Blues he finally made his NHL debut. He only played in six gamed but he played well. That year the Blues actually started five different goalies, so it’s amazing he got any playing time at all. He went back to the AHL again for a season before cracking the blues lineup the next season where he split time with Roman Turek. The next season, 2001-02 was the only season where he started over 50 games in the NHL. Producing a 2.18 GAA, .902 SV% and 5 shutouts in 58 games. The following season the Blues actually used seven different starting goalies. He was eventually phased out until he was traded to the Coyotes in a brief stint. He then latched on to the Capitals where he mainly backed up Olaf Kolizig. He was lastly the backup to Jose Theodore until Semyon Varlamov emerged as the number two goalie and then eventually the number one.

Last season Johnson backed up Fleury starting in 23 games. This season he has actually played one more game than Fleury. He is so far undefeated with four wins and a 1.49 GAA and .950 SV%. Since leading the Penguins to a Stanley Cup victory in 2009 Fleury hasn’t quite been the same. It’s not that his numbers are down, they are, but it’s more about the kind of fluky goals he lets in from time to time. So far this year Fleury has struggled as well. If Fleury can’t manage to get it together, Johnson will play an integral part in the Penguins run for another Stanley Cup.

Fights of the Week

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

Colton Orr vs. Deryk Engelland

Colton Orr with experience of over 200 fights in three different leagues was expected to be of no match for Engelland. The fight was fairly even despite Engelland having his view blocked by his dangling helmet for a bit but Engelland in the end had the KO.

Michael Rupp vs. Jody Shelley

A pretty decent scrap between these two.

Chris Stewart vs Zenon Konopka

Real decent scrap just five seconds into the game. Stewart is the Avalanche’s 2^nd leading scorer too. What’s not to love?

Goat of the Week

Tyler Myers – Buffalo Sabres

Last years Calder Trophy winner Tyler Myers mishandles the puck and Patrick Kane makes him pay setting up Patrick Sharp for the 1^st goal of the game. A goal that proved costly, as the Sabres lost to the Blackhawks 4-3.

Things I like

1. Thomas Kopecky is leading the Blackhawks in assists and tied for 2^nd in points. Drafted 38^th overall in the 200 draft, Kopecky has never scored more than 21 points in a season. Of course Kopecky is now playing on the 2^nd line with Marian Hossa and Patrick Sharp, which always helps, so he should at least triple his previous point high. Kris Versteeg and Andrew Ladd who?

2. Who said the Capitals had no defense? *raises hand* The Capitals have been shorthanded 25 times this season and have so far yielded no power play goals. Whether they can keep it up or not is anyone’s guess. Since losing 4-2 to the Thrashers on opening night, the Capitals have only given up two goals or less in each game since. Credit also goes to Michal Neuvirth who has played well in place of injured Semyon Varlamov, who is now back. Of course last night against the Bruins they did give up three goals in a loss.

3. The Penguins power play actually started the week in my “Things I Don’t” section because their power play was ranked 20^th in the NHL. It’s unacceptable really for a line that boasts Malkin and Crosby and having a man advantage to be ranked that low. But they have since woken up to rise all the way to 10^th place since Sidney Crosby unleashed back to back power play goals in Philadelphia. The Penguins also get the most practice on power plays as they far and away lead the NHL with the most power play opportunities with 40.

4. The Los Angeles Kings, proving that last year was not a mirage, are off to a fairly decent start at 3-1. Jonathon Quick is off to a great start that he needed to have. He has let in just three goals in three games thus far. They are maintaining their well balanced offense and bringing the stars out to games, such as Vince Vaughn and Bristol Palin. Did I actually use Bristol Palin and star in the same sentence?

Things I don’t

1. The Flames reunited top line of Alex Tanguay, Olli Jokinen and Jarome Iginila. They had produced no points until their last game against the Oilers. This only happened because Jokinen was bumped down to the 2^nd line probably not what the Flames had envisioned when the required him but Jokinen did help set up a goal on that line. If bumping him down to the 2^nd line and Matt Stajan up is what’s needed to produce points, I think Calgary and the fans will take it.

2. Call me absolutely puzzled with the Joe Thornton deal. In the five postseasons with the Sharks, Thornton has only averaged a point a game just once and has a negative +/- in three of the five postseasons. If I was the Sharks management I would have waited to see what Thornton does in this postseason before I made an offer. Sure he’d be an unrestricted free agent but he doesn’t seem like the kind of player that would play hardball in negations. Plus if he fails miserably in the playoffs, nobody would want him anyway.

3. Luca Sbisa was probably the biggest component of the Chris Pronger trade, as the Ducks were hoping to get a young dominant defenseman to replace the old dominant defenseman. It hasn’t really worked out that way though. For the 3^rd straight year Sbisa was sent down to the Minors. It has to be disappointing for the Olympian, especially since 18 year old Cam Fowler is excelling on the team. I hope next year Sbisa is finally ready.

4. The Shane Doan suspension I thought was a bit much. I didn’t care for his hit on Cam Fowler that broke Fowler’s nose or the hit on Dan Sexton. What bothered me more though is that the ref didn’t call a penalty on either during the game. Doan is, I believe, a first time offender so I think one or two games would have served the purpose. I’ve certainly seen worse hits than the one Doan gave Sexton. The NHL clearly wants to send a message.

Stat Line of the Week

10/16/10 Florida 6 vs. Tampa Bay 0

Bryan McCabe help lead the rout of the Lightning with his four assists in the battle of Florida. Mcabe’s nice pass just two minutes into the game to Corey Stillman help set the tone of the game. Florida has now beaten their last two opponents by a combined 9-0 score.

Did You Know?

The Longest NHL suspension was given to Billy Coutu in 1927 for life. Coutu started a bench clearing brawl at the end of Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Finals at the apparent behest of coach Art Ross, he of the Art Ross trophy fame. He assaulted referee Jerry Laflamme and tackled referee Billy Bell. Two and a half years later the suspension was lifted but Coutu never played for the NHL again.

Numbers, Numbers

10 – Number of wins for the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1993-94, the longest wining streak to start a season

15 – Number of games won or tied by the Edmonton Oilers in 1984-85, the longest undefeated streak to start a season

3 – Shorthanded goals against the Colorado Avalanche, currently worst in the league

9 – Total shorthanded goals against the Avalanche last year, 2^nd worst in the league

300 – Career goals by Dany Heatley

2 – Even strength goals for the Wild in the first four games

3 – Even strength goals last night against the Canucks

This Week in Hockey History

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

October 14, 1998     New York Islanders became just the third team in NHL history to shut out the same opponent four straight times (and the first to do so since 1927) when goalie Tommy Salo recorded his 10th career shutout in a 2-0 win at Tampa Bay.

October 15, 2003     Daniel Alfredsson scored twice to become the Ottawa Senators’ all-time leading scorer (with his 492nd career point) in a 4-3 loss to the Kings in Los Angeles. Alfredsson broke the franchise mark of 491 points set by Alexei Yashin.

October 16, 1982     Gil Perreault scored his 15th career hat trick and added two assists, one of which came on rookie Phil Housley’s first NHL goal, to lead the Sabres to a 9-2 win over the Capitals at Washington.

October 17, 1982     Victor Nechayev became the first Soviet-trained player to score a goal in the NHL — he helped the Kings to a 5-3 win over the Rangers, at New York. Nachaev played just three games during his NHL career.

October 18, 2000     18-year-old rookie Marian Gaborik scored twice in the final 2:28 of the game to lead the Minnesota Wild to their first victory in team history, 6-5 over the visiting Tampa Bay Lightning.

October 19, 1980     In a pre-game ceremony at Chicago Stadium, Stan Mikita’s uniform #21 was retired by the Black Hawks. It was the first Hawk jersey to be retired. Chicago then won the game 8-4 over the Washington Capitals.

Rankings

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

Top 5

1. Toronto
2. Washington
3. Detroit
4. Chicago
5. Tampa Bay

Bottom 5

30. Buffalo
29. Ottawa
28. New Jersey
27. Minnesota
26. Phoenix

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

1.) San Jose Sharks

Rear-view Mirror: The Sharks rolled their way to a second straight Western Conference title and advanced to the Western Conference Finals for the first time since 2004. They then lost to the eventual Stanley Cup Champion Chicago Blackhawks.

The addition of Dany Heatley (39G-43A-82P) added to an already potent line consisting of Joe Thornton (20-69-89) and Patrick Marleau (44-39-83). On the backend Dan Boyle (15-43-58) paced the Sharks logging 26.12 of ice time per game, 4th in the league, and he was also 4th in the league for defensemen in scoring. The Sharks were the 4th highest scoring team in the league, they had the 4th best power play and the 5th best penalty kill at 85%.

Evgeni Nabokov recorded his best SV% (.922) of his ten year career and he also faced the most shots (2168) of his career. His GAA (2.43) was right around his career average but, along with backup Thomas Greiss , it was good enough as a team to finish 8th in the league.

In the playoffs the Sharks were led by Joe Pavelski (25-26-51) who had a breakout postseason with 17 points. A very welcome changed from a Sharks team that sometimes struggled to score in past postseasons. The Sharks pretty much owned the Avalanche peppering Craig Anderson with a barrage of shots. The series was only closer because of a few gaffes. The Sharks then almost swept the Red Wings pretty much demolishing them impressively. The Sharks run came to an end against the Blackhawks, where they seemingly couldn’t get much going. They were basically manhandled in the same way they manhandled their previous opponents.

Offseason Ins: Antero Niittymaki, Jamal Mayers, Antti Niemi

Offseason Outs: Evgeni Nabokov, Rob Blake (retired), Manny Malhotra

What Makes Them Tick: The Sharks are an experienced yet still somewhat youthful bunch. They have pretty much been through every scenario possible, except a Stanley Cup Final, while still being just below the average age for the league. They have two really talented scoring lines that rival any other teams. The Ryan Clowe (19-38-57), Pavelski and Devin Setaguchi (20-16-36) line is a great second option to the potent Thornton, Heatley and Marleau. Defensively Boyle will continue to log major minutes but expect Jason Demers to creep into more minutes. Demers just came off his 1st NHL season and along with Marc-Edouard Vlasic, both 23, they are the future of the Sharks defense. Vlasic led the Sharks in +/- with a +21. The Sharks were also the top faceoff team in the league, winning 55.6% of their faceoffs.

What Could Make Them Go Boom: The Sharks were looking to upgrade their goaltending, so the let Nabokov walk and signed experienced but somewhat unproven Antero Niittymaki. They also signed Antti Niemi to a one year deal. A great move for the Sharks but one that may become controversial. Niittymaki signed with the Sharks thinking he would be the number one goalie. While that may still be the case, the addition of Niemi certainly clouds that picture. Certainly the Sharks have upgraded their goalie tandem and how they utilize both will be interesting. Niittymaki only brings two games worth of playoff expereince to the table but Niemi brings 22 games and a Stanley Cup. Niemi is the first Sharks’ goalie to have won a Stanley Cup since Mike Vernon did so with the Flames. The Sharks must find a way to stay motivated throughout the season, even though they are only interested in the postseason. Losing Blake will be somewhat of a blow, with no other veteran acquired to take his place, but Demers and Vlasic should be more than capable to handle the load. They also need to cut down on turnovers, as they were the 5th worst in the league with 810 giveaways.

Player to Watch: Joe Thornton is in the last year of his deal you have to assume the Sharks would like to retain him for at least three more years to anchor the Marleau and Heatley line. Depending on how he preforms in the regular season and playoffs, he might price himself out of the Sharks budget. But in order for any team to want him, including the Sharks, he will need to step-up his game in the playoffs. This postseason he lead all players with a -11, a dubious distinction no player would ever want. This season and post season is a make or break, put up or shut up for Thornton.

Prediction: The Sharks hope to wrap up a 4th consecutive Pacific Division crown and a 5th consecutive 100+ point season. There really shouldn’t be any reason they won’t unless Niittymaki falters greatly. As always though, the Sharks season is measured but what they do or do not do in the playoffs. They didn’t really lose any significant pieces in the offseason other than Nabokov. However they have replaced him nicely with Niittymaki and Niemi. The Sharks have to hope that Dan Boyle does not suffer an extended injury as that would be a huge blow to the Sharks. The Sharks are once again early favorites to capture the Stanley Cup. Unlike prior seasons when this was the case, this version of the Sharks have learned enough mentally through past mistakes and have acquired the necessary goaltending pieces to make it into a reality.

2.) Los Angeles Kings

Rear-view Mirror: The Kings had their most successful season in awhile making the playoffs for the first time since 2002. They then lost to the Canucks in the 1st round in six games. During the regular season the Kings were one of only two teams, the Capitals were the other, that had eight players score 40 or more points each. The Kings were led by Anze Kopitar (34G-47A-81P) who set career highs in goals, assists, points, +/- and shots on goal. Kopitar also flirted with the league scoring title for a few weeks. Wayne Simmonds (16-24-40) in his 2nd season continued to develop into an all around player. While he was only 8th on the team in points, he almost doubled his point total from last season and he was 1st on the team in +/- with +22 and 2nd in PIM with 116.

On the defensive side Drew Doughty (16-43-59) emerged as one of the premier defensemen in the league and his hard work paid off with a Norris Trophy nomination in only his 2nd season. He was also second on the team in assists, +/- (+20) and points. Jonathan Quick became a workhorse goalie in his 2nd full season and played in 72 games, the 4th most of any goalie. None of Quick’s major stats (2.54 GAA, .907 SV%, 4 SO) were better than his previous season however.

Offseason Ins: Alexei Ponikarovsky, Willie Mitchell

Offseason Outs: Alexander Frolov, Sean O’Donnell, Randy Jones

What Makes Them Tick: The Kings boast an extremely talented and dynamic defensive group. Featuring young Olympians Doughty and Johnson paired with veterans Rob Scuderi and newly signed Willie Mitchell. With the young defensive stars having another year of NHL experience and the addition of another experienced veteran to learn off of, the Kings defense will only get better. Offensively the Kings have a very balanced attacked as alluded to above with eight players with 40+ points each. Kopitar almost had the breakout season everyone was expecting him too before he started to slump somewhat. He still had a great season but this year he should even top that. He should be a 100+ point player this season.

What Could Make Them Go Boom: The Kings will now have expectations for the first time in a long time. How they handle them mentally will determine how successful their season is. Kopitar will need to play more consistently as the Kings are 34-21 when he scores a point and 12-15 when he does not. Overworking Quick is also a potential problem discussed further below. The Kings could also work on turnovers, as they gave away the puck the 4th most with 815 giveaways.

Player to Watch: Jonathan Quick will be under a lot of pressure to preform this year, as the Kings have higher expectations. Quick faltered in the playoffs, where he had the 3rd worse (3.50) GAA and 3rd worse (.884) SV% of playoff goalies who stated at least four games. In order for the Kings to reach their full potential they must get good consistent goaltending from Quick. If Quick falters, the Kings do have a number of options. Erik Ersberg and Jonathan Bernier are two such options. Bernier was sensational in the limited action he saw last season. It’s no doubt that the Kings view Quick, the third goalie on Team USA, as the long term option. It might be wise to play him less games this season, as fatigue was probably a big factor in his playoff slump and the Kings possess more than capable backups.

Prediction: The 6th youngest team in the league, the Kings are poised to improve upon last years balanced success. Frolov and O’Donnell are somewhat significant losses but it shouldn’t have much of an impact on a pretty deep team. O’Donnell is essentially replaced with the Mitchell signing anyway. The Kings should pretty much be a lock to make the playoffs. If Quick can improve his game and Kopitar can take his game to the next level, it’s very possible the Kings could win the division. With the available cap space, I wouldn’t be surprised the Kings add one or two veterans to make a strong playoff run during the season.

3.) Anaheim Ducks

Rear-view Mirror: The Ducks missed the playoffs for the first time in five years. A huge disappointment for a team that was a game away from making the Western Conference Finals the year before. Jonas Hiller emerged as the number one goalkeeper when the Ducks traded away fan favorite and former Conn Smythe winner Jean-Sebastien Giguere to the Maple Leafs. Still he wasn’t as sharp as the year before and he had half as many shutouts (2) in 20 more games. In Scott Niedermayer’s swan song he showed that he still had it logging the 3rd most minutes per game in the league but he finished with his lowest +/- (-9) of his 18 year career.

Injuries also plagued the Ducks for most of the year. Ryan Getzlaf (19G-50A-69P) had various injuries at the beginning and end of the season and Teemu Selanne (27-21-48) broke his hand and then his jaw. Joffrey Lupul (10-4-14) started out the season playing in 23 games and fairly well until he had back problems that kept him out the rest of the season. Despite their injuries the Ducks managed to have the 5th best power play in the league, scoring on 21% of their chances.

Offseason Ins: Toni Lydman, Andy Sutton, Aaron Voros

Offseason Outs: James Wisniewski, Scott Niedermayer, Steve Eminger, Mike Brown

What Makes Them Tick: The re-signing of Teemu Selanne and Saku Koivu (19-33-52) was a huge relief for the Ducks. Now if the Ducks can finally sign Bobby Ryan (35-29-64) and if Joffrey Lupul is healthy enough to play, the Ducks will be boast arguably the best top 6 forwards in the NHL. Even if Lupul can’t play the Ducks will still be loaded. The Getzlaf, Ryan and Corey Perry (27-49-76) line is one of the best in the league. There are also rumors of a reunion with former Duck and team captain Paul Kariya. But those rumors were squashed when Kariya announced he will need to sit out this season due to post-concussion syndrome. Hiller is still on of the top young goalies in the league. He had stretches where he just didn’t look that great last season. But as he has shown during the ouster of the Sharks in the 2009 playoffs and more recently with the Swiss Olympic team, Hiller is capable of raising his game to another level.

What Could Make Them Go Boom: Not signing Bobby Ryan would certainly be a huge blow but that’s unlikely to happen. Injuries and the defense were the downfall of the Ducks last season and it could very will be that way again. Keeping everyone healthy especially the 40 year old Selanne will be hard to do. GM Bob Murray decided to scrap the whole defense after Scott Niedermayer retired. It’s never easy for any team to lose a future hall of famer on defense two seasons in a row. The Ducks have now done that and are hoping the late season additions they made last year (Lubomir Visnovsky (15-30-45)) , coupled with the changes this offseason of Sutton and Lydman will yield them a competitive defense. The Ducks are always one of the most penalized teams in the league and last year was no exception. They racked up 16.1 PIM a game 3rd worst in the league. The Ducks faceoff winning percentage has been taking a tumble recently. They were 4th worst in the league at 48.1%.

Player to Watch: Ryan Getzlaf is an elite player who boasts a impressive resume. Among his accolades are All-Star appearances, Stanley Cup Champion, Olympic Gold medalist and World Juniors Gold medalist. However, he has yet to produce a 100 point season or more than 25 goals in a season. Now entering the prime of his career and his 6th full season, Getzlaf will be expected to step up his game and also his leadership role on the team. The team captaincy is currently vacant and Getzlaf, a current alternate captain, is the front runner to receive it. Other options include the only other former Ducks captain on the roster Teemu Selanne and current alternate captain and long time Canadiens captain Saku Koivu. If he stays healthy, this could very well be Getzlaf’s elite breakout year.

Prediction: The Ducks can easily go from a mid seeded playoff team to not making the playoffs at all. They will probably get in as the 7th or 8th seed. The forwards, especially the big guns, need to stay healthy, if they do that they will develop chemistry and score a lot of goals. On the back end Hiller needs to play better than he did last season. How the defense clicks will ultimately determine the fate of this team. Luca Sbisa, acquired in the Chris Pronger trade, will really need to develop into a top four defenseman in his first full season in the NHL. He played well for the Swiss Olympic team, this past Olympics, with teammate Hiller. Sbisa is also looking to score his first NHL goal. The addition of Sutton will give the Ducks a gritty defenseman who will hopefully rub off on the rest of the defenders. Sutton was 2nd in the league in blocked shots with 204 and 21st overall in hits with 197. Though the Ducks as a team are physical themselves, as they finished 7th in the league in hits with 2050. But they could certainly use the help with blocked shots, as they were the 2nd worst in the league with 943.

4.) Phoenix Coyotes

Rear-view Mirror: The Coyotes had what you would call a magical season last year. They started the season unsure of whether they would stay in Phoenix and as such played to mostly empty arenas. But by the end of the season, they had flirted with the Western Conference’s best record, made the playoffs for the first time since 2002, recorded their first ever 100+ point season and played to packed “white out” crowds. Despite losing to the Red Wings in seven games in the 1st round of the playoffs, Phoenix accomplished a lot as a team and proved that hockey could make it in the desert.

Ilya Bryzgalov (2.29 GAA, .920 SV%) finally became a household name with his breakout season. He was 2nd in the league in shutouts (8), 3rd in wins (42) and he received a Vezina nomination. He helped the Coyotes to the 3rd best team GAA (2.39) in the NHL.

The Coyotes were an offensively challenged team, ranking near the bottom in goals scored. Shane Doan (18G-37A-55P) lead the Coyotes in points. Only the Bruins had a team leader with less points and the Maple Leafs leader (Phil Kessel) also had 55 points. Radim Vrbata (24-19-43) lead the team in goals, the only player on the Coyotes to crack the 20 goal plateau. On the backend Ed Jovanovski (10-24-34) and Zbynek Michalek (3-14-17) formed a formidable defensive one two punch.

Offseason Ins: Ray Whitney, Andrew Ebbett, Kyle Wellwood

Offseason Outs: Zbynek Michalek, Matthew Lombardi, Daniel Winnik, Lee Stempniak

What Makes Them Tick: Not really having a go to guy on the team means that opponents can’t really zero in on any one player to disrupt the flow of the team. Everyone chips in with their blue collar approach. The Coyotes do well in the shootout, where they had the most wins of any team at 14 and one of the higher winning percentages. They are a well disciplined team coming in with the 7th least PIM a game with 11.3. They also had the 2nd least amount of giveaways with 420. Wojtek Wolski (23-42-65) will now move to the center position and anchor the top line with Doan and Ray Whitney (21-37-58). Of course Ilya Bryzgalov is their biggest strength. Look for him to have another phenomenal season.

What Could Make Them Go Boom: The Coyotes didn’t really add enough players to make themselves a stronger contender in a very tough western conference. The offensive struggles of the Coyotes will more than likely continue which is not something you can realistically get away with two years in a row. Last season the Coyotes had the 3rd worst power play in the league but they did have the 6th best penalty kill. The addition of 18 year veteran Whitney will help, provided he can still prove his has some gas left in the tank. Michalek and his 9th best 156 blocked shots are also gone.

Player to Watch: Wojtek Wolski was the big acquisition last year by the Coyotes who gave up Peter Mueller and Kevin Porter. At the time it seemed like a steal, with Mueller struggling to fit in the with the Coyotes. However, Mueller flourished in the few games he played with the Avalanche and nobody is quite sure what the young Porter will develop into. The pressure is now on Wolski to have his break out season, especially on an offensively challenged team. Last season he set career highs in goals (23), assists (42) and points (65). Look for him to push towards a 30 goal 80 point season.

Prediction: It’s hard to imagine the Coyotes duplicating last years success. Teams will now take them as more of a threat. Key players like Doan and Jovanovski are now each a year older. The loss of Michalek will hurt the Coyotes without anyone really brought in to take his place. Still if any team can make it work and make a run for the playoffs the Coyotes could. Last year at this time things looked even bleaker for them. Kyle Turris the 3rd overall pick in the 2007 draft should see even more playing time this year. He is still low on the depth chart currently but could creep up fast. The Coyotes are also bullish on 8th overall pick of the 2008 draft Mikkel Boedker who only played in 14 games last season. How well these young guns can be integrated into the Coyotes, will determine their playoff fate.

5.) Dallas Stars:

Rear-view Mirror: After five consecutive seasons of making the playoffs, the Stars are currently on a two season streak of not making them. After an injury plagued year, Brad Richards (24G-67A-91P) played his first full season in a Stars jersey and lead them in assists and points. Defenseman Stephane Robidas (10-31-41) continued his exceptional level of play. He was 7th in the league in blocked shots (177) and 4th in the league in hits (269) but 1st overall for defensemen. Loui Eriksson (29-42-71) led the Stars in goals and was 2nd in points.

Marty Turco’s GAA (2.72) and SO (4) were pretty average but he had his best SV% (.913) since 2004. The Stars actually finished last in the Pacific Division for the first time since the NHL switched to the the three division format in the 1998-99 season.

Offseason Ins: Andrew Raycroft, Adam Burish, Brad Lukowich

Offseason Outs: Mike Modano, Marty Turco

What Makes Them Tick: The Stars are a very physical and great checking team. The lead the NHL in hits last season with 2338. Loui Eriksson is just coming into his prime and he should be able to produce another 30+ goal season. Paired with a healthy Brad Richards and gritty veteran and team captain Brenden Morrow (20-26-46) they make a formidable 1st line. The Stars have a lot of free cap space, so they should be in the market to make other improvements. Defenseman Mark Fistric (1-9-10) finished 4th in the league in +/- with a + 27.

What Could Make Them Go Boom: Kari Lehtonen is so far penciled in to be the starting goalie. Lehtonen is now entering his 7th season in the NHL and while he has played well, it’s nothing exceptional that you would want in your number one goalie in this day and age. So while he is not a bad option, he is probably only temporary anyway. The Stars have a few young goalie prospects that could come up this season or next. They include 2006 pick Richard Bachman, 2008 pick Tyler Beskorowany and the 11th pick overall in the 2010 draft Jack Campbell. Despite their physical nature of style, the Stars ended up with the 4th worst penalty kill. Like the Ducks, the Stars also struggle with faceoffs coming in at the 5th worst with 48.1%

Player to Watch: Jamie Benn was a relative unknown last season taken in the 5th round of the 2007 draft. However he was a standout player for the Kelowna Rockets in the WHL and was named to the all-star first team his last year there. He also helped Team Canada win a Gold at the 2009 World Junior Championships. Benn found a home on the 2nd line with the Stars in his first NHL season. He produced 22 goals and 19 assists for 41 points and 3 game winning goals tied for 3rd on the team. Look for more out of Benn in his 2nd season. He has the potential to be a consistent 30+ goal scorer.

Prediction: It’s a transition season for Dallas as the team shed two veterans (Turco, Modano) who most identified as the faces of the franchise. Playing in a fairly strong division it is not likely the Stars will make the playoffs and they seem destined for last place for the 2nd year in a row. However the Stars didn’t miss the last playoff spot by much, like a lot of teams out West. They still boast two impressive scoring lines and one of the top defenseman in the league in Robidas. The team certainly is not an easy win especially in Dallas. If Lehtonen or one of the young prospects can perform well in goal, anything is possible.

Hurricane Season:

The Carolina Hurricanes hold eleven draft picks this weekend, including three second round picks, and we all saw at this year’s trade deadline what second round picks can get you.  This is a team that is a year removed from the Eastern Conference Finals and four years removed from their Stanley Cup victory.  Carolina after the New year last season was 25-14-3. With the Southeast division so wide open after the Washington Capitals and in the salary cap era, it’s possible to go from being a non-playoff team to a Stanley Cup contender overnight; therefore, this weekend could be start of something good for the Caniacs.  Keep an eye on this team this weekend, for they can either package their extra picks to move up in the draft, or pick up necessary veteran pieces to upgrade their defense who were 26^th in the league in GAA (3.06).

Cap Tap Dancing:

Much has been printed about how the Stanley Cup Champions are in serious cap trouble, but there are other teams that are going to be interested in unloading salary for draft picks.  The Boston Bruins took on even more salary in the trade for Nathan Horton; now they will be asking some team to help them out by trading for backup goalie and former Vezina Trophy winner Tim Thomas, or even team leader Marc Savard.

Big changes were expected as the Calgary Flames failed to make the playoffs for the first time since the 2002-03 season.  Defensively they made the switch from Dion Phaneuf to Jay Bouwmeester, but now they have too much money tied up to their backline.  The team will try to move the likes of restricted free agent Ian White or veteran Cory Sarich, or they may try to get tough d-man Robyn Regehr to waive his no movement clause. But something will have to give as the Flames try to create some much-needed cap space.

Goalie Carousel:

With the news coming out that the Sharks are not retaining mainstay Evgeni Nabokov, the first domino has fallen in the great goalie debate.  Nabokov will now be the number one free agent goalie available with Marty Turco, Chris Mason, Dan Ellis and Michael Leighton falling in line after. 

Although we won’t know where these players will end up until July 1^st, the groundwork for some of their landing spots could be laid this weekend.  The teams in need of a starting goalie are San Jose, Washington, Philadelphia, Tampa Bay and Atlanta.  If those teams choose to trade for an available young goalie, then we know they are out of the running for the big free agent goalies available. 

As you sit there in your favorite team jersey waiting for it to be October, let’s recap and vote on our favorite moments on the season that was. The 2009-10 NHL season was one of the most thrilling ever, featuring a Stanley Cup playoff race that was wide open. The 2010 Stanley Cup Playoffs smashed many ratings records on the way to crowning the Chicago Blackhawks as Stanley Cup champions. Most, if not all, of the twitter tending topics that night were NHL related. Hockey is definitely on an upswing. Some of the points below I didn’t go into as much detail as I would like to have. However, I already wrote about most of it in previous columns, so sometimes it’s hard to re-write. There’s a lot to read and videos to watch, so I hope you enjoy it! (Trust me when I say it’s really long)

To break this article down, in the first part I recap the season of the Stanley Cup Champions, then I go into the biggest surprises, disappointments and awards of the season and other miscellaneous stuff. I end it with voting for the goat and the fight of the season, compiled from the best of those during the regular season from my weekly Between the Pipes column. Which I hope you all come back to read next season.

The 2009-10 Stanley Cup Champions

Chicago Blackhawks

What an unusual season it was for the Chicago Blackhawks. Their offseason certainly wasn’t boring. First you have Marian Hossa signing a huge contract worth 62.8 million dollars over 12 years. That alone brings up many questions like won’t he be 42 by the end of it? How do you even know how he will perform towards the end of the contract? Then the good/bad of the signing, Hossa wanted to play for a contending team and he viewed the Blackhawks as the team with the best chance to do so. Well that’s great but then you wonder, didn’t he think that with the Penguins and the Red Wings as well? How did that turn out? Next up you have Patrick Kane and his cousin assaulting a cab driver for 20 cents. Wait he what? There’s nothing like having one of your top players being involved in a ridiculous incident like that. Still the Blackhawks pressed on and opened the season a talented loaded team with one huge albatross around their neck, what about your goaltending?

Cristobal Huet was the number one goaltender by default, despite not being the number one last season, because the Blackhawks didn’t have enough money to sign Nikolai Khabibulin. As the starting goalie, Huet certainly didn’t make the regular season boring. First you had his 25.29 GAA average against the Flames in October, where he gave up three goals on five shots in seven minutes. Though to speak to the resiliency of the Blackhawks this season, Niemi actually came in and gave up two more goals in the 1^st period to put the Blackhawks in a 0-5 hole at intermission. But the Blackhawks ended up scoring six unanswered goals to win the game in overtime. Then there was the game against the Stars in which Huet gave up four goals on ten shots. Finally he gave up 14 goals over a span of three games, when the Blackhawks finally said the hell with this and made Antti Niemi the starting goalie. He did have some high points, putting together a seven game win streak and posting four shutouts. But he will mostly be remembered for plays like this:

Despite their goaltending issues, Chicago came within one point of the best record in the West. They boasted a balanced scoring attack with six players each having 20+ goal seasons. They also boasted one of the top defensive pairs in the league in Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook. Antti Niemi started to develop into a number one netminder, hopefully vanquishing the albatross in the process.

The Blackhawks opened the 1^st round of the playoffs against the perennial stepping stone Nashville Predators. The Blackhawks lost the 1^st game at home and then the 3^rd game on the road to find themselves in a 1-2 hole. They seemed disinterested in the series and they weren’t getting the basics right. They managed to win Game 4 but then Game 5 happened. Game 5 was the kind of game that everything just went right, even when things looked bleak. It was the turning point of the series and the Blackhawks season. It was the game in which the Blackhawks got their swagger back. Let’s set the stage. Down in the important Game 5, 4-3, in the final minutes the Blackhawks try a final push only to have Marian Hossa get called for boarding. It appeared that Hossa was already working his curse magic. Instead it turned out to be a blessing in disguise, as the inexperienced Predators played aggressive on the power play, looking for the kill goal. The Blackhawks were able to get a lucky bounce on the rebound and storm the other way and then pull their goalie to make it five on five. Then in some eerie foreshadowing, Patrick Kane scored the game tying goal off of a rebound in what would be his second most important goal of the playoffs.

After opening the overtime period shorthanded the Blackhawks ended up in the Predators zone and Hossa jumps out of the box and sets up right where Patrick Kane scored the previous goal. The puck once again took a fortuitous bounce and Hossa capped off the impromptu comeback.

In the decisive Game 6 you could tell it would be the Blackhawks year after Brent Seabrook gets an unexpected goal against Pekka Rinne.

From there it was the highly anticipated rematch with the Vancouver Canucks. Personally I found the series to be disappointing, as most of the games were pretty one sided. It had some comical moments though, like when the Canucks self destructed in Game 5 and committed four penalties in the span of four minutes and 40 seconds. There was also Roberto Luongo being himself hot, a 1.00 GAA in the two Canucks wins and cold, 5.25 GAA in the four losses. The soon to be Conn Smythe winner, Jonathan Toews was simply sensational against the Canucks. He was also in the midst of a 13 game point streak in which he amassed 25 of his 29 points.

Next was the highly anticipated match-up between the number one seeded Sharks. The win total of the two teams far surpassed any of the other match-ups in the 2010 playoffs. Oddly enough, it was also the only sweep of the playoffs. I’ll write more about it below in the disappointing section.

Then it was onward to the Blackhawks first Stanley Cup appearance in 49 years to face the Philadelphia Flyers and their 35 year drought. The series was very good and each game had a point in the 3^rd period, except for Game 5, where there was only a one goal differential. I don’t know about you but that’s hockey I want to see. Nobody on the Blackhawks had a truly remarkable series. They won as a team as it should be in hockey, the ultimate team sport. Some players did have remarkable games though, as Dustin Byfuglien did in Game 5 and Patrick Kane did in Game 6. The thing I love most about hockey is watching each player on the team hoist the Stanley Cup and skate around with it. You don’t see anything else like that in any other sport, period. Just the player, the Stanley Cup and the moment. It’s something every player in the NHL hopes to achieve but very few get too. An experience so awesome that it brings tears to those that didn’t get to achieve it, like Jeremy Roenick the great Blackhawk for eight seasons and 20 NHL seasons overall.

You shouldn’t be surprised that the Blackhawks won the series, as we still haven’t had a team with a regular season goal differential of less than a +25 win the cup in the past 20 years, maybe longer (This is my favorite hockey stat). The Flyers had no chance with their +11. It also wasn’t all bad for Huet. As many of you know, Niemi was the first Finnish goalie to win the Cup. Despite not really playing, Huet was also the first Frenchman to win the Cup. Here are some of the Blackhawks celebrating with Jay Leno, gag.

Finally for shits and giggles here are some of the best user comments on Yahoo by fans after the Blackhawks were down 1-2 to the Predators after their Game 3 loss.

A Yahoo! User Thu Apr 22, 2010 03:02 pm PDT

“I can’t wait next year for the Hawks 50 year anniversary since the last cup we won! We’re not gonna win it this year cause we won’t get out of the 1st round but when they bring those guys from the 1961 cup team come out on their rascals i will stand up and salute them. I hope they make snow tires for rascals. Maybe the Caps will let us borrow the cup next year for the ceremony. We probably won’t make the playoffs next year with a new coach and we play in a division with the Red Wings, Preds, (who are embarassing us) and the Blues and Jackets will be better next year so we might be last in the central. I also can’t wait to hang that central division banner next year. The Caps can have the cup we have the central division! That’s most important.” (This guy feels really stupid right now)

tom c Wed Apr 21, 2010 10:40 am PDT

“I don’t care who wins the cup if Detroit doesnt all I do know is it won’t be CHICAGO….1961…hahaha. Get used to it and the Wings will win another cup or two before you do if ever again…Love hossa now don’t ya…”

Biggest Surprises/Best of the Year

Teams

Phoenix Coyotes – How many of you had the Coyotes getting home ice in the 1^st round and then coming within a game of knocking off the perennial contending Red Wings? Nope nobody did and if you said you did, you’re lying. Apparently Wayne Gretzky was holding them back. Kidding aside this plucky group gave it their all. They even did it with the possibility of being sold at any moment during the season and having to possibly relocate at the end of the season. Ilya Bryzgalov, who had a few previous outstanding seasons, finally became a somewhat household name. He was 2^nd in the league with eight shutouts and he was nominated for the Vezina Trophy. The rest of the squad collectively overachieved. Shane Doan was the leading scorer with a whopping 55 points and only one other player had over 50 points (Matthew Lombardi). Radim Vrbata was the only Coyote to have over 20 goals during the season with 24. Despite losing in the 1^st round, the season was definitely something to build on. More importantly it may have finally sold hockey in the Phoenix desert.

Montreal Canadiens – The Canadiens magic season can be summed up with two words, Jaroslav Halak. If it wasn’t for his emergence the Canadiens would have had just another 1^st round exit. But he did emerge out of the shadow of Carey Price. I’ll admit Carey Price doesn’t cast a very large shadow but Halak had mostly been his backup until this year when they evenly split time in the regular season. Come the playoffs Halak was named the starter but he really didn’t flourish until after he was benched for Game 4 and then he came back with a vengeance. He even faced 134 shots over a three game span against the Capitals, not an easy task. It wasn’t all Halak though, Michael Cammalleri, Brian Gionta, Scott Gomez and Tomas Plekanec led the Canadiens offensively in the regular season and postseason. Though Gionta and Cammalleri combined for almost half of the 46 postseason goal total with 22 goals. There was also the emergence of P.K Subban who stepped in for the injured Andrei Markov and perhaps even surpassed his level of play. Subban was loved in Montreal for his hustle, determination and skill and hated everywhere else for his big mouth. The 2009-10 Canadiens returned the storied franchise to the Conference Finals for the first time since 1993. Even a 1^st round series win is celebrated like they just won the Stanley Cup in Montreal. I’ll leave with two videos, one the crazy but tame celebration and one not so tame.

Best Game 7

Washington Capitals vs. Montreal Canadiens

I can’t think of a game that had me at the edge of the seat like this one, in quite some time. Despite the Canadiens winning the previous two games, I didn’t really give them much of a chance. First you had the Canadiens taking the early 1-0 lead on the power play, just 30 seconds into the game. But it was still early and the Capitals had plenty of time to come back. Only after the second intermission it was still 1-0 and then you start to wonder, maybe the Canadiens can pull it off. When Montreal scored with about four minutes left in the game to take a 2-0 lead, you realized you were watching history in the making. About a minute and a half later the Capitals finally score to cut it to 2-1 and then you think maybe they can come back. All you know is the final two minutes would be the most intense you’ve ever seen in your life. Then Montreal gets called for a penalty to make 5 on 4. The Capitals pull their goalie to make it a 6 on 4 and you think surely the number 1 offensive team can score a goal with a two man advantage to save their season. But no Halak comes up huge the time runs out and see Alex Ovechkin slumped over to end another season. Relive the final two minutes here.

Best Series

This one was really hard for me to pick so I decided I’ll name four and you can vote. I didn’t include the Stanley Cup Finals because well it’s the Stanley Cup Finals so it would be memorable even if it sucked, which in this case it did not.

Vancouver Canucks vs. Los Angeles Kings

This was an awesome series that we were sadly deprived of a Game 7. It featured lots of open ice action, some high scoring and sometimes some great saves. Watching Doughty shut down the Sedin twins was also great to watch.

Detroit Red Wings vs. Phoenix Coyotes

This series was also great. The enthusiasm in the Jobing.com Arena (dumb name) was awesome and Detroit matched it. There was a ton of open ice as well in this series and high scoring. Game 7 took a little bit of the luster off of the series. Favorite moment is the Shane Doan face after his Game 2 goal, who could ever forget that.

Boston Bruins vs. Philadelphia Flyers

Game 1 was truly spectacular and featured a lot of pretty goals and an overtime win. Game 4 featured the same 5-4 score as Game 1 and another overtime. This series will mostly be remembered for the Flyers and their great series comeback and never give up attitude.

Montreal Canadiens vs. Pittsburgh Penguins

Hard to pick this series over the Canadiens vs. Capitals series but I did because you didn’t really know what you were witnessing at that point, plus I missed a lot of the games because there were so many other series going on. Other than Game 7 (more on that below) I thought this series was pretty evenly matched with great intensity and an always great Montreal crowd. Just love that atmosphere in the Bell Centre.

Biggest Disappointments/Worst of the Year

Teams

Anaheim Ducks – After coming within a game of the Western Conference Finals last season, Anaheim made the off season trade of sending Chris Pronger to the Flyers for Joffrey Lupul and Luca Sbisa. They had hoped to bolster their offense while securing another blueliner of the future for Pronger. They felt the addition of Lupul coupled with the signing of Saku Koivu would give them the offense they needed in order to make another run at the cup. Unfortunately while that looked great on paper, absolutely nothing worked out for the Ducks. Sbisa, while he will probably be on the Ducks blueline for the next decade, at only 19 was not ready for the big leagues especially with the crowded Ducks defenseman corp; he wouldn’t have cracked the top two pairs. Coach Carlyle felt it was important Sbisa received playing time, so down to the minors to dominate he went. Lupul was reunited with the team that drafted him but a happy reunion it was not meant to be. He ended up playing in only 23 games and was out the rest of the year with back spasms and a subsequent herniated disk surgery. While in the long run the trade might look kindly on the Ducks, they essentially traded Pronger and received nothing in return.

Koivu and Teemu Selanne, Team Finland linemates, never really developed the chemistry the team was hoping for when they acquired Koivu. Selanne also suffered two of his worst injuries in his career almost in succession, further dampening the Ducks hopes of a potent second line. Towards the last few weeks of the season, the duo finally blossomed and showed their potential but it was to late. But give credit where it’s due, Koivu was the Ducks MVP for the last two weeks racking up 11 points in the final five games. On the back-end the defensive core seemed to be okay with the trade of Pronger because the Ducks had acquired James Wisniewski and Ryan Whitney last season. Wisniewski played adequately but found himself suspended a few times, causing the group to not be at full strength. Ryan Whitney did not fit in well, especially at the power play point where the Ducks had hoped he would fill Pronger’s skates. He did not and the Oilers and Ducks swapped Olympians with the Ducks receiving Lubomir Visnovsky (further giving me another beyond complicated name to type when I recap the past weeks Anaheim Ducks games). Lack of chemistry and injuries really were the downfall of the Ducks. Next year looks promising though if they can bring back all of the key players next season.

Washington Capitals – There’s an old adage that goes “defense wins championships”. Apparently the Capitals have never heard of it. Coasting through the regular season playing in the weakest division and racking up goals like nobody’s business, these Capitals seemed destined for great things. They were the Goliath of the NHL. But unfortunately for the Capitals, there was also a David lurking named the Montreal Canadiens and their mighty stone Jaroslav Halak. Now don’t get me wrong the Capitals had a 3-1 series lead at one point, so it’s not like they played horribly throughout. It’s just when you play four series in three seasons and they all go to even games and you only win one of them, people start to wonder many things. I don’t blame the Capitals for only getting three goals by Halak in games five, six and seven, because lets face it, the line of Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux and Brett Hull in their primes probably wouldn’t have scored any more goals either. I more concerned with their lack of heart and their willingness to do whatever it takes to win. I’m also concerned with their defense. Mike Green is probably the premier offensive defenseman in the league but he’s nowhere near the top of defensive defenseman in the league. That’s really where the Capitals need him to be. He just completed his fourth season though, so barring something drastic on his part I really don’t think he will improve. The NHL really needs to do him a favor and stop nominating him for Norris Trophies he doesn’t deserve. The Capitals need to acquire better defensive talent and they need to become a more dynamic offensive team. I will give props to Semyon Varlamov who had a pretty good postseason. Unfortunately not many noticed it. Who knows though, the Sharks had a 1^st round exit last year and made it to the Conference Finals this year. The same could happen to the Capitals.

Worst Game 7

Pittsburgh Penguins vs. Montreal Canadiens

This Game 7 was somewhat reminiscent of last years 2^nd round game between the Penguins and Capitals in which the Penguins destroyed the Capitals 6-2 in the 2^nd round in a hugely disappointing game as well. This time the Penguins were on the losing end. I’m still not really sure how the defending Champions would show up so flat footed at home, but they did. They lost the game 5-2 and were even down in the 2^nd at one point 0-4, yikes. As awesome as this series was, and it was one of the best of the playoffs, this game couldn’t have been anymore anticlimactic. It also showcased none of the things that made the series great, other than Halak playing well again. Marc-Andre Fleury was awful, the Penguins defense was awful, Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin had no points and the game wasn’t close.

Worst Series

Chicago Blackhawks vs. San Jose Sharks

I alluded to it in the Blackhawks season recap but this certainly was the most disappointing series in some time. Normally you don’t get the 1 vs. 2 match-up very often and considering what we got in the East, I expected so much more from this series. The Sharks had just come off a dismantling of the Detroit Red Wings and the Blackhawks looked strong coming off their Canucks series win. Now none of the final scores had more than a two goal win but you just got the vibe the whole series that the Sharks didn’t have much of a chance, especially after they dropped the first two games at home. The score in those games were a lot closer than the game actually was. Nobody on the Sharks came to play except Patrick Marleau and they never scored more than two goals in a game. You can’t expect to win the series when you average 1.75 goals a game in the series. The Sharks also took a bunch of dumb penalties in Game 4 when it was tied 2-2, basically handing the game to the Blackhawks on a silver platter. Evgeni Nabokov didn’t play well and now I hear the Sharks want to resign him, yikes. He’s a regular season goalie, not a playoffs goalie.

Miscellaneous

Can only happen in hockey

Duncan Keith loses seven teeth – Duncan Keith, or how he’s referred to on the internet Duncan Teeth, showed the world just how tough hockey players are. While trying to keep the puck in the offensive zone on the power play, Keith took a puck to his face from a clearing attempt by Patrick Marleau. Marleau ended up scoring a breakaway goal because Keith was taken out of the play. But showing the true hockey player that he is, Keith returned to the game minutes later. Here’s a nice video on the play and what happened afterwards.

You’ve got to be kidding me

The Philadelphia Flyers come back from an 0-3 series deficit – This feet was made all the more impressive by the fact that they only got into the playoffs on a shootout win in the final game of the season against the New York Rangers. But the Flyers became only the third team in NHL history to comeback, joining the 1975 New York Islanders and the 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs. Not only did they come back down from 0-3 in the series, they also came back down 0-3 in Game 7. Not to mention they had to switch stating goalies in the middle of the series due to injury and they lost their 2^nd leading scorer, Jeff Carter, for a month due to injury. I can’t think of a team that had to battle so much to get so far. Many thought this might be a team of destiny but their destiny ran out in the Stanley Cup Finals. Special acknowledgment goes to Danny Briere for leading the whole NHL in postseason scoring and for having some pretty goals along the way.

Iron Man Award

Craig Anderson – Now here’s a guy that had never been a starter in the league before or played in more than 31 games. He played in 71 games this season for the Colorado Avalanche, almost the same amount of games he played combined in his first five years in the league. He didn’t stop there, as he faced the most shots of any goalie during the regular season with 2233. He was one of the primary reasons the Avalanche rebounded so quickly. In the playoffs he faced the highest shot total of any goalie to play six games and sometimes he faced more than those with a few more games played than him. He finished the playoffs with the highest SV% at .933. Here’s hoping he can keep up the pace next year.

Team on the Rise

Los Angeles Kings – Something is brewing in Los Angeles and it isn’t the latest motion picture. It’s the first legit team the Kings have put together since Wayne Gretzky left town. They’re a young and deep talented team. Anze Kopitar at only 22 has seemingly blossomed into an elite player leading the league in scoring for a good chunk of the time. He did severely cool off towards the end of the season. However, I think this season was just a little preview of what’s to come. The Kings have a great pair of young defenseman in Drew Doughty and Jack Johnson. Doughty is something truly special and his skilled were acknowledged with the Norris Trophy nomination. While I don’t think he will win it this year, my vote is on Duncan Keith, I think Doughty might dominate the award in the future like Bobby Orr, Raymond Bourque and Nicklas Lidstrom have in the past. Doughty was simply sensational in the Canucks series. How quickly the Kings can ascend, falls mostly on the shoulders of Jonathan Quick. Quick was a workhorse this season and will probably need to be again next season. He will need to continue to hone his skill in his 3^rd full season if the Kings hope to advance further in the playoffs.

The comeback that never was

Ray Emery – Nobody wanted to take a chance on Ray Emery because of his previous bad behavior but the Flyers desperate for goalie help decided it would be worth the risk. Emery started all of 29 games before suffering a torn muscle. He was later diagnosed with avascular necrosis and was out for the rest of the year. In his absence Brian Boucher and Michael Leighton led the Flyers all the way to the Stanley Cup Finals. With the Flyers recently signing Johan Backlund and already having Brian Boucher under contract, its unlikely free agent Emery will return. I don’t think any other NHL team will give him a chance either and I’m not even sure if he is fully recovered to play.

Breakout of the year

Steven Stamkos – I gave it to Stamkos because he had struggled so much the previous year. It’s not easy to come into the league as the 1^st overall pick in the draft. Expectations are high and you are expected to perform. Stamkos rose to the challenge in his second year. Playing along side Martin St. Louis certainly helps but Stamkos is a special talent in his own right. Leading the league in goals in your second season is also an impressive feat. Stamkos will only continue to get better. John Tavares was another number 1 pick this year that put up almost identical numbers to what Stamkos did in his first season. I suspect his second season will end up being his breakout year as well. Craig Anderson would have gotten this nod for the regular season but I gave him another award. Jaroslav Halak would defiantly have gotten this award for the postseason but I already wrote about him.

Rookie of the Year (Calder Trohpy)

Tyler Myers – Besides goalie I think defenseman is the hardest position to learn. It’s not easy to try and stop the speed and skill of the top wingers in the NHL on a nightly basis. Myers was also the only defenseman on the Sabres in the top 80 in defenseman scoring. It’s very rare that there aren’t at least two defenseman from each team in the top 60. Leading all players on your team in ice time is always an honor for any rookie. Myers should compliment Ryan Miller for years to come.

Goalie of the Year (Vezina Trophy)

Ryan Miller – Goaltending has only gotten better over the years and there were a lot of strong contenders. Tuukka Rask came in a strong second but he played in 24 fewer games so I’d like to see what he can do with a full season under his belt. Miller had the 2^nd best GAA at 2.22 and the 2^nd best SV% at .931. Both were behind Rask. He faced the 4^th most shots and had the 4^th most wins. So while he wasn’t first in any major statistical category, he was 1^st in taking over a game. He isn’t perfect though as he did make a few of my Goat of the Week awards this season. But as the entire World witnessed in the Olympics, he can put on quite a good show. This past January I saw Miller play live against the Ducks. He didn’t start the game, Patrick Lalime did. But the Ducks chased Lalime after the first 10 minutes after he gave up four goals. Though the Ducks did manage to score one goal on Miller, the whole entire feel of the game seemed different when he came into it. It was if he told the Ducks this isn’t going to be easy anymore. It wasn’t. I hope that Miller doesn’t suffer the same fate Dominik Hasek did in Buffalo. That is to go cupless.

Player of the Year (Hart Trophy)

Sidney Crosby – Now before we start this, I am not a diehard Sidney Crosby fan. I think he is a great player but I do not worship the ground he walks on. Furthermore, I honestly don’t think he is the most talented player on his team. I think Evgeni Malkin is. Two years ago Malkin would have easily won my player of the year award (I know my award isn’t that prestigious). So why does Crosby get it when Alex Ovechkin and Henrik Sedin had just as good or even better seasons? Well first off, Malkin didn’t have the same year he had in the previous two seasons and a lot of that was due to injuries. So basically Crosby had to carry the Penguins on his back. The other important thing to remember is Crosby doesn’t really have anyone else on his line. Sure Chris Kunitz and Bill Guerin are good players but they aren’t great. Sedin has his brother Daniel Sedin on the same line and Ovechkin has Nicklas Backstrom and sometimes Alexander Semin. Crosby is the line all by himself. He also scored 51 goals which was not only tied for 1^st in the league but his own personal best. He had never even reached 40 goals in any of his previous seasons. He was also red hot in the 1^st round of the playoffs before coming back down to earth against Halak. I don’t think he has reached his full potential yet but I felt he was the best player on the ice this season.

Vote for the best of the season

Some were hard cuts particularly in the Goat category, so many goats this season. But I narrowed it down to three fights and five goats. There is no playoff goats so no Dan Boyle own goal or Halak stupidly playing the puck way beyond his net.

Fight of the Season

Cam Janssen vs. Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond

David Koci vs. Brian McGrattan

Rick Rypien vs. Cam Janssen

Goat of the Season

Nikolai Khabibulin misplays the puck in the final minute of the game against the Flames to give them the win.

Tim Thomas mishandles the puck allowing the Penguins to get the win in overtime.

Keith Ballard taking out his own unsuspecting goalie

Ivan Vishnevskiy loses the puck off his stick and into his own empty net

Antoine Vermette comes sweeping in and knocks it in his own goal.

How do you say disappointing? – So the 2010 Stanley Cup playoffs were shaping up to be some of the best playoff action in quite some time. The 1st round was just awesome. No sweeps and all games tied at 1-1. The 2nd round was for the most part pretty decent. Then we get to the Conference Finals where the awesome playoff momentum should surely carry over. I mean if the the previous rounds were close surely the next round would be the closest and most evenly matched right?

Wrong you are good sir. In the West San Jose looked nothing like the team that dismantled Detroit, not even close. Chicago looks like it was bored half the time in the 1st two games. San Jose now has the dubious distinction of four straight 100 point seasons and no Stanley Cup hardware to show for it. The only other team that did that would be the New York Islanders. Of course after their four years of ineptitude, they rattled off four straight championships. Something tells me that won’t be happening to the Sharks though, because there are simply way to many teams now.

In the East we got a match-up we weren’t expecting at all. But I was still excited because you had one team, the Flyers, coming off an improbable 0-3 comeback and another, the Canadiens, coming off of two straight thrilling Game 7 upsets. So naturally this would make for a great series right? Wrong again. The first two games weren’t even fun to watch unless you were a Flyers fan. Game 3 wasn’t much fun to watch either, unless you were a Canadiens fan. Game 4? Well that one was fun to watch except for the fact that the Canadiens signature this postseason, their defense, ended up costing them the game with two mistakes. One was a skate malfunction and really that’s just crappy luck, not much you can do with that. The other was a bad pass that Philly also converted.

Before we get into it congratulations go out to the Edmonton Oilers for getting Taylor Hall, he will be awesome for years to come. Yes they didn’t pick him yet but if they don’t, they have lost their minds.

7 Philadelphia Flyers vs. 8 Montreal Canadiens

I wish I could write more on this series but for some reason I can’t recall much of it.

What we learned: You really can’t predict the East, so stop trying.

Things I like: I like the way the Flyers rebounded in Game 4. It was a really crucial game on the road that they weren’t really expected to win after getting shalaked in Game 3. The 2nd period was key for them as they out shot the Canadiens 13 to 1.

I find it ironic that the Flyers biggest problem the last few years (Martin Biron, Robert Esche, Ron Hextall) was finding a quality goaltender to lead them to the Finals. Yet this year they can plug in any washed up goalie and watch him play phenomenally, weird.

Things I don’t: Why does Halak have such problems playing in Game 1′s? He didn’t play in Game 1 against Washington but he was pulled in both Game 1′s in the 2nd and 3rd round. He gave up six goals each time too. I’d like to think he hasn’t played the team yet so he has to feel them out. The problem is he isn’t a rookie and he has played these teams before.

Montreal actually out shot the Flyers in every game but game 4, which is weird because they only out shot the Penguins in two of the seven games and only once in the seven games against the Capitals, but they aren’t scoring much. The main issue is they don’t have any bodies in front of Michael Leighton. As Dustin Byfuglien has shown for the Blackhawks, having a net presence is important and helps you score goals.

Montreal is a mind boggling 1 for 16 on the power play in this series, that’s just awful. You won’t win many games if you can’t convert on the man advantage. They even had a 5 on 3 which they didn’t convert. Of course a lot of this goes back to my point of establishing a net presence, the Canadiens haven’t so the power play is suffering.

Likely Winner: Flyers, of course I didn’t think Montreal would come back down 3-1 to the Capitals. I also didn’t think the Flyers would come back down 3-0 to the Bruins. So maybe I should pick the Canadiens.

1 San Jose Sharks vs. 2 Chicago Blackhawks

Normally I break down the series and give my prediction but it’s over so… let’s recap it. Congratulations to the Blackhawks for making their first Stanley Cup Final since 1992.

This series reminded me of the Stanley Cup final in 2008 when the Penguins just looked lost the 1st two games and then came out and played well in the rest of the series. The same can be said for the Sharks, who were lost in the 1st two games and found in the 2nd two games. The problem is they didn’t win either of the 2nd two games, so series over.

The Sharks never scored more than two goals in any game against the Blackhawks. Now a lot of that is because of the sterling performance put in by Antti Niemi. But regardless, you still won’t win many games if you average 1.75 goals a game. The Sharks total lack of composure in the 3rd period of Game 4 really hurt them. It was tied 2-2 but they took 3 fairly dumb penalties in the period while the Blackhawks took none. Wouldn’t you know it the game winner was scored on the power play by the Blackhawks.

I think it’s time for the Sharks to do a complete overhaul on Defense. Evgeni Nabokov while he didn’t play horribly is not the goalie who will lead you to the Stanley Cup. He is also not getting any younger. Speaking of which the Defense is not getting any younger either. Only two of the top six defenseman are under 30. Come playoff time, you really need some fresh legs back there. The secondary scoring was non existent. Joe Pavelski who was so great against the Avalanche and in the first half against the Red Wings, failed to really show up against the Blackhawks. Other than Patrick Marleau nobody really showed up against the Blackhawks offensively.

Let’s not take anything away from the Chicago Blackhawks though. This was a team rebuilt from nothing in the draft. Also let’s face it when one of your key pieces, Dustin Byfuglien, was drafted in the 8th round you have an eye for talent. The Blackhawks have a great defensive core and are three lines deep in scoring talent. The checking line can also score at times. The only thing they were missing was solid goaltending, but they have found that in Antti Niemi. Let’s not forget to mention Duncan Keith losing most of his teeth and coming back out on the ice. Now that’s a hockey player.

Numbers Numbers

-11 – Joe Thornton’s plus minus rating for the Stanley Cup playoffs

9 – Number of goals for Joe Pavelski in the first 8 games

0 – Number of goals for Joe Pavelski in the second 7 games

5,625,000 – Cristobal Huet’s salary this season

826,875 – Antti Niemi’s salary this season

.953 – Halak’s SV% in games 5 through 7

.877 – Halak’s SV% in games 1 through 4

1 to 1 – The ratio of points to penalty minutes for Chris Pronger, the first time it isn’t in favor of PIM in his postseason career

3 – The number of shutouts for Michael Leighton in four games against the Canadiens.

This Week in Hockey History

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

May 17, 1979 Ken Dryden became the first goalie in NHL history to score a point in the Stanley Cup Finals. He drew an assist on Jacques Lemaire’s goal at 17:10 of the third period, to give the Canadiens a 4-1 win over the Rangers in Game 3 of the Finals.

May 18, 1997 Wayne Gretzky extended his NHL record with his 10th playoff hat trick, and the Rangers scored three times on their first 4 shots for a 5-4 win at Philadelphia, in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Semi-Finals.

May 19, 2000 Patrick Roy tied an NHL record with his 15th career playoff shutout (set by Clint Benedict in the 1920′s) and rookie Martin Skoula had 2 assists as the Avalanche won 2-0 over the visiting Dallas Stars, in Game 3 of the Western Conference Finals.

May 20, 2000 Craig Berube scored the game-winning playoff goal (his third goal in 86 playoff games) at 12:58 of the third period as Philadelphia won 3-1 at New Jersey, in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Finals.

May 21, 1979 Montreal beat NY Rangers 4-1 in Game Five of the Finals, to become the 1979 Stanley Cup Champions. The win gave Montreal its 4th straight Cup, one short of their record five (1956-60).

If the Flyers win tonight then I’ll be back relatively soon with a Stanley Cup Finals preview.

Flyered Up:

Seven goalies dressed shootout to get into the playoffs, down 3-0 in a series and 3-0 in Game 7—all no problem to these Philadelphia Flyers.  From a town that immortalized the ultimate underdog movie hero, Rocky , this is a run that seems only real in the movies.

One of the biggest attributes needed to win a Stanley Cup is resiliency.  The journey through the Stanley Cup playoffs is usually one with a lot of peaks and valleys.  Players are going in and out of the lineup, series turn on a dime and through it all the team that has mental toughness to work through those ebb and flows are the ones that come out on top.

With that being said the Montreal Canadiens are a team that has also shown some big time resiliency during the playoffs.  Being down 3-1 to the President Trophy Capitals and 3-2 to the defending Stanley Cup Champions, the Pittsburgh Penguins, and winning those series shows some serious intestinal fortitude.  It is almost like they would prefer to be in this position and have experts give them no shot to win.

Regardless, in any series the fourth win is the toughest to get.  That is when desperation takes over and the idea of not playing hockey anymore is so close to a reality for these players that cherish the game.  I will be looking forward to see if the Flyers will survive the first period back to the wall push by the Canadiens. If so, the Flyers have outscored their opponents by a 24-7 margin in the second period.  Those 24 second period goals lead the league.

To put that in perspective, the Blackhawks are 2nd in the league with 18 goals, and the Flyers have 50 goals total so that is almost half occurring in the second period.

Blackhawks Magic:

Although they do not have former Blackhawks superstar Jeremy Roenick on their side, who has come out to say he will root for the Flyers (another of his former teams) over the Blackhawks because they traded him, the Blackhawks have built this team for this moment.  From drafting in consecutive years Jonathan Toews (3rd overall in 2006) and Patrick Kane (1st overall in 2007) the pillars were built to start building this franchise from a place that saw them make the playoffs twice in the last 10 years (2002 and 2009)

Again I will have a lot more about this year’s team in the upcoming “Pucking Awesome Preview,” but this also was a team that surprisingly to some made a run to the Western Conference Finals last season, and obviously has built on that experience.  The biggest proclamation though was made on July 1st when the team forked over a 12-year, $62.8 million deal to winger Marian Hossa.   This move signaled to the hockey world that this young team did not see the 2009 Western Conference Finals appearance as a fluke. 

What I will be watching for this week is how this team deals with the extra media pressure put on a team that is set to contend for sports holy grail, this was expected of them and it will be interesting to see on how they deal with the label of favorite to win Chicago’s first Stanley Cup since 1961.

NHL Combine:

The NHL Combine is being held in Toronto from May 24-29 and it does not have the same appeal as the NFL or NBA combines, but it still is a great event to get a read on this year’s draft eligible talent.  By now we’ve all have heard of the top two prospects; Windsor Spitfires winger Taylor Hall and Plymouth center Tyler Seguin, and they deserve most of the press for this year’s draft.

Let’s not forget the other 98 prospects that will be brought to Toronto for interviews, medical screenings, and fitness tests both on and off the ice.  A couple of hockey bloodlines will be on display as Sault Ste. Marie defenseman Brock Beukeboom, son of four-time Stanley Cup champion Jeff Beukeboom, Oshawa forward Christian Thomas, who is the offspring of Steve Thomas, who played 20 years in the NHL, and Kamloops Blazers forward Brendan Ranford, nephew of former Oiler goaltender Bill Ranford.

Also attending are Russian top prospects Vladimir Tarasenko and Evgeny Kuznetsov.  Both should put on a show. The obvious missing transfer agreement will deflect some teams from drafting these talented kids near the top of the draft.  Kuznetsov put on a show at this year’s World U18 Championships with 5 goals, 12 points and +8 in being named a tournament All-Star.

Out west the Blackhawks should change their name to the Chicago Road Warriors, as they swept both games in San Jose and tied a playoff record with seven consecutive road games.

In the East, the Canadiens failed to score in Philadelphia as Michel Leighton became the first Flyers goalie to record back-to-back shutouts since Bernie Parent. 

In this weeks edition of the top shelf I will break down the scorers in both series and lastly look ahead to the upcoming Memorial Cup Finals weekend.

Sharks vs. Blackhawks: 

Jonathan Toews has continued his march towards the Conn Smyth Trophy in the Western Conference Finals. The Blackhawks captain has added onto his league lead in points with three points (G, 2A) in the first two games. Also with three points for Chicago is Toews linemate Patrick Kane (3 assists) and top defenseman Duncan Keith (3 assist).

The Sharks captain, Patrick Marleau, has three points in the first two games (2G, A) and only Dan Boyle has more than a point in this series (2 assists).

The first game of the series was a shooting gallery that saw the teams combined for 85 shots but only three goals as both goalies stood tall. The second game in contrast was not as closely contested as the Blackhawks led by 3-0 and 4-1 en route to a 4-2 win. The Blackhawks have made a conscious effort to frustrate Joe Thornton in similar fashion to how they frustrated the Sedin twins.

In order for the Sharks to get back into this series, they need to focus on playing their game, not playing into the Blackhawks mind games. They have to continue to get good special teams (2 for 6 on the series). Once red hot, Joe Pavelski now has gone five games without a goal, and for the Sharks to have any chance of coming back in this series they will need their second line to wake up and produce like they did in the first two rounds.

Chicago would benefit by checking into a hotel and continue the success they feel when not playing at home. They would also like to see Marian Hossa start getting on the scoreboard as the sniper only has two goals this postseason but already has eight shots in this series. They do have a goal from each of their top three lines in this series, but would be more dangerous heading forward if Hossa wakes up and gives them two legitimate lines that strike fear in their opponent.

Flyers vs. Canadiens:

The Flyers rode a historic miracle comeback into two home wins where they outscored the Canadiens 9-0. The Orange and Black have now scored 13 unanswered goals with Danny Briere and Simon Gagne combining for six of those goals.

The playoffs are all about unheralded players stepping up when called upon and Ville Leino has done just that. The 26-year-old winger played only 13 games during the regular season for the Flyers and registered four points. He now has 11 points in 10 games since being inserted in the lineup for the injured Jeff Carter.

For the Canadiens not much can be said offensively as they have not gotten a puck past Michael Leighton. The one positive sign they can take to the Bell Center is that they have been able to outshoot the Flyers 58-48. The bad news is the Canadiens are now 0-5 when they outshoot an opponent and 8-3 when they get outshot.

The Flyers take a good amount of penalties so for the Canadiens to get back into this series they will need more scoring out of the power play, currently 0 for 8. Scoring the first goal on home ice could change the series for the Canadiens as they are 7-2 when they get the first goal, and it could give hope to the rabid fans in Montreal.

The Flyers must keep the momentum they have built from this magical run they are on. They will have to maintain the advantage they have created on the power play. With their four power play goals in this series, they now have a league high 17 power play goals.

Memorial Cup:

The Windsor Spitfires have already clinched a berth in Sunday’s Memorial Cup Final as they try to become the first team to repeat champion since the 1994-95 Kamloops Blazers.

They have been led in scoring by none other than the top prospect in the upcoming NHL entry draft, Taylor Hall. The 18-year-old winger has four goals and two assists in the three games played this year, giving him 14 career points in 9 Memorial Cup games. Also contributing for the Spits is Cam Fowler, one of the top defensive prospects in the upcoming draft, who has four points.

Facing off against the defending champions will be the winner of the Calgary Hitmen and tournament-host Brandon Wheat Kings. The Hitmen destroyed the Wheat Kings 5-1 on Wednesday and the host team will look for a better showing in the rematch Friday.

Calgary is led by the hottest scorer of the tournament, Jimmy Bubnick , who has three goals and eight points in his three games. The Thrashers sixth round pick in 2009 was traded from Kamloops earlier this season. The 6’2’’ center had 22 goals and 53 points combined for the teams, nothing spectacular in the high scoring WHL , but has come up huge for the Hitmen in the playoffs.

The Wheat Kings are offensively led by Toni Rajala (2G, 3A), the Oilers fourth round pick of 2009, and the Kings first round pick last season Brayden Schenn (G,A in 3 games). The two teams facing off on Friday have some history.

As they have met in the post-season four times in the last six years, but Calgary has won three of those times.

Montreal Canadiens vs Pittsburgh Penguins Game 7 Recap

The biggest story is of course the Canadiens ousted another superstar laden team in the Penguins. After they ousted the Capitals you probably shouldn’t have been so surprised but this was the defending Stanley Cup champions we’re talking about. A young, yet playoff experienced team with back to back Stanley Cup Final appearances under their belt. So what went wrong? Well for starters Sidney Crosby took a penalty in the first 10 seconds of the game which really set the tone. The Canadiens took advantage of it and scored first and early. Most of the games they won against Pittsburgh the Habs scored in the first two minutes of the game. It’s hard mentally for a team to be down that early in a game. It’s almost like you start with a handicap. Also Fleury seems like a goalie who once he makes an early mistake lets that mistake overwhelm and take control of him mentally for the rest of the game. This leads to him playing poorly. Consequentially he wasn’t able to recover and he was pulled for Johnson. Game 5 was a game I thought the Penguins would win and they did. It was an important game because the series was now tied at two and the winner of Game 5 usually controls the series. I thought because the Penguins were the more experienced team and were at home, they would win. I thought the same thing would happen in Game 7 because the Penguins had the same things going for them in this game, wrong. It just didn’t seem like they showed up or really wanted to win the game. Maybe they were just tired because they have played the most hockey out of anyone the past three seasons. Whatever it was, the defense was just awful and once you get behind by a couple of goals against Halak you can pretty much kiss the game goodbye.

Boston Bruins vs. Philadelphia Flyers Game 7 Recap

The Bruins vs. Flyers series was just interesting on so many levels. First you have the Bruins going up 3-0 in the series and naturally you wouldn’t think it would be hard to win just one of the next four games. Of course since it’s the Bruins, you’d be wrong. Then in the decisive final Game 7 you have the Bruins going up 3-0 in the game, hard to lose that lead right? Wrong again, the Flyers rally back to win the game 4-3 and the series 4-3. Game 7 was essentially a microcosm of the whole series right down to the Bruins goal scoring problems. The Bruins scored the least amount of goals of all the playoff teams. Yet against the Flyers they had no problems scoring in the first three games they won and even game four which they lost. Then in the next two games they only scored one goal. In Game 7 they produced three goals in the 1^st period, so perhaps all was well again. Unfortunately they didn’t score again after that period which was a problem because they Flyers did. The Bruins has more shots in the 1^st period then they did in the 2^nd and 3^rd periods combined. You can’t win games like that and they didn’t.

Vancouver Canucks vs. Chicago Blackhawks Wrap-up

The Canucks must be feeling some Deja Vu right about now. For the 2^ndstraight year the Canucks were eliminated in the 2^ndround by the Blackhawks. I guess some progress was made as instead of giving up seven goals Luongo only gave up five. However the Canucks were only able to muster up one goal as opposed to last years five. Either way the Canucks have some major problems. Despite backstopping team Canada to a goal medal, Luongo still has a monkey on his back. He has yet to win anything important in the NHL. Each year his playoff GAA average has gone up and his SV% has gone down. Next year, assuming the Canucks make the postseason again, is really a make or break season for Luongo. If he fails again, I think the Canucks should look for a new goalie. Of course the Canucks signed Luongo to a hefty 12 year deal with a no trade clause until the 7^thyear, so they pretty much screwed themselves over. Good job.

7 Philadelphia Flyers vs. 8 Montreal Canadiens

Some important things to note about this match-up. Neither of these teams would have made the playoffs in the West. They both would have been tied for 12^th. Furthermore is how the Rangers play into all of this. The Flyers didn’t make the playoffs until the last day of the season and if the Rangers had beaten them they wouldn’t even have gotten in. The Canadiens wouldn’t have made the playoffs if the NHL used the Olympic scoring system. If the NHL did the Rangers would have gotten the last spot over the Canadiens. It just illustrates how crazy the East has been this year.

Season Series: split 2-2

Playoff History: 3-2 Canadiens. Most recent in 2008 when the Flyers defeated the Canadiens in the 2^nd round.

Star to Watch: Well we all know how awesome Michael Cammalleri is, he will need to continue to be for the Canadiens Stanley Cup hopes, but I’m going with Tomas Plekanec. Despite having a three game assist streak currently I feel he has been rather quite. He also has scored a goal in the last eight games. He will need to step it up. For the Flyers I am going with mister dynamic Danny Briere. Briere had many key and pretty goals in the Bruins series. He started off slow against the Devils with no points in the first three games but he has come on as of late. He is a nice second fiddle to Mike Richards.

X-Factor: P.K. Subban who is essentially not even a rookie since he only has two regular season games under his belt. Despite the lack of experience and only being 21, Subban is leading all Canadiens in ice time for the playoffs. He is also one of the main penalty killers and currently has a +3.

Goalie Problem: Jaroslav Halak has simply been sensational. On the other side Brian Boucher had been pretty awesome in his own right, that is until he got injured. So the Flyers turned to Michael Leighton who was originally their 3^rd string goalie. I wonder if there’s ever been another time where all three goalies on a team have been injured at some point in the season. Anyway Leighton has performed well so far posting a .943 SV% and a 1.54 GAA. Neither Halak or Leighton have prior playoff experience so it will be interesting to see how they handle the increasing pressure. But then again Patrick Roy was a rookie and he did alright for himself.

Fun Fact: The 7^th and 8^th seeds have never played each other in a conference final.

Prediction: Well I picked against the Canadiens twice and was wrong both times. So this time I am going to pick them in I’ll say six games. Halak is the better goalie and I like the style of defense the Canadiens play. I think the Flyers will take to many dumb penalties and the Canadiens will capitalize on this. In reality there’s no way you could have predicted anything that has happened in the East, I mean really there’s no way.

1 San Jose Sharks vs. 2 Chicago Blackhawks

Season Series: 3-1 Blackhawks, two wins were in overtime for the Hawks

Playoff History: Zippo

Star to Watch: Joe Pavelski who has been on fire for the Sharks had a six game point streak going. His last two games though, he posted no points and a -1. He will need to get it going again against the Blackhawks for the Sharks to have a chance. For the Blackhawks keep an eye on red hot Jonathan Toews who has a nine game point streak currently going. He is also a +7 during that streak which is a huge comeback from his first three games of 1 point and a -3.

X-Factor: The Sharks haven’t played in eight days. The good thing is they well be well rested the bad thing is they may be rusty. It wouldn’t surprise me if they didn’t win Game 1.

Goalie Problem: Evgeni Nabokov still hasn’t impressed me all that much. Of the four starting goalies left Nabokov has the best winning percentage but he also has the worst SV% at .907. Niemi’s SV% isn’t much better at .909 but he’s had moments where he has really played well. He is also the playoff league leader in shutouts with two. Experience edge definitely goes to Nabokov having played 76 playoff games to Niemi’s 12.

Fun Fact: The last time the Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup was in 1961. Of course the league was much different then. The last time they made it to the Stanley Cup Finals was in 1992 when they lost to the Penguins. I was hoping we would get a rematch but alas that was not to be, thanks Halak.

Prediction: As dominate as the Sharks have been so far, I think their run is up. I believe Chicago is the more dynamically skilled team and I like Niemi over Nabokov despite his inexperience. I think Dustin Byfuglien will again play a key part in the series with his net presence and his ability to get under everyone’s skin. The Sharks don’t really have anyone in particular to counter that. Blackhawks in six.

Goat of the Week

The Penguins Defense and Marc Andre Fleury – Pittsburgh Penguins

There’s obviously more than one blunder that can be written here but I think the 4^th goal scored shorthanded by Travis Moen sums up the Penguins D or lack thereof for the night. After a bad turnover Moen rushes up the ice in what is essentially a 1 on 3 in favor of the Pens. So you wouldn’t think it be that hard to wrest away the puck but after assistant captain Sergei Gonchar’s lackadaisical hit on Moen and no one else really attacking him, Fleury completes the awful trifecta by letting in a weak goal. It’s a shame really because that was really the dagger in the Pens back. Had that not of happen after the Pens scored those two goals to close the 2^nd, they would only have been down a goal in the third and may have had more confidence in mounting a comeback.

Numbers Numbers

14 – Number of points for Sidney Crosby in the Senators series

5 – Number of points for Sidney Crosby in the Canadiens series, which was also a game longer

7 – Number of times Jaroslav Halak has had a SV% of or over .949 out of 13 games played

14 – Shots on goal by the Bruins in Game 7 in the 1^st period

11 – Shots on goal by the Bruins in Game 7 in the 2^nd and 3^rd periods combined

-1 – +/- for Michael Cammalleri the only player in the top 16 in scoring with a minus, maybe he isn’t so awesome after all

This Week in Hockey History

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

May 08, 2001 Mario Lemieux tied the game with 1:18 left in regulation and Martin Straka scored the winning goal at 11:29 of OT (and added two assists) in the Penguins 3-2 win against the visiting Buffalo Sabres, in Game 6 of the East. Conference Semi-Finals.

May 09, 1994 Rookie Martin Brodeur recorded his first career playoff shutout and Bob Carpenter scored a goal and added an assist in the Devils 2-0 win over the visiting Boston Bruins, in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Semi-Finals.

May 10, 1984 Grant Fuhr recorded his first career playoff shutout to lead the Oilers to a 1-0 win over the Islanders, at Long Island in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals. Fuhr became the first goaltender to get a shutout in Oilers’ playoff history.

May 11, 1996 Colorado’s Patrick Roy became the NHL’s all time leader in playoff minutes by a goaltender, during a 4-1 Avalanche win over Chicago, in the Western Conf. Semi-Finals. Roy passed Billy Smith, who had played 7,645 career playoff minutes.

May 12, 1993 Steve Thomas scored twice and added two assists to lead the Islanders to a 7-5 playoff win over the Penguins in New York, forcing a 7th game in the Patrick Division Finals. Kevin Stevens scored two goals and an assist for Pittsburgh.

May 13, 2000 Patrick Roy recorded his 14th career playoff shutout as the Avalanche ended the Stars’ 8-game home winning streak in the playoffs with a 2-0 victory at Dallas, in Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals.

May 14, 1995 Quebec Nordiques beat the visiting New York Rangers 4-2, in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Quarter-Finals. It was the final NHL game played in Quebec City.

May 15, 1967 In one of hockey’s biggest trades, Phil Esposito, Ken Hodge and Fred Stanfield were traded from Chicago to Boston in exchange for Gilles Marotte, Pit Martin and Jack Norris.