What’s in a goal? – The only way to win a game in the NHL is to score more goals than the other team. Makes sense right? So teams that have more wins score more goals over time. They would also score more goals than they would yield. If you look at the standings you notice the GF (goals for) and GA (goals against) columns next to wins, losses and ties err scratch that overtime losses, sigh. The teams at the top, this year, like Washington, San Jose and Chicago all have a large positive goal differential. Teams at the bottom like Edmonton and Toronto have a large negative goal differential. What does it all mean though? Is there any correlation to Stanley Cup winners?

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

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

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

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

Goalie Spotlight

Next week, hopefully.

Fights of the Week

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

Adam Burish vs. Derek Dorsett

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

Cory Sarich vs. Jason Chimera

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

Goats of the Week

Antoine Vermette – Columbus Blue Jackets

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

Jimmy Howard – Detroit Red Wings

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

Things I like

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

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

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

Things I don’t

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

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

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

Stat Line of the Week

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

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

Did You Know?

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

Numbers, Numbers

(hey they’re all under 10, go figure)

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

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

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

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

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

This Week in Hockey History

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

*Ironically there all gone now except for Edmonton.

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

Rankings

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

Top 5

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

Bottom 5

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

Anaheim Ducks Watch

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

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

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

Which is the best division? – The Pacific division is one of only two divisions with every team to have at least 50 points. They also boast the NHL’s top team in the Sharks. Dallas and Anaheim have also won the cup in the past decade. On the opposite side the Atlantic division boasts all teams over 50 points plus recent cup winners Pittsburgh and multiple cup winner, this past decade, in the Devils. Those two are my top picks for best division. Both divisions have a great shot at getting four teams into the playoffs. A close third is the Northwest division. Other than Edmonton everyone is playing well and it should come down to the wire for the division crown. Colorado has also won a cup this decade. The Central division is next, boasting multiple cup winner Detroit and the resurgent Blackhawks. Next to last would be the Northeast. Despite the storied histories of Boston, Toronto and Montreal this Division and those clubs have fallen on hard times as of late. It also looks like Boston’s resurgence last year was more of a mirage. No cups in almost 20 years and Toronto has been rebuilding for what seems like forever. I think it’s easy to pick the worst division other than the Capitals, every team is at 50 points or below in the Southeast. No team seems likely to make the playoffs other than the Capitals, a shame I had high hopes for Tampa Bay this year. They do however, surprisingly, boast two recent cup winners in Tampa Bay and Carolina. Imagine that, more cups for the Sun Belt teams than all of the Canadian teams the past 15 years.

Goalie Spotlight

Jimmy Howard – Detroit Red Wings

Who is that in net for Detroit? You ask, that would be Jimmy Howard. With Hasek retired and Chris Osgood riding the bench, the goalie duties have fallen to Jimmy Howard. Not a bad move by Detroit either. It’s been a strange year for Hockeytown and why not get a look at Howard, 25, who is much younger than Osgood, 36, which gives him much more of an upside.

Born in Syracuse New York, Howard started playing for the U.S National team development program under 17 and under 18 teams. In 2002 he led the USA to gold in the IIHF World Championships where he was named USA goalie of the year. Howard next went to the University of Maine where he played for three seasons. He holds both single season and career school records in GAA, shutouts and SV%. He also holds NCAA records for GAA and SV% for the 03-04 season. He was drafted in the second round by Detroit in 2003.

Howard played for the Grand Rapids Griffins in the AHL. His first year was successful as he was named to the AHL’s all-rookie team and was apart of the Griffins franchise’s longest winning streak. In the four seasons prior to this season Howard started in 6 games. He only won one of those and while he posted a respectable 2.76 GAA his SV% was a paltry .896. Howard was expected to compete with Ty Conklin for Osgood’s back up job this season, however the Red Wings elected not to offer Conklin a new contract. So Howard ended up receiving the role. Osgood struggled this season and after starting the first 20 games the Red Wings deciding to give Howard the starting job. Howard has responding by posting the best numbers of his very brief NHL career. He posted his first NHL shutout against the Lightning and he currently boasts a GAA of 2.18 and a SV% .928. Howard is hoping a strong showing this year will solidify him as the top netminder in Detroit for a long time to come. Detroit hopes that as well, as they continue to seek their 19^th consecutive playoff berth.

Fights of the Week

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

Kris Versteeg vs. Patrick Eaves

The NBC game of week had a pretty good fight. Kind of dumb that NBC starts showing hockey during football playoffs so I didn’t even watch this game.

Josh Gorges vs. Sean Avery

Avery has been kind of quiet this year, I think this is the first highlighted fight for him from me. It’s not the greatest but its slim pickings in fights this week.

Eric Nystrom vs. Kyle Chipchura

Okay fight, Chipchura gets busted open pretty bad.

Goat of the Week

NBC

Well like I mentioned above, I didn’t watch NBC’s Sunday game of the week but apparently NBC’s coverage of the game was pretty pathetic.  Between explaining basic hockey rules and actually missing a live goal because they ran a promo and then recapped the previous action. Thank goodness for replay huh NBC? Of course you shouldn’t expect much with NBC these days with the way they handle the late night shows. Yes I’m with Coco.

Things I like

1. Despite refs hating him, Alex Burrows has been on a roll as of late. He has a 7 game point streak going currently. He is currently on pace to score way more points than he ever has in his career.

2. Patrick Kane has put all of that cabbie mess behind him and is currently the leading scorer on the Blackhawks. He is also 5^th overall in the league in scoring and he should set a career high in all categories.

3. Anaheim’s recent winning ways and home dominance. The Ducks have won 8 in a row at the Honda Center, it will always be the Pond in my book, and 7 of their last 8 games overall. They have now crept back into playoff contention similarly to what they did last year.

Things I don’t

1. Because of the Olympic break there won’t be an All-Star game. It’s not that big of a deal but the game is fun to watch and good for marketing. Plus we can’t watch Pittsburgh and Detroit fans stuff the online voting.

2. The Oilers only bright spot Dustin Penner has points in only 3 out of the past 12 games and a -7 overall. Despite he recently lack of scoring he still leads the team in goals and points by a comfortable margin. Just another reason the Oilers aren’t winning.

3. How bout them Rangers? Talk about inconsistency. The Rangers scored one goal in their previous three games before scoring a combined 14 goals in the next two games. They’ve pretty much been everywhere in the standings this year too, from 1^st all the way down to 12^th and everywhere in between.

Stat Line of the Week

01/15/10  Washington 6 vs. Toronto 1

Ovechkin had another one of those games, amassing 5 points in just under 18 minutes of ice time. Amazingly he is 2^nd in scoring so far and he has played, in most cases, 10 games less than the players around him.

Did You Know?

That Mario Lemieux is the only player to lead the league in scoring while missing more than 20 games in the last 30 years. Lemieux led the league in scoring in the 1992-93 season, with 160 points in only 60 games played. Not too shabby.

Numbers, Numbers

8 – The number of games Alex Ovechkin doesn’t have a point this season, out of 41 games played.

7 – Ovechkin’s current point streak, his highest of the season so far.

2 – Number of games Henrik Sedin doesn’t have at least 1 point, out of his last 22 games.

-9 – Brad Richards’ plus/minus number, the only player in the top 10 in points with a minus.

This Week in Hockey History

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

January 14, 1997 Martin Brodeur became the second goalie in Devils’ franchise history to record 100 victories. The milestone came in a 4-2 win over Boston. It was the start of a 14 game unbeaten streak (8-0-6) for Brodeur.

January 15, 1997 Edmonton goalie Curtis Joseph stopped 40 shots for his team-record 5th shutout of the season (breaking Grant Fuhr’s 1987-88 mark) in the Oilers’ 4-0 win over the visiting Florida Panthers. It was Joseph’s 10th career shutout.

January 16, 1974 Bruins’ captain Johnny Bucyk became the eighth player in NHL history to score 450 career goals, as Boston tied 5-5 at Chicago.

January 17, 1943 Trailing 2-0 with two minutes to play and 15,000 Chicago fans filing out, the Red Wings scored twice, with Sid Abel getting the tying goal with :01 remaining in the game, as the Wings and Black Hawks settled for a 2-2 tie.

January 18, 1958 Boston’s Harry Lumley set an NHL record when his first shutout of the season (a 3-0 win over Montreal) gave him one (or more) shutouts in 14 straight seasons. He broke the record of 13 straight seasons set by John Roach (1922-23 thru 1934-35).

January 19, 1971 Gordie Howe appeared in a record 14th consecutive All-Star game, and in his 22nd in 23 NHL seasons. The 14 straight games eclipsed the mark of 13 straight set by Maurice Richard. The West beat the East, 2-1 in Boston.

Rankings

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

Top 5

1. Buffalo
2. Chicago
3. San Jose
4. Anaheim
5. NY Islanders

Bottom 5

30. Edmonton
29. Toronto
28. Columbus
27. Calgary
26. Dallas

Anaheim Ducks Watch

The Ducks played the Bruins at home in one of the more amazing games I’ve seen in quite some time. It had everything you could ask for too. A couple of fights, amazing goalie saves, injuries, big goals by key guys, ties and lead changes. The Ducks prevailed by getting balanced scoring, 4-3, but unfortunately lost their future hall of famer again. It really sucks to watch Teemu Selanne break his jaw when he just came back from a broken hand. Sometimes you just have no luck and it seems like that is the case with Selanne these days.

Next was a huge divisional game against the cross-town rival Kings. Unfortunately the Ducks must have missed the memo that the game was the day after the Bruins game because they just didn’t bother to show up. Not sure why the Ducks haven’t been playing Giguere, there isn’t any reason why Hiller should have to play back to back games when Giguere was named to the all-decade second team, I mean honestly. In the 3^rd period the Ducks just lost it with all those penalties and Bobby Ryan with his stupid hit and game misconduct at the end. This is one of those games you’d like to forget but it happens to every team every now and then.

Against the Flames Brian Hayward actually said “coast to coast like buttered toast” on Evgeny Artyukhin’s goal, I have to admit I’ve never heard that before. It doesn’t really make that much sense either. I did however dig his reference to this game to the kind of games the Oiler teams of the 80’s played. Between the four NFL playoff games and this game, I watched way too many games this weekend. Anyway the Ducks shows some grit in this game. After being behind 1 goal the Ducks scored 3 unanswered goals only to have the Flames score three unanswered goals themselves. The Ducks rallied back in the 3^rd scoring the last 2 goals to take the win 5-4.

Next up was the Sabres game I saw in person. The game had sentimental reasons for me as it’ll probably be the last game I attend for the foreseeable future as I make my move to the Pacific Northwest. Ryan Miller didn’t get the start which surprised me and I was annoyed and happy about that. I was annoyed because I wanted to see one of the top goalies play but happy because that gives the Ducks a better chance to win. It was an exciting game and Getzlaf scored a mere 19 seconds into the game with a pretty rebound goal. After about 10 minutes into the 1^st period, it was 4-0 Ducks and life was good. The Sabres pulled Lalime for Miller, so I knew goals would not come as easily. Two goals were also waved off in the game one for the Ducks and one for the Sabres, I thought both were good calls. But then Anaheim started their collapse a little earlier than normal and before you knew it the score was 4-3 after two periods. Ryan Getzlef was also hit right above the eye with a puck and left the game with a trail of blood. This seemed eerily similar to what happened to Teemu Selanne. Luckily Getzlaf was able to return later. Troy Bodie, of all people, scored the game winner off a turnover. The Sabres were able to mange one more goal after they pulled Miller but the Ducks prevailed 5-4. All in all a great game, no fights though, boo.