Nearly a month into the new NHL season and wow hasn’t it been great! Some surprises, big teams and players struggling even some early trades. I’ll start this month by going through my three big winners for the month and then my losers.
Winners and Losers
Now a lot of people would have expected Washington to start well but surely not this well. A seven game winning streak is the perfect way to boost confidence at the beginning of any season and they look set to take out the Presidents’ Trophy this year.
The second winner just has to be the Oilers. Having travelled to Edmonton earlier this year it was clear the people love their hockey but they were almost embarrassed to admit it, that’s how bad the Oilers were going. Yet a month in and they are top of their division! The main reason is the all new “Kid Line”. Taylor Hall (19), Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (18) and Jordan Eberle (21) are dominating and are just plain fun to watch. I’m not so sure they make the playoffs come the end of the season but do yourself a favour a find a way to watch a game now whist they are up and about.
The big winner for me however is Phil Kessel. He has always had the skill and been capable of dominating in short bursts, but has never done it for this this long. He currently leads the league in goals with nine (tied with James Neal) and leads the league with 16 points through only nine games. His form has gone a long way to having Toronto in first place in the division.
As far as the losers go you can’t go past Boston. For the champs to be sitting bottom of the conference a month in is just not right.
Second up is Marco Sturm. Picked one of the cup favourites in Vancouver in the off season as a free agent it was hoped Sturm would provide some offense although after only a handful of fruitless games he was part of a trade that saw him end up in Florida of all places, hardly a Stanley Cup threat.
My last loser for the month has to be the NBA, the last thing they needed was such a good start to the NHL season.
Division Standings
In the Atlantic Pittsburgh are obviously off to a great start at the top of the standings and at the top of the league, however this is due largely to the hectic schedule having played the most games in the league by a couple. Malkin has been having issues with his knee and missed games but when he plays is playing well. Oh and if you took Penguins at $7 to win the conference or $11 to win the cup you should be happy as they are now favourites and I wouldn’t expect to see those numbers again.
Philly started the season brilliantly and are getting the scoring so credit where it’s due. However I still have some doubts about their depth. An injury to Pronger on their D and they have given up 14 goals in two games. The simple fact is you aren’t going to have your best guys available all year so you need depth, I’m not convinced.
The Rangers have started OK, but I would to see a bit more from big signing Brad Richards if we are to cash in on them winning the division #unlikely
Moving to the Northeast Toronto are out front largely due to Kessel as mentioned earlier and Boston are really battling. The feeling is that eventually these two will start to switch positions but I am not so sure, although I have never really rated Boston, yep I backed against them right up until game 7 last year. So what do I know.
What I do know though is that Buffalo are looking good, speedy, organised and a great goaltender they will now win this division. By the time Boston get their issues sorted, if they ever do, Buffalo should already be too far ahead. I think we got a piece of them at $2.60 so that’s solid enough.
In the Southeast it would surprise no-one to see that Washington has stormed out in front already. They love the regular season. The good news is they have been getting solid contributions from all over, Vokoun has been solid in net and they haven’t been reliant on just one guy such as Ovechkin to score. Sure he has been doing his bit but so have Backstrom, Wideman, Green, Johansson and Chimera. These guys have locked this division already and likely will be tough to beat in that super division, in which we got them at $4.
Elsewhere in this division Tampa have been a little disappointing so far going at only .500 but it’s still early so they can improve. And it was good to see the Jets get their first win, against the Penguins too and then to follow it up with a couple more since including a 9-8 classic against Philly, would love to see a replay of that one.
In the Central as predicted it is shaping as a battle between Detroit and Chicago. Detroit started well winning the first five before facing off with the also undefeated Washington and getting smashed 7-1. They have since lost their two subsequent games as well so they need to stop this mini slide soon.
I would suggest that Chicago’s schedule has been slightly easier to this point, but they can only beat who they are scheduled to play. We took both Chicago and Detroit so fairly comfortable we come out in front come playoff time here.
The other note out of the division has to be Columbus, wow they have been crap. One win in ten games is just woeful, sure Jeff Carter is injured but even before that he wasn’t scoring. It seems like it’s the same old story of if Rick Nash doesn’t score then no one will, although that’s not fair to Vinny Prospal, he’s doing his bit too. Beyond that, they’re just in trouble.
In the Northwest Vancouver amazingly are sitting on the bottom however I don’t really think it’s time to panic just yet. The trade with Florida was interesting though, as I can’t work out why Florida agreed to the deal. Big win for Vancouver getting David Booth and effectively giving very little. Expect them to get going soon and move to the top of the standings. We should still cash our ticket of $1.20 without too much trouble.
But how about Colorado and Edmonton at the top of the division. In such a tough and experienced conference to see two young teams thriving so early in the season is just plain exciting, I hope it continues for a few more months yet. If it has to come to an end for one of these teams I think maybe Colorado are the team more likely to scrape into a playoff spot if that’s at all possible, but hey I’ve probably cursed that now talking about it so early.
Finally we come to the tough Pacific division. I predicted this to be toughest division pre-season and I reckon that is supported by the fact that the one team I didn’t mention in the Stars topping the division at present. They traded away goal scorer Neal last year, lost free agent Brad Richards in the off season yet they are winning games with a nice even spread of goal scoring. You just can’t fault them so far.
LA have been solid early and reaffirmed everyone’s beliefs that they will be playing in the playoffs and will be a serious threat. The Sharks started slowly losing three of the first four but have since strung four in row together and are not far behind. I really think it is LA and San Jose that will fight this division out now, regardless of who wins they will both hardened and tough to beat in the playoffs. Of course the seeding would help and we also want the Sharks to get up.
Anyway that’s it for another month, in November expect to see even more dirty hockey mo’s than usual, the return of Crosby and of course your usual spattering of unbelievable goals and the like. On a side note I’ve got a bit going on and haven’t really had the time to tweet many plays or anything as yet. Stick with me for another month though and come December I’ll be able to get some more plays and info out there a bit more regularly. Cheers @mal68au
No comments:
Post a Comment