Now, on to the other side!
Chicago has soared to the top of the Western Conference standings, (10-0-0-3). Yeah, that's right! The 3 losses? ALL in the shootout!
Kane has 20 points in 13 games, but look at the goaltending: Corey Crawford, despite the 3 shootout losses, has a 1.65 GAA and a .935 S%. Oh, yeah Emery, has won his 3 games, too!
Nashville has road the strong defense, plus hot goaltending combo of Pekka Rinne and Chris Mason to a 6-3-4 record.
Detroit is getting used to life post-Lindstrom, but is also missing 7 players tonight. This could be a long haul.
In St Louis, the hot goaltending of last season has not returned, and the team is struggling to stay about .500. Worst is that Halak is out tonight and Langenbrunner is gone for the season.
Columbus has it's share of injuries, and has fired GM Scott Howson. Despite all that, they are just 4 points out of 8th place. I believe they can turn it around with a few adjustments.
Bruce Boudreau has the Ducks flying high (9-2-1). Is there any point in mentioning that Teemu Selanne is 42 years old and Saku Koivu is 38? Not really, because they are 1-2 in team lead in points.Viktor Fasth has not lost a game, period!
San Jose has three players averaging a point a game or better (Patrick Marleau, Joe Thornton and Joe Pavelski). Antti Niemi is 6-1-3 with a 1.74 GAA and .935 S%. The team's overall record is 7-3-3, and I expect them to challenge for the top spot in the Pacific.
Dallas also has a 40 + year old in Jaromir Jagr. 9 points is 12 games, hey, not bad for someone whose rookie year was 90/91. I'm feeling old just typing that. The problem here is, Jagr is leading the team in scoring. Their goaltending, of Kari Lehtonen and, when called upon, Richard Bachman (btw, that was author Steven King's other name) is looking strong. The Stars need to pot more pucks.
The goaltending in Phoenix has not been up to par enough, although, I think that is the problem with the team that made it all the way to the final four last year. This year, the 'Yotes are 6-5-2. Radim Vrbata leads the team with 11 points. Mike Smith and Jason LaBarbera have got to get better between the pipes!
The defending Stanley Cup Champions are a game under .500 (4-5-2), owing to a low goal total (26 goals for, good enough for 27th place) and Jonathan Quick, who has come back down to earth after his effort last spring. Easier to win it all than to defend it all, says I.
Calgary is one of four teams .500 or below in the Northwest. With Mikka Kiprusoff out for 2 weeks, Mikael Backlund gone a month, plus Lance Bouma gone for the year, the injuries are not far off what Detroit is facing.
Alex Tanguay lead the team in points (11 in as many games). Iginla finds himself sixth on the team in scoring, despite 8 points. So, the good news is the offence is there. But what are they going to do without Kippy for 14 days?
Colorado has no shortage of injuries. Steve Downie is down and out for the season with a knee injury. Erik Johnson suffered a head injury and is out indefinitely. In total, 7 injuries.
Jean-Sebastien Giguere's value seems to diminish with every trade. Semyon Varlamov has taken over in goal and struggled. But on the positive, P.A. Parenteau and Matt Duchene both have 10 points in 11 games. This team, though needs to get healthy or expect a last place finish.
Edmonton is exactly .500 (5-5-3), but also are missing 5 players. Sam Gagner is at a point a game (13 points in 13 games) and Taylor Hall is almost there with 12 points in 13 games. There goaltending has looked quite good, for the most part, as Devan Dubnyk has winning record (5-4-3), a better than it looks GAA (2.58) and a nice high S% .923. But the Oilers have scored just 29 goals, which is 26th overall. There not going to be even .500 if that continues.
Minnesota is another team at .500 (6-6-1). Zach Parise is fitting right in by leading the team in points with 10 in 13 games. Mikko Koivu is second on the team 9 points, 7 of them assists to lead the team in helpers. Ryan Sutter also has 7 helpers, but is looking for his first goal.
The problem here is not injuries, as Minny is missing no one, but rather the goaltending is not up to par. Niklas Backstrom's S% (.913) is a little low. The team has no injuries, so far.
Vancouver, oh yeah! Now the best thing to have happened to Vancouver would have been to unload Roberto Luongo in the offseason, give Corey Schneider the reins and roll! Schneider's first game this season saw him give up 5 goals on 14 shots in 26 1/2 minutes. Luongo came in, and ever since, your guess is as good, if not better than mine, as to who's in net and who's on first.
Luongo has been lights out, 4-0-2, 1.45, .943, Schneider has been good, 4-2-0, 2.36, .921. Now what? The Canucks have said they are prepared to go the entire season with both, until a good deal for Luongo is made. I'm thinking this could be a trade deadline deal. But Schneider has to feel pressure, now, because if his play drops off, who knows? Maybe he's the guy that's gotta go.
As for offence, one of the Sedins' (Daniel) is leading the team in scoring, with 10 points in 12 games. Although the offence, combined, has netted just 35 goals (12 teams have topped that total), the 'Nucks have allowed just 25 goals (No team has allowed less). It will be interesting to see how long Vancouver keeps this up.
References
Official Site of the National Hockey League | NHL.com. National Hockey League. Web. 14 Feb. 2013. <https://www.nhl.com>.
Sports Reference LLC. Hockey-Reference.com - Hockey Statistics and History. Web. http://www.hockey-reference.com/. Web. 14 Feb. 2013.
