Hockey Den: The Premier Hockey Card and Memorabilia Destination
Visit us at www.hockeyden.net and check out the 2008-09 Upper Deck Series 2 box break! Then enter to win your choice of a card from the break (Patrick Roy Jersey card anyone?)! It’s a Mitch Fritz-tastic break!!
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So here we are, effectively at the quarter mark of the season and to say this has been an interesting season so far would be an understatement! While there still remains plenty of time for the scenery to change significantly, here are a few of the things that have struck me so far:
1. Buffalo Rules the Northeast: Now let me contextualize this! Am I surprised the Sabres are doing well. No. Am I surprised they are doing better than the Bruins? Somewhat! Am I surprised they are currently the only team from their division sitting in the top eight of the Eastern conference? Very!
2. Bruins Struggles: Injuries and personnel changes from last season have had an impact on the B’s but did anyone see it hitting this hard? A point behind both Ottawa and Atlanta for 9th in the East is made even harder to swallow when one sees they have one and two games in hand on Boston, respectively.
3. Atlanta in the Hunt: The additions of Antropov, Afinagenov and Kubina have boded well for Ilya’s team, while the spark of youth that is Evander Kane is a welcome addition also! Can the Hedberg/Pavelic tandem keep it going? Time will tell.
4. Carolina in Free-Fall: Wow. Just wow. Twenty games in and all they can scrape together is three wins. Key injuries to Staal, Ward, Cole and company, as well as an aging core have left the Canes looking very vulnerable and lifeless. Their habit of alternating successful and poor seasons has to be wearing thin on all involved, from ownership straight down to the fans. Maurice has received a vote of confidence from Rutherford, but could it be possible that Jim himself is the one on the line this time?
5. New Jersey Keeps Finding a Way: I really had my doubts this year. Had them making the playoffs but as a 7-8 seed. If they keep playing the “Road Warriors” role like they have been so far they will easily run away with the Atlantic over what appear to be stronger teams in every position but goal in Pittsburgh and Philly.
6. Detroit Starting to Lose a Step?: Hear me out! They lost close to 200 points in scoring via free agency at the end of the year, Osgood is another year older, and Howard, in my opinion, is not ready to be the goalie Detroit wanted him to be or needs him to be moving forward. Factor in the fact that their division, one they’ve always struggled against, is now infused with strong, talented youth and you’ve got a recipe for being knocked down a few notches. Just saying!
7. Re-Birth of the Kings: Took long enough! The addition of Ryan Smyth is looking brilliant if for anything than infusing a young room with some talented veteran leadership and guidance. Kopitar? Give him the type of media exposure someone playing in the Eastern conference would get and the kid is a superstar. Brown, Doughty, Williams, Stoll and Handzus are playing solid hockey, and the young netminder Jonathan Quick is providing solid coverage with 12 wins and 6 losses, a mid 2’s GAA and a save percentage hovering just ever so slightly below .900. The future is bright in la-la land!
8. Colorado: Straight from the “What the hell?!?!?” files, the Avalanche, a team widely expected to be in contention for a lottery pick very early on finds itself leading it’s division, in second place in the Western conference and with the third highest points total in the league. How has this happened? Well, there’s a few reasons, first of which has to be the stellar play of Craig Anderson, who through 20 games played has a 12-5-3 record with 2 shutouts, and GAA under 2.50 and a save percentage flirting with .930. Beyond goal has also been a strong and balanced scoring attack, with the first two lines sporting points totals of 52 and 33, respectively, while the 3rd and fourth liners are chipping in across the board as well. The interesting thing to note here is that for a team that has scored the third highest amount of goals in the conference, only two players have scored more than six goals, Wolski with 9 and Hejduk with 8. Great sign of depth and team play! Furthermore, only two players having been in the line-up for more that 15 of the team’s games thus far have a minus rating, speaking to some excellent defensive dedication also. Who knows what can happen with this group if they keep this up!
9. Chicago Is Pulling A Dorothy: You know, “There’s no place like home, there’s no place like home”. They’ve played 19 games thus far. Record at home: 10-2-1. On the road: 2-3-1. Will be interesting to see if this pattern holds as they haven’t been on the road a lot yet, and if the road woes continue their first in the Central division has to be in jeopardy!
10. The Leafs are Shooting Blanks: Interesting exception to the shoot-the-puck-more adage! Toronto ranks 6th in the league with 632 shots on goal. Goals for? Twenty-third in the league with 47. They have outshot their opponent 11 times this season. Record in those games? One win, seven losses, three OT losses. They’ve been outshot 7 times this year and have a record of 2-4-1 in these cases. Lesson here: You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take, but one needs to be selective with their shots also! I can empty 10 clips of bullets at a charging bear, but if I’m aiming at its feet my chances of killing it are greatly reduced…
11. Anze Kopitar: Yes I could have put this in the Kings section, but in a ode to “Spinal Tap”, my list goes to 11. One statement is all this takes: Has there ever been a more under the radar scoring leader in league history? I think not.
On a non-hockey note, for all the lovers of the heavier side of music check out Toronto’s “Die Mannequin”. Nothing I love more than a great female vocalist with a wicked screaming voice, and Care packs a great one! Two awesome tunes here to check out:
Remember to visit us at www.hockeyden.net and check out the 2008-09 Upper Deck Series 2 box break! Then enter to win your choice of a card from the break (Patrick Roy Jersey card anyone?)! It’s a Mitch Fritz-tastic break!!
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