NHL Weekly Recap – October 27, 2009
Avalanche, Penguins and Capitals Top This Week's NHL Recap
Oct 27, 2009
One month into the NHL season, the early surprise has to be the way that Colorado has stormed out of the gates. A season after finishing dead last in the Western Conference with a miserable record of 32-45-5, the Avalanche are riding the play of a cast of young players and, only 11 games into the season, are almost a a quarter of the way to last year's total of 69 points.
In three games over the past week, Colorado picked up five out of a possible six points, turning impressive wins over Montreal and Detroit while dropping a game to Minnesota in a shootout on Wednesday.
Indicative of the change in Colorado is the improvement on special teams. Both on the power play and short handed, the Avalanche are boasting greatly improved numbers over the 2008-2009 campaign. Most impressive is the power play, almost doubling last season's numbers at a torrid pace of 26.7% efficiency. They are doing so with a balanced attack and effective mixture of youth and experience, with seven players tallying at least one power play goal.
Goaltender Craig Anderson has emerged as a star for the team, starting the first 11 games of the season and posting elite-level numbers. Anderson appears poised to entrench himself as the starting goalie for the Avalanche, shoring up what was a porous defense only last season.
The Avalanche's story so far isn't complete without talking about the trio of Paul Stastny, Wojtek Wolski and Ryan O'Reilly. The three are tied for the team lead with points (each with 10 points over 11 games) despite all of them being 23 years old or under. In fact, O'Reilly is just an 18 year old rookie and boasts a +10 +/- rating to date.
It's too early to guess if the Avalanche will remain so strong through the season, but they have a promising core of youth anchored by solid veterans. If Anderson can remain strong and Colorado can overcome the loss of Darcy Tucker, they could be poised to return to a familiar place in playoffs come the spring.
Capitals and Penguins Earn High Marks in East
Where the Western Conference is being taken by storm by some lesser known names, the East is once again being dominated by players that have become all-too-familiar in recent years: Crosby, Malkin, Ovechkin and Semin.
Pittsburgh has jumped out to a significant lead in what is arguably the best division in the NHL, in no small part thanks to the dynamic duo of Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin. They once again lead their team in scoring, although it's been a slight shift in roles this season with Crosby doing most of the scoring and Malkin picking up the majority of assists.
It's the Penguins' depth, however, that makes this team tops in the East. Names like Guerin, Staal, Gonchar, Kennedy, Letang – the list just goes on and on. Any line can score, and score well, on any given night, making this team a nightmare for opposing coaches to plan against.
Adding in Marc-Andre Fleury on most nights between the pipes and one of the best backup goaltenders in Brent Johnson to spell him, and the Penguins simply enter every game with a chance to win. Through 11 games this season, that's what they've done the most, posting a 9-2 record and a +12 scoring differential.
Always in the back of the Penguins' minds, however, looms the specter of Alexander Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals. The Caps seem poised to run away with the Southeast Division and, in doing so, set themselves up nicely again for a deep postseason run.
The pressing concern for the Capitals isn't in the offensive zone, however. Their success this season will revolve around the man in the net and, this early in the season, nobody knows if it will be veteran Jose Theodore or last season's playoff surprise Semyon Varlamov. Right now the numbers point to Theodore, who has started the majority of Washington's games thus far. Theodore, however, has traditionally been streaky and prone to bad goals at bad times during his career. It bears watching to see if he yields to Varlamov, who has been pedestrian in his four starts despite posting four wins in those games.
Islanders and Wild Seek to Recover from Poor Starts
There have been many poor starts by teams this season. The Maple Leafs and Panthers boast a combined total of eight points between them and the Anaheim Ducks surprisingly trail everyone in Pacific Division with only seven points. A couple of other cellar-dwellers are the topic of conversation this week.
In the East, what were the New York Islanders thinking this offseason? Their strategy seemed more like a fantasy sports philosophy in the offseason, stockpiling goaltenders to trade for a necessity when the time came. With Rick DiPietro (admittedly injured) already locked into a very long term contract, it seems to defy reason that there would be a need for legitimate starters Dwayne Roloson and Martin Biron on the team. With the Islanders only averaging just over two goals a game, the time to deal for another scorer may already be past.
Moving west, the Minnesota Wild have one of this season's statistical anomalies, albeit not a positive one. After 11 games, the Wild are 3-0 on home ice but 0-8 on the road. What makes this even more surprising is the style of play that the Wild employ, depending on discipline and defense to win games, normally a hallmark of teams that are successful on the road.
