Nashville Predators Are Dark Horses of the West

The Central Division has been the toast of the Western Conference since the first puck drop on the NHL's opening day. With four teams in playoff positions, and one team in the midst of one of the most disappointing NHL campaigns in recent memory, they've understandably dominated the conversation. We've talked about Detroit's dominance at home, Chicago's inconsistency in goal, Hitchcock's influence behind the bench, and the troubles of the Blue Jackets in the basement. Yet one subject that seems to have escaped the public eye is the Nashville Predators. For all of the Blues' defensive feats, and the Blackhawks' offensive prowess, the Predators have slowly been motoring along in the thick of the West's elite. And they've been doing it in both ends of the ice. The Predators are often relegated to the role of plucky underdog, products of a great coach in a good system in front of a good goaltender. This year, however, that isn't the case. The Predators are eleventh in the league in scoring-- not world conquering territory, but hardly modest. Most importantly, they've been receiving contributions from all over the lineup. Sergei Kostitsyn, Mike Fisher, Patric Hornqvist, David Legwand, Martin Erat, Matt Halischuck, Shea Weber, Craig Smith and Colin Wilson all have 10 or more goals on the season. I haven't looked into the matter, but I'd imagine that few, if any, of the other teams in the league could hope to post that number of 10 goal scorers.

Beyond their offensive balance, outstanding coaching and goaltending, and perennially impenetrable defense, however, it's important to look at the team's quality of competition. It's high, to say the least. Though the Chicago Blackhawks have struggled as of late, the Central Division, as I said before, is by far the best in the league. The Predators frequently have to match up against the St. Louis Blues, who share the lead for the smallest GAA in the league, and the Detroit Red Wings, who are on the verge of breaking an NHL record for most consecutive home wins. It's also important to consider their early season struggles.

Still, not all is well in paradise. The asking price for Ryan Suter at the deadline will most likely be too much for any team to swallow for what could possibly be a rental. Furthermore, considering what management has recently said on the matter, it seems as though there is a chance that they could keep both him and Weber. A chance is a lot to gamble on, though. If Suter isn't going to stay, should the Predators move him? Their team is good (otherwise I wouldn't be writing this article) but is it good enough to sacrifice the return at the deadline for a Cup run? I think so. Things feel different for the Predators this year. They are no longer spunky underdogs. They truly are amongst the league's elite. Let's hope that their playoff exploits reflect that fact.

Want to Stop Dangerous Hits? Punish the Teams.

Today, during a great afternoon bout between the Boston Bruins and the New York Rangers, Bruins defenseman Andrew Ference was ejected from the game with a boarding major. On an end to end play, Ference came rushing into the Rangers defensive zone with a head full of steam as he tried to chase the puck he had chipped toward the boards. Also racing him to the puck was Rangers defenseman Ryan McDonagh. As the two approached the puck, Ference, despite being well behind McDonagh, gave the Rangers sophomore player a forearm to the back which sent him reeling face first into the boards. Fortunately, McDonagh's head did not make direct contact with the boards. His shoulder and chest received a majority of the impact, which will hopefully mean that McDonagh will be concussion free in the aftermath.

While it wasn't necessarily a malicious hit, it was certainly a reckless one. Ference even admitted as much after the game. This hit is, however, just another in a series of reckless hits that we've seen threaten player safety in the last two or three seasons. The league has done a lot to combat these types of hits, those efforts culminating in the hiring of Brendan Shanahan as the league's chief disciplinarian. He has done a good job so far. He has standardized the criteria for suspensions, and has incorporated an element of transparency into the process that previously didn't exist. Unfortunately, it has not yet proven to be enough. Concussions have affected the likes of Claude Giroux, Milan Michalek, Jeff Skinner, Chris Pronger, and most notably, Sidney Crosby. So what more can the league do to reduce concussions? The first thing to do is to look at the equipment being used, and investigate whether players are using helmets that will guard against concussions most effectively. The second thing to do, though, is to reexamine what incentives are going to reduce dangerous hits. Originally, the league thought that attacking players' wallets would be the best way of discouraging recklessness. However, I think that the issue isn't best tackled on an individual level. It's best attacked on a team level.

What if a team lost a point in the standings for every 5 games in suspensions that it received? I bet you that would create a decline in the number of reckless hits around the league. There's a lot to debate about a system like that-- how many games equal a loss in points? How many points should teams lose per deduction? Is it fair to punish teams competitively (and financially) by directly affecting their place in the standings based on the actions of one member of the organization? They're all fair questions. I think they all have answers though. The mathematics of the system can be worked out easily. And I believe that the answer to the final question is yes. Of course accidents occur, and it would be hard to swallow a fall in the standings based on an accident, but that's the very thing of the matter. Accidents happen because players put themselves in situations where accidents can occur. Ference may not have meant to board McDonagh, but he came in way too fast at the boards, and that's what caused the accident. Players represent the organization that employs them. That's why they do charity appearances for those organizations, that's why they play for them. An organization is responsible for what it puts on the ice, and it should be held responsible for what occurs on it as well. It's only fair.

Rangers- Flyers 24/7: Can HBO Repeat the Magic?

Anyone who watched last year's 24/7 knows how compelling the show has the capability of being. However, last year's narrative was highlighted by two rivaled All-Stars in Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin, with the Pittsburgh Penguins ascending into the league's top ranks, while Alex Ovechkin's Washington Capitals were plummeting into a fairly lengthy losing streak. Now, however, we have Philadelphia and New York, two teams that are vying for the lead in the Eastern Conference. So where's the conflict going to come from?

Well, the first thing I can tell you, is that Ilya Bryzgalov will be a source of immense entertainment. Considering his epic moments like the famous "Why you heff to be so mad," he should pose some great fodder for HBO's cameras. Even in watching the first episode, you can see how wonderful he will be. His comments on the "the universe," were utter perfection. Still, on the ice HBO might be wanting for content. This can certainly be compensated by some nice exposure on the players' personal lives and processes. Still, it might become a point for concern. So far, the first episode is solid enough. Yet there seems to be something very formulaic about it, as though they're trying to emulate what worked last year down to the T. Still, there's a half hour to go in the first episode, so here's to some quality insight into the world of hockey. Enjoy the series, guys!

The Best Line In Hockey

When hockey fans and analysts discuss the best lines in hockey, they often bring up the likes of the Sedin Twins of the Vancouver Canucks, Corey Perry, Ryan Getzlaf and Bobby Ryan of the Anaheim Ducks , Joe Thornton, Patrick Marleau and Joe Pavelski (formerly Dany Heatley) of the San Jose Sharks, and the Stamkos-St. Louis line of the Tampa Bay Lightning. However, there are three names which, thus far this season, have been criminally forgotten in this sort of conversation- Stephen Weiss, Kris Versteeg, and Tomas Fleischmann. So far this season, the Florida Panthers' top line has combined for 22 goals, 33 assists, 55 points, and a +30 rating. On special teams, they've combined for 7 PPG's, and 9 PPA's. Those stats are outstanding. Granted, other lines have posted similar numbers. On the league leading Chicago Blackhawks, Patrick Kane, Jon Toews, Marian Hossa, and Patrick Sharp have posted equally prolific numbers, as have lines in Los Angeles, San Jose, Vancouver, Tampa Bay, and arguably in Dallas, though to a lesser extent. Regardless, no line is as surprising as Florida's line. Just 7 months ago, Kris Versteeg was on his 3rd NHL team in 2 years (the Panthers became his 4th), it was questioned whether Tomas Fleischmann would ever play in the NHL again due to pulmonary emboli, and Stephen Weiss' legitimacy as a first line center was ambiguous at best. Fast forward to now, and the three of them are carrying the Florida Panthers back to legitimacy, and the playoffs.

Obviously, they're not alone in that pursuit. The torrid production of newly acquired defenseman Brian Campbell, along with the solid performance of the enigmatic Jose Theodore, has certainly helped carry the team to its current 10-6-3 record. There's no guarantee that the team's current success will continue. Though they're winning right now, there are questions regarding the team's offensive depth and defensive acumen. Regardless, things are certainly looking up in Florida, especially with blue chip youngsters Erik Gudbranson, Jacob Markstrom, and Jonathan Huberdeau developing into the team's future core. GM Dave Tallon, while audacious and occasionally foolish, is certainly proving that the value of personnel transactions goes beyond the mere dollars and cents that comprise player contracts. The moves made this offseason have improved the on ice product of the Florida Panther immensely. More importantly though, it's translated that quality into all facets of the organization. And that's something to be excited about.

Trouble Looming For Detroit

Every year, a strong minority of pundits predict a letdown for the Detroit Red Wings. The success of the last twenty years has left the Red Wings with few top flight prospects, and a rapidly aging corps. The team is still driven by the engine of Pavel Datsyuk, Nicklas Lidstrom, and Henrik Zetterberg. However, all of them are over 30, and this is probably Lidstrom's last season in the league, though knowing him, he could easily pull a Chris Chelios and play well into his 40's. The recent retirements of Brian Rafalski, Chris Osgood, Kirk Maltby, and Kris Draper indicate the close of an era in Red Wings history. The problem is that the Red Wings have not begun to prepare for the next era. The team's defensive corps, featuring Jakub Kindl, Nicklas Lidstrom, Ian White, Brad Stuart, Niklas Kronwall, and Jonathan Ericsson, is still solid. The question, however, is how solid that corps will be down the road. Lidstrom will be gone in a year or two, and Stuart and Kronwall are both already over 30. Just today Kronwall signed a 7-year extension that will keep him in Detroit until he's 38. His cap hit will be about 4.6 million dollars, which would be a fair price if it weren't going to follow him until he's 38.

At forward though, the Red Wings seem much shakier. Firstly, they're not deep to start with. Johan Franzen, Datsyuk, and Zetterberg are probably the only legitimate top six forwards on the team, though you could count Jiri Hudler in there depending on how you view him. Those three players are all over 30, and the youth that has come onto the team in the last three years does not look like it's going to be able to take over the offensive reigns. Darren Helm, Justin Abdelkader, and Drew Miller, while young, homegrown prospects, certainly don't seem capable of rising above the third line. Naturally, that raises some concerns. Is Valteri Filpula really a second pivot? How much longer does Todd Bertuzzi have? One year? Two? The Red Wings might be looking on some dark days ahead. Now don't get me wrong, as long as Ken Holland and Mike Babcock are there, the team will be competitive. Rather, it's just a matter of when they start playing at a level where they will receive draft picks that actually matter.

What's Wrong With The Montreal Canadiens?

The list of things maligning the Montreal Canadiens is long: small forwards, a defensive corps composed of stiff veterans, untested youngsters, and unproven free agents, a lack of a first line center, and injuries. All of these are, of course, validly raised issues with the Montreal Canadiens. The problem is, however, that these are issues that have existed for more than two years. In spite of that, the Canadiens pushed the Stanley Cup champion Boston Bruins to seven games in the first round of the playoffs last year, and made their own trip to the Eastern Conference Finals the year before that. So what's changed? Why, all of a sudden, has this team seemingly spit up on itself?

The first issue is in fact injuries. Scoring winger Michael Cammalleri has missed three out of six games with a laceration on his leg, and defensemen Chris Campoli, Jaroslav Spacek, and Andrei Markov, have been limited to a collective three games played, having played one, two, and zero, respectively. That hurts. Markov is the team's best offensive defenseman, Spacek is a solid veteran that eats up a solid number of minutes and is a calming influence on the rest of the corps, and Chris Campoli is a 27-year old free agent acquisition who is capable of chipping in around 25 points a season. Regardless, Markov was gone all of last season, as was defenseman Josh Gorges, who is now back. So why does their GAA now rank 22nd in the league? Well, like I said, it's because of injuries, but more importantly, it's because their healthy defensemen are, well, playing like garbage. Super stud P.K. Subban has skated to a 0-1-1 scoring line, with a -6 rating. That is awful. To put that in perspective, the defenseman with the second lowest +/- rating is Hal Gill, and he is only -2. So, that certainly hurts. What also hurts though, is that veteran Roman Hamrlik is gone. Now, Hamrlik was never really all that great, in my opinion. But he'd been with the team for awhile, and he certainly understood the system that Jacque Martin implements in Montreal. In his place, the Canadiens now have two rookies, Raphael Diaz and Alexei Yemelin, along with young defenseman Yannick Weber, who has a grand total of 55 NHL games to his credit. An inexperienced D-Corps definitely does not help a team that is supposed to play defense first hockey.


With that being said, there are problems with other parts of the team as well. If I were to ask you what the first line of the Montreal Canadiens was, who would you say was on it? Gionta, Plekanec, Kostitsyn? Cole, Gomez, Pacioretty? You probably wouldn't have any answer-- because there isn't one. The Canadiens have been line juggling all season, which has caused discontent amongst much of the Canadiens' blogosphere. Though I personally rarely support line juggling, you can hardly blame Martin for trying it out six games into the season. It's still early, no one has built any chemistry yet anyway, and there's just no real way of knowing who the Canadiens' top six guys are. They have a lot of guys that would fit well on a second line: Tomas Plekanec, Max Pacioretty, Andrei Kostitsyn, Brian Gionta, Erik Cole, Scott Gomez....ok, maybe not Scott Gomez, but there's a noticeable problem here. Though these guys are top six forwards, none of them are top line forwards. The line of Max Pacioretty, David Desharnais, and Andrei Kostitsyn has been fairly effective. Patches, as Pacioretty is sometimes referred to by fans, has a score line of 2-3-5, which is very respectable through six games, especially on a team that ranks 22nd in goals scored. Regardless, is they're anyone in the world that thinks that David Desharnais is a first line center? Plekanec, though his qualifications can be debated, should be the team's top pivot. He's posted a 70- point season before, and he's good pretty good hands. Putting him on a line with the two physical wingers previously mentioned could really complement his finessed style of play well.

There's also the goalie problem. Carey Price has a 2.84 GAA, with a .890 SV%. Not exactly the numbers that won him fame and admiration in Montreal last season. Despite these statistics, however, Price isn't actually the problem. The defense has been terrible in front of him. The problem is that the Habs can't afford to play anyone other than Price. If Price can't handle the games he plays behind this defensive corps, how on earth is Peter Budaj going to? No offense to Peter Budaj, but he's kind of terrible at playing hockey.

Lastly, there's the coaching element. Lots of people blame the departure of Kirk Muller for the team's recent misfortune. He was the special teams guy, the players' coach. Now that he's gone, the special teams are horrendous (2-25 on the powerplay), and the team looks out of sync and apathetic. It won't be long before the discontent over the fortunes of this season turn to the coach that is still there, Jacques Martin. Yet, that's not where displeased fans should be turning their anger. At the end of the day, this team is bad because it is poorly constructed. Though Gauthier made smart decisions last season in his decision to keep Carey Price and ship away Jaroslav Halak, his moves this offseason were downright boneheaded. He let the bottom two lines get worse, while he did nothing to improve the top line. He didn't replenish the defensive corps, and he did nothing to try and replace Kirk Muller. The result is a terrible team.

Ryan Nugent Hopkins Is Proving Me Wrong

When the Edmonton Oilers decided to sign Ryan Nugent-Hopkins to an entry-level contract and start him off in the big leagues, I was a bit skeptical. Granted, they have a nine-game grace period to send him back down, but the general feeling seemed to be that they would keep him in the NHL or AHL this year. Sure enough, that's proving to be a good decision. Through three games, Nugent-Hopkins has 4 goals. Three of them have come in one game-- against the Oilers' division rivals the Vancouver Canucks. And his goals are not fluky. In fact, his first career goal was a prime example of quality hockey IQ. Unfortunately, Youtube seems to now forbid all embedding of hockey videos, and so I can't show off the goal. However, it can be described like this. Nuge got the puck, and took a shot from the red faceoff dot. Firstly, shooting like that in his first game as an NHLer demonstrates a strong level of confidence on the ice. After shooting, he drove to the net, through a defenseman, to follow up on his own rebound. As a defenseman tried to box him out, he slipped past the check, and put the puck over the glove of Marc-Andre Fleury with a sharp backhand shot.


If this is for real, and Nugent-Hopkins is already ready to be the first line center for the Oilers. This is going to be a very exciting season for the Oil. Devan Dubnyk is, in my opinion, a very competent goalie, and he has a good mentor in Nik Khabibulin who, despite his current lack of prowess, used to be quite the goalie. Taylor Hall, Magnus Pajaarvi-Svenson, and Jordan Eberle form the trifecta of exciting sophomore forwards heading into this season. I suppose you could also put Linus Omark in that category. There are also veterans like Shawn Horcoff, Ales Hemsky, and Ryan Smyth there to help foster the young talent. On the back end, the defense is anchored by Ryan Whitney, who, prior to his injury last season, was playing at a Norris Trophy worthy level. They also have the forgotten former Blackhawk Cam Barker, along with veteran Andy Sutton...alright so essentially the defensive corps is garbage. The defense is probably going to be the thing that holds the Oilers back from being a middle of the pack team. However, once they shore up that defensive corps (perhaps by shipping away Sam Gagner, who is being totally wasted on that roster), they have the potential to be competitive, even this season.