Ann 22008-2009 NHL Season Wrap-Up – Eastern Conference (Games 1-20*)
November 28th 2008 19:40
*Several teams made it past the 20 games mark as I worked on this. I used the Montreal Canadiens' schedule as my benchmark.
1. Boston Bruins (21-14-3-4 | 32pts)
After a heartbreaking exit in the playoffs last year where they took the Montreal Canadiens to a seven-game round despite going 0-8 against them during the regular season, the Boston Bruins started the 2008-2009 season knowing that they can compete with the best. The signature of Canadiens cast-off Michael Ryder to a lucrative three-year $12 million contract was made in the hopes of bringing more goalscoring to a formation that scored 212 goals in the regular season for 222 goals conceded.
The Bruins flexed their muscles early on this season, winning five of their first ten games while also picking up points out of three shootout losses. Their next eleven games were even more impressive as they picked up nine victories (including a 6-1 drubbing of the Canadiens) and one shootout loss in that span. Not only has their goaltending been great – Tim Thomas is currently ranked first in the Goals-Against Average category (GAA) and second on the Save Percentage – but their offense has been downright scary with 69 goals scored in 21 games including.
The Bs are big, strong, fast, and play the type of blue-collar hockey that is preached on by their coach Claude Julien. They may not have all the talent in the world, and their defensive corps may look questionable on paper, but they make up for it with plenty of hard work and focus. They are probably the closest thing to a Western team in the Eastern Conference.
2. New York Rangers (24-15-7-2 | 32pts)
The New York Rangers had the advantage of starting the season earlier than most clubs with two games played in Europe and showed promising signs early on with a five-game winning streak, an impressive feat for a team that lost a huge part of their offense during the summer in Jaromir Jagr. Although they have been winning most of their games in convincing fashion, there were still a couple of missteps here and there during the first quarter of the season including a 5-2 loss against the Toronto Maple Leafs, a 6-3 loss against the Vancouver Canucks, and a 4-1 loss agaisnt the struggling Ottawa Senators.
3. Washington Capitals (21-11-7-3 | 25pts)
The Washington Capitals are one of the few clubs in the league – if not the only one – that doesn't give a damn about their defense. For the Caps, offense is the best defense, and you know there will be plenty of goals in any game they play, and any club facing them should be prepared to score more than three goals if they want to walk out of the Verizon Center with a win since they are much better at home than on the road. After 21 games, they have scored 69 goals for 69 goals conceded which shows how their defense and goaltending is porous. They had to wait for the awakening of superstar Alexander Ovechkin who struggled in the first games (including a ten-game sequence where he was kept off the goalsheet) before exploding with 21 points in his last nine games. Unfortunately, they are now facing a rough patch with six regulars on the injured list including defenseman Mike Green who currently ranks fourth in the NHL among defensemen with 16 points.
4. Pittsburgh Penguins (20-12-5-3 | 27pts)
When people talk about the Pittsburgh Penguins, you always hear about wonderkid Sidney Crosby (though he's not a kid anymore). Yet, right now, after the first quarter of the season, it is Evgeni Malkin who is leading the league in points and assists with 10 goals and 25 assists for a combined 35 points. Jordan Staal has also been quietly effective, providing sound two-way hockey to his coach Michel Therrien. It took a couple of games for the Penguins to adjust to the absence of Sergei Gonchar and Ryan Whitney in defense as their 2-2-1 record in the first five games will attest. They picked up the pace in November with a six-game winning streak that was interrupted by a shootout loss against the Minnesota Wild. Danny Sabourin will have to provide good goaltending to start the second quarter of the season since Marc-Andre Fleury is out with an injury.
5. Montreal Canadiens (20-11-5-4 | 26pts)
When the Montreal Canadiens acquired Alex Tanguay and Robert Lang via trades during the offseason, Guy Carbonneau was finally given a chance to a three potentially lethal scoring lines while the acquisition of enforcer Georges Laraque would help the talented forwards express themselves on the ice without getting chased down by bloodthirsty agitators. Their 8-1-1 record at the beginning of the season – their best start in a long time - only seemed to bolster the fans' confidence that this team was going to return to the top of the East. However, that record was only smoke and mirrors, hiding a dangerous trait – complacency. The month of November took the team back to reality with a 3-4-3 record characterized by inconsistent performances and passionless play. One three-game sequence in particular showed the Habs' Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde-like symptoms where they were humiliated 6-3 by the Toronto Maple Leafs before coming back with an almost-flawless performance against the Ottawa Senators where they won 4-0, then crashing back down again with a 6-1 thumping by the Bruins. The problem weren't the losses. After all, no one can expect to go 82-0-0 in this league. The problem was how they were losing, like a bunch of individuals who didn't care what was happening to the team. The worst part was that the powerplay, which has been their bread and butter for the past two seasons, wasn't working at all. Furthermore, the Tomas Plekanec-Andrei Kostitsyn-Alex Kovalev, which led the team to the top last season, was in complete meltdown.
In response, Carbonneau erased everything on the blackboard to start back at zero. After a semi-successful experience of line-juggling where he mostly moved the Kostitsyn brothers in various lines in order to jumpstart them, he convinced his team to start playing a defense-first game after the Boston debacle which resulted in the team never surrendering more than three goals since November 13, and cutting down on the penalties. The passion and team unity has shown signs of life here and there, but they haven't completely turned the corner just yet. After two consecutive shootout losses, and an impressive road win against the Detroit Red Wings, Guy Carbonneau is still wondering which team will show up for the next game.
6. New Jersey Devils (20-11-7-2 | 24pts)
Martin Brodeur was just a couple of wins away to break Patrick Roy's record when he went down with an arm injury. With such a big piece missing to the Devils' strategy, they had to re-adjust their play, going from a team which only had to score two or three goals to win a game to a team getting huge 6-5, 5-2, 7-3 wins against the Capitals, Islanders, and Lightning.
7. Philadelphia Flyers (20-10-6-4 | 24pts)
The Flyers had a difficult start to their season, going 0-3-2 in their first five games then 4-3-3 in their first ten. It didn't get better as they went on to a three-game losing streak after that. They finally righted the ship two weeks into November with a 6-0-1 record.
8. Carolina Hurricanes (22-11-9-2 | 24pts)
The main problem of the Carolina Hurricanes in the first quarter of the season has been their inability to win games against division rivals. It's all good to win games against Eastern Conference teams in general, but every loss against the Capitals or Thrashers sets them four points back of the Southeast crown. Recent history has shown that the winner of that division is usually the only one going to the playoffs since the Southeast is arguably the weakest division. It's still early in the season though, so they have plenty of time to make that correction.
9. Buffalo Sabres (20-9-8-3 | 21pts)
After a red hot start where they went 6-2-2 in the first ten games, the Buffalo Sabres have struggled to regain that form, ending the first quarter on a five-game losing streak. That rough patch coincides with Ryan Miller's play which has seem to lack focus lately. Once the netminder gets everything in gear, the ride will smooth out for the Sabres.
10. New York Islanders (21-9-10-2 | 20pts)
Everyone in the hockey world agrees that the New York Islanders aren't going to make the playoffs, but their fans still keep the dream alive. After a rough start to the season where they went 2-7-1 in the first ten games, they have played relatively well for a team that is supposed to rest at the bottom of the league's standings, getting points where they can, and fiercely competing against top-tiered teams. The absence of Rick DiPietro hasn't hurt them one bit as Joey MacDonald has stepped him nicely into the void, giving his team the chance to win night after night.
11. Toronto Maple Leafs (21-7-9-5 | 19pts)
After missing the playoffs every year since the lock-out, the Leafs are currently in a rebuilding phase. Gone are Mats Sundin, Darcy Tucker, Bryan McCabe, Andrew Raycroft, Kyle Wellwood, and Alexander Steen. In are Mikhail Grabovski, draft-pick Luke Schenn, and Niklas Hagman. Without any expectations placed on their shoulders, the Leafs are actually playing decent, hard-working hockey under coach Ron Wilson. Their 4-3-3 start probably surprised those who expected them to suck, but they showed that they can play by causing several upsets in the first quarter of the season including wins against the Bruins (4-2), the Senators (3-2), the Devils (6-5), the Rangers (5-2), and the Canadiens (6-3).
12. Atlanta Thrashers (20-8-10-2 | 18pts)
It's hard to compete when you have only one truly skilled player (Kovalchuk) and a good goaltender (Lehtonen). It's even harder when that goaltender goes down with an injury. That is the summary of the Thrashers' first quarter and possibly the rest of the season.
13. Ottawa Senators (20-7-9-4 | 18pts)
No one can explain the Ottawa Senators sudden downfall after their run to the Stanley Cup Final two years ago. They got rid of Ray Emery who was a constant distraction for the team last year, but the situation hasn't gotten any better. Once again, Martin Gerber has failed to assume the role of number one goaltender and summer-signing Alex Auld has done a better job in front of the net than he has. Furthermore, the Sens' defense is awfully slow and prone to mistakes when pressed too much. In attack, they still can't find constant secondary scoring beyond the Big Three (Alfredsson, Spezza, Heatley), and all those characteristics put together explain their struggle in the first quarter of the season. It might be also because where every team in their division has tried to get better (Bruins, Canadiens, Sabres, and now Maple Leafs), they have stagnated to a level that isn't going to reward them in the long run.
14. Tampa Bay Lightning (20-6-8-6 | 18pts)
What do you get when you put together new owners, new washed-up players, and a coach that hasn't stepped behind the bench in over 13 years? The Tampa Bay Lightning. Beyond Vincent Lecavalier and Martin St. Louis, the Bolts have a line-up filled with players whose best years are behind them (Malone, Roberts, Recchi, etc.). With no less than 18 players joining the team during the summer, they were bound to have chemistry issues on the ice. The average goaltending and defensive issues don't help either, and this team seems destined to miss the playoffs once more.
15. Florida Panthers (20-8-11-1 | 17pts)
How ironic that the two Southernmost teams in the Eastern Conference would be the bottom-dwellers of the standings with a quarter of the season gone by. With franchise scoring leader Olli Jokinen out of the picture, they haven't been able to find the same kind of consistent scoring in the present-day line-up. They also have to deal with learning a new system after Jacques Martin resigned from his coaching position to dedicate himself full-time to the the duties of general manager.
1. Boston Bruins (21-14-3-4 | 32pts)
After a heartbreaking exit in the playoffs last year where they took the Montreal Canadiens to a seven-game round despite going 0-8 against them during the regular season, the Boston Bruins started the 2008-2009 season knowing that they can compete with the best. The signature of Canadiens cast-off Michael Ryder to a lucrative three-year $12 million contract was made in the hopes of bringing more goalscoring to a formation that scored 212 goals in the regular season for 222 goals conceded.
The Bruins flexed their muscles early on this season, winning five of their first ten games while also picking up points out of three shootout losses. Their next eleven games were even more impressive as they picked up nine victories (including a 6-1 drubbing of the Canadiens) and one shootout loss in that span. Not only has their goaltending been great – Tim Thomas is currently ranked first in the Goals-Against Average category (GAA) and second on the Save Percentage – but their offense has been downright scary with 69 goals scored in 21 games including.
The Bs are big, strong, fast, and play the type of blue-collar hockey that is preached on by their coach Claude Julien. They may not have all the talent in the world, and their defensive corps may look questionable on paper, but they make up for it with plenty of hard work and focus. They are probably the closest thing to a Western team in the Eastern Conference.
2. New York Rangers (24-15-7-2 | 32pts)
The New York Rangers had the advantage of starting the season earlier than most clubs with two games played in Europe and showed promising signs early on with a five-game winning streak, an impressive feat for a team that lost a huge part of their offense during the summer in Jaromir Jagr. Although they have been winning most of their games in convincing fashion, there were still a couple of missteps here and there during the first quarter of the season including a 5-2 loss against the Toronto Maple Leafs, a 6-3 loss against the Vancouver Canucks, and a 4-1 loss agaisnt the struggling Ottawa Senators.
3. Washington Capitals (21-11-7-3 | 25pts)
The Washington Capitals are one of the few clubs in the league – if not the only one – that doesn't give a damn about their defense. For the Caps, offense is the best defense, and you know there will be plenty of goals in any game they play, and any club facing them should be prepared to score more than three goals if they want to walk out of the Verizon Center with a win since they are much better at home than on the road. After 21 games, they have scored 69 goals for 69 goals conceded which shows how their defense and goaltending is porous. They had to wait for the awakening of superstar Alexander Ovechkin who struggled in the first games (including a ten-game sequence where he was kept off the goalsheet) before exploding with 21 points in his last nine games. Unfortunately, they are now facing a rough patch with six regulars on the injured list including defenseman Mike Green who currently ranks fourth in the NHL among defensemen with 16 points.
4. Pittsburgh Penguins (20-12-5-3 | 27pts)
When people talk about the Pittsburgh Penguins, you always hear about wonderkid Sidney Crosby (though he's not a kid anymore). Yet, right now, after the first quarter of the season, it is Evgeni Malkin who is leading the league in points and assists with 10 goals and 25 assists for a combined 35 points. Jordan Staal has also been quietly effective, providing sound two-way hockey to his coach Michel Therrien. It took a couple of games for the Penguins to adjust to the absence of Sergei Gonchar and Ryan Whitney in defense as their 2-2-1 record in the first five games will attest. They picked up the pace in November with a six-game winning streak that was interrupted by a shootout loss against the Minnesota Wild. Danny Sabourin will have to provide good goaltending to start the second quarter of the season since Marc-Andre Fleury is out with an injury.
5. Montreal Canadiens (20-11-5-4 | 26pts)
When the Montreal Canadiens acquired Alex Tanguay and Robert Lang via trades during the offseason, Guy Carbonneau was finally given a chance to a three potentially lethal scoring lines while the acquisition of enforcer Georges Laraque would help the talented forwards express themselves on the ice without getting chased down by bloodthirsty agitators. Their 8-1-1 record at the beginning of the season – their best start in a long time - only seemed to bolster the fans' confidence that this team was going to return to the top of the East. However, that record was only smoke and mirrors, hiding a dangerous trait – complacency. The month of November took the team back to reality with a 3-4-3 record characterized by inconsistent performances and passionless play. One three-game sequence in particular showed the Habs' Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde-like symptoms where they were humiliated 6-3 by the Toronto Maple Leafs before coming back with an almost-flawless performance against the Ottawa Senators where they won 4-0, then crashing back down again with a 6-1 thumping by the Bruins. The problem weren't the losses. After all, no one can expect to go 82-0-0 in this league. The problem was how they were losing, like a bunch of individuals who didn't care what was happening to the team. The worst part was that the powerplay, which has been their bread and butter for the past two seasons, wasn't working at all. Furthermore, the Tomas Plekanec-Andrei Kostitsyn-Alex Kovalev, which led the team to the top last season, was in complete meltdown.
In response, Carbonneau erased everything on the blackboard to start back at zero. After a semi-successful experience of line-juggling where he mostly moved the Kostitsyn brothers in various lines in order to jumpstart them, he convinced his team to start playing a defense-first game after the Boston debacle which resulted in the team never surrendering more than three goals since November 13, and cutting down on the penalties. The passion and team unity has shown signs of life here and there, but they haven't completely turned the corner just yet. After two consecutive shootout losses, and an impressive road win against the Detroit Red Wings, Guy Carbonneau is still wondering which team will show up for the next game.
6. New Jersey Devils (20-11-7-2 | 24pts)
Martin Brodeur was just a couple of wins away to break Patrick Roy's record when he went down with an arm injury. With such a big piece missing to the Devils' strategy, they had to re-adjust their play, going from a team which only had to score two or three goals to win a game to a team getting huge 6-5, 5-2, 7-3 wins against the Capitals, Islanders, and Lightning.
7. Philadelphia Flyers (20-10-6-4 | 24pts)
The Flyers had a difficult start to their season, going 0-3-2 in their first five games then 4-3-3 in their first ten. It didn't get better as they went on to a three-game losing streak after that. They finally righted the ship two weeks into November with a 6-0-1 record.
8. Carolina Hurricanes (22-11-9-2 | 24pts)
The main problem of the Carolina Hurricanes in the first quarter of the season has been their inability to win games against division rivals. It's all good to win games against Eastern Conference teams in general, but every loss against the Capitals or Thrashers sets them four points back of the Southeast crown. Recent history has shown that the winner of that division is usually the only one going to the playoffs since the Southeast is arguably the weakest division. It's still early in the season though, so they have plenty of time to make that correction.
9. Buffalo Sabres (20-9-8-3 | 21pts)
After a red hot start where they went 6-2-2 in the first ten games, the Buffalo Sabres have struggled to regain that form, ending the first quarter on a five-game losing streak. That rough patch coincides with Ryan Miller's play which has seem to lack focus lately. Once the netminder gets everything in gear, the ride will smooth out for the Sabres.
10. New York Islanders (21-9-10-2 | 20pts)
Everyone in the hockey world agrees that the New York Islanders aren't going to make the playoffs, but their fans still keep the dream alive. After a rough start to the season where they went 2-7-1 in the first ten games, they have played relatively well for a team that is supposed to rest at the bottom of the league's standings, getting points where they can, and fiercely competing against top-tiered teams. The absence of Rick DiPietro hasn't hurt them one bit as Joey MacDonald has stepped him nicely into the void, giving his team the chance to win night after night.
11. Toronto Maple Leafs (21-7-9-5 | 19pts)
After missing the playoffs every year since the lock-out, the Leafs are currently in a rebuilding phase. Gone are Mats Sundin, Darcy Tucker, Bryan McCabe, Andrew Raycroft, Kyle Wellwood, and Alexander Steen. In are Mikhail Grabovski, draft-pick Luke Schenn, and Niklas Hagman. Without any expectations placed on their shoulders, the Leafs are actually playing decent, hard-working hockey under coach Ron Wilson. Their 4-3-3 start probably surprised those who expected them to suck, but they showed that they can play by causing several upsets in the first quarter of the season including wins against the Bruins (4-2), the Senators (3-2), the Devils (6-5), the Rangers (5-2), and the Canadiens (6-3).
12. Atlanta Thrashers (20-8-10-2 | 18pts)
It's hard to compete when you have only one truly skilled player (Kovalchuk) and a good goaltender (Lehtonen). It's even harder when that goaltender goes down with an injury. That is the summary of the Thrashers' first quarter and possibly the rest of the season.
13. Ottawa Senators (20-7-9-4 | 18pts)
No one can explain the Ottawa Senators sudden downfall after their run to the Stanley Cup Final two years ago. They got rid of Ray Emery who was a constant distraction for the team last year, but the situation hasn't gotten any better. Once again, Martin Gerber has failed to assume the role of number one goaltender and summer-signing Alex Auld has done a better job in front of the net than he has. Furthermore, the Sens' defense is awfully slow and prone to mistakes when pressed too much. In attack, they still can't find constant secondary scoring beyond the Big Three (Alfredsson, Spezza, Heatley), and all those characteristics put together explain their struggle in the first quarter of the season. It might be also because where every team in their division has tried to get better (Bruins, Canadiens, Sabres, and now Maple Leafs), they have stagnated to a level that isn't going to reward them in the long run.
14. Tampa Bay Lightning (20-6-8-6 | 18pts)
What do you get when you put together new owners, new washed-up players, and a coach that hasn't stepped behind the bench in over 13 years? The Tampa Bay Lightning. Beyond Vincent Lecavalier and Martin St. Louis, the Bolts have a line-up filled with players whose best years are behind them (Malone, Roberts, Recchi, etc.). With no less than 18 players joining the team during the summer, they were bound to have chemistry issues on the ice. The average goaltending and defensive issues don't help either, and this team seems destined to miss the playoffs once more.
15. Florida Panthers (20-8-11-1 | 17pts)
How ironic that the two Southernmost teams in the Eastern Conference would be the bottom-dwellers of the standings with a quarter of the season gone by. With franchise scoring leader Olli Jokinen out of the picture, they haven't been able to find the same kind of consistent scoring in the present-day line-up. They also have to deal with learning a new system after Jacques Martin resigned from his coaching position to dedicate himself full-time to the the duties of general manager.
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