Tampa Bay: The Lightning, touted as pre-season Eastern Conference contenders, are living up to their billing at the moment, tied with Pittsburgh with thirty-nine points, and have been getting great value from…well, just about everyone on the ice. Former New York Ranger Ryan Callahan has proven to be a wonderful foil for the free-scoring Steven Stamkos, and the all-Swedish defensive paring of Anton Stralman (also formerly a Broadway Blueshirt) and Victor Hedman.
Behind those two, in goal, Ben Bishop is working on a 2.24 goals allowed average that’s good enough for the top ten NHL-wide, a .916 save percentage, and is second in the League as far as wins goes, at 16. He’s got a solid backup net-minder in Russian Evgeni Nabokov. This is a very good, very dangerous team.
Tyler Seguin: The Dallas Stars forward is lighting up the NHL, leading the league in goal scoring (21) and second in overall points (35), and he doesn’t look like slowing down. It’s an interesting situation in Big D, because the Stars are about as bad defensively as Seguin is offensively.
None of this has slowed down Seguin, who seems to be scoring at will this season, and has two hat-tricks to his name already. The new lease of life he said he needed after being traded from Boston seems to be helping him. Imagine where Tyler could lead the Stars once they get their defensive issues sorted!
Martin Brodeur: The old man, thought to be on the way to retirement after he was forced out of New Jersey, the only NHL home he’s known in his stellar career, has found something of a new lease of life in St Louis, filling in as star Blues net-minder Brian Elliott recovers from a mid-term injury. Kinda cool to see the NHL’s all-time leader in wins still going around, and doing so with some level of competence. He stopped 32 shots in a 4-2 victory for St Louis against Florida in his home debut.
Brian Elliott: Leads the NHL with a save percentage of 1.82. After an off year for goalies in St Louis – one that saw Ryan Miller brought in to fuel a run at the Stanley Cup that sputtered and died before it really got going – Elliott is leading a revival in the Gateway City. Blues fans will be hopeful he’s back on the ice very soon, but is currently on Injured Reserve, battling a sprained knee.
Daniel Alfredsson: The Swedish legend’s back gave out, and he couldn’t make a return to the ice with Detroit, so he signed a one-day contract with Ottawa in order to take one final warm-up skate in front of the fans who meant so much to him. Alfredsson’s seventeen years as a Senator were spectacular. The only shame is that he never won a Stanley Cup.
Jaromir Jagr: The great Czech Republic-born former Penguin, Ranger and now current New Jersey Devil passed the magical 1500-game barrier, and scored a goal and an assist in that contest, a 2-1 victory over Carolina. At the same time, he moved into fifth place on the NHL’s all-time scoring list, passing Marcel Dionne.
New York Islanders: So long the forgotten cousin of New York hockey, the Isles made some big off-season moves and appear to have managed to build a team around young star John Tavares, and added important depth on defense, signing experienced blue-liners, Johnny Boychuck and Nick Leddy. They are playing exciting, high-scoring hockey, and it’s great for the NHL to have both New York-based teams high up in the standings – and I say that as a Rangers fan!
Anaheim: The Ducks are pretty much picking up where they left off at the end of the last regular season, and clearly lead the cutthroat Western Conference standings – by three points at time of writing, and on a four-game winning streak – over St Louis. They have weapons everywhere, and are bolstered by the arrival of Ryan Kesler, late of the Vancouver Canucks, centring the Ducks’ second line. As usual, Corey Perry and Ryan Getzlaf are leading the way up front.
Fredrik Andersen and Jason LaBarbera are a surprisingly effective goalie combination, and, defensively, the old man of the Ducks, Francois Beauchemin was leading the way until breaking a finger in his right hand over the Thanksgiving weekend.
The worry for Anaheim isn’t the regular season. Bruce Boudreau-coached teams have never had a problem producing points and wins between October and early April. It’s when the playoffs come around that his teams often falter. Remember all those great Capitals teams he presided over late last decade and early this one? If the Ducks can get over the hump and go deep into the playoffs, they certainly have the ammunition to win a championship.
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