hey 21pro, clearly you missed the kings sending the rookie bernier down nearly three weeks back. aubin is at the very least number two right now in LA, and with the inconsistency of labarbera, he could become 1A in LA shortly. while i do not think he is a clear cut number one goalie, he had a one good year in pittsburgh, as well as a late run a few years back in toronto where he went 9-0 to close out the year, aubin is a very capable and serviceable goalie, who can keep a number one goaltender very honest.
i do not think you can rate the penguins as dissappointing, because they overachieved greatly last year. get past crosby and malkin up front, then they are struggling to get any kind of secondary scoring. staal has regressed badly from his rookie year, but that was to be expected (what if they had taken hawks rookie toews with this pick when they had the chance) as he played over his head last year. guys like christensen and malone have not picked up the slack. fleury has a huge problem controlling rebounds, to the point where the pens have kicked the tires around the league looking for a potential number one elsewhere. pens are also not sneaking up on anyone either this year.
everyone knew the canucks could not score enough last year, and went into this year with possibly an even worse offence. luongo is good, but he can only do so much.
the devils started the year with a new coach, a new system, a horrible start to the season with a 9 game road trip, as well as the loss of their best defenseman (rafalski), and one of their better forwards (gomez). they also began the year without colin white and jamie langenbrunner, as well as watching brodeur struggle to start. things now seems to be turning around, with brodeur coming around, parise continuing to evolve into one of the better young guns in the game, as well as madden shedding his defense-only label and kicking in some offense. never count the devils out, especially with the game's best goaltender backstopping them every nite.
leafs??? uggghhh. number one, where did maurice and tucker begin to fall out? tucker has been very valuable to the leafs the last few years, especially on the powerplay, so why does maurice take him off the top two scoring lines, and the number one powerplay unit to start the year? tucker has been top five in the league the last two years in powerplay goals scored. blake is not meshing with sundin, two guys who clearly need the puck themselves more than they dish to each other. leave sundin with antropov and possibly steen, and put wellwood with blake and tucker. mccabe continues to slide into total suckdom, making that 5 year deal with a no-trade clause look better and better by the day. pick one goalie and run with him, period. deal raycroft, shed his salary and bring in some more help up front. ferguson clearly has got to go.
buffalo? for sure, you don't lose your heart and soul (drury), then your best scorer (briere), watch your already suspect defence lose possibly it's anchor to heart surgery (numminem), and think things will be okay. miller has been good, not great, and afinogenov has played horrible...these two guys clearly have alot of pressure on them, and as of yet, have not lived up to it. vanek has not been bad, but not playing anywhere close to his huge salary. same can be said of derek roy. this team has too many guys who do the same thing, maybe deal one of their speedy forwards, and bring in a gritty type. the defense is a problem getting worse by the day (and we think the leafs have issue on the back end).
surprise team so far? have to say the 'canes and 'hawks. carolina has returned to their stanley cup form of two years ago, mainly in part to the return of cory stillman, eric staal getting back to form, and goalie cam ward coming to camp in shape. the hawks have a bright future with patrick kane and jonathan toews up front . they also have young vets like marty havlat (if he can ever stay healthy) and tuomo ruutu, with more youth coming in jack skille and dave bolland. they are young on the blue line too, with seabrook, kieth and wisniewski already up, and hopefully former first round pick cam barker finally maturing and joining them. great future finally for this one-time great original six franchise. finally breaking free from the reigns of the old-thinking ways of former owner bill wirtz, can only help this team go one way...up! leaf fans should know how this team seemingly changed when ballard passed on.
so far...
MVP...paul statsny/henry lundqvist
best d-man - niklas lidstrom (check out his plus/minus)
best goalie - henrik lundqvist
best rookie - patrick kane
best coach - ken hitchcock
most improved player - rick nash/mike richards
Plyrs99
