First Week in the Books
As we began play tonight in the NHL, the season is merely one week old, but there has already been a lot of exciting action and breakout players that prove that the 2011-2012 season is one to look forward to for hockey fans everywhere.
Starting in the East, some of the biggest stories have already come out of Pittsburgh. Picked by Sports Illustrated to win Lord Stanley’s Cup this year, there are obviously big expectations in the Steel City. Just today, the face of the NHL Sidney Crosby was cleared for contact in practice, marking his long-awaited return to the ice imminent. With their captain waiting in the wings to center the Pens’ first line, he will need his supporting partner in Evgeni Malkin to stay healthy if they plan on competing for the Eastern Conference title. Malkin, the man they call “Geno,” has been prone to injuries in the past, and it only took him until two games into the season to go down with an injury. Luckily for the Pens’ he is back in the lineup tonight as they renew their rivalry with Alex Ovechkin and the Capitals for the first time this season. Currently, Pittsburgh is leading the NHL in points with 7 (3-0-1), so the hot start without their two perennial goal-scorers bodes well for Pens’ fans this year, as they look poised to compete in the Atlantic division and ultimately earn the right to represent the Eastern conference in the Stanley Cup Finals.
Nipping at the Penguins’ heels is the Flyers, who are off to a hot 3-0 start themselves. It appears, after only a few games, that the team is going to be much better off with a proven, seasoned goalie in Ilya Bryzgalov manning the cage this season. The potent Flyers offense and stingy defense hasn’t been defeated yet, and while it is still very early, the Flyers’ hot start could make the annual Winter Classic at Citizens Bank Park against the Rangers all the more exciting.
Switching over to the West, it’s no surprise to see the Red Wings atop the Central division. Winning both of their first two games has put the Wings atop Pierre LeBrun’s October 10th power rankings. Detroit is always in contention not only for the Central division title, but in the Western conference playoffs as well, and a 2-0 start brings confidence to the fans in the Motor City. When you mix the offensive prowess of Pavel Datsyuk, Henrik Zetterberg and Johan Franzen with the leadership and shutdown defense of Nicklas Lidstrom, you should have high expectations for your team, and the 11-12 season is no different for the Winged Wheel.
In the Northwest division, fans in Colorado have seen their team jump out to an early division lead, something not many NHL fans would have predicted at the beginning of the season, especially with the Stanley Cup finalist Vancouver Canucks in your division. But, as per usual, Canucks’ goalie Roberto Luongo has gotten off to a very slow start, giving way to backup Cory Schneider for the second time already this season. Schneider normally spells “Bobby Lou” for 20-25 games every season, but with two starts in the first week, fans in Vancouver are most likely already calling for Alain Vigneault to start Schneider more often, especially with Luongo struggling. Could he be suffering from the effects of not bringing the Cup to Vancouver? It may be too early to tell, but within the next couple weeks of play fans will see if Luongo, one of the premier goalies in the NHL, can snap out of his normal October funk and take this team to the promised land.
Each week I’ll highlight one player in the league whose exceptional performance has set him apart from his counterparts in the NHL. For the first week of the 11-12 season, my player of the week award goes to Anze Kopitar of the LA Kings. Coming off an injury-plagued season last year, there are high hopes for Kopitar in LA this year, especially if the Kings are going to take the next step to become a consistent contender in the Western conference. Many players have started hot (Phil Kessel, Kris Letang), but Kopitar’s early success after such a tough previous season makes him this week’s player of the week. In two games, Kopitar has netted three goals and an assist, and he has tallied another assist in their game against the Devils. At least five points in the first three games has set him apart from other forwards in the league, and has given Kings fans something positive to think about, after a long summer of contract negotiations with star D-man Drew Doughty. Kopitar is going to be a crucial asset to the Kings squad this year, as they will rely on him to be a 30-goal scorer to take the team to the upper-echelon of the conference.
An exciting first week it has indeed been, and as the season progresses we’ll be able to provide more detailed breakdowns of what teams and players are setting themselves apart in both conferences. It’s going to be a fun season, and this week proves why October and the start of the NHL season is the most wonderful time of the year!
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Great pick for player of the week. Kopitar really has been the one good, consistent piece to the Kings so far through three games. Still a ways to go before they can consider themselves contenders. Still far too sloppy. At least Kopitar is the one of the few bright spots so far.
[...] While I wrote about the Red Wings hot start last week, they clearly haven’t slowed down. Even though they haven’t played as many games as their division/conference counterparts, a 5-0 start is nothing to scoff at. Mike Babcock has his boys jumping, with their most recent victim being the win-less Columbus Blue Jackets (who have yet to win a game). While their power play started out cold (0-18), the Wings broke out last night against the Blue Jackets, scoring 3 PP goals, 2 of which were scored by Johan Franzen, who also added an assist in the team’s 5-2 thumping of their division rival to the south. Jimmy Howard has continued to look sharp for the Wings, which he will need to be all year if they want to contend for a Western Conference title in the spring. The Wings’ hot start is especially troubling for Blues fans, as the Blue Note has yet to find the consistency needed to play a full 60-minute game night in and night out. Datsyuk, Zetterberg, Lidstrom (who is poised to play his 1,500th career NHL game on the road against the Washington Capitals) and Howard have anchored the Wings, while they have continued to get contributions from second and third-liners like Franzen, Valtteri Filppula and Jiri Hudler, who looks poised for a breakout season after last year’s disappointing return to the NHL. Detroit has set themselves apart atop the Western Conference, and the way they’ve been winning games, they don’t show any signs of slowing down anytime soon. [...]