Thursday NHL Thoughts - 10/12/06 Edition

Hey all!

Ready to talk hockey? First, I would like to start off with a few words on the "OTAN" pool. After a week of dwelling in the standings' basement, I have finally started my comeback with a big night yesterday. It's only a matter of time until my players stop sucking. By the way, can someone explain to me why Ilya Kovalchuk has 2 points in 4 games? Still, on the subject of the Pool, I would like to give a big hand to Sweet LP and especially Mat, who after 1 week, are kicking the rest of the Pool's butt. On the other hand, I will give a big thumb's down to Nick The Dick formissing the draft and then having the audacity to lead the Pool for 4 days. Luckily, things have gone back to normal and the Dick seems headed for the basement once more. Pick of the year so far? It could've been Michael Nylander, who came off the board pretty late and now has 5 points in 3 games, but The Dick was absent on draft night and so did not technically "pick" Nylander. So, instead, we wind up with a tie between Mat's Kari Lethonen ( last goaltender taken, 2 shutouts in his first week) and Sweet LP's Martin Havlat (2 games, 6 points, LP's 9th foward). Now, why would I have given the "best pick" tag to Nylander, who doesn't nearly have as many points as the other 2? Because Lethonen and Havlat, as we all know, will get injured at some point, and thus their production will go down. Nylander, playing between jagr and Shanahan, could keep this up all year. Nice "non-pick", The Dick.

On another note, the Canadiens won again last night, giving them a total of 5 points out of a possible 6 in their 3-game season-opening road trip. That's pretty good. In fact, it's very good. But the Canadiens need all the points they need now. As a "small" team, they are bound to get tired, as they do every year, and will probably lose ground as the season goes on. So, yeah, they do need the fast start. One more thing: Aebischer is starting to make Gainey look like an idiot for giving Huet that much money in the off-season.

We are one week into the season, and already there is talk that offense is down in the NHL. Why is it? Well, for one thing, teams have gotten a lot better on the penalty kill. Last year, teams scored on 17.64% of their power plays. This year, as of last night, the league average was down to 15.74%, almost a full 2% below the standards set last year. That being said, the season is still very, very young. Some power plays perhaps haven't really clicked yet. Pittsburgh and Dallas, for instance, still haven't scored with the man advantage. Buffalo, which had the best PP at home last year, are clicking at a rate of 5.0%, and the Senators, with guys like Jason Spezza, Wade Redden, Dany Heatley and Daniel Alfredsson on the ice, are a measley 5.3%. So things will get better for these teams, and they will get worse for others. In the meantime, the only thing that matters is the show, not the amount of goals. While I am sure there have been boring games this year, the 2 Edmonton-Calgary games I have seen, as well as the Montreal-Buffalo and Montreal-Toronto games, have all featured a very tight, very back-and-forth, very exciting brand of hockey. And no fan can complain about that.

Next week, I will talk about the eventual transfer of Hockey Night in Canada from CBC to CTV, as well as my thoughts on all 6 of the Canadian teams' seasons so far.

See you tomorrow for my Week 6 NFL Weekend Picks.

Dwarf out.