NHL Eastern Conference Stretch-Run Mayhem

Unlike the West, the Eastern Conference is a much tighter race top to bottom with the exception of the Boston Bruins who have all but officially secured the top spot as they are 12 points ahead of their closets challenger. But looking beyond Boston a very colorful picture is painted as Washington and New Jersey battle for the second spot separated by only one point and the difference between 4^th and 10^th spot is only 9 points (essentially 3 games). That’s right ladies and gentlemen the difference between home ice advantage in the first round and being out of the playoffs altogether is merely 3 games. So you may be asking yourself how all this will end up, who’s in and who’s out? Well look no further folks, we’ve got it broken down for you right here.

IN:

Washington – The Alexes (Ovechkin and Semin) provide the Caps with enough scoring to hang with anybody from either conference and at any level of the playoffs. Supplement that with great defensive play by guys like Mike Green, outstanding goaltending by Jose Theodore and the toughness of the likes of Donald Brashear needed to wear teams down in the playoffs, you’ve got a team that can go a LONG way.

New Jersey – No Brodeur? No problem. Scott Clemmensen has been great, Parise, and Elias combine skill with leadership, and of course New Jersey always plays amazing defense. Add in Brendan Shanahan as the proverbial cherry on top and you’ve got yourself an irresistible sundae—i.e. a team that can rely on its core not only to get to the playoffs, but deep into the second season.

Montreal – Sure they lost Robert Lang for the season (a major blow indeed since he led the team in goals scored overall and power play goals) but now Kovalev and Price and company need to step up their play. They were picked by many (yours truly included) to represent the East in the finals and you better believe they’ll be there.

NY Rangers – Everything they expected to get from Wade Redden but haven’t has been more than adequately made up for by the play of Henrik Lundqvist. However, his play can only get them to the playoffs so do not expect them to get very far. A lot of their games have been won in shootouts and in case you didn’t get that memo there aren’t any shootouts in the post-season. Scott Gomez is great too but they miss Jagr and Shanahan so enjoy the Rangers while they last because it won’t be long for them in the playoffs.

Philadelphia – They are huge and can score. Big teams who can score make it to the playoffs, and as long as Biron stays solid they will be in excellent shape.

Florida –  Netminder Craig Anderson has been fantastic and somehow this team has learned how to score on a more consistent basis. They have a lot of guys who are overachieving and it doesn’t look like that will stop anytime soon; however, as Anderson goes so go the Florida Panthers. In my estimation a 2.47 GAA and .930 save percentage are no accident, the Panthers are for real.

Pittsburgh – They have not played well as of late and have a lot of injuries to boot. Despite all that the Penguins have an incredible amount of talent and are becoming a grittier team as they realize they cannot win on talent alone. Losing Malone, Laraque and Hossa (among others) has hurt them more than most realize but regardless the team refuses to quit and their new 1-2-2 trap will help them win enough games to make reservations for post-season play.

OUT:

Carolina – Cam Ward has been too inconsistent and the Hurricanes don’t score enough goals to bail him out every night.

Buffalo – They run Ryan Miller into the ground and he will start to wear down before the playoffs arrive. Thomas Vanek and company can certainly put the puck in the net and that will help their push toward the playoffs but they will fall short by “that much.”

All Star Game Flops; Second Half Mercifully Begins

The NHL All-Star break is now over and mercifully so is the NHL All-Star game. It was the highest scoring all-star game and 22 goals scored plus the addition goal awarded for the shootout win for the East really could not have been any less entertaining. Even the skills competition was boring with the modification of the event to try to make it more exciting did the exact opposite. With that said, Tuesday night the de facto second half began and there were some pretty good games on tap. The best of Tuesday’s games was in Boston as the Bruins battled the Caps.

Washington and Boston are two of the best teams in the lead not only in team points but in talent level and that makes all of their match-ups particularly intriguing. Washington made Boston come from behind twice in the game before the game was won 3-2 in overtime by Boston on a blocked pass attempt that by chance went into the net behind Theodore. It was unfortunate because both netminders played an incredible third period making incredible shots to keep their respective teams in the game as the aforementioned talent that these two teams are loaded with. Both Theodore and Thomas showed Tuesday night that despite all that talent it is the goalies who need to be the best player on the ice more often than not if any hockey team wants to be a legitimate Stanley Cup contender.

Some other notes worth mentioning before signing off:

Claude Lemieux made his return to Colorado with the San Jose Sharks. The 43 year old signed an AHL deal with San Jose before being called up to play with the NHL club last Tuesday.

The Buffalo Sabres scored 2 goals in the first 1:45 of the first period against Edmonton on route to crushing the Oilers 10-2.

The Detroit Red Wings started the second half of the season with a 3-2 OT loss to Columbus.

Hurricanes Spoil Captials’ Visit

The Washington Capitals had a chance to really separate themselves from the bulk of the Southeast Division Sunday as the Carolina Hurricanes welcomed Alex Ovechkin and company to town. Going into the game the Hurricanes had not exactly been world beaters riding a three game losing streak and were losers of 6 of their last 7 earning only three points with a coaching change thrown in their to boot. The Capitals were better en route to Raleigh winning 4 of 6 before Sunday but had only won four of the last nine. Despite their struggles the Capitals had a chance to take an 8 point lead on second place Carolina and although it is early they would have established themselves as the solid Southeast Division frontrunners. Then the puck dropped and save for Ovechkin the Capitals more-or-less did not show up. The Canes outclassed the Caps and if it was the first time watching both teams one might think the Canes were the division leaders. Michael Leighton was outstanding in goal stopping 38 or 39 shots including 10 of 11 from Ovechkin alone who was also turned away on a penalty shot. Despite having only 25 shots themselves the Canes were more efficient putting three pucks behind Jose Theodore two from leading scorer Ray Whitney and one from a struggling Eric Staal. Carolina showed they are not going anywhere and are not conceding the division to Washington but if they want to win Eric Staal has to score more. It is great that Ray Whitney is scoring goals, if Staal does not get going the Canes will find themselves watching the playoffs from home yet again.

Do Not Sleep On Ovechkin and Capitals

Alexander Ovechkin tallied 5 points (a goal and 4 assists) Wednesday night as the Washington Capitals defeated the Anaheim Ducks 6-4. Many people in the league have talked about: how well the Bruins are playing in front of Tim Thomas, the Penguins are off to their best start since 1995, San Jose rolling, Marian Hossa gelling with another great Detroit Red Wings team, Minnesota’s fantastic defense, and of course year 100 pour Les Canadiens de Montreal—but do not sleep on the Washington Capitals. The defending Southeast Division champions are once again leading a fairly mediocre pack of teams with a quarter of the season gone. Most will focus on Ovechkin but the Capitals have a more complete team surrounding their superstar this year. Alexander Semin is racking up the points thus far and although the defense is nothing to write home about they absolutely do an adequate job in front of the goaltending duel of Brent Johnson and Jose Theodore who have preformed more than admirably through the first 18 games of the season. Washington will be a very scary team come playoff time because they can score enough to beat anyone on any given night, have a great home ice advantage where they have yet to lose a game in regulation, and now have a team with a full tank of playoff experience. Although I think the Caps need more of a physical presence to be a championship contender (sorry but Donald Brashear cannot do it all himself) they can certainly make a lot of noise nonetheless come April.