At the Quartermark

We have now reached the NHL's quarter mark. For most teams, this is a fairly good time to judge what the rest of the season may look like. There are still 60 games left to the season though, so truly anything could occur. There already have been a couple surprises in both conferences, and a couple disappointments. In the East Washington, Philadelphia, and Montreal lead, whilst in the West it is Detroit, L.A., and Colorado leading. Montreal and Colorado have both surprised most, as both were pegged to be in the playoffs, not leading their divisions. For Montreal, beating out the likes of the Bruins and Sen's has been impressive. The Avalanche's have beaten out a highly touted Canucks squad, in a tough division as it is. The NHL's current basement dwellers include the Flames, Devils, Oilers, and Islanders. For the Flames and Devils, the season thus far has been one massive disappointment. After some major off season acquisitions, both squads have floundered. Big free agent signings; Olli Jokinen and Ilya Kovalchuk have been just plain atrocious. As for the Oilers and Islanders, its mostly understandable as to where they sit in the standings, being that both are in full rebuild.

Striking Oil?

It has been a rough start for the young Oilers squad. Going just 5-10-4 in their first 19 games. The kids have been decent, but nothing out of this world. Jordan Eberle has stayed fairly consistent, with 12 points so far, though he hasn't scored in 6-7 games. Taylor Hall has had a slow start, but seems to be finding his game. On any given night he can literally take over. He has to be better in his own end, but he is coming along. MPS has been the biggest disappointment thus far. He has shown some difficulty in getting used to the smaller rink and North American style of play. It shouldn't be too long before he gets comfortable and starts to put some points on the board. As for the rest of the team, Ales Hemsky has really turned his game up a notch lately, with 4 of his 15 points coming in the last 2 games. Ryan Whitney has been a stud for the Oil on the back end, though he doesn't have a goal yet, he leads the team in points with 17 assists. On the other side of things, the recent healthy scratch, Gilbert Brule, has struggled mightily, so has Andrew Cogliano. Together the pair have amassed a measly 3 goals, 3 assists, and are a minus 18. Just plain brutal. Not only that, but the Oilers defense, with the exception of Whitney and Theo Peckham, have are a combined minus 27. (Peckham and Whitney are the only "plus" defensmen, being plus 2 each). Shawn Horcoff and Dustin Penner have each been decent, but maybe not as effective as the Oilers need them to be. With their recent efforts and finally a win against the Ducks, it looks like the Oilers might finally have worked out, at least, some issues. Light at the end of the tunnel? Wait and see....


Burning Out

My my, how the mighty have fallen. As I eluded to in my last post, the Calgary Flames have really begun to struggle. So monumental are the Flames struggles that they now find themselves in 26th place for the whole NHL. That's 14th in the West, just 3 points of the Oilers, who even now have a game in hand. Before Christmas hits, we may very well see a last place Flames team, in the West anyways (sorry Islanders but apparently even your broadcasters are tired of watching). It is absolutely nuts to think of how far the Flames have fallen, or may fall. General manager Darryl Sutter is on the very cusp of losing his job, the writing is being written on the wall as we speak. There is no way, in this world, that he will survive this. Bringing in Alex Tanguay and Olli Jokinen, both for a second time, is proving to be one giant epic fail. As for the Phanuef trade, we clearly know who won out.... Ian White has already been traded to the 'Canes, while Matt Stajan has only one goal in 18 games. Niklas Hagman has just 11 points in 20 games. Lets not even talk about the Steve Staios trade, only a giant thank you is in order from all Oilers fans. Martin Marincin should turn into 10 times the defensman Staios ever was. The future isn't much brighter in cow town either. Mikael Backlund has struggled to compete in the NHL, with only 5 points, the Flames highest touted rookie isn't panning out all too well.


50 in 50?

That's the question being asked around the league. Steve Stamkos, as of tonight, now has 20 goals in 21 games. Can he do 50 in 50 or less? If he keeps the pace he is on right now, its highly likely. Will he? Considering the ebb and flow of the NHL, one would have to go with no. Players get hot, then they go cold, they score in bunches, then go stagnant for a while. Sure I believe Stamkos will hit 60, maybe even 70 goals (which hasn't been done since Teemu Selanne/Alexander Mogilny circa 1992-1993), but posting 50 in 50? Highly unlikely. It sure will be fun to see how close he can get. I also thought it might be cool to see if we can mathematically try to predict what could unfold. Through the first 21 games, Stamkos has registered a goal in 14 of those 21 games. He has 4 games in which he has scored 2 or more. He has two hat tricks. So two 2 goal games, and two 3 goal games. So considering he has another 29 games till 50, we can pace him for 3 more hat tricks, and 3 more 2 goal games (ya I know, 5 hat tricks in the first 50 games of the season, highly unlikely). That puts him at 35 goals. After that he had ten 1 goal games. So that would put him on pace for another 14 goals (scoring only 1 goal in 48% of his games). All that said, that only puts him at........49 goals in 50 games!! The crazy thing is, if he were to keep his pace, he would end the season with a whopping 79 goals!! That includes a season total of 8 hat tricks, 16 multi-goal games, and registering at least 1 goal in 55 of 82 games.  It would be the highest single season goal total since Brett Hull registered 86 goals in 1990-1991.

Favorite Teemu moment:


Favorite "Stammer" moment:


GO OILERS!!

-Sporer