The New NHL: in like a lion (shootouts, more scoring), out like a whimpering, kicked little puppy dog (the ready-to-explode gambling scandal). While Wayne Gretzky is busy wiping the sweat from his brow, let’s review the “first half” of the NHL season up to the Olympic break. First, the Eastern Conference (hey, we got a bias to keep up here!).MOST SURPRISING TEAM: Carolina Hurricanes
Hot dang, them good ol’ boys can skate! The ‘Canes came flying out of the gate and haven’t slowed down since. They have flash in young sniper Eric Staal, slash in the ridiculously underrated Corey Stillman and Erik Cole, and substance in the venerable Rod Brind’Amour. Throw in the outstanding goaltending of Martin Gerber and Cam Ward and you have a serious Cup contender down there in the Bible Belt.
Runner Up: Buffalo Sabres, for pretty much the same above reasons, just a few points behind. They just need to stay a little more healthy.
MOST DISSAPOINTING TEAM: Pittsburgh Penguins
Big Bird himself couldn’t have laid a bigger egg than Mario & co. have this fall and early winter. This squad is Murphy’s Law personified. Everything, with the excepton of Uber rookie Sidney Crosby, that could have gone wrong, did go wrong. An 0-9 start, the firing of coach Eddie Olczyk, the hiring of Michel Therrien, and the retirement/defections of Lemieux and Ziggy Pallfy all helped put more ping pong balls than Craig Patrick could have imagined back in August in the Penguins coffer. Do YOU think prospect Evgeni Malkin is in a hurry to get here from Russia?
Runner Up: Toronto Maple Leafs. That dark shade of blue on Leafs’ fans faces isn’t face paint.
BEST PLAYER: Jaromir Jagr, forward, NY Rangers
Talk about reborn. Jagr is enjoying this new NHL more than that guy who used to be married to Jessica Simpson is enjoying his single life. Already running away with the scoring title, Jags is partying like it’s the 1998-1999 season.
Runner(s) Up: Daniel Alfredsson (Ottawa Senators), Ilya Kovalchuk (Atlanta Thrashers), Staal.
BEST ROOKIE: Alexander Ovechkin, F, Washington Capitals
Ovechkin, over the last few months, has slightly pulled away from Crosby. He has more points (though Crosby has closed the gap) and has helped his team make an attempt at being a little more respectable this year.
Runner Up (of course): Crosby. Sid the Kid will have to take the consolation prize of knowing he’ll be (by far) the best player in the league over the next 10-15 years.
MOST DISAPPOINTING PLAYER: Mats Sundin, Toronto Maple Leafs
Injuries, lost a step, uninspired, yawn.
MOST DISAPPOINTING ROOKIE: If you’re disappointed in a rookie, you’re probably watching too much hockey.
WESTERN CONFERENCE
MOST SURPRISING TEAM: Detroit Red Wings
Back in October, everyone thought the Wings were either too old, too young, too fat, too red, whatever. Nobody liked Detroit, but they’re the best of a conference where it seems like every team is above .500. Datsuyk and Zetterberg are unbelievable, Manny Legace has been showing that he’s no Chris Osgood (Thank God for Hockeytown fans) and Brendan Shannahan is just, I don’t know, really good, still.
Runner Up: Nashville Predators. Shouldn’t be much of a surprise at all, with all of that talent up front and in goal. Maybe it’s just the location of the franchise.
MOST DISAPPOINTING TEAM: St. Louis Blues
A thesarus I found didn’t have any synonyms for the word suck, so we’ll leave it that.
Runner Up: Chicago Blackhawks. Two words: Bill Wertz.
BEST PLAYER: Marty Turco, Dallas Stars
In a conference where almost every team is solid, Turco does the most to help the Stars win. Not that Dallas has a bunch of AHLers in front of Turco, but his goaltending gives them the slightest edge every night. Funny he’s not the no. 1 for Team Canada.
Most Disappointing: Jarome Iginla, Calgary Flames. Not that Iginla’s been awful, but most of us thought that he’d be pushing 50 by the break.
BEST ROOKIE: Marek Svatos, F, Colorado Avalanche
Many who can’t see the Rocky Mountains out of their window when they wake up know next to nothing of the Avalanche rookie. Here’s a little background: He’s 23 years old, was a seventh round pick in 2001, and he’s from Kosice, Slovakia. Oh, and he’s the best player on the Avalanche right now. Better than Sakic. Better than Hejduk. Better than Tanguay. Watch him for one game (like I did) and you’ll believe.
Runner up: Dion Phaneuf, D, Calgary
If Chris Pronger moved to Edmonton to be the best defenseman in Alberta, he made a big mistake.
A few Bonus Categories(because we don’t have paper costs)
Best Free Agent Signing: Peter Forsberg, F, Philadelphia. With a grain of salt, of course. If healthy, however, look out come May/June.
Worst Free Agent Signing: Sergei Gonchar, D, Pittsburgh. $25 million for Malkin’s interperter in 2008?
Best Trade: Dany Heatley to Atlanta to Ottawa for Marian Hossa. Sometimes a change of scenery…
Worst Trade (In NHL history): Joe Thorton from Boston to San Jose for Brad Stuart, Wayne Primeau and Marco Sturm. Shark fans will call this the best. But C’mon, even THEIR hockey intelligence had to be insulted, at least a little bit.