With the All-Star Game and Skills Competition coming up this weekend (YAWN!!!!) It is the unofficial middle of the NHL season. I will give you my choices for league MVP, Vezina, and ROY. Also I will give you my opinion on which team has a bright future, which teams have "Jumped the Shark" and which have already been eaten by the Shark.
Anaheim Mighty Ducks: With an excellent front office, bringing back Scott Neidermeyer is a plus, as well as young stars in Corey Perry and Ryan Getzlaf. Bright Future.
Atlanta Thrashers: Working in a city that doesn't really care for hockey, and if they lose Marian Hossa they have Jumped the Shark.
Boston Bruins: A bright future with the best goalie prospect in Tukka Rask, and a young goal scorer in Phil Kessel.
Buffalo Sabres: A team in dissarray since they lost their two captains, are lacking leadership, and have a chance to loose even more with Brian Campbell shelving contract talks. Jumped the Shark, and are dripping blood into the water.
Calgary Flames: A bright future withstars like Dion Phaneuf, Jerome Iginla and Mika Kiprusoff.
Carolina Hurricanes: Another team in a market that largely doesn't care that they are there, but have good young talent with Eric Staal and Cam Ward. Could be a force in the Eastern Conference for years to come.
Chicago Blackhawks: One of the brightest futures with Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane, with a defense anchored by Brent Seabrook and Duncan Keith.
Colorado Avalanche: Jumped the shark simply because they do not have a good enough goalie to carry them for the next few years.
Columbus Blue Jackets: A good future with Rick Nash and Gilber Brule, but lack of goalie playing for them right now means they have jumped the shark.
Dallas Stars: Not so good a future, not many young stars coming up in the system. Good team now but they are putting on the skiis to jump the shark.
Detroit Red Wings: Can never be counted out, to good a team that will find gems in the draft and free agency. Front office stability with Ken Holland, bright future.
Edmonton Oilers: Excellent future with Sam Gagner and Andrew Cogliano, need a goalie for the future but may have found it with Mathieu Garon. bright future if they pick up a goalie.
Florida Panthers: Another market that doesn't care for their team, but has a bright future in net with Thomas Vokoun and with Nathan Horton and Jay Bouwmeister scoring goals.
Los Angeles Kings: A bright future with a great team, but lack of goalie right now. They have Jonathan Bernier who had a great showing at the world juniors and in the London games. Bright Future.
Minnesota Wild: Excellent future with Marion Gaborik and Mikko Koivu, and Nick Backstrom in net. Bright Future if they can get rid of the owner the just allowed to buy the franchise, Craig Leopold will cry poor eventually then sell the team, buy another team and repeat this process for years.
Montreal Canadiens: Carey Price, Kyle Chipchura, and Corey Locke. Nuff said, Bright Future
Nashville Predators: Another team in a market where teams don't care. I thought they were going to fall apart when they traded Vokoun to Florida, but Chris Mason has provided stability in goal. Bright future.
New Jersey Devils: Martin Brodeur is getting older, and they have no heir apparent to him in net. Jumped the shark for that reason alone.
New York Islanders: With stability in goal with 15 year man Rick DiPietro, team needs some young talent and doesn't have much. eaten by the shark.
New York Rangers: Have stability in goal with Lundqvist, but the cupboard is bare with no good young talent. Eaten by the shark.
Ottawa Senators: Young talent with Jason Spezza, and Dany Heatly and stability in goal with Ray Emery. Brightest future in the league.
Philadelphia Flyers: Excellent future in goal with Nitymaki when Biron leaves, and good young talent with Richards and Carter and Daniel Briere there for 7 years after this.
Phoenix Coyotes: Bright future now that they have extended Bryzgalov, with Mueller and Carcillo, and Kyle Turris playing in Junior. another bright future in a market not caring about thier team. Too bad.
Pittsburgh Penguins: Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Jordan Staal. Lack of stability in goal, but the offence makes up for it. Brigth future.
San Jose Sharks: If only Cheechoo could get the #### off his back not being able to score, with Nabokov, but from what I know, the cupboard is bare. Jumping the Shark.
St. Louis Blues: Excellent future with Johnson and Manny Legace between the pipes. With the aquisition on Andy MacDonald have a bright future.
Tampa Bay Lightning: With no goaltender on the horizon, the offense will run out by the time they get one. Eaten by the shark
Toronto Maple Leafs: they were eaten by the shark last year when they traded Rask for Raycroft and have the highest paid and worst defence core in the league. with no draft picks and no prospects on thehorizon, this look is 100% accurate.
Vancouver Canucks: Roberto Luongo could fall victim to Brodeur syndrome with playing so many games. Have a bright future mainly because of the Sedin twins.
Washingon Capitals: No goalie on the horizonbut have a young core of players that can make the team appear better than they are. sort of luke-warm future.
Mid-Season Awards
MVP: Pavel Datsyuk, Detroit Red Wings. The Wings would not be this good unless they had the offense this guy provides. Let me know your choice cause I still think it is up in the air.
Vezina: Ilya Bryzgalov, Phoenix Coyotes. I made this pick because he turned this team around this season. Tell me your pick, still up in the air.
Rookie of the Year: Sam Gagner, Edmonton Oilers. No one has looked so good in the shootout or during the games. Pat Kane looked good, but when Toews went down with injuries. Price deserves consideration as well, but was sent to minors. Gagner is my pick, but again still up in the air.
Are you joking? yeah Bryzgalov has played well since being picked up by the yotes, but he hasnt been vezina good. Luongo and Brodeur stand out so much more as they always do and deserve the vezina way before bryzgalov. And Gagner for rookie of the year? I think Gagner is going to be an all star in the league but he is not the rookie of the year so far. Pat Kane, Jon Toews, and Nick Backstrom have had much better years than Gagner and as of today Toews has played 12 less games
according to the dope in the boston globe, kevin paul dupont,the bruins are shopping phil kessel. i hope they dont. they can buy players, they have $8million, with fernandez and bergeron's injuries. Biq question is Jacobs, who handles nickels like sewer covers, will he be smart this time and mak an improvement with the cash he has.
You say the Penguins have a lack of stability in goal. Since Fleury went down, this kid Named Ty Conklin has likely earned himself a full time job even when Fleury comes back. Lets see in the last 15 games he is 10-2-2, with a 1.97 GAA and a .941 save percentage. Looking through the goalie Stats he leads all goalies who have played in 10 or more games except Osgood who has a 1.87 GAA average but his .941 save percentage is tops in the league. Not to mention Detroit has a much better defense than the Penguins. If this is considered a lack of stability I'll take a lack of stability any day. I would assume Fleury will be trade bait after this season as he has never played to his potential. I would say that by the time the season is over Conklin may be an MVP canidate (Vezina too) should he continue to play like he is right now.
Last edited by steelers4ever@ on January 25th at 9:18 PM.
at thanksgiving the caps sucked. they were terrible. and then ovechkin turned his game up along with backstrom. and the caps are now 1 point out of first place. i dont see how ovechkin isnt the mvp and backstrom the ROY.
haha this is the stupidest thing ive ever read....Bryzgalov is NOT Vezina material, Brodeur, Luongo, Osgood, DiPietro, THAT is vezina material...and Datsyuk, while great, isnt the MVP, that is Iginla, Kovalchuk, Zetterberg, Alfredsson or Lidstrom...and Kyle Turris isnt in Juniors, he goes to college, he plays for #16 Wisconsin (where i go)...and this Caps fan who made a comment...HAHA Ovechkin and Backstrom are very good, but not even close to those awards...get real, and stop being homers
The skills competition was entertaining as usual, but the only two players who appeared to get what the new breakaway format was all about were Ovechkin and Getzlaf. What was with Kovalchuk's pathetic attempts in front of the home crowd?
Anyway, I made some predictions also and here's how they've shaped up so far. Check it out, it won't bite.
Datsyuk is unbelievable. This guy could make moves in a phone booth and can pass as well as anyone I have even seen play.
Osgood is the back up in Detroit and he is starting the All Star game with a 1.87 GAA (leads league) and save percentage 9.25 (2nd in NHL).
But you have a valid point with the Coyotes goalie. But he wouldnt be my choice.
Pascal Leclair the Blue Jackets goalie leads the league in save percentage .928 and shuouts 8 and is 2nd in GAA of an even 2.00. But he plays in Columbus the future team of a new Canadian team (fingers crossed)
Last edited by bob260505 on January 27th at 1:44 AM.
There are simply too many better goalies in the league than Ilya Bryzgalov. In the wild-Coyote games this year the Wild goalies have out played Bryzgalov. So far this year, Wild goalies Backstrom and Harding have been inconsistant enough not to be considered as Vezina candidates. If Giguerre played the rest of the league like he does the Wild he would be the Vezina winner.
In response to hhsflyer. DiPietro is nowhere near Vezina material. Have you seen his stats? DiPietro isn't even top 10 in any major category. He is NOT the best goalie in the league. Not by a long shot.
And in response to the blog article...I'm not sure what you mean when you say the Rangers have no good young talent. Marc Staal, Brandon Dubinsky, Nigel Dawes, Petr Prucha, Dan Girardi...Hugh Jessiman, Alexei Cherepanov, Ryan Callahan, Ivan Baranka, Andrew Hutchinson, Bobby Sanguinetti, Michael Sauer...just to name a few. Who are those guys? No-talent bums?
decent article,just a few issues,first i am a leaf,cough fan and u are coorect about Rask,Leafs WILL TRADE and someone WILL PAY a king's ransom for Mats,big time,if he pulls a tkachuk all could be looking up come Sept......as for Van and the "brodeur syndrome" fall victim? you mean play over 70 games every single year and average 40 wins and be on pace to destroy P.Roy's all time wins mark,slow start this year,has rebounded and is playing like a stud again,so again "brodeur syndrome"? wtf?,pittsburgh's future is up in the air because they cannot afford crosby and malkin and any kind of supporting cast(damn salary cap),NHL should institute a franchise player tag who doesn't count against the cap,damn i'm smart....as for awards i will start with vezina,both jersey and vancouver would be NOWHERE without brodeur and luongo,let alone lighting it up,so flip a coin,MVP, he hasn't played the whole year but look at the difference Scotty N has made in Anaheim,to me a no brainer! as for rookie,gagner? huh? i'll take one of those blackhawk boys anyday,again flip it
Maybe as a Ranger fan I'm biased but no young talent? Did you miss that we had 2 players in the young stars game? Do you know which team had the most players playing at the recent World Junior Championships? You guessed it! The Rangers. Here's some youngsters on the Rangers or in the system - Staal, Cherepanov(should have been a top 5 pick last year but the fact that he's from Russia scared off some teams), Anisimov, Dubinsky, Sauer, Sanguinetti, Girardi, Tyutin, Dawes. Prucha and Callahan could also be steady goal scorers in the NHL. Hutchinson and Jessiman will never be good NHLers though, while Baranka is iffy. Oh and we can trade away Al Montoya - a good young goalie - because we already have a good young goalie that even you realized: Henrik Lundqvist.
For your MVP - Datsyuk is a good choice without a doubt. I think Lecavalier SHOULD get it because he is, and has been, the best player in the league. The fact that the rest of his team is absolutely horrible hurts him so I'd give it to Ovechkin or Iginla.
For your Vezina, sure Bryzgalov has turned around the 'Yotes but that shouldn't mean he gets the Vezina when there are more deserving candidates. Avery turned around the Rangers last year and I very highly doubt anyone would ever advocate that he should have been MVP last year! Leclaire, Luongo, Brodeur, or Nabokov to me.
Ricky 5-Hole and Bryzgalov are not Vezina worthy, at all. If you wanna throw those guys into the equation, why not throw Ty Conklin in. Granted he won't qualify for consideration, but he's done more for the Pens than either of those 2 have for their teams.
Last edited by sheashu on January 27th at 9:10 PM.
Believe it or not the Flyers have one of the brightest futures in the league a ton of good young players and an awesome offense. If they can find a fast shut down defenseman they could be the team in the east for years to come. Guys like Hatcher and Knuble are the oldest players on the team of decent caliber. They have a ton of talent in the minors and they are always a team that is there every year except for last years breakdown. This team and Pittsburgh could be great for a long time if they get the defense and goalie situation taken care of. GO FLYERS!!!
