Is it just us or are the dog days hitting some of the top teams a bit early this season? Red Wings lose. Islanders lose, even at home. Flames dropped a couple, too. This week we take time off from trying make sense of it all and just rely on the standings ... for the most part.
Let the critics wail. They're old. Gray. Worn. Dish rags. Warm up the Heroes of Hockey bus, boys. Truth is, if the Wings play .500 hockey until the end of the calendar year, it would take exactly that long before the Flames caught them in the win column; this, of course, would require Calgary (six-game road trip this month) to win every game until that day.
When Ryan Smyth, the rugged straw that stirs the top line's offense, went down with a broken ankle, linemates Mike Comrie and Anson Carter quickly tripped from hot (line had eight goals in the four games prior) to cold. It took some time, but Carter finally broke the seal with two on Saturday and Comrie snapped a seven-game drought Wednesday. Edmonton finishes our grading period 2-1-0-0.
Mike Richter waited from Feb. 26, 1999, to last Thursday night's Carolina game to pitch a shutout. Apparently Richter took to the idea and followed it up in his next start by shutting out Tampa Bay. But when the mighty (he won player of the week honors) fall, sometimes they fall hard. Occasionally to the tune of five goals allowed on 35 shots.
November gain for Jarome Iginla: a 15-game point-scoring streak, 12 goals and six assists in 13 games. Not a bad December so far, either. Three games, three goals. A four-game homestand awaits.
Storylines on this week's edition of The Days of Our Leafs ... Jyrki Lumme's family wants to be in North America, after all. Just not in Dallas ... Former Leafs defenseman Bryan Berard gains another measure of closure over his eye injury during a home-and-home with the Rangers ... Tie Domi went on local radio to air some thoughts on his playing time ... Pat Quinn responded to the Toronto Sun, "As long as they can have people they can cry to." Just another week in Toronto hockey.
Even the most dedicated Islanders fan I know -- we're pretty sure the 22nd is observed as Mike Bossy's birth date every month -- admits the bloom is off the rose. ("Maybe Mike Peca forgot which team he played for on Saturday night," she says.) As of Dec. 5: Four wins in their past 13 games and they were working on a winless streak of four.
First the main course, salacious gossip to follow: After an 0-5-3 stretch, the Blackhawks take a two-game winning streak into home games this week against the Isles, Kings and Blues. Now, the most damning Mike Keenan quote we saw, according to the Ottawa Citizen, courtesy Tony Amonte: "Mike Keenan couldn't hold [Brian Sutter's] jock strap. Keenan never coached. Keenan never coached the power play. Keenan never coached the penalty killing. He never had a system. He tried to motivate by intimidation. Brian is the most prepared coach I've ever seen." Chicago at Florida, Feb. 16.
Earlier this month, Martin Havlat scored the game-winner in three consecutive games. This week he assisted on an OT winner over Boston, scored in Colorado (a 4-2 loss to the rejuvenated Avalanche), and picked up three points in Ottawa's 6-3 win in Dallas.
This morning it took my neighbor roughly 18 seconds to lock the tricky deadbolt on his apartment door. In the same time, Bill Guerin scored two goals to save the Bruins' bacon against Atlanta, their second win, against one loss, this week.
Now, we're getting somewhere. Milan Hejduk is scoring goals again, Steve Reinprect has scored three in his past four, Patrick Roy outplayed Dominik Hasek Wednesday night and Radim Vrbata entered into the Calder Trophy voting. All this, by the way, on the road.
His brother was sacked, but Darryl Sutter went 3-0-1 last week. His goaltender recorded a shutout, Teemu Selanne scored four goals and Mike Rathje returns over the weekend ... just in time for seven of eight on the road.
Things were humming along nicely in St. Louis -- Keith Tkachuk and Pavol Demitra were scoring, the team scored 20 in five wins -- then the Coyotes put them to sleep. Now they hit some meat in their schedule. Weekend home-and-home with the Kings, followed by Chicago, Toronto, Calgary and Philadelphia.
Ed Belfour's three-game assist streak came to a close Wednesday night. So, too, did Dallas' six-game unbeaten streak when they lost to Ottawa at American Airlines. The Stars are now 1-1 in the new building, where they'll play four of their next five.
Welcome back, Sean Hill, author of perhaps my favorite overheard-in-a-restaurant line. The Hurricanes were divvying up the check for a postgame dinner and bar tab. Gary Roberts wasn't there to sort out the mess, but his credit card was. Someone asked if they should get Roberts to make sure it was OK to put a good dent on the card. Hill stepped in, turned to a couple civilians at the bar, smirked and said (a bit more colorfully), "Eff Gary." Sorry, Sean, if this gets out.
All, rejoice. The Flyers scored a power-play goal last week. That it happened to be a game-winner, on the road, in the third period, against at a division rival, is icing on the cake. It also happened to be Keith Primeau's first goal since Nov. 15, a period during which the Flyers won one of five before Wednesday evening.
Bonjour, J.P. Dumont. Et merci. If you, the hockey fan, are looking for one of the NHL's hottest goal scorers, check for Dumont in the box scores. He's scored six in his past seven games. In a related story, the Sabres are 5-1-1 in their last seven.
Schedule picked up steam and rolled over the Habs last week. Two weeks ago they beat Florida, Atlanta twice, Boston and Washington. This week? They scored four goals against the Islanders, Rangers and Blackhawks and went 0-2-0-1.
Now taking his turn as Captain December ... Brad Brown. Wait. Scratch that. After it was announced he would be taking over for Filip Kuba in the Wild's captain-for-a-month rotation, Brown suffered a bruised knee and has been sitting since. But just what did Brown do to earn the honor? Perhaps it was that 27-minute penalty night in Detroit on Nov. 16.
We pulled that little red tab on the jacket, the balloon insta-flated and up the Capitals went from the depths. A couple more wins and they might even stay here, especially if Peter Bondra continues that better-than-a-goal-a-game thing.
We're only lukewarm on the Devils this week. They get a bump after clipping the Wings and picking up five points in three games. The more often Jason Arnott, Bobby Holik and Patrik Elias end up on the scoresheet, as they did this week, the more dangerous the Devils are.
They sunk to the bottom of the division during a disastrous road trip and were greeted upon their return by the suddenly hot Avalanche and Stars, both losses. Mercifully, they won't have to hit the road again until Dec. 12.
They were in town the other night playing the Rangers and you know what? Nothing stood out about why Vincent Lecavalier is no longer the future du jour. And maybe that's the problem. He didn't get the puck a ton and didn't make a whole lot of room for himself when he did.
Hockey fans, if you haven't already, pick up the December issue of Esquire and check out the feature on Jordin Tootoo. The Predators fourth-round' pick wears No. 22, was born on Feb. 2, oh, and grew up fishing for whales. Give the piece a couple minutes and the NHL's first-ever draft pick of Inuit descent makes an excellent representative of same.
Our Power Rankings scouts have only seen Kristian Huselius play 60 minutes of hockey, but we love what could happen as Mike Keenan digs his teeth in. Huselius skated hard, played in traffic, kept his head up and his eyes moving when Florida played the Rangers. In the past two games Huselius scored three of the team's four goals.
If only to make things interesting down here in the, what did Jack Black call it, yes, the mucky muck. Sheer points also suggest the Blue Jackets belong here.
All the juggling down at the bottom takes its toll on the Duck, who took the Oilers to OT Wednesday night, three days after their second win since Nov. 7. Somehow, despite Jeff Friesen's two-game goal scoring streak, therein lies the logic for a three-spot drop.
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