Lightning lighten up with strip shootout
Let’s see….
Pulling the goalie?
2 for high sticking?
Holding the stick?
Stick handling?
Eh forget it, it’s too easy. Instead, how about some hockey highlights from the week?
Atlantic-Pittsburgh has the best record in the NHL at 9-1, the Rangers are also off to a good start (7-3) but that isn’t as impressive anymore because they started the past two seasons the same way and still went home early at the end of the season, Philly’s tailed off a bit from a strong start and is now 4-2-1 (sorry, Mech), New Jersey is playing like a Jacques Lemaire team because they are (still 5-3 though) and the Islanders finally won a game.
Southeast-Washington is, predictably, off to a good start at 5-2-2, Atlanta (surprise!) is right behind them at 4-2-1, as I already mentioned, Tampa Bay is playing strip hockey and the Bolts, Carolina, and Florida have won 7 games apiece.
Northeast-apparently it’s 2007 all over again, as Buffalo is in first place at 5-1-1 along with Ottawa at 6-2-2 (the NHL points system, there’s nothing like it,) Boston is playing .500 hockey (4-4-1) and Montreal has won 4 of its first 9 games, picking up where they left off last year. Oh and Toronto still hasn’t won a game.
Central-Give or take a couple switches in the specific order of the records, the Central Division looks more or less the same as it did when the playoffs opened last spring. Chicago and Columbus are in the top 2 spots with 5 wins each, Detroit and St Louis are 3-3-2 and 4-3-1 neither outright great nor downright awful, and Nashville’s in the cellar at 3-5-1.
Northwest-Colorado’s off to a 7-1-2 start that’s inexplicable except for the fact that Craig Anderson’s been playing even better than he did last year when he was Florida’s goalie, Calgary’s off to a slightly more plicable 6-2-1 start with help from Dion Phaneuf’s team high 5 goals, Edmonton’s a very solid 6-2-1, thanks to Dustin Penner remembering that he actually knows how to score goals, Vancouver’s 4-5 in large part because they didn’t pick up their first road win until a 3-2 victory at Chicago on Wednesday and Minnesota is still suffering from the aftereffects of having been coached for the better part of a decade by Jacques Lemaire and is thus 2-7 and tied for fourth fewest total goals in the NHL, with 18.
Pacific-San Jose’s 5-4-1, which isn’t as big a deal as it normally would seem for the same reason the Rangers’ start isn’t as impressive as it usually would be, Dallas is 4-2-4, Phoenix is 6-5-2, which would be nicer if they weren’t drawing home crowds of 6-9,000 people a night, and in a reversal of the usual SoCal hockey status quo, LA is 6-4 while Anaheim is 3-4-1. Not too many must-watchers this coming week, though Philly plays Washington on Tuesday, which is always fun.
