A trick can be a treat if say, it's like the Colorado Avalanche's season, which was supposed to be about rebuilding and instead has been about winning.
Colorado's start has been remarkable by any measure. More to the point, it is entirely unexpected since it comes on the heels of a 28th overall finish last season.
That's quite the trick.
The Avs shook things up, obviously. But under a new coach and general manager in their first NHL jobs, they were generally expected to contend for the lottery pick again this season. Instead, with new goalie Craig Anderson playing like the second coming of St. Patrick Roy and a really young lineup propelled by 18-year-old rookies Ryan O'Reilly and Matt Duchene, the Avs are leading the Western Conference.
That's quite the treat, just not the only one for Halloween. Here's a few other tricks and treats in a look back at the first month of the season:
Tricks
Clipped Wings: Face it, the Detroit Red Wings have achieved near-iconic status in the present-day version of the NHL because they always seem able to adapt to changing circumstances. During the spend-freely era, they won by plunking down $80 million on payroll. When the salary cap came in after the lockout, Detroit remained elite on a lot less.
|
|
| Craig Anderson has been nothing but spectacular in net for Colorado. (Getty Images) |
The Red Wings (4-4-3) got piled on when another big scorer, Johan Franzen, tore his ACL in the second game, and this week when Valtteri Filppula broke his wrist, but Detroit still has enough star power on paper. It just isn't responding. The goaltending has been abysmal, too, and that's a real problem because the Red Wings are no longer invincible it seems when it comes to holding leads in the third period.
Net zeroes: Wasn't the idea for the Canadian and American Olympic teams to have their best goalies battle for the starting job? Instead, several perceived front-runners have had the kind of starts that make it seem like they're trying to lose the spot.
Martin Brodeur and Roberto Luongo, Canada's dynamic duo, have had particularly impressive starts, but Luongo is now out with a cracked rib. Meanwhile, rookie of the year Steve Mason, the shutout leader last season, has looked lost as a sophomore and Cam Ward can't do enough to stop the Hurricanes' season from blowing away. Based on the first month, Canada's starter should be Pittsburgh's Marc-Andre Fleury.
It's not as clear cut for Team USA. Ryan Miller may have had an inside track at the summer orientation camp, but Vezina winner Tim Thomas was sharing it. Not any more. Miller has been brilliant early and the biggest reason for a resurgent Sabres team, but Thomas has not been as sharp on an underachieving Boston squad, and more than likely has been passed on the depth chart by Colorado's Anderson. Jonathan Quick of the Kings was the third man on the roster since he's a next-generation goalie at age 23, and he has been good enough this season to stay there.
Falling Leafs: OK, so no one will admit it out loud, but there were those in Toronto with visions of a long playoff run because of the changes made by the magic man in charge. Brian Burke certainly shook things up big time in his first offseason as Maple Leafs GM, but the upshot has been a product on the ice that has been a washout for the first month.
Maybe things will change when Phil Kessel finally gets back into the lineup at midseason or if rookie goalie Jonas Gustavsson can settle in. In the meantime, Toronto (1-7-2) has had the worst start in franchise history and has been competitive only in spurts, often just barely. But the most glaring problem has been how little the Leafs have gotten for the big money they spent on free-agent defensemen Mike Komisarek and Francois Beauchemin, two key elements in the rebuilding plan.
Bygone days: Wasn't it only a few months ago the Carolina Hurricanes were looking a lot like their 2006 Stanley Cup-winning version? And the Anaheim Ducks like their 2007 championship lineup? Both had big second-half finishes and each eliminated their regular-season conference champion in the playoffs before running out of gas. More important, the Ducks and the Hurricanes looked like they had enough key pieces back to make at least as much if not more noise this season.
Instead, both are languishing near the bottom of their conferences, with Anaheim set to finish October last in the Pacific Division. Key producers like Carolina's Eric Staal and Anaheim's Bobby Ryan have been near-ghosts so far, and both teams are hurting themselves by spending a lot of time in the penalty box. The playoff race will be over for both if things don't change quickly.
Desert dream team: Sure this seems like Colorado's Octoberfest light, but the Phoenix Coyotes deserve their own props for a stunning start as well.
Remember, only a few weeks ago, this team seemed destined to be hockey's version of the Titanic. Forget about all the courtroom drama all summer -- the Coyotes didn't even have an acting head coach when training camp opened. And they hired one only a week before the season began, so the sense of impending doom was palatable.
But Dave Tippett should bottle whatever it is he's done, because the Coyotes (8-4-0) are winning and playing well, and would probably be the story of the first month if not for the Avs. Phoenix hasn't sniffed a playoff berth in six seasons and has a lineup that includes a fair share of castoffs. But veterans Shane Doan and Ed Jovanovski are playing their most determined hockey in years, and the Coyotes have been competitive in front of solid goaltending from Ilya Bryzgalov. Right now, they are a playoff team. Who knew?
Treats
Royal gains: This thing about young teams benefiting from taking their lumps together -- well, you'd have to believe it while watching the Kings early in the season. This is a young, talented team filled with many of its own draftees, and it is blossoming right before our very eyes.
Adding veteran Ryan Smyth to the mix has been a boon to the Kings (8-4-2), especially on the top line where he has helped Anze Kopitar have a breakout offensive season so far. And a solid kiddie-corps back end that was joined by veteran Rob Scuderi and his Stanley Cup pedigree is doing an impressive job, too, along with Quick, who is establishing himself as one of the top young goalies in the league.
But what seems to make it all click is the paternalistic approach of coach Terry Murray, who has set the perfect tone for this group and is making GM Dean Lombardi's methodical building efforts pay off.
D-men delight: Conventional wisdom is that it takes longer for defensemen to develop in the NHL, which is why few make real impacts early in their careers. But there is a group of teenage blue-liners that has joined the league in the last two seasons and is already making its presences felt.
Among them are rookies Michael Del Zotto of the New York Rangers, who leads all freshmen in scoring and quarterbacks the power play; Tyler Myers, the basketball-size rearguard who has established himself quickly in the Buffalo Sabres' back end; and Victor Hedman, who is playing more minutes than anyone for the Tampa Bay Lightning. And in Los Angeles, Drew Doughty has been a big factor in the Kings' great start, while Zach Bogosian in Atlanta has already been named a team alternate captain for his fine two-way play.
Penner power: Dustin Penner sparked one of the most amusing public spats in 2007 when he signed a big free-agent contract with the Oilers. His old boss in Anaheim, Brian Burke, blasted his Edmonton counterpart, Kevin Lowe, for overpaying and throwing the salary structure for young players out of whack for everybody.
The real problem for the Oilers, though, was that Penner was a bust for his first two seasons, enough to find him in former coach Craig MacTavish's doghouse and a healthy scratch on more than one occasion. That's all different under new, offensive-minded coach Pat Quinn. Penner also came into camp 20 pounds lighter and 100 pounds meaner, and has blossomed into the kind of power forward the Oilers have counted on him to be. Penner is third in the league in scoring.
No Igloo hangover: There is empirical evidence to support the theory of a Stanley Cup hangover, although it seems like the Pittsburgh Penguins don't really believe any of it. Maybe that's because most are barely old enough to drink.
Truth is, the Penguins haven't shown any of the rust signs Cup champions often have at the outset of a following season. In fact, they've looked as businesslike and focused as they did during last spring's run. Fleury has been exceptionally sharp early, captain Sidney Crosby is in a zone and the Penguins are playing well enough to afford having Evgeni Malkin rest his sore shoulder for a couple of weeks because they have Jordan Staal to take over the second-line center spot. The march of the Penguins toward a repeat hasn't slowed down.
Seeing the real Stamkos: Steven Stamkos took a lot of heat early last season as the first overall pick and the target of scorn from his first coach, Barry Melrose, but Stamkos kept plugging away as an 18-year-old and outscored all rookie for most of the second half.
This season, he is taking his game to another level, and maybe even putting himself on the radar for Team Canada at the Olympics. Stamkos has been that dynamic offensively so far for a Tampa Bay team that is showing signs of progress. And with Vincent Lecavalier and Martin St. Louis struggling to find the back of the net, Stamkos' production (nine goals) has been even more critical and is helping the future leader of this team put his stamp on it now.
