Blackhawks Looking Strong as NHL Season Reaches Quarter Point Comments
Marian Hossa and the Blackhawks are off to a hot start.
It’s almost impossible to win a football game in the first quarter. There’s too much time to come back, adjust to the other team, get lucky. A team can lose a game in the first quarter though. They can put themselves in such a deep physical and psychological hole that they won’t be able to climb.
The NHL season is a little like that. Everyone has played at least 21 games out of a total of 82. The early favorites have been established, but who is the best team? That title is still up for grabs. Who is likely to make the playoffs? Well in the new NHL where there’s a point given out every time a team completes their pre-game warm-up that’s still undecided yet.
Who has played themselves out of the playoffs and are likely to be lottery pick drafters, well that I can tell you. The Toronto Maple Leafs and the Carolina Hurricanes and their five wins respectively are out of the playoffs, in November. It’s a neat trick.
How have the teams in the NHL done this first quarter? Lets’ take a look at teams in the Western Conference in the order they’re in now.
San Jose Sharks
GP: 26 W: 16 L: 6 OT: 4 PTS: 36 WPCT: .692 GF:87 GA: 69
The Sharks are off to a great start. They’re tied with Washington as the best offensive team in the league.
The revamped line-up featuring a first class sniper, Dany Heatley, and the leagues best set-up man, Joe Thornton, is thriving. Patrick Marleau had a great season last year and is looking to do better this year. The injury to Devin Setoguchi hasn’t slowed the team at all. Evgeny Nabokov is shouldering the goaltending load in San Jose and doing it well with a 2.19 goals against average and a .926 save percentage. Throw in Canadian Olympian point man Dan Boyle and all seems rosy in Sharktown.
There are some danger signs though. The sharks dealt away some defensive depth in the offseason and called upon forty year old Rob Blake to play over twenty minutes a game. He’s too old to be playing that many minutes. He’s -4 on a shark team that scores so much the zamboni driver is +3. Youngsters Derek Joslin and Jason Demers are being asked to fill the void.
Last year the Sharks gave up the fewest shots on goal in the league. Right now they’re 18th in the league and giving up almost an extra fours shots on goal per game. So far Nabokov has been up to it. If he cracks or gets hurt there is no experienced back-up to go to.
The Sharks will likely give up more goals per game then the 2.43 they managed last year. Their record should suffer accordingly. Last nights 7-2 drubbing at the hands of western rival Chicago highlights the staggeringly different talent depths the two teams have.
2/Chicago Blackhawks
GP: 23 W: 15 L: 5 OT: 2 PTS: 34 WPCT: .739 GF: 77 GA: 51
The Blackhawks have three games in hand on San Jose and after slaughtering them 7-2 Wednesday night look poised to catch and pass them.
Chicago is giving up by far the fewest goals and the fewest shots in the league. This is probably because their talented line-up never gives up the puck. An embarrassment of young talent allows the Hawks to laugh at injury. They just plug in another great player.
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