Puck Talk
Puck Talk
-OK, quick show of hands….how many of you thought Eric Staal of the Hurricanes would be leading the NHL in points at the end of October? I certainly didn’t see that one coming. I guess it shouldn’t be that big a surprise given his pedigree though. For those of you who might not have heard of him, Staal was the second pick in the draft in 2003. He goes about 6’3”, 200 pounds and has pretty good wheels for his size. The scouts compare him to guys like a young Ron Francis and Joe Thornton. There’s been a lot of buzz for Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin, two #1 overall picks that are both putting up good numbers in their own right, but at least for one month they’ve got nothing on the kid from Thunder Bay.
Eric Staal is far from the only surprise among the league leaders through October, however. Some other names that jump out from the first page of the stats so far include Jason Spezza (finally living up to his potential in Ottawa), Lubomir Visnovsky of the Kings (great name), Vaclav Prospal (back in Tampa and looking to rebound from a bad year with Anaheim), Bryan McCabe (single-handedly trying to keep my fantasy team afloat), Jason Williams of Detroit (where everyone’s scoring), Martin Rucinsky (getting dragged along in the Jagr riptide), John-Michael Liles (amazingly, born in Indiana and not Quebec) and the Bruins’ own P.J. Axelsson.
It should be interesting to keep an eye on the scoring race as the year goes along. Ilya Kovalchuk led the league in points through October 31, 2003 with 17. Through, October 30 of 2005 there are 7 guys with at least 17 points. Plenty of guys are on pace for 100-point seasons, including Joe Thornton who quietly leads the league in assists. There have only been 5 100-point seasons in the last five years in the NHL. I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see at least that many in this season alone.
-From the hard to believe department, I read in the Sunday Globe that Tom Poti’s been a healthy scratch for the Rangers a couple of times in the last few weeks. It sounds like his confidence is just completely shot. I’m sure he won’t be out of the lineup for long but still, we’re talking about a guy that was on the US Olympic team in Salt Lake City three years ago.
-One of my latest fascinations is following the schedule quirks of the Vancouver Canucks. I can’t imagine anyone having a stranger schedule than what the Canucks have faced so far. Here are their first 13 games of the season: Edmonton, Phoenix, @ Edmonton, @ Detroit, @ Minnesota, @Minnesota, Dallas, Chicago, Phoenix, Colorado, @ Minnesota, @ Colorado, @ Colorado. I mean, are you kidding me. Who are the ad wizards that came up with that one? In 13 games they’ve had back-to-back road games in the same city on two separate occasions. They’ve already played three road games in Minnesota alone. They’ve played the Avalanche 3 times in their last 4 games. I don’t understand it.
-I wish I had a way to record every single shootout attempt across the league. That’s another thing that fascinates me no end. I love seeing what different guys do with their shootout bids. Especially guys who, at least so far, seem to want to do the exact same thing every time they get one. Like Joe Thornton. He made the identical move to his backhand on both of his attempts so far. Glen Murray’s another guy like that. He tried to go high to the glove side on both of his. Eric Lindros has made the same backhand move twice now too. I’m all for having a patented move or a favorite shot but you’ve got to mix it up a little, no?
-Incidentally, through October 30th I’ve seen the score sheets for 15 different games that went to a shootout. The results? 91 total attempts. 30 goals. I’d say that’s probably a good enough sample size to tell you what you should expect. The goalies clearly have the advantage.
-Several people have asked me what’s happened to the old Don Cherry quote of the week that used to appear in this space. Basically, what happened is that the CBC web site, which is where I used to get those quotes, has been malfunctioning on me for the last few months. I’m not at all happy about it and, I assure you, I’ll stay on top of the situation and get those Grapes quotes back up as soon as possible.
-Congratulations to the Penguins on their first win of the season last week. I was starting to worry about Mario’s mental health if that went on much longer.
-Finally, we’ll wrap things up with Tampa coach John Tortorella’s tirade over Eric Boulton of the Thrashers. It’s been all over ESPN and other highlight shows the last few days but in case you missed it Tortorella was irate after Boulton elbowed one of his guys in the head at the end of a 6-0 game, fracturing his jaw and knocking him unconscious. Decorum prohibits the unedited version of Tortorella’s remarks but I think you’ll get the gist of it below:
"The (...) guy should be playing in the (...) East Coast Hockey League, but, instead, he takes out a (...) NHLer. He'll be suspended, but who (...) cares? No one wants to see him on the ice anyway."
I guess Boulton won’t be getting an invite to Lightning camp if things don’t work out in Atlanta. In any event, the league has suspended Boulton for six games so nobody will have to see him on the ice for a little while anyway. Here’s hoping nothing ugly happens if he ever gets on the ice against Tampa again. The elbow was ugly enough.
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