Blog Update

Sorry everyone, its been a while since my last entry, I have been busy with life... I'm sure you know how that goes.  I will begin trying to write more, and definitely more frequently, look for at the very least one per week for the next three weeks while I'm still busy with school work.

I will also try and get my colleague Cory to write some too if he has time.

Thanks again for checking.

Mark

How "Swede" it is?

After the big three rookies of Jordan Eberle, Taylor Hall, and Magnus Pajaarvi have garnished much of the attention in Edmonton, there seems to be one prospect who has been lost in all of the commotion.

Linus Omark, the disgruntled swede, was not happy about being sent down to the Edmonton Oilers AHL affiliate the Oklahoma City Barons, however he has certainly made the best of the situation.


The 4th round selection in the 2007 draft from the Edmonton Oilers is coming off of a 5 goal performance against the Toronto Marlies, as well as an additional goal in the shootout. Omark has posted 10 goals, 8 assists for 18 points in 16 games for the Oklahoma City Barons respectively.

The youtube sensation turned a lot of Oiler management heads during training camp, but ultimately the decision was made to send Omark to the AHL.

While Omark is slightly undersized a 5`9 and 168lbs, he has the offensive skill set that could propel him to the NHL in the near future.

The left winger certainly has offensive abilities to spare, but it is likely his two way game that has come into question with the Oilers management. Omark is working on his defensive side of the game while with the Barons of the AHL.

The Edmonton Oilers suddenly have a very bright future with some real blue chip prospects currently within their system. When you are considering the big three rookies in Edmonton, don’t rule out Linus Omark just yet. Perhaps its the big 4 in Edmonton?

-Travis

Best Hockey Movies

So for a little change here from all the stats and rankings of teams and players, I thought I would toss a new idea around and well recently I have been downloading a ton of movies and figured why not see what people thought about the best movies that include hockey.  


This is a list of my top five, if you can think of any hockey movies you think should be on the list, or I should download, hit me up with a comment.

1. Mystery Alaska (I absolutely love this movie)



2. The Mighty Ducks Trilogy










3. Miracle



4. Slap Shot (just a classic)










5.Youngblood (sword fighting with hockey sticks?)














Actually I had a hard time picking the fourth and fifth in the list, the top three I definitely love.  However, fourth and fifth gave me troubles picking, and well this is what i went with.  If you have some other options let me know and I'll give them a mention.

Andrew F'n Raycroft

So after the games on Saturday night I decided to write up a little Andrew Raycroft time-line.  He seemed worthy of a blog article after his Saturday night performance where he turned away all 34 shots the Buffalo Sabres directed toward him.  Raycroft has had a very shakey career thus far but here's a couple highlights of it.

Andrew Raycroft was drafted by the Boston Bruins in the 5th round of the 1998 NHL Entry Draft (cough Pavel Datsyuk went a round later).  anyways so his career began.  In 2000-01 he played a total of 15 games, followed by one game in 2001-02 and just five in 2002-03.  After the lockout though, things had changed.  Raycroft had become the Boston Bruins number one goalie, and he ran with it.

Raycroft finished the 2004-05 season with 57 games started and a 29 wins, 18 losses and 9 ties.  Mr Raycroft had arrived.  He finished the season and was a top finals for the Calder Memorial Trophy for the NHL's Top Rookie.  Raycroft apparently easily beat out Michael Ryder and Trent Hunter in the running for the trophy.

Raycroft followed up that season with another in Boston, which he couldn't even stop a beach ball (see picture to the right).  Raycroft had horrific numbers with a 8-19-2 record and a 3.71 GAA and a .879 SV% in his 30 games.

after that brutal season with the Bruins they decided to shop him, and for some unexplained reason the Leafs still figured it would be smart to trade for him.  They gave up Tuuka Rask, their first round pick (21st overall) in the 2005 draft.  Andrew started a Leaf Record 72 games that year with a 37-36 win-loss finish (including the OT losses yes he was just 1 game over .500).  

Raycroft still didn't post a .900+ SV% or a good GAA.

Raycroft would play one more season with the Maple Leafs, in his 19 games he was 2-9-6 and he got the toss from Toronto(3.76 GAA and .876 SV%).

Again he couldn't stop a beach ball, not even one this size :). (Maybe we can blame McCabe, he was pretty terrible too.

Raycroft then signed on with the Colorado Avalanche and thought he could possibly be a starter there.  He played 30 games as Peter Budaj had won the starting goalie bid in Colorado and played in 56 games.  Raycroft had again brutal numbers with a sub .900 SV% and a above 3.00 GAA.

After the season he was again a free agent, and signed a $500,000 contract to back up Roberto Luongo.  About mid season Luongo went down with an injury and Raycroft had to step up, and step up he did, finally looking like he did in his Calder year, Raycroft posted a 9-5-2 record with a 2.42 GAA and  a .911 SV%.  Raycroft helped to keep the Canucks a float until they could get their superstar goalie back.

Once again, the seaon ended and Raycroft was looking for employment.  Enter the Dallas Stars, who had just recently got oft injured Kari Lehtonen to be their starter they thought they may need some insurance and picked up Andrew.

Raycroft has been in two games this season, stopping 8 of 8 in relief of Lehtonen and finally got his first start Saturday night, stopping all 34 shots against the Sabres and well I felt this should be written in his honour.

This article isn't telling you to pick him up in fantasy.  So what if he's stopped 42 of 42 this year, if you haven't been paying attention this guys career has been all about inconstancy and I wouldn't trust him one bit.  If you want info on anyone else, let me know, I'll gladly write about what you guys want!

St. Louis: The Team to Beat out West

Although the St. Louis Blues have never won a Stanley Cup since joining the league in 1967, they have always put a competitive team on the ice. Perhaps the best evidence of this is in the 80's and 90's when the Blues qualified for the playoffs in every season between 1980-2004, good enough for the third longest streak in North American professional sports history.

And then the lockout happened in 2004-2005, which was when the Blues franchise hit rock bottom. When play resumed in the 05-06 season St. Louis was far from being a playoff contender and finished the season with their worst record in 27 years (21-46-15) and failed to make the playoffs for just the fourth time in franchise history. Since then, the Blues have been to the playoffs just once where they were swept by Vancouver in the Conference Quarter Finals.

So it's safe to say that St. Louis' post-lockout existence has not been very good...until this year that is.

Now I know we've just moved into November and the season is still very young, but take these facts into consideration when thinking about the future of this team.

-St. Louis is a very impressive 6-1-2 after 9 games this season (they're just 2 points behind the league leading L.A. Kings with 2 games in hand and just 1 point behind Chicago for the Central Division lead, but have 4 games in hand on the Hawks)

-They are 5-0-0 at home.

-They have only allowed 17 goals this season which ranks them second in the league behind just Boston.

-Jaroslav Halak ranks third among NHL goaltenders with a 1.71 G.A.A. and fourth with a .932 Save %.

-They are 6-0-2 when they score first.

-They have just 3 players over the age of 30 on their roster.

St. Louis is proving to be another successful example of building a team through the draft. Since the lockout we've already seen both Pittsburgh and Chicago hoist the Stanley Cup just a short time after they both occupied the league's basement, and St. Louis could very well be the next team in line to do this.

With a team comprised of lighting quick speed, balanced scoring, grit, toughness, and now one of the league's top goaltenders in Halak, St. Louis is in prime position to not only make a return to the playoffs, but to make a run a Lord Stanley.

As long as the Blues stay healthy and Jaroslav Halak is at the top of his game, St. Louis is the team to beat out West.

-Cory Clements


please post your comments below

Top Tendy's

Goalies, by far the most important player on the ice, a goalie can make or break it for a team.  The following three goalies are clearly making it for their teams.  They all have amazing records, save percentage (SV%) and goals against average (GAA).  Well here it is, my opinion of the top three goalies in the NHL going into November.

Number 3 - Jonathan Quick - LA Kings



Jonathan Quick has been one of the top goalies in the league, and has lead the Kings to a hot 8-3 start.  The Kings have been getting spectacular goaltending from Quick after there were rumors at the beginning of the season that Jonathan Bernier was going to be the Kings Starter.  Quick is now 7-1-0 with a 1.84 GAA and .936 SV%



Number 2 - Jaroslav Halak - St. Louis Blues

Jaroslav Halak has also been on an absolute tear, his shut out streak of over 160 minutes was broken Saturday night against the Thrashers, but his team managed to rally back and get him the win.  Halak boasts an  6-1-1 record, 1.71 GAA and a .932 save percentage and is giving St. Louis everything they expected when they traded for him in the off season.



Number 1 - Tim Thomas - Boston Bruins


And last but certainly not least, Tim Thomas! Thomas has been on fire this season, he is 6-0-0 with a 0.50 GAA and a huge .984 save percentage.  He is currently just swept through Ontario with back to back shut outs over the Maple Leafs and Senators on Thursday and Saturday night respectively.  Tim Thomas is looking better than he did in his Vezina season, and seems to have taken his job back from Tuukka Rask who has only made two starts this season. Thomas has allowed just three goals in his six appearances.

KHL Update

So after a couple NHL updates I thought I'd throw in a little KHL (Kontinental Hockey League).  Remember Alexander Radulov, Nashville, left for the KHL?  Well he is currently just lighting up the KHL.  Radulov is leading the KHL with an impressive 30 points in 19 games.  

There's actually a bunch of ex-NHLers in the top 10.  Patrick Thoresen, who had just 6 goals and 18 points in 108 NHL games with the Oilers and Flyers.  Well he seems to be a stud in the KHL as he is currently leading the KHL in goals (with 14) and is 5th in points.   I guess it does help that he is playing on a line with the formerly mentioned Radulov.

Some other noteable ex-NHLers include second in KHL scoring, Mattias Weinhendl (20gp 13-11-24) fourth in scoring Pavol Demitra (19gp 4-17-21), as well as other players such as Jiri Novotny (20gp 5-15-20), Sandis Ozilinsh (21gp 2-17-19), Karel Rachunek (19 gp 4-15-19), and the usual leading scorer in Russia Alexei Morozov (18gp 6-12-18).

NHL Player Rankings

So I figured since I have done the team rankings, and I wanna make this site about hockey, and in particular fantasy hockey, I would start off my second day of posting with the top ranked players so far in this season.

I will start with hot starts.

Top Three (Yahoo O-Rank)

Centers 

Steven Stamkos (3): With three apples Wednesday night in Tampa he now has 18 points through nine games Stamkos has by far been the best player in the league so far, his 8 Goals rank second in the NHL.  Stamkos has seven power play points and seems to have started right where he left off last year with Martin St. Louis.

Joe Thornton (20) : Having a huge break out game Wednesday night (3-2-5) and back with his line mates from last year I had to move him to the top three.  It looks like Jumbo Joe should be a force again this year and be in the running for the Art Ross Trophy.

Ryan Getzlaf (30): Currently second in the league in scoring with 13 points (all in the last seven games) the Ducks have a dominate scoring threat every time Getzlaf and his line touches the ice.

Honorable Mentions include: Sidney Crosby: 6-6-12 through 10 games and Henrik Sedin: 0-11-11 through 9 games. Which places both Crosby and H. Sedin in the top five in scoring to start the season.

Left Wing

Patrick Sharp (212): Patrick Sharp (9-3-12) was a steal in all yahoo leagues.  He was drafted pretty high because everyone knew he would be an integral part of the Hawks success this year, but in some leagues people wouldn't even notice him because of how far down the list he was.  He has started the year off with a BANG.

Daniel Sedin (9): Daniel Sedin (7-5-12) has been taking feeds from Henrik and is off to a hot start.  He was the best player in the NHL last year for points per game so it is not a huge thing to see Daniel near the top of the scoring leaders.

Andrei Kostitsyn (110): As I previously stated in my last entry, Andrei Kostitsyn (6-4-10) has been on fire as of late, and has now scored five goals in his last 5 games.  Kostitsyn has six goals on the season which is huge because it took him over two months to obtain his sixth goal last year (he got number six on December 12th last year if you were wondering).

Honorable mentions include: Andrew Ladd (4-6-10) and Patrick Marleau (3-7-10) 

Right Wing

Chris Stewart (62): Stewart (5-6-11) playing with Paul Stastny is playing like a top flight right winger.

Martin St. Louis (22): With St. Louis (5-7-12) playing alongside the Stammer (Steven Stamkos) St. Louis is off to a blazing start for the Lightning.  

Marian Hossa (71): Hossa has had a pretty nice start with the Hawks this season, Yahoo having him ranked 71 was a bit surprising after he had been a top 30 player in Yahoo! Fantasy every year.  I know he wasn't on a top line last year, but after all the departures (Ladd, Byfuglien, etc) I would have thought Yahoo! would have had him ranked a little higher. 

Honorable mentions include: Dany Heatley (3-7-10) and Corey Perry (4-6-10)

Defense

James Wisniewski (169): Despite missing a couple games due to suspension, Wisniewski, is actually leading the New York Islanders in points with 11 through his seven games.  Yes folks, I said it, 11 points in 7 games (i know its early, but had he been eligible to play all 82 games thats a 129 point pace for 82 games)

John-Michael Liles (201): Bobby Orr, Paul Coffey, John-Michael Liles?  I guess now you can talk about him in a sentence with those guys after the record he broke this week.  Liles (0-11-11) is putting up huge numbers this season and is currently riding a nine game point streak to start the season a new NHL record amongst d-man.

Kris Letang (182): A short handed assist Wednesday night gave Letang his ninth point of the season.  

Honorable mentions include: Nick Lidstrom (1-7-8) in the Red Wings seven games and Edmonton`s Ryan Whitney (0-8-8)


Well there you have it, my top three at each position thus far into the season.  Things to look forward to: Goalie Rankings, Predictions for Hardware, Other Predictions, and Many More.  Thanks for visiting and feel free to comment as you please.

NHL Power Rankings - Teams

I know every hockey site does a power rankings, and well quite frankly I have always wanted to put in my two cents and have people comment on what I have to say; so here it is.


1. Nashville Predators: The Preds are off to an astonishing 5-0-3 record. Leading the way is there quality goaltending from Pekka Rinne (2-0-2 record with a 1.58 GAA and .955 SV%) and Anders Lindback (3-0-1 record with a 2.55 GAA and .920 SV%).  The have a balanced attack and solid defense and thats why they are off to such a hot start.


2. Detroit Red Wings: The Red Wings are off to a fast start 5-1-1, with their only loss in regulation coming to a Dallas Stars team that flew out of the gate.  


3. Los Angeles Kings: The Kings will be a team up here all season I think, even without Drew Doughty, one of the best defense in the NHL, they have played amazing.  Jonathan Quick has put to bed any rumors of a goalie controversy in LA thus far with his far superior play over Jonathan Bernier to date.


4. St. Louis Blues: TJ Oshie (1-7-8) is off to a hot start in the Blues first seven games, and Jaroslav Halak (4-1-1 record with a 1.81 GAA and .930 SV%) has been everything the blues could have wished for after trading for him this off season.


5. Calgary Flames: The Flames had a little trouble scoring goals to start the season, but currently is there anyone hotter than Rene Bourque and the Flames?  Kipper has looked good and is tied for the league lead in shut-outs with his two, already.


6. Tampa Bay Lightning: Steven Stamkos (8-7-15).  Thats all I have to say about the Lightning.


7. New York Rangers: No Gabby, no problem.  Off to a 4-2 start even without oft injured superstar Marian Gaborik, again most of the success can be attributed to Henrik Lundqvist's amazing goal-tending.


8. Boston Bruins: Tim Thomas coming of a horrible year last year has looked like the Vezina Trophy winner that he was in the 2008-09 season.  Bergeron has starting to score in the last week, and this team is looking good (all but their last season MVP Tuuka Rask) in their six games.


9. Montreal Canadians: The Canadians are looking pretty good this season, and Carey Price isn't getting boo'd like he was even in the pre-season.  Andrei Kostitsyn seems to be rejuvenated after his brother Sergei shipped out of town and is no longer a distraction.


10. Toronto Maple Leafs: Phil Kessel has been just what Brian Burke expected when he traded for him.  Kessel scored his seventh goal of the season on Tuesday against the Panthers


11. Dallas Stars: The Stars came out flying, 4-0-0 beating two teams ranked in the top five.  Since that great start they have gone 1-3-0 and that explains their free fall to the 11th spot.

12.Washington Capitals: Without a true number one goalie in Washington (I know they really didn't have one last year either) they have been alright, they will still be an offensive juggernaut when Mike Green comes back from injury and Nicklas Backstrom (8 games played, 1-3-4) starts to pick it up.


13. Pittsburgh Penguins: The Pens with Marc-Andre Fleury in net have been a team ranked in the bottom ten.  However, with Brent Johnson tending the goal, they have been a top five team.  So they current rank as the 13th team on my poll.  Crosby has been Crosby, racking up the points and they are soon to get Jordan Staal back, this team could be top five soon.


14. Philadelphia Flyers: The Flyers just need to stay afloat until they can get back their big stud on the defensive end, Chris Pronger.  With off season acquisition Nikolay Zherdev just getting accustomed to his new surroundings and team this team could be a team to be reckoned with this year if they can get any sort of consistent goal-tending.


15. New York Islanders: John Tavares is looking to have a second season in the NHL like Steve Stamkos pulled off last year in his second campaign. However Tavares can't do it all.  Case-in-point when he netted a hat-trick and they still lost 4-3.


16. Columbus Blue Jackets: The Jackets cannot score at all.  Nash their most prolific scorer has just three goals and CBJ has failed to score over three goals in everyone of their games this year.  Mason (3-3 Record) has been just alright in net  but recently has been outplayed by Mathieu Garon.

17. Chicago Blackhawks: The Blackhawks started pretty slow after their Stanley Cup Win last year.  But with Marty Turco getting on track and with Patrick Sharp and Marian Hossa with eight and seven goals respectively the Hawks have started to get on the winning track.


18. Carolina Hurricanes: Like most teams in the NHL, goal-tending is the key to wins with the 'Canes.  Cam Ward is coming off of a injury filled and inconsistent season in 2009-10 but he started off this year with back to back wins in Europe and has a 4-2 record overall.


19. Anaheim Ducks: In an attempt to spread out their offense, the Ducks moved Bobby Ryan to the second line center and it hasn't seemed to work out that well they haven't played particularly well. However, I believe the Ducks can score with anyone in the NHL.  The Ducks will boast one of, if not the best powerplay in the league this year.  Just look at who they have out their: Lubomir Visnovsky as the quarterback, Bobby Ryan, Ryan Getzlaf, Teemu Selanne and Corey Perry.


20. Minnesota Wild: Niklas Backstrom (3-2-2 record with a 2.25 GAA and .926 SV%) is coming of a bit of an off year and looking to bounce back this season. The Wild have become very strong up the middle (Cullen 3-6-9, Koivu 2-7-9) which has been a proven NHL success for years.


21. Vancouver Canucks: As expected the Sedin twins have accounted for most of the 'nucks offense going into Tuesday nights action, Daniel's seven goals ranked second in the NHL behind Patrick Sharp and Steven Stamkos' eight.


22. Colorado Avalanche:  Craig Anderson is again the man in Colorado.  Matt Duchene is trying to pull a Steven Stamkos in his second year and play like a force.  The Avs top combination of Chris Stewart and Paul Stastny have been playing very well.


23. San Jose Sharks: I'm pretty sure everyone reading this and everyone that pays attention to hockey realizes that the San Jose Sharks will not be this low for long.  I think they are thinking twice about letting Evgeni Nabokov go right about now.  Antti Niemi has not been good at all and at this point of the season is being vastly outplayed by Antero Niittymaki.


24. Atlanta Thrashers: An injury to Zack Bogosian is not what this club needed to start the season.  They are having trouble keeping the puck out of their net, and he is one of their top defense.


25. Phoenix Coyotes:  This team is hugely dependent on good goal-tending and solid defensive play.  Averaging over three goals against currently is not what the Coyotes were all about last year when they shocked the NHL and were one of the top teams in the league.


26. Ottawa Senators: As much as I hate to say it, the Sens have been awful.  They cannot afford to miss Jason Spezza for a long period of time or they will be in huge trouble and be looking at a lottery pick.


27. Buffalo Sabres: The Sabres and Ryan Miller are not looking like the Northeast Division Champs they were a year ago.  Miller really hasn't had that bad of a start as many people have blamed it on him. Tomas Vanek is playing like Tomas Vanek after an off year last year.


28. Edmonton Oilers: The Oilers are exciting with their fast, young team.  They have a proven winner backstopping them in Nikolai Khabibulin hasn't been that good, if you take out his 37 save shut out his numbers are not very good at all. Oilers Rookie Watch: Eberle: 3-2-5 Paajarvi: 2-2-4  Hall: 0-1-1


29. Florida Panthers: Florida has really been a team I can't gauge, They go 1-2  in Western Canada (beating the Flames, losing to Vancouver and Edmonton) then they kill the Lightning 6-0.  This team has to completely rely on Tomas Vokoun that is their only chance of moving forward.


30. New Jersey Devils: The Devils have been absolutely awful.  They have had problems with their defense, their 100 mililion dollar man (Ilya Kovalchuk), and the goal-tending has been awful (Martin Brodeur has not been his usual self).