Around the League – Oct 15 2009

14 years ago

Our apologies, due to a technical glitch this is a day late — so stat gurus don’t freak out when it says Ovechkin has five goals. We know he scored twice last night, but to keep this consistent for Thursdays we are going with stats of the second week.

The injury bug hit in week two

Sheldon Souray went down, and it looks like he will be out for at least another week, possibly longer.

The Blue Jackets lost Jan Hejda until late November. He was leading their team in +/-.

The Red Wings lost Johan Franzen for at least four months, and when you combine they lost Marion Hossa, Jiri Hudler and Mikael Samuelsson in the off-season, that is 107 goals out of their lineup from last season. I thought the Hawks would win the division at the start of the year, and now it looks like even more of a guarantee.

The Wild listed Pierre-Marc Bouchard out indefinitely with a concussion. They also lost hard hitting Cal Clutterbuck until late early November with an ankle injury.

The guy Oiler fans wanted, Blair Betts, is out in Philadelphia for at least six weeks with a shoulder injury.

The guy who won me big money during game seven of the Stanley Cup, Maxime Talbot, is out a month with a shoulder problem in Pittsburgh.

In Vancouver, they were hit the hardest. Once again Sami Salo is on the sidelines, with a knee injury. He is expected to miss at least six weeks. Pavol Demitra is out a month with a shoulder and Daniel Sedin broke his foot and his now out four to six weeks. How will Henrik survive is the big question?

Prior to this season the twins had only played 15 games separately. Henrik hasn’t missed a game in four full seasons, while Daniel has only missed one in the past five.

Their career stats are eerily close.

Daniel: 646 GP; 179 G; 287 A; 466 PTS
Henrik: 651 GP; 112 G; 354 A; 468 PTS

Henrik had two assists in the one game this year without Daniel, and we’ll see how he plays for the next six weeks without his twin.

These two do everything together…

**Bingofuel, is that you running the boom box in the Sedin video?

Triple Crown

Why will no linemates match the Dionne/Simmer/Taylor combination, because no coach has the patience to keep them together long enough. The Capitals combination of Ovechkin/Backstrom/Semin didn’t even last two weeks together. Bruce Boudreau split up the trio earlier this week. Too bad because it would have been a great story line all -year, although I’m sure they will be re-united at times during the season, I doubt they will get 100 points each while playing on the same line.

Ice girl of the week

It is getting cold outside Nationers, so we will keep things warm with our weekly Ice Girl of the week. I think I know why the Blackhawks are so good at home now, and why the crowd gets into the game. Every time I see one of these pics, I wonder why the hell Edmonton doesn’t have ice girls. Why? Why? Why?

Random thoughts

If Ron Wilson is such a great coach, how come unheralded, Joe Sacco, has done more with Colorado in two weeks than Wilson has done in Toronto in over a year. The Avs were supposed to be garbage, and while no one seems convinced they can keep playing this well, at least they are showing signs of improvement.

The Leafs are going backwards under Wilson’s guidance, with some help from Motor Mouth Brian Burke. Burke said it is on the players to be better, not the coach. Many think Burke and Wilson are chummy, but Burke has never hired him to coach an NHL team. Burke inherited him in T.O. If the Leafs continue to be this bad, I wonder if Burke ties the can to Wilson later this year.

What is up in Anaheim? Ryan Getzlaf has three assists; Bobby Ryan has one goal and an assist. Only Corey Perry is producing with four goals and three helpers. Some thought this trio would be the best line in hockey this year, but they aren’t even close so far.

How many of you had Rangers’ D-man Michael Del Zotto in your rookie pool. The 19-year-old is running their PP and has seven points in seven games. With Marian Gaborik and Vinny Prospal lighting it up, Del Zotto could get 50 points as a rookie D-man.

If, and it is a Ginormous IF, Gaborik stays healthy could he beat Ovechkin or Heatley for the Maurice Richard trophy? His snap shot release might be better than Joe Sakic.

Leaders through the week

Here are the top ten in points, goals, assists and other stats.

Goals:

Six: Marian Gaborik and Mike Richards
Five: Alex Ovechkin (didn’t score a goal this past week), Dany Heatley, Ryan Smyth, Patrick Sharp, Alex Semin, Ilya Kovalchuk, Patrick Marleau and Ryan Malone.

Assists:

Nine: Joe Thornton
Eight: Backstrom (no assists this past week).
Seven: Ovechkin, Rick Nash, Vinny Prospal and Matt Carle
Six: Anze Kopitar, Evgeni Malkin, Brad Richards and Marty St. Louis

Points:

Twelve: Ovechkin
Ten: Thornton, Healtey, Backstrom, Kopitar, Prospal and Gaborik.
Nine: Semin, Smyth, Sharp and five others

Plus/Minus:

+10: Nicklas Grossman
+9: Jan Hejda and Stephane Robidas
+7: Ovechkin, Backstrom, Gaborik, Brandon Dubinsky, Alex Goligoski
+6: Jay Mckee and Henrik Tallinder

PP Goals:

Four: Mike Richards
Three: Devon Setoguchi, Matt Stajan and Smyth.
Two: Dion Phaneuf, Rene Bourque but no Oilers or Canucks with even two.

Hits:

31: Ryan Callahan (had 21 hits this week)
26: Andrew Alberts
24: J.F Jacques, Ovechkin and Dustin Brown
23: Matt Cooke, Dan Girardi, Mike Komisarek and Chris Neil

Shots:

42: Ovechkin (he had 25 shots this week and no goals, after five goals on 17 shots in week one).
33: Gaborik
27: Sidney Crosby and Jason Arnott
26: Patrick Kane and Radim Vrbata
24: Jeff Carter, Setoguchi, Tuomo Ruutu, Brown and Vinny Lecavalier. Brown and Lecavalier don’t even have a goal despite 24 shots each.