Nicklas Lidström ranks #2 in this week's top ten - but is it because of him or those around him?

On Monday, the NHL honoured four of the league’s most prominent names with membership in the Hockey Hall of Fame:  Mark Messier, Ron Francis, Scott Stevens, and Al MacInnis. My admiration of Messier should be well known to most of my readers – even though he spent most of his career with the hated Rangers (I grew up on Long Island as an Islander fan), it was impossible not to love the way that he played the game. Similarly, Francis and Stevens played a hard-nosed, gritty and dedicated style that would be hard to dislike, and who wouldn’t love to be able to shoot like MacInnis? This edition of The Week That Was has a bit of nostalgic flair, as the Blackhawks and Canadiens are playing well again and lending a bit of Original Six flair to the NHL, and another future Hall of Famer makes yet another appearance in the column.

Messier’s Rangers beat the Maple Leafs in Toronto on Saturday, which put a damper on the Hall of Fame celebration for many Canadian fans, but they did get to see the inductees on the ice before the game, and they did get a point out of it, so I’d bet there have been worse hockey nights in Canada. The Leafs got a pair of third-period goals from Alexei Ponikarovsky to force overtime, but Brendan Shanahan, and Marcel Hossa scored in the shootout to give New York their first road win of the season. Despite their struggles on the road, the win was the Rangers’ fourth win in their last five games, and improved their record to 9-7-1 in the hotly contested Atlantic Division.

The way the Ottawa Senators have played this season means that it is newsworthy whenever they lose at all, so Thursday’s 4-1 loss to the Capitals (at home!) was almost earthshaking. Ottawa was coming off a 5-1 thumping of the Leafs on Tuesday and would go on to beat the Canadiens 3-1 on Saturday, so the Washington game was just a rare bump in the road. Olaf Kolzig stopped 27 of 28 shots and Viktor Kozlov had a goal and two assists for the Caps. The Capitals were riding a four-game losing streak at the time and lost their next game 5-2 to the Lightning, so their upset victory doesn’t appear to have jumpstarted their momentum.

The honour of looking up at the Senators from second place in the Northeast Division currently belongs to the Montreal Canadiens. With the Senators almost out of reach at 14-2-0, the Habs are riding a 7-2-1 streak in their last 10 games and have a record of 9-4-3 for the season. Goalie Cristobal Huet stopped 29 shots in a 2-0 win over the Sabres on Monday, and rookie Carey Price stopped 28 shots in a 2-1 win over the Bruins on Thursday. At 3-1-1 with a 2.33 goals against average this season, the 20-year old Price has given the Canadiens a shot in the arm. Defenceman Andrei Markov has provided a spark on offence (5 goals, 9 assists) and the youth movement is starting to pay off with Christopher Higgins and Tomáš Plekanec (11 and 13 points respectively, in their third NHL seasons).

The Red Wings haven’t suffered much from the injury to Dominik Hašek, who has been replaced ably by Chris Osgood (8-1-0, 1.66 goals against average), and their four wins in their last five games has improved their record to 13-3-1 for the season. Winger Henrik Zetterberg has been red-hot, leading the team with 13 goals, 14 assists and 27 points – good for the NHL lead in points and second place in goals. As hot as the Red Wings were, though, they saw their nine-game winning streak come to an end with a 3-2 loss to the Blackhawks. Zetterberg did manage an assist in the Wings’ loss to Chicago, extending his point streak to 17 games (every Wings game this year).

Blackhawks’ rookies Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews each scored a goal in Chicago’s victory, and Nikolai Khabibulin stopped 30 of 32 shots to hand Osgood his first loss of the season. Kane leads the Blackhawks with 21 points (7 goals, 14 assists) and Toews has tallied 14 points (7 goals, 7 assists). Khabibulin (6-6-1) has been solid (3.00 goals against average) and backup Patrick Lalime (4-1-0, 2.32 goals against average) has filled in admirably. Chicago has also gotten useful contributions from veterans Robert Lang (17 points) and Jason Williams (16 points). Only Sergei Samsonov (0 goals, 3 assists in 12 games, and a few healthy scratches) has been a disappointment for the Hawks.

Finally, this column wouldn’t be complete without a mention of Jeremy Roenick, who scored his 500th career goal in a 4-1 Sharks win over the Coyotes on Saturday. Roenick got credit for the goal when Coyotes goalie Alex Auld accidentally knocked the puck into his own net while playing a carom off the boards – an unconventional goal for an unconventional player, but one that made “JR” just the third American-born player to reach 500 goals. The goal turned out to be the eventual game-winner; giving Roenick a game-winning goal in every game he has scored a goal. Roenick probably won’t wear a Sharks cap when he makes it into the Hall of Fame, but he’ll always be the first player to score his 500th goal with San Jose.

For today’s top-10 list, I will leave you with a question: defence, or offense? Here is a list of the top 10 players in plus-minus (through Sunday’s games) – which are there because they (or their team) play excellent defence, and which are there because of their offensive firepower? Perhaps more interestingly, which will still be on the list at the end of the year?

1. Chris Phillips, Ottawa Senators: +16


2. Nicklas Lidström, Detroit Red Wings: +15


3. Anton Volchenkov, Ottawa Senators: +11


4. Wojtek Wolski, Colorado Avalanche: +10


5. Nik Antropov, Toronto Maple Leafs: +10


6. Mats Sundin, Toronto Maple Leafs: +10


7. Henrik Zetterberg, Detroit Red Wings: +10


8. Dany Heatley, Ottawa Senators: +10


9. Kurt Sauer, Colorado Avalanche: +9


10. Rod Brind’Amour, Carolina Hurricanes: +9


11. Bret Hedican, Carolina Hurricanes: +9


12. Filip Kuba, Tampa Bay Lightning: +9