Greg's hockey obsession started at a young age as he had dreams of playing in the NHL. Blessed with the skating ability of Mick Vukota, the offensive instincts of Brad Marsh, and the toughness of Mats Naslund, Greg was somehow overlooked by scouts and decided to apply himself to writing about the game that he loves. Greg is a die hard Leaf fan and is currently a senior at the University of Windsor where he is studying Social Work.
Happy Holidays hockey fans! My apologies for no column last week. My area got hit by a huge snowstorm and knocked out the hydro. Quite a bit has happened this past week. Chris Simon got hit with the largest suspension ever handed out by the NHL. Personally, I think Simon should have been permanently suspended, but let's hope the time off does well for Simon. Scott Niedermayer returned to the line up and looks like he hasn't lost a step. We have a full slate of games this week despite none being scheduled for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, so let's breakdown another jam packed week in the NHL!
3 Games Anaheim, Atlanta, Buffalo, Carolina, Columbus, Detroit, Florida, Los Angeles, Montreal, Minnesota, Nashville, New York Islanders, New York Rangers, Ottawa, Philadelphia, San Jose, Tampa Bay, Toronto, Washington.
The Ottawa Senators have appeared to have broken out of their slump going 6-2-2 in their past 10. The schedule for the Sens looks very favourable this week with home games against the woeful Capitals and the inconsistent Islanders, as well as a road tilt against the Sabres. The Senators have been dominant not only holding the best home record in the East, but the best road record as well. Heatley, Spezza and Alfredsson have been lights out this year combining for 53 goals and 133 points already and the year isn't even half done yet. The Capitals and the Islanders are both sub .500 on the road, but the test may come against the Sabres who have awoken from the early season slumber. Buffalo is 7-3 in their last 10 and have been winning a lot of close games lately which they struggled to win in the early part of the season. Look for Martin Gerber to get the bulk of the work as he's been spectacular going 16-5-1 with a 2.36 GAA and a .924 SVP.
The Columbus Blue Jackets despite having scored the fewest goals in the Western Conference are another team to watch this week. Columbus sports a home record of 10-5-4 and has two winnable home matches against Carolina and Atlanta. Carolina has been struggling to keep the puck out of their net all season allowing 117 goals this year and Atlanta is not much better allowing 118 goals. A road game against the struggling Nashville Predators rounds out the week as the Jackets look to continue their surprising start. The Jackets struggle to score goals and rely heavily on Rick Nash and Nikolai Zherdev to put the puck in the net. The goaltending duo of Fredrik Norrena and Pascal Leclaire continue to prove critics wrong posting GAA of 2.22 and 2.07 respectively. Columbus needs to jump start their power play if they are to have any playoff dreams as they are clicking at only 14.4%. The team could be in the market for a defenceman to quarterback said power play at the trade deadline.
2 Games Boston, Calgary, Chicago, Colorado, Dallas, Edmonton, New Jersey, Phoenix, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Vancouver.
The Vancouver Canucks find themselves in a tight battle in the Northwest division with only four points separating first from fourth. Vancouver has the potential to give themselves some breathing room with two home games against Anaheim and Calgary who are on a tear going unbeaten in their past 10. Vancouver sports a solid home record at 9-6-2, and Roberto Luongo is a early front runner for the Vezina Trophy posting a record of 16-10-3 with a 1.99 GAA and a .930 SVP. It's scary to think what would happen if Luongo were ever to go down with a injury. The Canucks received some bad news this week as center Brenden Morrison is out three months with a wrist injury. Defenceman Kevin Bieksa could be back soon as Bieksa has been out since early November with a lacerated right calf. The Canucks will need Taylor Pyatt and Ryan Kesler to step their game up in Morrison's absence to take some of the load off the Sedin twins and Naslund.
The Dallas Stars also find themselves in a tight race in their division with only 3 points separating them from Anaheim and San Jose. Dallas has been solid in their past 10 going 7-3. The Stars could be in tough this week as they welcome two upstart teams in the Wild and Blues. Dallas has always been tough to beat at home and this year is no exception. The Stars are 9-5-2 at home and have appeared to have solved their early season goaltending troubles as Mike Smith and Marty Turco have both been solid as of late. The team has been without top four defencemen Philippe Boucher and Mattias Norstrom for stretches this season which has allowed youngsters Nicklas Grossman and Matt Niskanen to prove they belong in the NHL. Niskanen in particular has filled the void of Boucher on the power play scoring 4 of his 12 points on the man advantage. The anchor on the defence core remains the same as Sergei Zubov has been dynamite this year scoring 33 points and putting up a +3. Mike Ribeiro and Brenden Morrow lead the charge scoring 36 and 34 a piece.
Best Games Thursday December 27th, 2007 Detroit Red Wings vs Colorado Avalanche
An old rivalry is renewed as the red-hot Detroit Red Wings and their league leading 26-7-3 record travel to Colorado to face an Avs team sporting a sizzling 14-3 home record. The bad blood between these two teams has cooled down over the year, but it seem annually that these two teams are battling for supremacy in the Western Conference. The Red Wings are 8-1-1 in their past 10, which is about normal for this team this year. Detroit is led by the duo of Chris Osgood and Dominik Hasek who are both stating the case for the number 1 job in Detroit. Most teams have problems finding 1 good goaltender. The Red Wings have problems decided WHICH good goaltender to start. The Christmas break came at a perfect time for Detroit as leading scorers Henrik Zetterberg and Tomas Holmstrom are a little banged up. The Avalanche are led by 2nd year center Paul Stastny and his 43 points. Milan Hejduk and Wojtek Wolski. The Avs will be looking to get healthy over the break with Joe Sakic and Ryan Smyth both injured.
Thursday December 27th, 2007 Montreal Canadiens vs Tampa Bay Lightning.
If these roles were reversed I would not pick this game as Tampa is awful on the road and Montreal is not much better at home. Since this isn't the case I highly recommend this game. Montreal has an 11-5-2 record on the road and is a fun team to watch. The Kostitsyn brothers could very well be the next great pair of siblings in the NHL. Montreal is led by leading scorer Alexei Kovalev with his 31 points and has been getting solid goaltending from Carey Price and Cristobal Huet. The team is showing no effects of losing Sheldon Sourey in the off season and once again has the leagues top power play with a whopping 24.1%. On the flip side, the penalty killing needs work as the Habs hold the 6th worst penalty kill. The Lightning are spectacular at home posting a 12-6-2 record, but feature the leagues worst road record at 3-12-1. Scoring goals has not been a problem for the Lightning as Tampa is one of the league leaders in goals for. It's keeping the puck out that is an issue as the team has allowed the 2nd most in the NHL. Tampa will be looking for Richards, Lecavalier, Prospal, and St. Louis to keep the tempo fast as the Habs “D” is known to give up a lot of shots on goal.
Top Players This Week Center Jason Spezza Pavel Datsyuk Vinny Lecavalier Mike Richards
Left Wing Henrik Zetterberg Ilya Kovalchuk Rick Nash Alex Ovechkin
Right Wing Marian Hossa Joffrey Lupel Martin St.Louis Daniel Alfredsson
Defence Tomas Kaberle Andrei Markov Nicklas Lidstrom Brian Rafalski Scott Niedermayer
Goaltenders Martin Gerber Pascal Leclaire Roberto Luongo Evgeni Nabokov
Sleepers G- Kari Ramo LW- Jiri Tlusty LW- Sergei Kostitsyn LW-Aaron Voros D- Matt Niskanen D- Joe Corvo
Feel free to comment or post questions to Greg... Forward Thinking
Greg's hockey obsession started at a young age as he had dreams of playing in the NHL. Blessed with the skating ability of Mick Vukota, the offensive instincts of Brad Marsh, and the toughness of Mats Naslund, Greg was somehow overlooked by scouts and decided to apply himself to writing about the game that he loves. Greg is a die hard Leaf fan and is currently a senior at the University of Windsor where he is studying Social Work. 