Next up lets check in on the Northeast where the NHL's biggest surprise sits in first place.
Northeast Division Standings 1/14/09
1. Boston Bruins 68 points
2. Montreal Canadiens 56 points
3. Buffalo Sabres 47 points
4. Toronto Maple Leafs 38 points
5. Ottawa Senators 34 points
Boston Bruins
No one saw this coming, the Boston Bruins playing the role of the Eastern Conference's best team. I! n fact, they are one point behind San Jose coming into the day for the NHL's best record. Boston has an overall very young team, but a solid mix of veterans. Zdeno Chara the big defenseman, playmaker Marc Savard, and forwards Michael Ryder, P.J. Axelsson, and Stephane Yelle most notably. The key for Boston however has been between the pipes where Tim Thomas and Manny Fernandez have been remarkable thus far. Thomas is 18-4, while Fernandez is 14-3. Bost goalies have GAA of close to 2 and save %'s over .928. The NHL has become a two goalie league and the Bruins have one of the better combination's' in the league. As I mentioned earlier the Bruins overall are a very young team. They have developed Phil Kessel, Milan Lucic, rookie Blake Wheeler, and Dennis Wideman into superstars. These guys have improved so much this season and deserve a lot of credit for Boston's success. The B's got lucky when NJ axed Claude Julien a few years ago. Julien is the leading candidate for coach o! f the year at this point by far. The Bruins are banged up righ! t now wi th Marco Sturm done for the year, Patrice Bergeron out for a long period of time, D Andrew Ference still yet to play since early on, and Phil Kessel just went on IR with Mono. The Bruins will win be in the playoffs no doubt and do appear to have what it takes to win this division. They will have to battle Washington for the #1 seed, but it looks like they are in this for the long run.
Montreal Canadiens
Last year's #1 seed in the East got off to a sl! uggish start this season, but are hot right now at 7-2-1 in their last 10. Netminder Carey Price is starting the all-star game mainly because of the flawed fan voting system, but either way he deserved to be in the game at a record 0f 18-4. Price is one of the premiere goalies in the NHL and must play at a high level for Montreal to succeed. This team is not as deep offensively as the other top teams. Alexei Kovalev is still the star for this team, but center Robert Lang is having a great year as well. D Andrei Markov continues to prove he is one of the best. For the Canadiens it is their other stars like Alex Tanguay and the Kostitsyn brothers who must step up for this team to catch Boston. I do think these guys improve, but still finish second in this division. Expect to see Montreal at the 4 seed.
Buffalo Sabres
The Buffalo Sabres are the ultimate swing team. They either look like one of the NHL's best or worst on any given night. This team is extremely hard to read. They have a lot of talent starting in net with Ryan Miller who is one of the best. But even Miller has been some what up and down this season. Buffalo was one of the best teams in the NHL two years ago, then suddenly last year missed the playoffs. They have the talent with Thomas Vanek, Derek Roy, and Jason Pominville, but lack depth. The reason why this team was so good 2 years ago was because of players like Maxim Afinogenov, Ales Kotalik, and Jochen Hecht have great years. They have been poor last season and this season so far. Another issue ! is a big offseason acquisition in D Craig Rivet, he sits with 5 assists on the year. He needs to step up. The Sabres have the talent and that is enough for them to be in the playoff discussions, but they need to step up if they want to be in.
Toronto Maple Leafs
Toronto is not there yet. The Leafs do not have the talent base right now to compete. Vesa Toskala was a good pick-up, but he has not been as good as expected. His backup Curtis Jo! seph has been awful. On paper this tandem looks good, but on t! he ice t he cards have not fallen in Toronto's favor. Nik Antropov and Alexei Ponikarovsky are good players but not superstars. This team needs more talent plain and simple. The Maple Leafs are a work in progress. Watch this team in the second half. If they slowly improve that is a good sign and something for this organization to build on. The Maple Leafs are a few players away from competing.
Ottawa Senators
This team I just cannot explain very well. Like the Sabres, they ruled the hockey world a few ye! ars ago, now they find themselves in the basement of their division. They were swept by Pittsburgh in last years playoffs and it looks like this season they will not even be involved. One of the best lines in hockey in Jason Spezza, Dany Heatley, and Daniel Alfredsson have been far from that so far. Ottawa just cannot get going. A major factor is their goaltending is in disarray. Alex Auld and Martin Gerber have been mediocre and the offense is just not there to complement them. I expect to see Ottawa have a firesale at the trade deadline to mix things up. Alfredsson will be floated around as well as Filip Kuba and several others I am sure. Count this team out.
Next up we finish off the Eastern Conference with the Southeast Division.
