Philadelphia: After an awful start, the Flyers are slowly coming alive but the team still has many question marks. Offense is however not the issue. With Richards, Gagné, Carter, Briere & Knuble all over a point a game, Philly has two productive and disruptive lines. The rest of the forward group is full of tough hard working complimentary players who understand their role.
Defense is obviously the biggest issue with this team. Even though his play improved last year, the injury to Derian Hatcher is probably a good thing long term as it cleared not only a big salary but a spot for an improving youngster. The Flyers will however need some serious improvement from those young guys as the current squad is average at best. Timonen, Coburn & Vaananen have been playing well but none of them is a workhorse that can carry the whole team on their backs. Acquired during the offseason, Steve Eminger is continuing his mediocre play and proving day after day that he will never reach the high expectations placed on him.
The one bright spot has been the play of 2008 1st round pick Luca Sbisa, a 6’2 Italian defenseman who is leading all Flyers defenseman at 18 years old with 6 points in 11 games.
I warned Flyers’ fans when they acquired Biron that this would not solve their decade long search in goal. Biron is inconsistent, prone to slumps and not technically gifted. Biron is floating around in that no man’s land between backup and solid goalie. A platoon with another 1B goalie might be the best situation to bring out the talent of Biron. Nittymaki has been playing better than Biron but .904 is still not that great. The Flyers have the weakest goaltending in a strong Atlantic division.
The Flyers should fight once again for one of the last few playoffs places and all will depends on their health and how well their young defense holds up in front of average goaltending.
Rating: D
Outlook: going up
Ottawa: What is going on at the Ontario-Quebec border??? I need to watch more Senators games to understand how this team ends up with only 10 points in 11 games and is last in the NorthEast division.
This team is built the same way as the Canucks’ teams of the early 00s: the best #1 line in the league then a wasteland of marginal players with a few nice pieces on the backend and a big hole in goal. Heatley, Spezza & Alfredsson are premium players but simply cannot produce all the offense every night. Someone out of Vermette, Donovan, Foligno, Fisher & Neil needs to get things going, if only to distract the opposition and give a breather to the big guns.
The defense with Kuba, Volchenkov, Phillips & Picard is not spectacular but efficient and should be good enough with such an offense.
The main issue is of course in goal where the Senators are among the 3 weakest teams of the whole league. Gerber seems to deliver only when slated as the backup but falters everytime a team trusts him with their number one spot. That seesaw play is extremely difficult on a team’s morale and I cannot imagine a team making it far with such a troubling point behind them. Auld has been playing well so far (2.31 and .931 in 6 games) but as a Vancouver resident who watched him for a few years, I doubt he will be able to maintain that pace.
Apart of that strong start of Auld, the expected production of the big 3 and the nice production (12 assists in 11 games) of Filip Kuba, there is extremely little positive to be found on this team. Melnyk made the wrong call: Murray should have been let go and Muckler kept around.
Unless something major happens, I don’t see the Senators making much progress and they will need to battle hard to get one of the last playoff spots.
Rating: F –
Outlook:going down
Florida: Is there any chance Bouwmeester will resign with that group?? Not that the new coming of Chris Pronger has been playing that well but he will still be much sought after and the chances of winning seem higher in probably 28 or 29 other cities than Miami right now.
There are a few good pieces with Horton, Booth, Weiss and Keith Ballard leading all Panthers with 10 pts in 11 games, showing how talent can be hidden and buried behind veterans.
Jacques Martin might have his detractors around the league but he is getting some nice assets for his veteran players: For a past due date and mentally unstable Bertuzzi, he acquired Shawn Matthias who is looking like he might become a good big 2nd or 3rd line centerman… and now Ballard for Jokinen. I have to say that I prefer the package the Panthers got for Jokinen than what Atlanta ended up with for Hossa.
To get back to this 4-6-1 team, the talent level is weak at forward and defense and the mediocre veterans peppered through the lineup are simply not the type of players to elevate the team and their younger teammates to contention. This lineup should be dismantled, veterans traded away and a 3-5 year plan put in place to compete in 2012 or so. Even Vokoun should be traded while he has some value. Craig Anderson has not been playing much but his stats look very good and this is the perfect team to give an unhyped goalie a chance to develop and raise his game.
There are a few good young players on this team but this is not the year things will happen. Chances to make the playoffs are slim to none.
Rating: D
Outlook: same
Atlanta: Not to bash on a team when it’s down… but when Todd White is leading your team in points, you can be considered an awful team, even more awful than a 3-7-2 record indicates.
Similar to Florida, the Thrashers have a superstar closing in on Free Agency (Summer 2010 for Kovalchuk) and little except money to entice him to resign. Bryan Little has been playing great so far (6 goals in 12 games) but there isn’t much offensive talent behind.
Atlanta got many pieces in the Hossa trade last year at the trade deadline but the 1st round pick and Esposito (himself a first rounder) will be more important that the meddling 2nd liners they received. This team lacks firepower, identity and purpose… on top of new ownership as I discussed previously!
Do we rebuild with or without Kovalchuk will be the most important question this year in Atlanta but that will not affect the play on the ice: that will stay awful.
Rating: D-
Outlook: going down
New York Islanders: The Islanders have met all expectations so far by easily winning the much coveted chase for the last place of the Eastern Conference. 5 pts in 10 games… you can’t ask much more than that!
This team going nowhere continues to give the most ice time to veterans Weight, Comrie, Streit and Guerin while showing a lack of confidence in their young talent like Hunter, Nielsen, Bergenheim, Okposo and Tambellini. Another example of a team unwilling to rebuild through youth and grabbing whatever is left over in Free Agency.
However, on an alarming note, this is not even the most troubling issue right now in Uniondale. The physical condition of Rick DiPietro is much more important to this team. The Isle lifetimer cannot seem to be able to stay healthy, a scary thought with his untradeable and unboughtable contract.
There is very little to cheer about on Long Island right now and the rest of the season will not change that.
Rating: F
Outlook: same
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