Lets talk Hockey

Hey everyone, to start off my names Frank DeVita (no relation) and I'm currently at UNC Charlotte. I'm gonna be covering a lot of Hockey and MLB, perhaps even some college stuff. Now with that out of the way, lets talk about the ice.

We're currently at the end of the first month of the NHL and lets talk about some flops and surprises. Currently the top three in points are:

West: Detroit (15), San Jose (14), and Minnesota (13)
East: New York Rangers (19), Buffalo (14), and Pittsburgh (12), however Carolina has the third seeded spot due to there lead in the Southeast division.

Right now it looks as if the Rangers may be the favorites, however they have any where from 3-5 games in hand over the rest of there conference due to their early start in Europe, and not to take anything away from a good club, two of their wins are over Tampa Bay. The Lightning may be the worst team in the NHL and the largest bust up to this point in the season. After drafting Steven Stamkos number 1 in last years draft, the 18 year old Center has yet to register a point with the club, and they have 11 goals in 7 games. With their fewest goals per games average in the league, its easy to see their 1-3-3 record. To continue in the east, the Buffalo Sabres are looking surprisingly good sitting atop the Northeast. After losing Briere, Drury, and Cambell over the last two years, the team looks to have rebounded on the backs of the likes of Vanek (finnaly earning his 7+ million dollar contract), Stanford, and Rivet. This may be the most interesting division to keep an eye on with the favored Montreal Canadians looking to take the Northeast in their centennial celebration.

In the west, there a few surprises as well. The cup handover does not look a factor to the Red Wings, however there may be trouble brewing in the Central. The young run-and-gun Chicago Blackhawks are picking it up after 0 and 3 start saw the firing of head coach Dennis Savard, going 3-0-3 in there last six. The biggest surprise though may be the St. Louis Blues. Siting at 5-3 with 10 points, the Blues came out of the gate with a ton of O-ffence. If they can only get some D, Detroit will have an even bigger problem in their division than they did last year.

Just a question, what the hell is going on in the Pacific division? So we knew that San Jose was gonna be good. But with this new wide open style, they have cast away their defence and looking solely on Joe Thorton and Cheechoo the choo-choo train to power their way. And come on Anaheim and Dallas. When these two met in the playoffs last year, it looked like the Stars had replace the Ducks as the kings of the Pacific. Now the Ducks Stanley Cup win two years ago looks even more distant and the defencive Stars with top 5 goaltender Marty Turco have given up 38 goals in 9 games. 38! That's the most in the league and 7 worse than the next team in the Western conference.

So just a quick confession at the end, I am a New Jersey Devils fan, through and through. I will try to be non-bias, put I will allow myself a Brodeur tracker

Wins to pass Patrick Roy: 9

Have a great night folks and here's the top ten in ESPN's power rankings:

1. Sabres
2. Canadians
3. Red Wings
4. Sharks
5. Rangers
6. Wild
7. Penguins
8. Devils
9. Oilers
10. Blues