With the NHL All-star break upon us, it is time to take a look at how the first half of the season played out. The New York Rangers and Detroit Red Wings are atop their conferences with the Bruins and Blues knocking on the door.
The Rangers have played like the best team in the league throughout the season. This was evident in two of their biggest games of the season. The first major win was in the Winter Classic against the almost universally hated Flyers.
The Rangers showed that they can come back from behind and ended up winning 3-2. It was a close game and Henrik Lundqvist shut the door when he saved a penalty shot with 19.6 seconds remaining in the game. It was probably one of his easiest saves of the game; I mean who tries to go five hole on a penalty shot?
The Rangers were also able to beat the Bruins in what could be a preview of the Eastern Conference finals. New York scored the game winning goal with three seconds remaining in overtime. The goal came three minutes after Andrew Ference was given a 5-minute game misconduct. If the Rangers keep up their dominating play they could go deep into the playoffs.
Although the defending Stanley Cup Champions had a tough loss to the Rangers they have also shown glimpses of dominance for a majority of the season. After starting the season horribly, Boston went on to get points in 15 straight games. This streak helped them go from last to first in their division.
The Bruins have not just won games this season, they have dominated their opponents. They have a whopping +70 goal differential which is 24 points more than the next closest team. The team leads the league in goals scored and is 3rd in goals against.
Tyler Seguin has been one the team’s best players this season. Seguin is first on the team with 40 points and 17 goals. The Bruins offence struggled when they lost Brad Marchand to a five game suspension but his return will help them on their pursuit to defend the Cup.
The Western Conference-leading Red Wings have played great this season. They lead the league in overall points and they are one of the most consistent teams in the NHL. Detroit has played in nine overtime games and has only lost one. The Red Wings are a team to watch out for as the season progresses.
The St. Louis Blues could be the largest obstacle Detroit has to face. St. Louis is one of the hottest teams in the game right now having only lost one game in January. They lead the league in goals against and have two of the best goalies in the league in Jaroclav Halak and Brian Elliot. It will be very interesting to see how the Western Conference plays out.
I’m sure many of you are wondering why the Vancouver Canucks have not been mentioned as a solid threat in the NHL. Well here it is.
The Canucks will go nowhere in the playoffs this year. They are too big of crybabies. The Sedine sisters, the finger biter (Burrows), and LUONGOOO cannot lead this team to the cup.
The Canucks are hated by every team in the league. Dale Weise’s action against Shawn Thornton easily sums up the mentality on the team. He accepted a fight and when Thornton dropped his gloves, Weise backed away trying to get a penalty called on the Bruins. The Canucks are not tough and full of weasels. They do not play a good brand of hockey and until this team becomes respectable they will never be Stanley Cup Champions.
The first half of the NHL season was extremely entertaining (much more than the NBA if I could add). It is now time for the most enjoyable All-Star break of all of the major sports.
Joe Beaudoin can be reached at jbeaudoin@spartans.ut.edu.