 |  |  | ||||||||||
|
|  | | |||||||||
 |  |  | ||||||||||
 | | | ||
| ALSO SEE NHL East: Midseason reportMorganti: Change doing NHL some good | | | |
| | | ||
| | | ||
| ESPN.com NFL | |  | |
| | | ||
 | Friday, November 3 Top of chain remains unchallenged Special to ESPN.com | |||
Unexpected comets have fizzled. Old champions are getting up off the canvas. A new, emerging force has arrived on the scene.
As the Western Conference reached the halfway pole, things have begun to sort themselves out in terms of the pecking order. The Wings, Stars and surging Blues are firmly entrenched, unassailable, at the top of the food chain. | |
| Detroit's Chris Chelios has enjoyed a resurgent season. |
Detroit: The most successful team in the game at the turn. The most wins, most goals, tied for the fewest losses, third in penalty killing and fourth on the power play. Chillingly efficient. Golden oldies the caliber of Steve Yzerman (42 points), Chris Chelios (a league-leading plus-39) and Igor Larionov (31 points), a comeback season for Brendan Shanahan (24 goals) and a solid supporting cast, added to the anger over last season's playoff disappointment, have the Wings prepping for another long run into spring and early summer. They're equipped with the guile, the talent, the depth. Insiders wonder if they can withstand a major injury or two, however, and if they're capable of going a full four rounds without running perilously short of petrol. St. Louis: Uh, Grant WHO? Those who initially thundered that the ouster of Grant Fuhr would lead to chaos and finally collapse under the big Missouri arch have been strangely silent lately. The Blues only lead the entire NHL in team defense, giving up 2.09 goals per game. The rise of the Roman empire has begun, with Turek beginning to take a shine to all the work, having played in 35 games already, and winning 20 of those. There's lots to recommend about the Blues, even if they remain strangely untalked about. They're 13 points better than at the midway mark of '98-99, Pierre Turgeon has proven that old dogs can teach themselves new tricks, the team chemistry may be unmatched at the moment and they're armed with those two stellar blue-liners, Pronger and MacInnis. Be caught exclusively watching Detroit and Dallas at your own risk. Dallas: Yeah, the Stars have fought the customary case of Cup hangover most of the first half. Sure, their pivotal players are getting on in years. Uh huh, they've shown signs of leakage. But they're like a thoroughbred who can sense by the crowd and the atmosphere when they're in a big race. And until mid-April, these are just minor stakes trots. Yes, they've experienced trouble scoring, but any team blessed with Mike Modano, Joe Nieuwendyk, Brett Hull, Sergei Zubov and Darryl Sydor is eventually going to bust out, and in a big way. Eddie Belfour is putting in a splendid season, doing his best to make up for a rash of injuries that have kept the Stars from crowding the Wings atop the conference. Outside looking in
Colorado: Good enough to walk away with the Northwest Division. Good enough to go deep into the playoffs. But a successful Stanley Cup run? Sorry, not this spring. Injuries to Joe Sakic, Peter Forsberg and Adam Foote put them back on their heels early, but being forced to step manfully into the void and accept a hefty amount of responsibility has only hastened the maturation process of young gems Chris Drury, Milan Hejduk, Martin Skoula and Alex Tanguay. Marc Denis hasn't looked out of his depth pinch-hitting for Patrick Roy, either. Soon, very soon, when the kids grow up, they'll be back knocking on the door. To expect it right away, however, would be folly. Phoenix: Captain Keith has the sulks, what with the Keith Primeau rumblings. Veteran Sean Burke has to prove he can carry a team through April, May and a good part of June. The Coyotes started strong, have received a big season from Jeremy Roenick and first-year coach Bobby Francis has admirably handled the pitfalls and the egos so far. But there's just something that cries out "No! No!" when you mention Phoenix Coyotes and Stanley Cup in the same breath. They have yet to prove they can tiptoe out of one round, let alone march through four. San Jose: Sinking like a stone in a dead-calm pond. Not so very long ago hob-knobbing with the NHL's high rollers, the Sharks are now just another sub-.500 team, and the trade of Mike Vernon to Florida signalled to many that San Jose doesn't believe deep down it can contend for the Cup this season. Either that or somebody just screwed up royally. Clearly, the man on the spot is goalie Steve Shields. If he gets hurt, they'll be so dead 40,000 volts wouldn't stir them to life. After Owen Nolan (27 goals and 52 points), Vinnie Damphousse (37 points) and Jeff Friesen (35), the offensive output drops off. Their defense doesn't lack for skill, but outside of Bryan Marchment, there really isn't another head-banger back there. The Sharks look to be a year, and a couple of pieces to the puzzle, away. Los Angeles: Sinking like the stone beside the San Jose sinking stone in the dead-calm pond. As of Wednesday the Kings were just 2-7-1 in their last 10 and 1-7-2 in their past 10 on the road. At the beginning of the season there was abundant optimism in L.A. New coach. New players. New building. But the promise of mid-November has given way to an inevitable sense of doom. For some bizarre reason, they played better when both Jozef Stumpel and Luc Robitaille were injured. Go figure. The personnel general manager Dave Taylor has assembled in L.A. is the finest in years. Yet it all seems in danger of unravelling. Ho hum. Not again. Outside looking down
Edmonton: What gives with these Oilers anyway? They must enjoy being tied up -- and 11 times in the first half is an awful lot of bondage. The Oilers have hung around the .500 mark and were only two points out of the division lead and six away from third highest total in the conference as of midweek. In Doug Weight, Ryan Smyth, Roman Hamrlik, Bill Guerin, Janne Niinimaa and Tommy Salo and the surprising Alex Selivanov, they have a good core. Capable of making the playoffs and perhaps pulling another first-round upset. But don't expect more. Anaheim: There are those disgusted that extraordinary natural talents such as Teemu Selanne and Paul Kariya should be subjected to the shackles of "trapping." But coach Craig Hartsburg, in his second season at the helm, wants the Duckies playing defensive-style, playoff-type hockey all season to get ready for the postseason. Question is: Will they get there to show off all they've learned? There are serious doubts about that, with the Kings and Sharks getting a good jump on them, the Oilers being more well-rounded as a unit and the Flames showing surprising resilience in trying to catch up. Calgary: Actually, the Flames are on the outside looking up. Just wriggling into the playoffs would be an achievement for a team that has gone four years without getting to the dance. So the bar here is distinctly lower than at virtually every other venue in the conference. Piggybacked by a little guy, 5-foot-6 goalie Fred Brathwaite, and the kid brother of Russia's most famous hockey export, winger Valeri Bure, Calgary is making a serious pitch for the postseason. Whether the Flames don't just plain wear out remains to be determined, however. It's a nervy (some would say out-and-out boring) game they play, sitting back and waiting for one or two chances to counterpunch. Coach Brian Sutter has drained every ounce out of this bunch. Outside looking waaaaaay down
Vancouver: With the preppy Marc Crawford in control, Mark Messier apparently on a mission and Seattle zillionaire John McCaw's pocket change to scatter to the forewinds, the Canucks bolted out of the gate, fueled by a precipitous schedule that was stocked with home games. Then the charade was exposed, the jig was up, and the losses began to mount. Messier got hurt, the loss of Mattias Ohlund began to become unbearable, the power play fell to 24th, penalty killing to 27th and, hoping to be inspired by cracking a big trade, GM Brian Burke found out that Felix the Cat had lost most of his claws over the years. What a mess! And if all this weren't bad enough, the Sedin twins were far from distinguished at the World Junior tournament. Oh, woe. Nashville: The Preds are finding the second time around far more difficult than the first. Gone is the newness, the freshness, the surprise of their inaugural season. Now they're just another team, a mediocre one at that, trying to get by on expansion talent. For a group that has to be built on limiting the opposition's offense, Nashville has filtered down to second-to-last in goals-against within the division. The Predators simply do not possess enough firepower to make up for that. Chicago: Already there's been a palace coup (although one of those deposed, coach Lorne Molleken, was not evicted from the throne room, but merely shifted sideways). And those big, bad, brawling 'Hawks of the exhibition schedule have been mostly just bad since the regular season started. Tony Amonte has produced, Doug Gilmour has rebounded from a slow start to put up good numbers and ex-Leaf Steve Sullivan gives them a bit of spark. But beyond that ... perennial underachiever Alexei Zhamnov started strong and then realized he doesn't come up on a contract until next year, Boris Mironov has been a bust and they can't keep the puck out of their own net. When Michael Nylander is one of your most consistent forwards, need more be said? Midseason awards
Most Valuable Player: Fred Brathwaite, Flames. Honorable Mention: Pierre Turgeon, Blues. Jeremy Roenick, Coyotes. Owen Nolan, Sharks. Freddie's the unquestioned feel-good story of midwinter, a forgotten, discarded reclamation project that's more than panned out. If the MVP criteria is, as advertised, the most valuable player to his team, he's a deserving winner. His .919 save percentage is among the leaders. Both Roman Turek (2.05) and Chris Osgood (2.20) sport better GAAs in the conference than Brathwaite's 2.25, but they aren't playing behind the Calgary Flames, either. In a pivotal year for the franchise, with rumblings of relocation and fan apathy at a fever pitch, he's vaulted the Flames -- the conference's weakest offensive team -- into playoff contention. No mean feat. Top rookie: Alex Tanguay, Avalanche. Honorable Mention: Jochen Hecht, Blues. Brad Stuart, Sharks. Marc Denis, Avs. There was a pretty solid reason Colorado GM Pierre Lacroix drew the line at Tanguay when drafting his list of prospects for Calgary to choose from in the Theoren Fleury deal last year. The kid's got star potential. Those concussion worries have proven unfounded. Given that Peter Forsberg missed a lot of time recuperating from offseason shoulder surgery and captain Joe Sakic had problems with a trick back, the kids -- rookies Tanguay and Martin Skoula, along with second-year NHLers Chris Drury and Milan Hejduk -- were left little choice but to pick up the slack. Tanguay's done his share, currently sitting second in NHL freshmen scoring, with 25 points. Top coach: Joel Quenneville, Blues. Honorable Mention: Scott Bowman, Wings; Bobby Francis, Coyotes, Ken Hitchcock, Stars. Scotty's got the Wings in high gear, first-year man Francis has wrangled a solid first half out of Phoenix despite countless auditions for a No. 1 goalie, and Hitch has kept the champs from caving in despite a debilitating rash of injuries. Quenneville has orchestrated a tightly knit band of Blues into a position where they can legitimately contend for the President's Trophy through the second half. He came into the season with an unproven go-to goalie and not as much star power as the other contenders, yet St. Louis has arguably the most in-touch, together team in all of hockey at the moment. No Hull? No Fuhr? No chance? No way. And Quenneville deserves his share of the credit. Surprise of the half-season: See Most Valuable Player, above. Brathwaite demonstrated last season after the Flames used him as a life raft that he could carry the ball short term -- the theory being that a small goaltender under a heavy workload would simply wear out. Well, he's now proven he can carry a team ... halfway to the finish line. What's left to be determined is if he can take it the rest of the way, and into the playoffs. Disappointment of the half-season: Grant Fuhr, Flames. Brought in to resurrect a franchise, the future Hall of Famer struggled mightily, eventually superceded by an emergency pickup from last season, Brathwaite, before his knee caved in (again). A 3.66 GAA and .858 save percentage weren't exactly what the club had in mind when the old Flame killer arrived. With fears that Brathwaite can't carry them all the way home, Fuhr may still have time to redeem himself when he returns in a few weeks time. But at the moment, the only positive bit of news out of this is that Calgary only picked up half ($1.5 million) of the last year of his contract.
George Johnson covers the NHL for the Calgary Sun. His Western Conference column appears every week during the season on ESPN.com.
 |  |  | ||
|
ESPN INSIDER
Copyright 1995-2000 ESPN/Starwave Partners d/b/a ESPN Internet Ventures. All rights reserved. Do not duplicate or redistribute in any form. ESPN.com Privacy Policy. Use of this site signifies your agreement to the Terms of Service. | | | |
 | |  | ||