by Bo Siemsen
April 20th 2003
The season is underway ... we're only a few weeks in ... for some teams we have already had some of the answers to the questions posed before the season. Elsewhere in the league new questionmarks has appeared ... once again the rankings are put together division by division. What can I say ... I like the format. The teams are sorted by current form in the division ... the predictions are updated too.
What you see here is :
- "FORM" current form of the team (record since last set of rankings)
- "TEAM" indicates something quite obvious
- "DIV.PRED." indicates my prediction for divisional standings (previous in parenthesis)
- "CONF.PRED." indicates my prediction for conference standings (previous in parenthesis)
- "THE SKINNY" indicates a bit of reasoning for the predictions.
NORTH
EAST DIVISION |
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| FORM | TEAM | DIV.PRED. | CONF.PRED. | THE SKINNY |
| 9-2-0-0 |  |
4 (3) | 7 (5)5 | The Senators has started the season in superb form. Eddie Belfour has been nothing short of sensational early on stopping 94.1% of all shots. Despite the huge start I think - with recent trades in mind - (no more Lindros) I predict these Senators to struggle to make the playoffs at the end of the season |
| 7-4-1-0 |  |
2 (2) | 4 (4) | Solid form across the board ... the big guys are scoring (Bure 9 goals 17 pts) ... keeping the puck out of the net (Brodeur 0.915 save%) ... and trading for new players (Amonte, Francis etc.) |
| 4-5-2-1 |  |
1 (1) | 3 (3) | The Habs have not yet lived up to the expectations I made. The stats doesn't explain the below-500 record. 30-21 goaldifference, 1.91 GAA and 2.71 goals for on average. Great PP (21%) and good PK (93%). Yet they have 5 losses early on. Regardless - they should pull out of it and start winning ... at some point ... |
| 4-5-2-0 |  |
3 (4) | 6 (9) | The Maple Leafs aren't firing on all cylinders yet. Sundin back in Toronto - not to mention sniper Selanne - should make thema a better scoring team, but defence/goaltending remains a questionmark. |
| 2-8-1-1 |  |
5 (5) | 14 (14) | The NHL All-Rookie team ... wait ... the WCFHL Boston Bruins are fighting bravely to retain some credibility as a competent team. The best effort has come from defenceman Hans Jonsson ... with 12 points he leads all WCFHL defencemen. |
ATLANTIC
DIVISION |
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| FORM | TEAM | DIV.PRED. | CONF.PRED. | THE SKINNY |
| 7-4-1-1 |  |
1 (1) | 1 (2) | Mario is doing his thing with 10 goals in 12 games ... but there's plenty of room for improvement with this team - particular on the 2nd line where Kariya (2+5), Bonk (1+6) and Zednik (3+2) are underachieving. |
| 5-6-0-1 |  |
3 (3) | 10 (11) | 11 points in 11 games is reason for optimism in New Jersey eventhough the individual stats aren't great. Al MacInnis is -10 already while Curtis Joseph has a savepercentage under .900. They need to improve to make the playoffs. |
| 4-5-2-0 |  |
4 (4) | 12 (12) | The Penguins are being carried early in the season by goaltender Jean-Sebastian Giguere ... that and goals from unexpected players - Mike Keane for instance. The veteran leads the team with 6 goals. |
| 5-7-0-0 |  |
2 (2) | 9 (6) | The Islanders have been a bit of a disappointment so far with just 5 win and 10 points in 12 games. They traded Mats Sundin just as they were starting to look like a playoff team ... he was sent to Toronto with Gary Roberts for Scott Gomez and Geoff Sanderson. Most likely not a trade that will help their playoff hopes. |
| 3-5-3-0 |  |
5 (5) | 15 (15) | Manny Fernandez is getting some points pretty much on his own early on. Obviously it wont last very long ... soon the Flyers will fall even deeper in the standings. |
SOUTH
EAST DIVISION |
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| FORM | TEAM | DIV.PRED. | CONF.PRED. | THE SKINNY |
| 6-5-0-1 |  |
2 (3) | 5 (7) | The Caps are off to a good start and still looks to be a solid team. Anson Carter is doing his best Alexei Kovalev impression scoring 5 goals and 9 points in his first 11 games for the Capitals. Turco in the net has been solid, but not spectacular so far. |
| 5-5-0-0 |  |
4 (4) | 11 (10) | Everything is just sort of 'average' in Atlanta right now. A .500 record - 2.40 GAA from Potvin - 24 goals for AND against ... considering how things used to be around here this is an improvement. |
| 2-4-5-0 |  |
5 (5) | 13 (13) | The Hurricanes have been slightly below average across the board ... few goals ... not that great defensively and not that many wins. Plenty of ties though (5) more than any other team in the WCFHL. |
| 4-7-1-1 |  |
1 (1) | 2 (1) | Whats going on here ? The Panthers are struggling despite superb goaltending - look at Jose Theodore, he's started 5 games allowed just 8 goals in these 5 games but he still doesn't have a win. |
| 3-7-2-1 |  |
3 (2) | 8 (8) | The Bolts has made numerous changes this season, so far the team hasn't been able to settle ... except for Luc Robitaille ... he has 10 points already in a limited role. More changes to come ? |
CENTRAL
DIVISION |
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| FORM | TEAM | DIV.PRED. | CONF.PRED. | THE SKINNY |
| 7-2-2-0 |  |
1 (1) | 3 (3) | The St.Louis Blues are trucking along quite nicely not giving up much ground on the conference leaders. Patrick Roy has been less than great so far, while no single player has really taken off scoring. However they do have 7 players with 7 points or more in their first 11 games AND a solid lead in their division. |
| 5-5-0-0 |  |
4 (3) | 12 (10) | The Predators are struggling to hold it together. Goaltending from Turek (3.23 GAA) hasn't quite been good enough ... though when he doesn't give it away the Predators have picked up some decent points. Still a longshot for the playoffs. |
| 4-5-1-0 |  |
5 (5) | 15 (15) | Best goalie in the WCFHL currently belongs to the Colombus Blue Jackets ... Jamie Storr is the story so far. His 1.39 GAA and .947 savepercentage is sensational. |
| 4-6-1-0 |  |
3 (4) | 10 (12) | The Hawks are - finally - competetive. There's still room for improvement but at least now the Hawks can play and win all games. The defence is looking really solid infront of Dwayne Roloson and Eric Lindros is capable of carrying a team on his back if he has to ... and he just might. |
| 4-7-1-0 |  |
2 (2) | 5 (5) | The Wings have fallen off. Ah, what a terrible analogy. The Wings haven't quite been the same this season - not that Joe Thornton isn't doing a good job - but the depth just isn't there. Once Tommy Salo shapes up they should climb the standings ... |
PACIFIC
DIVISION |
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| FORM | TEAM | DIV.PRED. | CONF.PRED. | THE SKINNY |
| 7-3-2-0 |  |
2 (2) | 4 (4) | The Dallas Stars has come back from WCFHL purgatory. A season of pain is behind them and now they are competing with the best in the WCFHL ... that means even challenging the San Jose Sharks for the Pacific division title. |
| 7-2-1-0 |  |
4 (4) | 9 (11) | The Kings are playing hard every night ... and the top line is playing great. Todd White has 10 assists while Brett Hull has potted 6 goals. A great start to the season can inspire a team to a good season - that's what they did last year ... that could be what they'll do this year. |
| 5-5-2-0 |  |
3 (3) | 6 (6) | The Coyotes aren't quite making the big splash I had expected them to here early on. Maybe all their trades has left them with too much softice on the scoring line and not enough grit. |
| 4-5-1-1 |  |
1 (1) | 2 (2) | The Sharks just aren't well ... they aren't playing hard ... they flat out ain't playing like champions ... back to back losses to the Kings means that the Sharks are a couple of steps of the pace in the West - and in the Pacific. Plenty of time to make up for it though. |
| 2-6-3-0 |  |
5 (5) | 14 (14) | The Ducks are averaging just 10.004 fans at home and are headed for a 15 million dollar hole. An uphill struggle to right this franchise. |
NORTH
WEST DIVISION |
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| FORM | TEAM | DIV.PRED. | CONF.PRED. | THE SKINNY |
| 8-2-1-0 |  |
1 (1) | 1 (1) | The Avalanche has started the season on excellent form scoring more goals than any other teams. Currently 4 players are at a point per game or better - Forsberg - Hejduk - Kovalev - Mogilny ... (notice no Sakic ? right, scary team). |
| 6-4-1-0 |  |
3 (3) | 8 (8) | The Oilers are enjoying a great start to the season mainly thanks to the goaltending of Mike Dunham. His 1.29 Goal against average is the best among starting goaltenders ... as is the .947 savepercentage. |
| 5-4-2-0 |  |
2 (2) | 7 (7) | Good stuff but nothing great happening in Vancouver. That spells yet another team that will be in the thick of things when playoff positions are decided. |
| 4-5-2-1 |  |
4 (4) | 11 (9) | The Flames are doing a good job so far ... despite the absense of Jarome Iginla - their top player - and a host of other minor injuries here and there. The main man in Calgary right now is Jeff Friesen ... with 10 points in 9 games. |
| 3-5-2-1 |  |
5 (5) | 13 (13) | Nothing new from Minnesota. |