NHL teams at 10 (East: BOS, CAR, MON, WAS)

October 25, 7:39 PMNHL ExaminerChris Morgan

Previous Next

Comment Print Email RSS Subscribe

Subscribe

Get alerts when there is a new article from the NHL Examiner. Read Examiner.com's terms of use.

Email Address   Include other special offers from Examiner.com Terms of Use

Cam Ward has had to carry Carolina thus far. (AP Photo)

As was to be expected on a Saturday, quite a few teams played their tenth game of the season. Appropriately enough, 10 teams did to be exact. Before I get to them, however, I want to point out that yet another top quality NHL player has suffered injury, as David Booth was concussed by Mike Richards. Richards escaped suspension, so Pierre McGuire can breathe a sigh of relief, and hopefully Booth can be back soon. Also, though he isn't a star player, I would be remiss not to wish Darcy Tucker a speedy recovery from his hit at the hands of Tuomo Ruutu, who was suspended by the NHL. Tucker has never been a likeable player, but nobody wants to see something like this happen.

Anyway, enough dour injury talk, time to look at the play of some teams thus far. In order to keep this article from being comically long, I've divided the teams into their respective conferences. Here is the Eastern Conference version. Four teams from the East played game 10 on Saturday: Boston, Carolina, Montreal, and Washington.

Boston Bruins: 5-4-1, good for 11 points. The Bruins have had some trouble finding stability on offense, what with the trades and the injuries. No more Phil Kessel to start with, then Chuck Kobasew was traded, then Milan Lucic and Marc Savard went down with injuries. It is easy to see what Boston has gotten off to a less than stellar start. When Derek Morris, Savard with seven games to his credit, and Patrice Bergeron are tied for your team lead in points with seven, that's not a good thing.

However, this team has enough talent to stave off these injuries. Tim Thomas got off to a rough start, but he's starting to pull it together, as he now has a 2.97 GAA and a .902 SV%. Not good, but it will be better when the season ends. The Bruins definitely need Bergeron to keep up his current pace (and not get hurt) and they need David Krejci and Blake Wheeler to play like last season. Boston plays in a less than stellar division, so right now they have no reason to fear their start.

Carolina Hurricanes: 2-5-3, good for seven points. Here's a team that is probably worried by their start. The Canes went to the Conference Finals last season, brought back basically the same team, but just haven't found their stride yet. They've only scored 24 goals thus far, and Eric Staal has a mere four points on the year. Obviously, he's what makes the offense go in Carolina, so they'll need that to change before this team can start winning.

There certainly is potential for a Staal turnaround, of course. He's got 72 games left to go. Additionally, while the offense is struggling Cam Ward has been just fine, posting a 2.78 GAA and a .913 SV%. If Ward starts to get some offense in front of him, they team can start winning again. As I've said ad nauseum, it is too early to start making deductions about teams. It has been a bad start in Carolina, but they have plenty of time to turn things around.

Montreal Canadiens: 5-5-0, good for 10 points. The Habs have been the definition of middling so far this season. This is partially due to the fact Carey Price has once again been the definition of bad goaltender. Jaroslav Halak is getting starts again, and when you compare their numbers (Price: 3.36 GAA, .886 SV%. Halak: 2.36 GAA, .903 SV%) it's easy to see why. Maybe Price will never become the goalie Montreal thought he was going to be. Wouldn't be the first time a goalie couldn't live up to expectations.

At least Montreal's bevy of offseason moves have worked out thus far. Mike Cammalleri leads the team with 11 points after Saturday's hat trick. Scott Gomez has seven points and Brian Gionta has six. Also, Paul Mara has five assists. They added him this offseason right? Losing Andrei Markov in game one hurts and some of their younger players in addition to Price aren't getting off to good starts. Montreal has sort of weathered the storm thus far. Now they've got to rise above it.

Washington Capitals: 6-2-2, good for 14 points. What a surprise, the Capitals are great on offense and have goaltending questions. Some things never change. Or, they quickly change and then quickly change back. Fortunately for the Caps, they play in a weak division and have plenty of offense to simply outscore their opponents on their way to the playoffs. Alexander Semin is hurt again (what a shock) but Nicklas Backstrom (11 points) and Alex Ovechkin (17) are playing just fine, and Brooks Laich (nine points) is chipping in as well.

Additionally, Jose Theodore is starting to turn things around a bit in net. He's posting a 2.55 GAA and a .914 SV% through seven games. Sure, we know what Theodore is, a decent goaltender, and that wasn't enough in the postseason last year. However, Semyon Varlamov (3.25 GAA, .884 SV%) isn't playing like he did last postseason, so they've got nothing else. As I said, this team has the offense that they can simply outscore their opponents this season, and try and figure things out in net on their way to the postseason.

That's the Eastern Conference article for today. Be sure to check out the Western Conference one as well.