NHL teams at 10 (West: CAL, CHI, EDM, MIN, NAS, VAN)

October 25, 8:17 PMNHL ExaminerChris Morgan

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The season has started poorly for Luongo. (AP Photo)

(Here's the article on the four teams in the East that played their tenth game on Saturday)

You know the drill by now, or at the very least you'll get the gist of it shortly. Six teams out West played game number ten on Saturday: Calgary, Chicago, Edmonton, Minnesota, Nashville, and Vancouver. That's a lot to cover, so I'll get down to it.

Calgary Flames: 7-2-1, good for 16 points. Would you believe Calgary is the highest scoring team in the NHL? Well, they are, partially thanks to a league leading 32.3% power play rate. Rene Bourque, a guy I've been high on since last season before he went down to the dreaded slew foot, leads the way with 14 points. Dion Phaneuf and Jay Bouwmeester are doing just fine. Things are going well in Calgary.

All that and Jarome Iginla (three goals, five assists) isn't even on the top of his game yet. Olli Jokinen has gotten off to an even slower start with just five points. If he can somehow turn it around, and Miikka Kiprusoff can withstand another huge workload, this team has a chance to be really good. So far, the early returns are promising.

Chicago Blackhawks: 6-3-1, good for 13 points. Despite the offseason madness, injuries, firings, assaults on cab drivers, what have you, and goalie controversies in season, the Blackhawks are doing just fine as they sit atop the Central Division. Patrick Kane has put his offseason issues behind him to score nine points thus far, but it is the other Patrick, Sharp, who leads the team with 10 points.

There is, however, that little issue of who will man the net. Big money goalie Cristobal Huet has been less than stellar thus far, what with his 2.73 GAA and .875 SV%. Meanwhile, his backup Antti Niemi has started four games and has a 2.07 GAA and a .909 SV%. Will Chicago be able to make the switch to Niemi if Huet can't turn it around? Do they dare leave all that money on the bench? If they want to win the division, they'd better be willing to do so. Or, just hope the Wings keep playing poorly. Either could work.

Edmonton Oilers: 6-3-1, good for 13 points. Edmonton is off to a good start this season, and they owe it mostly to switching out the real Dustin Penner for a hockey playing replicant. How else can you explain his 15 points thus far? It could just be the switch in coaches, but I'll stick to my replicant theory.

The Oilers have also gotten good production out of Sam Gagner (10 points) thus far and they have Lubomir Visnovsky back healthy. Alas, in turn they've lost Sheldon Souray and Tom Gilbert is struggling. Nikolai Khabibulin has also had some issues in net (3.08 GAA, .902 SV%) though that save percentage makes it seem like defense might be part of the problem. All that said, if guys like Gagner and Hemsky keep producing, Souray gets healthy, and the Penner replicant doesn't short circuit, this could be a playoff team.

Minnesota Wild: 3-7-0, good for six points. Interesting fact: If you take a team from an extremely defensive style of play to a wide open offensive style of play, there will be struggles. That's been the case with the Wild, who also are having trouble scoring (22 goals) despite the new scheme. Marty Havlat's injury and spotty play (one goal, five points) doesn't help.

The defense is loaded with minus players. Brent Burns is all the way down at minus-11 already. This begs the question: Are they saying "boo" or "Boo-urns?" Yes, I mentioned him just to finagle that joke into this article. Sue me. Niklas Backstrom is still playing excellent in net, but if this team doesn't improve both their offense and defense quite a bit, you might be looking at the West's worst team. No pressure.

Nashville Predators: 3-6-1, good for seven points. Ladies and gentlemen, meet the worst offensive team in the league thus far. Only 18 goals through 10 games. A 9.1% power play rate. J.P Dumont is tied for the team lead in points with seven... and he's played six games. This is not exactly a team loaded with offensive talent either. Aside from Jason Arnott and Steve Sullivan, plus maybe Dumont, does anybody on the Predators strike you as a big time offensive threat? Yeah, me neither. Well, maybe Shea Weber, but as far as forwards go, nope.

To make matters worse, Pekka Rinne has gotten off to a horrendous start. Through five games he has a 3.79 GAA and a .882 SV%. Those are Vesa Toskala numbers! Dan Ellis is playing mediocre hockey as well, and unless they get better play in net, this team won't turn it around. There be turmoil in Nashville right now.

Vancouver Canucks: 5-5-0, good for 10 points. So far, so mediocre for my Stanley Cup pick. Good thing there is still some time left. Roberto Luongo's predilection for slow starts (2.85 GAA, .894 SV%) and an injury to Daniel Sedin aren't helping to be sure. At least Henrik has been solid (11 points) and Ryan Kesler is looking to be legit (nine points). Plus they added Mikael Samuelsson from the Wings, who's been fine with nine points.

Obviously, Luongo is going to get better. By year's end, if he's not one of the top ten goaltenders on the season I'll be stunned. They'll need it too, because this isn't a big time scoring team. For now they've done pretty well all things considered. That Stanley Cup could be theirs yet.

Alright, I covered a lot of ground here today. With my two columns, I've covered 10 more teams that have played game 10 on the year. Still several more to go, and when they get there I will be here (in the form of an article) to cover them.