NHL teams at 10 (FLA, NJ, OTT, STL, TOR)

October 29, 1:12 PMNHL ExaminerChris Morgan

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Pucks by your glove, Vesa. (US Presswire)

I'm almost done going through teams at 10, as most teams have crossed that threshold at this point. Five more teams hit that mark yesterday, including two of the esteemed teams in the NHL, Florida and Toronto. Also in today's article are New Jersey, Ottawa, and St. Louis.

Florida Panthers: 2-7-1, good for five points. Hey, remember when the Panthers didn't trade Jay Bouwmeester last season to make a playoff push, didn't make the postseason, and then lost him for nothing but Jordan Leopold? So far, that hasn't really helped Florida this season. Their defense and goaltending is struggling (39 goals against) but they also aren't scoring (22 goals for). Steve Reinprecht leads the team in points. Need I say more?

Obviously, this was a team most expected to take a step back this season, but this particularly poor start may have gone beyond the expectations of many. David Booth in particular, who I was quite high on, got off to a very low start and was then hit high and hard by Mike Richards. That isn't going to help him or his team. Nathan Horton, Michael Frolik, and Stephen Weiss all have five points. That's decent, but they'll all need to do better. Florida will also need more from Tomas Vokoun. A 3.65 GAA and a .902 SV% won't cut it. Sure, the defense is horrible, but that's not likely to change. Vokoun can play better, however. If he doesn't, this season could end up going horribly.

New Jersey Devils: 6-4-0, good for 12 points. The Devils have been exactly what you'd expect under Jacques Lemaire. They're not letting up a lot of goals (26) but they also aren't scoring many (27). That, I feel safe to say, won't change. Also, just as an odd, incidential side note, New Jersey is 4-0 on the road this season. Weird.

At least Zach Parise and Travis Zajac aren't being too stifled by Lemaire's defensive minded scheme. Parise has 13 points to lead the team and Zajac has 10. Marty Brodeur is playing well with a 2.58 GAA and a .909 SV%. Basically, it's business as usual for Jersey, which means you can expect more of the same this season.

Ottawa Senators: 6-2-2, good for 14 points. So far, the loss of Dany Heatley hasn't hurt the Senators too much it would appear. They are scoring plenty of goals (34) and that's with their power play struggling (13.9%). Daniel Alfredsson, as to be expected, leads the team with 14 points. However, Mike Fisher has gotten off to a surprise start and scored 10 points so far. If he can keep that up, maybe Ottawa won't be a one line team for once.

As for the pieces they got in the Heatley trade, thus far Milan Michalek has played fine, scoring six goals and seven points. Jonathan Cheechoo, however, is still absolutely dreadful. He has two assists so far. Based on the start to this season and all of last season I'm going to say that he's done. His best days are behind him. He's barely a viable fourth liner. How quickly things can change. The Senators have gotten very good play out of their goalies so far, which is part of the reason they've gotten off to a good start. Pascal Leclaire has played well, but Brian Elliott's numbers are even better, albeit in fewer games. Leclaire is really talented, and if he can stay healthy, and Jason Spezza (no goals, eight assists) can pick up the pace, this could be a playoff team.

St. Louis Blues: 5-4-1, good for 11 points. After their surprise run to the playoffs last season, a lot more was expected from this year's fully healthy Blues team. So far, they'ved managed to get by, but haven't particularly impressed. After guys like David Backes, David Perron, and Patrick Berglund led the way last season, the old guard has taken back over this season. Keith Tkachuk, Paul Kariya, and Andy McDonald are the top three scorers for the Blues.

Not that St. Louis should be worried about that, provided those three can stay healthy. However, those other three have gotten off to very slow starts, particularly Backes who has a mere two points, and if they want to make strides from last season they'll need those three to prove last year wasn't a fluke. They'll also need Erik Johnson to stay healthy, because so far he's been quite good. There was a reason he was once the first overall pick. The Blues are also getting good play out of both Chris Mason and Ty Conklin. That is a winning goaltending pairing. The season may have started out less than stellar (but still fine) for the Blues, but they've got no reason to worry.

Toronto Maple Leafs: 1-7-2, good for four points. Here's a team that does have reason to worry, however. The Leafs came very close to not winning a single game during their opening 10 game stretch. They've let up 42 goals so far. They've only scored 24. The mediocre offense was to be expected, but didn't this team put a ton of money into defense?

I guess you can call it the Vesa Toskala factor (5.57 GAA, .812 SV%) but I think we may have seen the last of him. Jonas Gustavsson (who hasn't exactly been good) will likely be the starter the rest of the way, with Joey MacDonald serving as the primary backup. Tomas Kaberle is leading the team with 11 points, but he is a consistent target of trade rumors, since he is one of the few Leafs with any value. Mike Komisarek hasn't scored a point yet (not that surprising) and he's also posting a minus-5 rating. Nothing has gone well in Toronto, and while they might not be this terrible, they certainly don't have the looks of even a mediocre team. Bizarrely, the Leafs actually have the top power play in the league (30%). However, their penalty kill has been absolutely horrendous (63.4%). Question: Which is more amusing; Toronto's penalty kill, or Nashville's power play (8.3%)? Discuss.

Only three more teams left to go and then this exercise is over for now. However, the 20 game mark isn't that far around the corner. Maybe after that I'll wait to 40. It all depends on timing and what have you. We'll all find out together, I suppose. Until then...