1. Milan Michalek, Ottawa Senators. Michalek came over to Ottawa in the Dany Heatley trade and is a great fit in Ottawa. He scored his first career hat trick on Thursday against the Tampa Bay Lightning. Two of his goals came shorthanded, the third on the power play. The Sens are off to a 5-2-0 start this season and looking like they can compete for a playoff spot. Their scoring is more balanced and Pascal Leclaire has made a huge difference in net.
2. Alexander Ovechkin, Washington Capitals. As expected, Ovechkin is leading the league in goals with 9. This week, he scored 2 goals against San Jose and netted another 2 against Nashville. Ovechkin totaled 6 points this week and a whopping 26 shots on goal in 6 games. The Caps boast a formidable, offense-heavy team with the likes of Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom, Alexander Semin and Mike Green. They should contend for top seed in the Eastern Conference this season.
3. Marc-Andre Fleury, Pittsburgh Penguins. Fleury is off to his best start of his career this season winning all 7 games he’s played. Fleury allowed just 4 goals on 83 shots in 3 games, good for a sparkling .956 save percentage. The Pens are showing why they’re the defending Stanley Cup champions, playing a great puck possession game and finding ways to win.
Honorable Mentions: Nicklas Lidstrom became the first European blueliner to score 1,000 points on Thursday against the LA Kings with his assist on Henrik Zetterberg’s goal. … Henrik Lundqvist is off to a great start for the hot New York Rangers (more on that later). He won all 3 games this week, allowing only one goal in each game. … Pittsburgh’s Tyler Kennedy scored 2 goals against the Ottawa Senators. Kennedy has 3 game winners this season so far. … Tyler Myers (BUF), Matt Duchene (COL) and Ryan Vesce (SJS) all scored their first NHL goals this week. … Pat Kane lead the Chicago Blackhawks to a stunning come-from-behind win against the Calgary Flames on Monday. Kane had a goal and 2 assists, helping the Hawks win in overtime against the Flames after being down 5-0. … Cam Ward was stellar in a 3-2 shootout loss to the Penguins on Wednesday, making 36 saves and absolutely robbing Billy Guerin and Evgeni Malkin late in the game to keep the Hurricanes in it. Ray Whitney scored 2 goals for the Canes...The Dallas stars thrashed the Nashville Predators on Wednesday. Captain Brendan Morrow lead the way, scoring 2 goals along with Loui Eriksson, who also had an assist. Brad Richards had a goal and 2 assists and goaltender Marty Turco made all 29 saves for the shutout. … Tim Thomas notched his first shutout of the year, stopping all 27 shots the Stars threw at him. … Joe Thornton had 3 points against the Islanders Saturday night (1g, 2a). … Martin Brodeur needs one shutout to tie Terry Sawchuk’s record of 103 shutouts. Brodeur stopped 26 shots against the Carolina Hurricanes for the win. … Jay McKee blocked a whopping 7 shots against Tampa Bay for the Pens on Saturday. McKee leads the league with 28 shots blocked. … St. Louis beat the Anaheim Ducks 5-0 Saturday, lead by Andy McDonald who had 2 goals and an assist. Ty Conklin made 26 saves.
Big thumbs down to the Toronto Maple Leafs who are winless 7 games into the season (0-6-1). The Leafs team defense has been awful. Last season, the Leafs had no quit whether they were winning or losing. This year, the team seems to have no motivation. Vesa Toskala has been atrocious in his only 3 games. It doesn’t help having Toskala out with injury along with highly touted Swedish goaltender Jonas Gustavsson. Head coach Ron Wilson is stuck playing third-string goalie Joey MacDonald. Offense is also hard to come by. The Leafs have only scored 14 goals this season while allowing 32 goals (which happens to be the league-leading Rangers GF). The Leafs don’t play again for a full week when they travel to Vancouver to play the Canucks. The team and coaching staff need to figure out how to fix this and get the ball rolling. The fans are displeased, along with the players. The lone bright spot for Toronto is the fact that newly acquired winger Phil Kessel has been progressing ahead of schedule in his rehabilition from off-season shoulder surgery and should be ready to play by mid-November.
On the flip side of things, the New York Rangers have been arguably the best team in the league so far. They’re 7-1-0 with their only loss coming against the Pittsburgh Penguins October 2nd. Henrik Lundqvist has been stellar so far with a 6-1-0 record, 2.15 GAA and .932 save percentage. For the past 4 years, he has been the best player for the Rangers and continues to give them a chance to win every night. Lundqvist is now getting solid support up front. Marian Gaborik is leading the team in points with 12 and goals with 6. Vaclav Prospal has been a fantastic signing by general manager Glen Sather. Prospal and Gaborik have great chemistry and usually if one scores, the other assists. Rookie Michael del Zotto has been the key to the Rangers 8th ranked power play which is clicking at 26.3%. The Rangers are almost exactly opposite of the Leafs. The Rangers are getting the offense, goaltending, special teams play (the Rangers PK is also 8th in the league at 86.1%) and they have the chemistry the Leafs seem to lack. Rangers head coach John Tortorella has really implemented his aggressive system this season, helped by the fact he had a full training camp to work with the players. The Rangers look like they won’t be slowing down any time soon.
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