November Recap
The Pacific Division is looking stronger than it has for years, with the Sharks and Kings both establishing their claims as the top team in the west and Calgary and Anaheim nipping at their heels. The Sharks lead the league in goals for per game and sit tied for third in goals against, benefitted by their scoring depth, and outstanding season so far from roving defenseman Brent Burns and a resurgent performance from veteran goalie Ryan Miller. The Kings are led by Drew Doughty who leads the entire NHL in scoring through November as a defenseman and is on an astounding 107 point pace. Jonathan Quck has fourteen wins already. Anaheim boasts the best goalie tandem in the league, alternating Freddy Andersen with rising star John Gibson and receiving Vezina calibre play from both of them. The Stars sit comfortably atop the Central, rolling primarily wih Cam Talbot in net in spite of Lehtonen's reputation and record last season and it's been working out fine for them. Offensive defenseman John Klingberg leads them with 10 goals and 20 points but is no liability in his own end as he also leads the team in plus minus with a +14.
The Bruins are simply looking dominant at this point, with only three regulation losses through two months. They've been getting stellar goaltending from Tuukka Rask and have team buy in and scoring depth. All Star Patrice Bergeron leads the way for them with 10 goals, 22 points and a +12 even strength goal differential. 20 year old sniper David Pastrnak is producing at a point per game clip as well. The Sabres are surprising some folks with 31 points, good for second in their division, due in large part to amazing goaltending from the unheralded Andrew Hammond who is quietly having a near Vezina level season. Offensively they are of course led by generational sophomore talent Connor McDavid with 24 points through 22 games. Dylan Larkin of the Red Wings leads the league in goals with sixteen and they won't be going away any time soon. The Rangers lead the Metro with the Flyers and Penguins in hot pursuit. Henrik Lundqvist has had his net stolen from him by upstart Mackenzie Skapski who at 22 years old in just his second NHL season already has 3 shutouts and fourteen wins. Philadelphia is performing on the ice but controversy is brewing in their very divided locker room. Star goalie Corey Crawford was brought in only to be upstaged by Antti Niemi who has taken the lion's share of the starts and tensions have started to boil over, with Michael Raffl apparently in the center of it. Raffl has rubbed some of the veteran leaders of the team the wrong way but has backing from some of the younger players in the room. The Penguins are cruising along, helped by a tremendous season from 25 year old Simon Despres who has stepped up and played solidly at both ends of the ice and is tied for the league lead in plus minus currently.
Team Stat Leaders:
GF/gm - San Jose (3.71), Los Angeles (3.43), Washington (3.33), Boston (3.17), Tampa Bay (3.00)
GA/gm - Anaheim (2.04), Buffalo (2.14), San Jose, Boston (2.17), Tampa Bay (2.21)
PP - Winnipeg (28.6%), Buffalo (26.7%), Boston (24.2%), San Jose (23.7%), Detroit (23.4%)
PK - Colorado (90.7%), Philadelphia (89.7%), Anaheim (89.2%), Pittsburgh, Boston (87.3%)
Goalie Leaders (min 10gp):
GAA - Hammond (BUF) 1.61, Gibson (ANA) 1.64, Vasilevskiy (TBL) 2.02, Andersen (ANA) 2.06, Rask (BOS) 2.10
Sv Pct - Gibson (ANA) .944, Andersen (ANA), Hammond (BUF) .940, Niemi (PHI) .934, Bernier (TOR) .933
GSAA - Bernier (TOR) 14.71, Dubnyk (CGY) 12.67, Niemi (PHI) 11.03, Hutchinson (WPG) 10.71, Andersen (ANA) 10.02
SO - Miller (SJS) 4, Bernier (TOR), Dubnyk (CGY), Skapski (NYR), Varlamov (COL), Vasilevskiy (TBL) 3
Rookie Leaders:
Points - Marner (CAR) 5-7-12, D. Strome (CGY) 2-8-10, Provorov (WPG) 1-9-10, E. Gustafsson (TOR) 4-5-9, Cassels (VAN) 4-5-9
Other Stat Leaders:
Takeaways - Giordano (CGY) 27, K. Hayes (NYR), Stone (OTT) 21, Hedman (TBL) 20, Shattenkirk (STL), Slavin (CAR), Vlasic (SJS) 19
Hits - Borowiecki (SJS) 105, Lucic (BOS) 93, Landeskog (COL) 87, A. Lowry (WPG) 75, Backes (STL), Matteau (NJD) 74
Blocked Shots - Bouwmeester (STL) 91, C. Murphy (ARI) 88, Brodie (CGY) 86, C. Tanev (VAN) 85, Goligoski (DAL), E. Karlsson (OTT) 84
PIM - Cormier (WPG) 67, Borowiecki (SJS) 66, Latta (WSH) 57, E. Kane (WPG) 54, Wilson (WSH) 53
FO% - Tavares (NYI) 61.1, Kopitar (LAK) 60.1, Bourque (NSH) 60.0, Bergeron (BOS) 59.9, Hishon (COL) 59.5
+/- - Couture (SJS), Despres (PIT) +20, Nieto (SJS), Ovechkin (WSH), Saad (SJS) +17
Injuries:
D Cam Fowler (ANA) DTD (upper body)
F Kyle Palmieri (ANA) DTD (shoulder)
F Zemgus Girgensons (BUF) OUT 1-2 months (finger)
F Mikhail Grigorenko (BUF) OUT 1-2 months (elbow)
F Mikko Rantanen (DAL) DTD (concussion)
F Pavel Datsyuk (DET) DTD (back)
F Jordan Eberle (EDM) OUT 2-3 months (shoulder)
D Justin Schultz (EDM) OUT 3-4 months (ankle)
F Brandon Sutter (NJD) DTD (face)
F Boyd Gordon (PHI) OUT indefinitely (eye)
D Kris Letang (PIT) OUT indefinitely (hip)
F Leo Komarov (TOR) OUT 1-2 weeks (ankle)
F Evgeny Kuznetsov (WSH) OUT 1-2 weeks (hand)