Greetings hockey fans!  We are almost approaching the quarter mark of the NHL regular season.  Well some teams are, other teams have only played eleven or twelve games.  I still can't figure out why the NHL can't make a schedule where teams play games on some kind of pace with each other but that is for another time!  Anyhow, at this point we still have three teams in the West that have zeros in the loss column at home.  San Jose, Chicago, and Edmonton have collected at least one point in every home game thus far (as well as Washington in the East).  Also worth noting is that the Detroit Red Wings have not lost on home ice since opening night on October 9. Having that kind of home ice advantage is obviously a huge plus for those teams.  Edmonton has only had four home games and have been on the road for the last two weeks due to some rodeo (or whatever it is that people do up there besides hockey) going on at their arena.  The Oilers went 4-3 on the road trip and are now returning back home where as I said they are undefeated.  I am very surprised by their start and they have gotten great goaltending as of late by a young goaltender by the name of Jeff Deslauriers.  If he keeps up his pace of the last three games look for him to be getting a lot more starts and for Edmonton to have a much better season then expected.

My two favorite players (sarcasm) that I spoke about in my last column have been battling injuries since we last spoke.  Sidney Crosby has stayed in the lineup but has been battling lower body pain and Marty Brodeur is out for about another three months after having to undergo surgery.  Looks like Patrick Roy will be able to enjoy being the NHL's winningest goaltender for a few months longer than he thought.  Can the Devils stay in contention with Marty on the shelf for half of the season.  Going by my theory from last time the answer should be yes because I pleaded that he is overrated and his success is the result of a good defensive system.  But I also implied that he is a good goaltender (not the best ever but good). I said that possibly any "good" goaltender could have had his numbers with the New Jersey Devils defensive minded system playing in front of them.  So the question is are Kevin Weekes and Scotty Clemmensen "good" enough to have Marty numbers and keep the Devils winning.  I am not so sure, but we will sure find out by watching the Devils over the next few months.

I have to say that watching the NHL season develop thus far has left me thinking that it is really difficult to make preditions as two who the big winners will be come spring time.  Yes teams we thought would be powerhouses have been playing up to par so far (Detroit, Montreal, San Jose) but other than the teams I mentioned earlier on home ice nobody has been perfect and seemingly unbeatable.  What I have seen so far actually is that the increased games between the east and west have helped balance the standings.  In a lot of instances so far teams are heating up against their conference and then being cooled off by a mediocre team in the other conference (one of a few good examples of that is the Blue Jackets handing the Canadiens only their second loss of the season last Friday). I feel the schedule changes were a good move by the league and I definately like the fact that I cannot yet predict who I think is the NHL best team.

My food for thought item of the week this time is this debate on increasing scoring.  What do we think hockey fans?  Do we think that ten goals a game is a good thing or do we enjoy letting goaltenders like Lundqvist, Luongo, Nabokov, Kiprusoff, and OK OK Brodeur be superstars and the most important players on their respective teams.  I am against any more rule changes that are aimed at increased scoring.  I am ok with what they have done already but any further alterations in the size of goalie pads and making a rule against players going down to block shots would just be taking it too far.  And lets not forget the mother of all dumb ideas.... I am completely against making the goals larger.  Don't get me wrong I love hearing the horn and chanting the goal celebration song of whatever arena I am in (except when I am in New Jersey, Philadelphia, or Long Island) but changing the game like that will mess with the record books and undermine the art of goaltending; which is also a very exciting part of the game.  Lets hear it folks..... what do we think??  Until next time hockey fans!