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| Central Division Standings as of 10 A.M. on 11/4/2018 |
Well surprise, surprise. The Nashville Predators are 1st in the division and beginning to pull themselves away from the pack just a bit. Fresh off a shut out against Boston and new contract on his birthday, Pekka Rinne has been a rock in goal for them the last 3 years. And with a viable back up, who could be a starter on any other team, Juuse Saros gives the Preds a 1-2 in goal that no other team can compete with. They also have one of the best lines in the league right now, with the best nickname as well. The JOFA line composed of Johansen, Forsberg, and Arvidsson has been nothing but spectacular. They lead the way in points on the team, in that order as well, and are followed by Turris who is almost a forgotten player but still has 11pts through 14 games. After the 4 forwards though their big-4 on defense are all contributing on offense as well, led by Subban with 10pts. They're not a perfect team by any means though. Their PP and PK are abysmal at best. They're tied for last place in PP percentage in the entire league, and the PK is last in the division. If they expect to make a deep run in the playoffs and be a true contender this must change.
The Minnesota Wild are holding down the 2nd place spot in the division, which shouldn't be a surprise, but still is to me. The Wild are like Boston to me. I see good players and a competitive team, but I can never really figure out how they're always as good as they are because they just shouldn't be, usually. Starting from the back end, Dubnyk seems to have regained his form after a bit of a rougher season last year posting a 2.07 GAA and a .937 SV% so far this year. Those are elite numbers, Stalock on the other hand has not been nearly as sharp. On defense they're led but Suter and Dumba with 12 and 7 pts respectively but Dumba is 2nd on the team in hits with 30. Up front Grandlund, Parise, and Staal (who must've found the fountain of youth) are all just trucking along and pulling the rest of the team with them as they are the scoring leaders, yet their is balanced scoring up and down the line up. Their most important stat line though is their PK, which is 85.2%, good for 5th in the league and 1st in the division. If they can improve the below average PP then they could be a real dark horse favorite to win the Central.
In 3rd place, the last promised playoff spot, we have the Winnipeg Jets. To say that the Jets being in 3rd place is a shocker is fair, but on the other side of the coin they are tired with the Wild in pts. Though they have extra game played at this point, therefore the nod goes to the Wild for 2nd. Though they are being plagued a bit by some "slow starts". Laine only has 7 goals at this point, and scored most of them in the 2 games recently against Florida over in Finland. And Connor Hellebuyck in net has not looked like himself this year as he has a 3.01 GAA and a .907 SV%. It is more important to the team that Hellebuyck finds his game than Laine, but both would be fantastic. In the mean time though they're led up front by their captain Blake Wheeler who has become a dish master with 14 of his 16 pts being assists. Their PP is absolutely on fire as it is the 2nd ranked unit in the league with a 33.3%. Which funny enough, 33 is the number Dustin Byfuglien wears, and he is 2nd on the team in PP pts with 7...fun little connection there. The PK is underwhelming though and definitely needs improvement.
In 4th place and the 1st Wild Card spot in the Western Conference at the moment are the upstart Colorado Avalanche. Led by one of the best lines in hockey with MacKinnon, Landeskog, and Rantanen, the Avalanche are showing some dynamic and explosive prowess on the offense side of things. Did I mention that out of that top line, all 3 of them are in the top 10 of league scoring and that Rantanen actually leads everyone with 24 pts? Well now I have. In net Varlamov has returned to the form of a Vezina Candidate post a 2.12 GAA and a .936 SV%. As a team their GF/G is 2nd in the league at 3.7, while only allowing 2.8, a damn good ratio there. Their PK is tied for 6th in the league currently and the PP is 7th in the league. A good place to be and a strong indicator of how the team is playing. If these numbers keep up then look for the Av's to finish in one of the top 3 spots in division, not a Wild Card spot.
The confusing Dallas Stars are sitting in 5th place. I say they're confusing because they looks like they have all the talent in the world and should have a breakout season any year now, but they never do. Currently though they're only 1 pt out of a Wild Card spot so they're not out of it yet, not by a long shot. They're getting balanced production up and down the line up and are led by the big guns as expected. Problem is they're not getting enough production...yet. They only have scored 40 goals so far as as team and that is tied for last in the division with the Wild, and they're 2nd in goals against only allowing 34. The most important improvements though come defensively and in goal. While the PP is clicking along at a respectable 23.7%, the PK seems pretty dominate at 85%. That's good for 6th in the league and one spot behind the Wild. In goal Ben Bishop and Anton Khudobin are both playing pretty stellar. Bishop has a 2.32 GAA, while Khudobin has a 2.35 GAA, and both have a .923 SV%...not a bad combo. If things keep up and they can find a bit more offense while maintaining the defense side of things they should reach a playoff spot.
Sitting just 1 point back of the Stars sits the Chicago Blackhawks. I would say this was unexpected, but to do that is kind of like betting against the house, you just cant count them out. They have to much talent and have won to much to have two bad years in a row, even though they're in 6th place out of a possible 7. Leading the way is the one and only Patrick Kane. Say what you want about him as a person off the ice, the guy has some of the best skill we've ever seen in the game and probably the 2nd best back hand behind only Crosby. They, like many other teams, have pretty balanced scoring but like the Stars, they aren't getting enough of it right now. They're in a 3-way (giggity?) tie with 3.1 GF/G. But unlike the teams they're tied with they're allowing 3.7 GA/G, definitely not a winning strategy. They have the 5th worst PP in the league at 14% and their PK is the 10th worst at 76.6%. These are not winning numbers, expect the Hawks to fall away from the pack in the next month or so.
And last but not least...or maybe so... the St. Louis Blues. Now I'll admit, this one upsets me as I had them as one of my improved teams. The additions of O'Reilly and Bozak up the middle make for some great center depth but it seems that only O'Reilly (who seems to have a nice highlight every night) has taken off. Looking at the players stats lines as well, its hard to ignore the collective group of minuses on the team. That's something of a shock based on the fact that as a team they're 2nd in the division and tied for 3rd in the league in GF/G at 3.5. But the GA/G is tied for 2nd worst in the league at 3.9. The also have the 3rd best PP in the league with a 31.3% and the PK is at 80%, which is respectable but needs some improvement for sure. Obviously goal tending is the biggest problem though. Jake Allen seems to have fallen off his horse so to speak as he has a horrendous 3.99 GAA and a .879 SV% which is the 2nd worst SV% out of starting goalie in the league, only Mike Smith of Calgary is worse. Expect talk to heat up about who from the Blue could be Trade Deadline Trade Bait.
And with that we conclude our look at the Central Division exactly one month into the season! Its a heated race to the playoffs for sure and I would expect some shuffling from a few of these teams before it is all said and done. There will especially be a heated race for those Wild Card positions as these teams are surely not slouches and the teams we'll look at next in the Pacific are not either. And boy oh boy are there some shocking out comes there so far, and I'll be back to examine them next!
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