NHL Betting: NHL Movers and Shakers

by Bodog Sportsbook | Oct 21 2009

Two weeks into the new hockey season, and everything is shaking out the way we figured. The top team on the NHL futures market, the defending Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins (5-1 odds), owns the best record in the league at 8-1. And after that, it's… the New York Rangers? And the Colorado Avalanche?!

Anything can happen in October. The 82-game regular season is all about ebb and flow; very rarely does a team skate smoothly from here into the playoffs. Don't forget that the Penguins themselves went 5-4-2 last October and were 27-25-5 in February before head coach Michel Therrien was fired and replaced by Dan Bylsma. Everything was Camelot after that. So what can the Pens do for an encore?

The Goligoski Effect

Therrien ultimately took the fall last year, but it wasn't really his fault. Pittsburgh had some serious injury problems on defense; this year, all top six blueliners are healthy, starting with Sergei Gonchar. After playing just 25 games last year before starring in the NHL playoffs, Gonchar has eight points (two goals, six assists) after nine games, and…

Down goes Sergei!

Sure enough, Gonchar left the second period of Tuesday's 5-1 victory over the St. Louis Blues (+160 road dogs) with an undisclosed injury, described by Bylsma only as “awkward.” Keep a vigilant eye on the injury reports; Pittsburgh's next game isn't until Friday against the Florida Panthers. But if Gonchar is out for long, the Pens are in better shape to deal with it now that sophomore Alex Goligoski (two goals, six assists, plus-9) is finding his stride. Goligoski is one of Pittsburgh's brighter prospects and is well seasoned after three years with the Minnesota Golden Gophers. He and Kris Letang (five assists) can pick up some of the slack on the power play, which scored twice against the Blues on Tuesday.

Icy Hot

Here are the top two teams in each of the six divisions.

Atlantic

Pittsburgh Penguins (8-1, 16 points)
New York Rangers (7-2, 14 points)

Northeast

Ottawa Senators (5-2, 10 points)
Buffalo Sabres (4-1-1, nine points)

Southeast

Washington Capitals (4-2-2, 10 points)
Atlanta Thrashers (4-1-1, nine points)

Central

Chicago Blackhawks (5-2-1, 11 points)
Columbus Blue Jackets (5-2, 10 points)

Northwest

Colorado Avalanche (6-1-1, 13 points)
Calgary Flames (6-2-1, 13 points)

Pacific

San Jose Sharks (5-3-1, 11 points)
Phoenix Coyotes (5-2, 10 points)

Among the biggest surprises in the early season are the Rangers, who are riding high with a healthy Marian Gaborik (six goals, six assists), and the Avalanche, who have new hope in goal with Craig Anderson (.935 save percentage). Goaltending is also at the heart of revivals in Ottawa (Pascal Leclaire, .918 SV%) and Atlanta (Ondrej Pavelec, .918 SV%). But the man leading the way in that department is none other than Phoenix netminder Ilya Bryzgalov with a stellar .953 save percentage, allowing just seven goals in six starts. The 29-year-old Russian is one of the finest goalies in the league. Good thing, because the team in front of him is simply awful. The under, not coincidentally, is 6-1 for the ‘Yotes this year.

Brutal British Columbia

The Vancouver Canucks are one of this year's October disappointments at 3-5. And they'll no doubt continue to struggle until some of their injured players come back. Here's the main list:

Daniel Sedin (broken left foot, 6-8 weeks)
Pavol Demitra (shoulder tendinitis, indefinitely)
Mathieu Schneider (shoulder, early November)
Sami Salo (sprained MCL, week-to-week)

All four of these players are important to Vancouver's Stanley Cup chances this year, but none more so than Sedin. He and twin brother Henrik are the team's two best skaters. Daniel is the goal-scorer (31 last year to lead the Canucks), Henrik is the playmaker (60 assists, also a team high), and the two have that uncanny twin synergy on the ice, especially on the power play. You can forget about all that for at least another month.

Other teams feeling the bite of the injury bug include the Montreal Canadiens (top defenseman Andrei Markov), the Toronto Maple Leafs (sniper Phil Kessel, plus top two goalies Vesa Toskala and Jonas Gustavsson) and the Minnesota Wild (key forwards Martin Havlat, Petr Sykora and Pierre-Marc Bouchard). Expect continued suffering for all three clubs until they get healthy again.