Analyzing the First Five Weeks of the NHL Season

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The season is already a month old and so much has been happening in the league. Teams that were expected to be basement dwellers are living in the penthouse, elite teams are struggling, injuries galore to superstars, elite players aren't meeting expectations, while others are making a name for themselves, and some players maybe thinking way too much about the Olympics and aren't focusing enough on their respected teams. Here's a look at all of the above.

First off, let's start with the most surprising story of the season so far, shall we? Everyone with an opinion of hockey, had the Colorado Avalanche finishing either 29th or 30th in the league this season. While a month doesn't make an entire season, still it's amazing to see them on top of the NHL so far.

Craig Anderson is starting to look like the best free agent pick up this season so far, and as well came at extremely affordable cap hit of 1.812 million dollars. He, along with a very underrated defensive corp and surprising contributions from rookies have the Avalanche sitting on top after 17 games.

The Avalanche haven't been able to fight off the injury bug or swine flu epidemic that's been spreading around the NHL, but it's not slowing them down either. Back up Peter Budja has been out with the Swine Flu, Darcy Tucker, Ruslan Salei, John Micheal Liles, Chris Mcleod, Matt Hendricks, and Tom Pressing are out of the line up or have missed time due to injuries.

Along with Anderson, being the first reliable goaltender since the St. Patrick days, Foote is still showing that at age 36 he's still one of the best shut down defensemen in the game. He's at a plus five and logging an average of 21:22 minutes a night. He's certainly making the transition from the Joe Sakic era as painless as possible and showing everyone their rebuilding was short lived.

Kyle Quincey is paying dividends from the Ryan Smyth trade. He is their best puck moving defensemen since maybe when Rob Blake first came to the franchise about a decade ago or even perhaps the slick Sandis Ozolinsh back in the 90's.

Peter Stastny is proving to everyone that this is his team now,leading the team with 16 points in 17 games. Milan Hedjuk is having to bounce back from last season with a respectable 14 points, Ryan O'Reilly, who has 14 points as well, has about 29 other GM's wondering why they didn't pick him before the Avs did with their 33rd pick.

Matt Duchene is having trouble adjusting though with seven points and a minus six rating. But the Wojtek Wolski is powering their offense with his team leading eight goals and 14 points to have a three way tie for second place in points.

Quality goaltending, solid sound defense, and timely scoring, has the Avalanche on top in the NHL so far. How much longer will this hold up? Will they hit a major slump and fall out of contention before the end of the season or will they be the Cinderella story for this season and possibly win the Northwest Division right from under the noses of Calgary and Vancouver?

Phoenix seems to not be having trouble focusing on the ice with all the drama surrounding the club off of it. They have had a strong start and that's mainly due to their goaltending duo of Ilya Bryzgalov and Jason Labarbera. Bryg's currently has an amazing 1.81 GAA and a .93 percent while Labarbera's has a 2.28 GAA and a .927 save percentage. Ed Jovanovski is proving he isn't too old anymore and can still move the backout and as always Shane Doan is providing his steady contributions. However, the additions of Jim Vandermer, Robert Lang, Adrian Aucoin Vadim Vrbata, and Matthew Lombardi, is what is propelling this club. Young players such as Peter Mueller, Kyle Turris, Mikkel Boedker, aren't showing their promise and potential. Mueller has three points so far, Turris isn't playing with the club, and Boedker has only played one game.

The Los Angeles Kings are showing they are becoming what many thought them to be. Will the playoffs go Hollywood though this spring? The addition to Ryan Smyth has paid dividends, as Anze Kopitar has taken his game to a whole new level to propel this team. He currently leads the NHL with 26 points in 16 games(13-13).

The first line of Anze Kopitar, Ryan Smyth, and Justin Williams are showing they are one of the best top lines in the NHL right now, but how long can they keep this up? If they do it for a whole year, the Kings will make the playoffs for the first time since 2002 and may possibly challenge the Sharks for the Pacific crown...possibly.

Kings management showed they knew what they were doing with putting all their goaltending stock in the young Jonathon Quick, who is playing himself onto the U.S Olympic team as the third goaltender. He has 10 wins in his 15 games with a shoddy 2.58 GAA and a .902 save percentage, but the team is winning.

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