NHL Quarterly Round Table

I think the biggest surprise for a lot of people is Boston. The Bruins were bound to be competitive this season (I had a tough time placing them in my Eastern Conference preview) and players like Marc Savard and Milan Lucic are making people take notice of this team. Tim Thomas has also been a lot better than I expected him to be, but there's something people overlook: the play of the defense. 

Think about this: the Boston Bruins have currently allowed the same amount of goals (56) on the season as Minnesota. Now that's defense.

Vezina and MVP are always tough because streaks can end and begin at any moment. If a player has a  four-point night like Andrew Ladd did on Sunday, then all of the sudden he could jump from 15th to fifth in scoring. That being said, I think Marc Savard could really be a dark horse for the award if Boston stays hot.

People talk about the B's hurting after losing Joe Thornton, but replacing him with Marc Savard isn't exactly the worst thing in the world, especially given the way he's performed with some of those youngsters.

I'd also like to see it go to either Joe Thornton or Ryan Getzlaf get some consideration, but at the top right now it's Malkin, Ovechkin, and Crosby. My vote goes to Ovechkin.

The prospective Vezina winner is a crapshoot though. Tim Thomas again is having a monster season, so it'll be interesting to see if he can swipe a few more starts to boost his win totals, but keep his save percentage high, plus his goals-against low. Roberto Luongo's injury has eliminated him for now, but if he comes back hot (he's already leading in shutouts) and tears up the league, his name will be right back up there. 

Nabokov has come back from injury and has been a wall, so he's my choice now. A guy to keep an eye on however is Nicklas Backstrom of Minnesota—I nearly killed Ken Armer when he dealt him to Greg Caggiano for Kari Lehtonen—seeing as it's a keeper league, I would've dealt him my first and second picks next year for Backstrom (Which brings up another question: Can we trade draft picks?).

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