Thomas Vanek On Fire, Philadelphia Flyers Still No Desire

What a week of hockey. Unfortunately, I lost the head-to-head in my fantasy league this week.

Nonetheless, there was some great action with a few milestones. Marian Hossa's first goal as a Red Wing was the 300th in his career.

Add the fact that it was also the overtime winner, and Hossa is a happy guy.

Fabian Brunnstrom notched a hat-trick in his first NHL game with the Dallas Stars. Also, Lindy Ruff picked up his 400th career win behind the bench of the Buffalo Sabres on Wednesday.

Congratulations goes out to each individual.

HOT

Even at the age of 34, Paul Kariya can make plays with the best of them. After picking up a goal and an assist in Toronto on Thanksgiving Day (in Canada), he followed it up with two assists against Dallas, and one against the Chicago Blackhawks.

The TV is working, to say the least. Thomas Vanek will likely be chosen as the first star of the week on nhl.com. The Austrian totalled six goals and two assists in four matches. Three of his strikes were on the power play, and two were shorthanded. He was one of the main reasons I lost my head-to-head this week.

Sheldon who?  Andrei Markov is the name you now hear when the Montreal Canadiens' defense is brought up. How about that slap pass to Saku Koivu for an easy goal on Saturday against the Phoenix Coyotes? That was just one of the six assists he handed out in three games.

Philadelphia may be searching for the first victory of the season, but Simon Gagne is doing his part. With four goals already on the board, Gagne looks poised to crack at least 40 once again.

This Alexander Semin kid has one of the most wicked wrist shots I have ever seen.  He continues to light the lamp for the Washington Capitals. Marc-Andre Fleury had the unfortunate experience of being frozen when Semin fired a wrister to the top corner after a quick faceoff win by the Capitals.

Nicklas Lidstrom and Brian Rafalski are making it look easy on the back-end for the Detroit Red Wings. The opening-night loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs was ugly, but Detroit appears to be back in form. Both Lidstrom and Rafalski, contributed four points in the last three matches.

Minnesota Wild fans may have found their dangerous duo. Antti Miettinen and Mikko Koivu have just pummelled their Eastern Conference opponents the last few days. Miettinen totalled six points (four goals, two assists), while Koivu notched one goal along with six assists. Mind you, five of those points came from one game in Florida.

They're back. Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin combined for 13 points. Toronto fans had the discomfort of witnessing each rack up four points on Saturday.

With the Calgary jersey on, Todd Bertuzzi's play is certainly reflecting the Flames' logo. Big Bert struck four times, with three coming while on the man advantage. The question on everyone's mind has to be: Can he keep it up?

Joe Sakic, Paul Stastny, or Ryan Smyth—If you have any of these fellas on your fantasy roster, chances are it was a good week. The Colorado Avalanche are scoring plenty of goals. If it continues, so will the great numbers for these three.

He's two for two. Marc Savard is in the hot section for the second consecutive week. Along with assists, Boston's center is also putting up goals. In just two matches, Savard scored twice and added three assists. If his scoring stays like this—look out, NHL!

As I mentioned earlier, Fabian Brunnstrom scored three goals in his NHL debut, making him only the third player in history to accomplish this. Luckily, I managed to pick him up in my fantasy league. He struck again on Saturday with a power-play goal against Colorado.

With Marek Zidlicky off to Minnesota, Shea Weber appears ready to run the show for the Nashville defense. He scored 17 goals two years ago, and with six points in four matches, he could set new career highs in a few categories.

Seven points apiece for Patrick Kane and Patrick Sharp in four contests. These guys were great last year on a line with Jonathan Toews. You can call Toews the missing link thus far.

NOT

Never mind the record. The Philadelphia Flyers aren't performing to the extent they are capable of, given their great group of youngsters. Most recently, their 5-4 overtime loss in San Jose saw them total only 17 shots with Antero Niittymaki standing on his head for the Flyers.

Who will get their magical first victory sooner—Philadelphia, or the Tampa Bay Lightning?  Tampa's goaltender has been absolutely peppered with shots in every game the Lightning have played. What's worse is the fact that Vincent Lecavalier and Marty St. Louis aren't producing like they normally do on a poor Lightning team. Uh oh.

Marty Turco looks like anything but a star in the early season. He's allowed a combined 14 goals in the last three contests, with a save percentage under .800 in each. Fortunately for him, Brunnstrom recorded a hat-trick in the one game he did win.

He didn't post quite as ugly numbers as Turco did, but Ilya Bryzgalov was hammered this week as well. He too, allowed 14 goals in three starts, which all resulted in losses for the Phoenix Coyotes.

Stanley Cup Champions two years ago. First-round exiters last season. Will the Anaheim Ducks see any postseason action this time around? A 1-5 record is hard to look at. At least none of their players are out of the lineup thinking about retiring.

Henrik was fine, but Daniel Sedin was nowhere to be found this week. Zeros all across the board on his statsheets in the last three games.

Victory against the Red Wings is the only things Toronto Maple Leafs fans can brag about right now. They've gone winless since the upset against Detroit. To their credit, they have played well. However, there's nobody that has put the puck away consistently.

Hot or Not's shocker of the year thus far: Alexander Ovechkin went scoreless in three games, tallying just one assist. His two goals on the season came against the Blackhawks.

Following a great opening week, David Booth went pointless for the Florida Panthers. He's still young and in the learning process. Don't give up on this talented winger.

A lot of goaltenders in the not section this time around. Miikka Kiprusoff hasn't had a save percentage above .900 in any game this year. Calgary has always relied on his goaltending for the outcomes. If these numbers don't improve, it may be time to start depending on the offense.

With a low-scoring New York Islanders team, Mark Streit could very well lead the team in points at the end of the year. Minus-three was the only number that stuck out on his statsheet.