NHL: 3 Stars and 3 Bums of the Week

Another exciting week of NHL hockey has come and gone and as those fans in the United States contemplate how they are going to lose all the pounds gained during Thanksgiving, let's take a look at who was good and who was not so good this week.

There was a lot to cheer about as the league's most marquee player returned and some perennial powers seemed to have returned to form.

With all the Black Friday excitement it seems that NHL teams waited until today to make it Black Monday with the firing of two NHL coaches. Was this due to them having too many bums on their team, or were they themselves the bums?

Here are this weeks three stars and three bums.

Who is on your list?

First Star: Sidney Crosby

In what was an unofficial holiday in Canada, the league’s best player returned after almost a year and looked like he hadn’t missed a beat.

In his first game back he showed us all what we had been missing with a two-goal, five-point night against the Islanders. Crosby finished the week with nine points in four games and has people speculating if he can get into the league scoring race.

At his current pace you can bet on it.

Whether you hate him or love him, it is great for the league to have him back and that gets him the top star of the week.

Second Star: Cory Schneider

With Roberto Luongo nursing an injury, the Canucks handed the reigns over to their star backup and he came through big time. Schneider won all four games he started this week and posted an out-of-this-world .975 save percentage which included two road shutouts.

While Canucks fans have to be happy with this winning streak, they will certainly be warming up the Vancouver airwaves with their own goalie controversy.

Controversy or not, the Canucks have a good problem with two elite goaltenders.

Third Star: Valtteri Filppula

The Red Wings had been scuffling a bit the past few weeks, especially on the road, but they have appeared to right the ship, winning four games in the last week.

Steering that ship was Filppula, who scored four goals in those four games and was a big part of the Detroit resurgence.

This team has to slow down some day, right?

First Bum: The New York Islanders

Faced with the return of Crosby, they reached down into their endless supply of goalies and threw in rookie Anders Nilsson for his first NHL start. Not only was he bad, but the team looked like they were afraid of the moment and laid down nicely for the Penguins.

They aren’t as talented as the Penguins but as of last check, they were still in the NHL and needed to offer more of an effort. 

The Washington Generals put up better fights than this. Bums.

Second Bum: Alex Ovechkin

One lowly goal in his last five games and only eight on the season lands the one-time superstar on the bum list. Ovechkin was supposed to rebound this season into the highlight-reel goal-scoring machine that he used to be.

Instead, he has looked worse than last season and now seemingly has pushed his coach off the cliff. It will be interesting to see if new coach Dale Hunter can get him off the bum list.

Perhaps he should spend less time pitching candy bars and more time working on his game.

Third Bum: Paul Maurice

The now-former Hurricanes head coach was fired after his team lost three out of four this past week and are buried in last place.

This season has been a huge disappointment for Carolina, who had visions of returning to the playoffs where just a couple of seasons ago they found themselves in the Eastern Conference Finals.

Maurice was never able to get them back to that level and now finds himself out of a job.