Ponds and Pucks

Time for my weekly look and the wonderful and wacky world of NHL standings.

Standings fun:

• Ottawa continues to own the east with nine wins. Detroit has the same in the west.
• At the other end of the spectrum, Atlanta has surged to win three games, tying them with follow bottom feeder Phoenix. And it only took Atlanta 11 games to do it!
• Every team in the Northeast Division is .500 or better, with only the Sabres sitting right on the .500 mark.
• Islanders, Lightning, Coyotes and Blues have all played only 9 games, while Anaheim leads the league at 13 games played.
• Washington and Florida are ahead of New Jersey and the NY Rangers. Who says parity is dead? There’s no such phenomenon in the west… everyone is well ahead of Phoenix and Nashville, surprising no one.

Elsewhere in the NHL:

• To most it’s just a Sunday night matchup between two struggling teams, but to the Ducks and the Oilers it’s another chapter in the feud between their respective GMs. Give this round to the Oilers. Of course, the focus was on Dustin Penner. His comments and attitude in the story are actually pretty classy. The bonus was that GM Brian Burke presented Penner with his Stanley Cup ring in the GM’s office after the game. Wouldn’t you love to be a fly on the wall for that little scene?



• Bruins fans are a hardy folk, how else could they get through so many seasons of misery with barely a whimper? The latest in their string of misfortunes, the injury of Patrice Bergeron — one of the few bright lights in the Bruins organization — might be less serious than previously thought as Bergeron was released from the hospital Sunday. Tests showed no injury to Bergeron’s head and neck.

Plus a big congrats to the Boston Red Sox on their World Series win!

Dustin Penner, Brian Burke, Patrice Bergeron

Florida Panthers

Notable moves and changes:Acquired G Thomas Vokoun from Nashville for picks. Signed F Richard Zednik (was with Washington and New York Islanders), and F Brett McLean (was with Colorado). Signed F Radek Dvorak (was with St. Louis).
Starting goalie: Thomas Vokoun
Summary of last year: No one expected much from Florida after the Roberto Luongo trade and Mike Keenan fallout, but they surprised with a steady, if not spectacular season, notching one more point in the standings than the year before.
Prediction for this year: Things appear to be falling into place for the Panthers — hopefully all will go as planned. Vokoun has to be the same goalie in Florida as he was in Nashville. He’s got a decent defence corps in front of him, lead by Jay Bouwmeester, Bryan Allen, Mike Van Ryn and as long as these guys keep getting better, goals against shouldn’t be a problem. Up front, their free agent signings join Olli Jokinen, Nathan Horton, and Stephen Weiss — all consistently great players. If these guys don’t show some sort of improvement, something is seriously wrong.

Florida Panthers, Thomas Vokoun, Richard Zednik, Brett McLean, Radek Dvorak, Thomas Vokoun, Roberto Luongo, Mike Keenan, Jay Bouwmeester, Bryan Allen, Mike Van Ryn, Olli Jokinen, Nathan Horton, Stephen Weiss