Eastside's Hockey Elite Collide

After tonight, every team has now played at least 41 games. With that, give us your own assessment of your team. High points? Low lights? Surprises? Disappointments? What do you see for the second half of the season? And anything else you want to add.

Highlight: still being in a playoff spot.
Lowlight: being satisfied about being in a playoff spot.
Highlight: Goddamn, Kovalchuk is better than I could have hoped. On pace for 58G+56A, that's nuts.
Lowlight: Jonathan Bernier. There are worse goalies in the league, and that's about the nicest thing I can say about his play the night after his first shutout of the season. It only took 35 GP.
Highlight: Ryane Clowe's been pretty good. On pace for 60 points and he's leading the team with an improbable +22.
Lowlight: As good as Clowe has been, Telegin has... not. I mean he hits a lot, but he also has as many games missed due to suspensions (11) as points.

Team High:
We're .500 despite a 9 game losing streak.

Team Low:
We had a 9 game losing streak.

Player Highs:
Ales Hemsky's on pace for 37 goals and 55 assists despite generally not having the most talented of linemates.
Devin Setoguchi would be on pace for 32 goals and 38 assists if he'd played the whole season for us. Not bad for a waiver claim. He's also a team leading +6 (which is kind of sad to lead the team but whatever).

Player Disappointment:
Brenden Morrow's only got 14 points and is a -4 so far. I haven't always used in him in an offensive role but it'd still be nice to see some more from the captain.
Barclay Goodrow does not want to development. I knew he'd be a project when I got him but I figured his shot would come along some this season (it's the only thing there really is to develop). Instead, I think it may have actually gone down since I got him. Tis frustrating.

Fun Fact:
47 different players have worn a Habs jersey at some point this season. And if Matheson hadn't been hurt the whole year, he almost certainly would've as well.

The good:
- Being first in the Central
- Kane and Toews having seasons like I anticipated
- Gusev is having a great year
- I had a 7-1-1 streak while Keith and Carle were out

The bad:
- Goaltending, even with Price I struggle
- Injuries ( Carle, Keith missed time, now Watson out until next year)

The ugly:
- Ward, not producing at all
- Turco, being less than average
- PK needs to be better

Good point:
Horcoff is Sens scoring leader.

Bad point:
Horcoff is Sens scoring leader.
My goalies suck.

What's coming?
Horcoff is not gonna be Sens scoring leader by the end of the season.
My goalies perf' can't be worst than they currently are.

Good point: Still in the playoff hunt, PK and PP still good.
Bad point: Not as good as we figured the team would be at this point. Goaltending needs to improve


Player highs:
Brassard doing very well
Juntilla....thats all i have to say
Rankin: PPG player in NHL
Steen: Finally putting up points
Lappy:Gives the team a good boost when needed

Player lows:
MSL.....Running out of gas? or just not happy in STL?
Franzen...Not the player he was a year ago
Kunitz ( see Franzen)

The good points:
- after half-season gone, Dallas has already won 20 games which means imporvement over the past years and could be perceived as a sign that things are going the right way
- Dallas have a pretty good chance to make the play-offs this year after missing the play-offs in three years in a row
- Smid and Campoli are having a great season so far
- no injuries so far
- Filippi fit in well

The bad points:
- the first line could produce more
- Vatanen not developing as expected
- goaltending should be better too... Hopefully Jacob Markstrom will help

Assessment of your team: After the complete overhaul this summer, our performance thus far has been (for the most part) what I expected. Lots of goals, but we usually score a few more. I predict the team continues to meld together during a stronger second half.

High points: Josh Brittain scoring in his NHL debut was cool. Having 3 of the top 5 EHEC scorers (including 1st and 2nd overall) currently is also awesome.

Low lights: Destroying another high CON/low POT goalie in Ben Bishop. I knew the first half would be rough as we waited for pro-ration to strengthen our d-core, but I did not imagine him failing that bad. Luckily I was able to rid myself of his four year contract. Nice to see Bernier starting to turn things around though.

What do you see for the second half of the season: Tampa Bay continuing to collect heads for their mantel as we ride into the belly of the beast, aka the LA Kings.

We're better than I thought we would be, but we've lost quite a few games we had no business losing.

My AHL players from last year are doing relatively well, especially Rensfeldt.

Negrin and Skille have been disappointing, and Hertl's lost his way a little bit. Other than that, my core guys are doing what I expect from them.

Rask was streaky to start the year, but he's come on in the last 15-20 games, so that works too.

EDIT: The farm team is good too - not holy shit, take no prisoners like last year, but doing what they need to do. I need to do a better job of rotating rookies into the lineup there.

GOOD -- We're only 4 wins and 10 points behind what we accomplished ALL last season.

WORRISOME -- After a 16-5-3 start, we're a much slower 10-7-2 since.

GOOD -- Top-ten in goals against, and mid-pack in PK; both were bottom five last year.

GOOD -- Nathan MacKinnon and Seth Jones are starting to live up to their top-five draft status, slowly.

BAD -- Although he wins games, backup goalie Liam Liston needs a ton of help doing so.

GOOD -- Corey Perry on pace for 100 points; PMB not far behind. Top line has been as good as we've needed them to be this year.

BAD -- Mediocre cap management means very little room to make trades and/or bring up worthy rookies (dal Colle) right now.

Good:

- Slow start but we've managed to sneak back into playoff contention
- Barkov is a beast
- 3rd line has been solid all year
- Hall is on pace for a career year offensively
- Mayfield has been really good lately, even setting career highs offensively
- Beauchemin is +19
- DeAngelo has developed nicely
- Rozsival is leading blueliners in points, and on pace for a career year offensively


Bad:

- Home record could be a lot better
- Galchenyuk has been disappointing for most of the year
- Rozsival is leading blueliners in points and is -10
- Special teams need to be better