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Best Team So Far This Season
by PuckStopsHere on 11/10/08 at 12:10 PM ET
Comments (2)
Yesterday, I decided that I would write something today about how the San Jose Sharks have been the best team in the NHL so far this season. They made me second guess that decision when they lost 4-2 to the Phoenix Coyotes last night. However, a second look at the standings after the loss only helped to show how well San Jose had been playing. Even with the loss, San Jose sits first in the league with 26 points. San Jose has the best “winning percentage” of .813 (in their case it is a true winning percentage as they have no regulation ties that became losses). San Jose has the best team +/- as they score 0.87 more goals per game than they allow (Montreal is second at 0.75).
Last year, San Jose was a good team that finished second in the league. They were good enough to have expected a playoff run and fire coach Ron Wilson when it didn’t happen. They are doing even better this year. It is a reasonable question to ask what has improved.
Last season, Joe Thornton was the only forward who scored 60 or more points. This season they have better depth. Patrick Marleau has bounced back from a poor 2007/08 and leads the team with 16 points. Ryane Clowe and Devin Setogucki have emerged as legitimate scorers as well. Also, Joe Thornton remains among the team’s top scorers.
On defence, they added Dan Boyle in a trade with Tampa Bay and he is playing very well. Christian Ehrhoff has broken out with 12 points already. Marc-Edouard Vlasic has become an underrated number one defenceman and newcomer Rob Blake is also playing very well.
The Sharks have added a lot of depth with breakouts of young players and additions. When a team is playing well, this is usually the way things look. Everyone is doing very well and many are exceeding expectation. It will be interesting to see how they respond to a period of adversity.
The adversity may come because of goaltending. Evgeni Nabokov, the San Jose number one goalie is out with an undisclosed injury and it is not clear that backup Brian Boucher is an adequate replacement over any long period of time.
San Jose has played very well so far and is clearly a Stanley Cup contender. Of course it’s a long way to go before playoff time. A lot can change in the meantime, but so far the Sharks have been the best team in the NHL this season.
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Comments
I must agree… I hate the shootout in general, and I really dislike OTL points as currently done, where some games are worth more points. If the shootout has to stay, I’d much rather go to:
win in regulation or OT - 3 points
loss in regulation or OT - 0 points (teams are used to 4-on-4 now, get rid of the freebie point)
win in shootout - 2 points (“tie” plus extra point for shootout)
loss in shootout - 1 point (“tie” result)
This system:
makes all games worth the same number of points
eliminates points for losing
puts an emphasis hockey over the shootout (a hockey win is worth more than a shootout win)
maintains a “tie” result for getting to a shootout (a shootout loss is worth more than a hockey loss)
-Josh
Posted by Josh on 11/10/08 at 05:30 PM ET
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Ah yes, because nothing says “true win” like a shootout contest, right?
I have no problem with the choice of the Sharks, but I dislike the notion that carnival-style wins are as good as actual wins. I think a better measure of a team is just to look at regulation records—those are more indicative of how a team will succeed in the postseason, which is probably what Sharks fans care about anyway.
Interesting to note how the last two cup winners began, though. 0607 Ducks started 12-0-4, 0708 Wings started 13-2-1. Lately a hot start has seemed to be important, we’ll see how the Sharks fare with the 16-game league lead.
Posted by Earl Sleek from Anaheim, CA on 11/10/08 at 12:45 PM ET