Face Off the Pacific

FACE OFF - THE PACIFIC DIVISION

RANKINGS

COLORADO AVALANCHE
Well what can we say about the Avalanche? They're incredible! The record so far in LML: 4 games, 4 wins. Their road to win their second consecutive title lies ahead of them and there's no team in the way to stop them. Coach Crawfoord and GM Lindh has another opinion, but I think that's just to inspire the players to keep the momentum. This team has started just as good as they hoped. If you think of possible contenders I can only see Flyers, Canucks and RedWings. But these teams need an Avalanche in a slump to master the mighty blizzardstorm from Colorado. Forsberg and Kariya already seems to make a perfect duo.

VANCOUVER CANUCKS
A lot of ups and downs for Canucks in the beginning of season two. GM Ny has acquired two new goalies in Barrasso and Fitzpatrick. Arturs Irbe who did great in season two had to leave to Montreal where he already made success in his first game. GM Ny made some great trades last season and one can only wonder if he will continue. In Barrasso and Fitzpatrick the Canucks have two good goalies that can take them far. The team just needs the stars to bloom. Sundin, Modano and Stumpel can be lethal weapons. I'm sure that the winningmachine will start soon.

ANAHEIM MIGHTY DUCKS
Jaromir Jagr ended the Ducks unbeaten streak so far in this season. The team has improved a lot since last year. Sakic, Kamensky and Courtnall have all answered to the expectations and Teemu Selänne is sneaking in from behind. Very impressive lineup and GM Paladino wants this team to the playoffs. The only weak spot is the depth and the goalie. Some injuries and the Ducks will face big problems. Great start so far and believe me, the Mighty Ducks won't miss the playoffs this season.

SAN JOSE SHARKS
The three straight losses made everything black in mr Fradera's head. But some changes in the lineup has given the Sharks two wins in a row and the star of the games have been Andrei Kovalenko doing 8 points in those two games! And they're still on a roadtrip without any homegames in sight. Captain Verbeek scored a hattrick in the lastest win over the Blues and things would be looking much better if it wasn't for the injuries. Mike Rathje was injured and Jason Allison became injured today. Allison who seemed to enjoy himself much better with Green and Sturm will be gone for a couple of days. The Sharks depth will show it's strength here and we'll see if they can keep the pace tomorrow against the Panthers.

EDMONTON OILERS
The start of season two has been a nightmare for last season's success team Edmonton Oilers. The team relies too much on three-four players and if they're not performing well the team won't either. DiPietro and Nolan have been all too pale and the dominator Hasek can do much better between the posts. The no.1 defender Steve Duchesne has been in a very bad mood serving 15 PIM's so far. That makes him one of the worst in the team. The Oilers needs Duchesne on the ice if they're ambition to reach the playoffs will be confirmed. DiPietro got to repeat his fantastic first season and Owen Nolan has to perform much better. GM Moed has problems here and someone said to me that he misses Jason Allison.

LOS ANGELES KINGS
After some silence GM Eisenring finally woke up and made a blockbuster deal with the Coyotes. I was about to see if he was still alive as we haven't heard from him and we haven't seen any tradeblocks from the Kings. But today it was confirmed: Arnott, Satan (what a great name) and Storr will be going to Phoenix in exchange for Francis, Salei, Ronning and Wakaluk. Both teams will win on this trade as the Kings will have a new leader in Francis. I'm sure the people in L.A. still miss Mark Messier but Francis will surely make them happy again. Cliff Ronning made an incredible season last year and will surely produce some goods in L.A. The Coyotes had too many centers so that's why Ronning was placed on the tradeblock. Salei is an offensive defender with great scoring skills. Wakaluk is the only player who won't be too happy here. His chances of play a single game behind Hextall and Dafoe seems small. But surely GM Eisenring took Wakaluk in exchange for young Jamie Storr and that can be a good affair.

CALGARY FLAMES
The Flames have been a surprise so far. Two wins out of four games is more than I expected. Craig Janney and Fredrik Modin shoots a lot of shots and it pays dividence. And if Michael Nylander starts to score the Flames can be dangerous! Young rookie Patrick Marleau is given a lot of icetime and has thanked the coach with 3 points so far. Felix Potvin is doing great between the posts and if Flames continues with this a lot of teams will be beaten in Calgary this year. Great work!