Ice Hockey Metrics

Opening night is upon us! 

Good contest between Toronto and Montreal, but I don’t know if either team is going to set the NHL on fire…The Habs new first line looks good, as they did in the preseason, but let’s not forget that Koivu, Kovalev, and Tanguay weren’t exactly chopped liver…New shutdown defenseman Hal Gill got burned on a goal…Hobie Baker finalist Viktor Stahlberg looks like he might be for real, after having made the big team…I’d hoped that recovery from surgery might have helped Toskala, but he’s been brutal…Back up the bus for Vesa, and get ready for the era of the Monster…Price is giving up rebounds left and right…Beautiful shot-pass from Tomas Kaberle on Stajan’s goal.

**Check out the staff picks over at Puck Prospectus**

My full picks, per Conference:

Eastern Conference

Playoff teams (1-8): Washington, Pittsburgh, Boston, New Jersey, Philadelphia, New York Rangers, Buffalo, Montreal

Non-playoff teams (9-15): Carolina, Florida, Toronto, Ottawa, Tampa Bay, Atlanta, New York Islanders

Western Conference

Playoff teams (1-8): San Jose, Detroit, Chicago, Calgary, Anaheim, St. Louis, Vancouver, Columbus

Non-playoff teams (9-16): Nashville, Minnesota, Edmonton, Dallas, Los Angeles, Colorado, Phoenix

And my real pick for Vezina was Roberto Luongo.

Really looking forward to seeing the Flames-Canucks later on tonight.

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 1st, 2009 at 9:38 pm and is filed under New metrics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.