Power Rankings Week Through 01/09/2010

NHL Power Rankings presented by The Hockey Guys. These rankings will be released every Sunday directly following the show and summarize the thinking of Anthony Curatolo, Brandon Augienello and Dustin Leed.

Legend: Rank – Team – Record – (Last Week) Position Change

1. Chicago Blackhawks 31-10-4 (2) +1 When you are the best you simply are the best.
2. San Jose Sharks 28-10-7 (1) -1 A few losses have shifted gears in the power rankings for the Sharks.
3. New Jersey Devils 31-10-1 (3) N/C Although the lights went out in New Jersey, the Devils haven’t lost a step in their standings.
4. Buffalo Sabres 28-11-5 (6) +2 Good teams prove that winning comes more often then not.
5. Washington Capitals 27-11-6 (9) +4 Captain Ovechking leads the charge and Washington climbs back into the top five.

Injury Updates 01/09/2010

Here are your NHL injury updates for tonight, January 9, 2010:

Tonight’s Injuries

New York Rangers

• Vinny Prospal skating, not expected to play today. [Steve Zipay]

Boston Bruins

• Marc Savard out 3-4 weeks. [The Boston Globe]
• Andrew Ference, Byron Bitz, Mark Stuart and Patrice Bergeron still out.

Florida Panthers

• David Booth, Kenndal McArdle and Dmitry Kulikov out.

Ottawa Senators

• Jason Spezza and Daniel Alfredsson still out.
• Milan Michalek out with an undisclosed injury.

Goalie Starters 01/09/2010

Here are your expected starting goalies for tonight, January 9, 2010:

• Brian Elliot in nets according to Senators.com, via Twitter.
• Fluto Shinzawa of the Boston Globe thinks Tuukka Rask starts today. Henrik Lundqvist should be his opponent, confirmed by Steve Zipay of Newsday.
• Tom Panaccio of CSN Philly writes Michael Leighton will get the nod tonight.
• Johan Hedberg makes another start according to Chris Vivlamore of The Atlanta Journal Constitution.

UPDATED @ 11:41 AM

• Martin Brodeur faces Jaroslav Halak according to Alexandre Lebrun of Corus Sports.
• Tarik El-Bashir of The Washington Post writes Michal Neuvirth gets another nod.

Injury Updates 01/07/2010

Here are your NHL injury updates for tonight, January 7, 2010:

Tonight’s Injuries

New York Rangers

• Vaclav Prospal remains out.

Atlanta Thrashers

• Kari Lehtonen and Mark Popovic still out.

Chicago Blackhawks

• Cam Barker still out of the lineup. [Blackhawks]
• Adam Burish and Dave Bolland still out.

Boston Bruins

• Milan Lucic to return Saturday. [Boston Globe]
• Andrew Ference out six weeks. [Boston Globe]
• Mark Stuart and Patrice Bergeron still out.

Ottawa Senators

• Daniel Alfredsson and Jason Spezza still out.

Goalie Starters 01/07/2010

Here are your expected starting goalies for tonight, January 7, 2010:

• Marc Andre Fleury expected to start against the Flyers Thursday night, Seth Rorabaugh of The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports.
• Tim Thomas left the ice first Thursday morning, indicating that he will start the Bruins’ night game against Chicago, the Boston Globe’s Fluto Shinzawa reports.
• Pascal Leclaire missed Wednesday’s practice for maintenance reasons, but is expected to play on Thursday night against Washington reports James Gordon of the Ottawa Citizen.
• Coach John Anderson will start Johan Hedberg against the Rangers says Chris Vivlamore of The Atlanta Journal Consistution.
• Jay Zawaski of 670 The Score reports Antti Niemi in nets for the Hawks.
• Thanks again to Joe English, I pretty much use his help verbatim with the tips.

Injury Updates 01/05/2010

Here are your NHL injury updates for today, January 5, 2010:

Tonight’s Injuries

Florida Panthers

• Dmitry Kulikov, David Booth and Kenndal McArdle still out.

Toronto Maple Leafs

• Carl Gunnarson expected back in 7-10 days.  [Jonas Siegel]
• Olympian Mike Komisarek set to miss the next two games. [James Mirtle]
• John Mitchell returns tonight. [Leafs Twitter]
• Mike Van Ryn out for the season.

Goalie Starters 01/05/2010

Here are your expected starting goalies for January 5, 2010:

• Jonas “The Monster” Gustavsson starts for the Leafs according to Jonas Siegel of Toronto’s AM 960.
• The Ottawa Senators Official Twitter writes Brian Elliot gets the nod in goal.
• Michal Neuvirth gets another try says Tarik El-Bashir of The Washington Post.
• Dave Stubbs with Habs Inside/Out confirms Carey Price as the Montreal tender.
• Marty Turco in nets writes Mike Heika of The Dallas Morning News. His opponent will be Martin Brodeur according to Tom Gulitti of Fire & Ice.
• Seth Rorabaugh’s Empty Netters reports Brent Johnson facing Ondrej Pavelec in Pittsburgh tonight.  Will confirm on the Atlanta side of things.

UPDATED @ 11:51 AM

• Tim Thomas expected back in nets writes Fluto Shinzawa of The Boston Globe. Makes sense considering his counterpart, Tuukka Rask, started last night at Madison Square Garden.

Will the Red Wings Make the Playoffs?

Coming into last year, the Detroit Red Wings looked stronger than ever.  Fresh off a dominating cup win they added arguably the best sniper on the market and seemed poised to create another dynasty, even in this cash strapped salary cap era.

This year certainly seems to be another story.  Gone are Marian Hossa, Tomas Kopecky, Jiri Hudler and Mikael Samuelsson amongst others leaving the team with roughly 31 percent of the offense to replace.

Who did they bring in?

Todd Bertuzzi, Drew Miller, Jason Williams and Patrick Eaves amongst others.  Those four combined for a whopping 54 goals last year, a little more than half of the 89 goals that left this past offseason.  If you subtract 35 goals from last year’s totals the team still would finish 7th in scoring and not first.

GM Ken Holland planned on using rookies and young players such as Ville Leino, Justin Abdelkader and Darren Helm in scoring roles, hoping it would force them to step up their games and make up the remaining 35 goals needed.  What Holland did not expect were injuries.  Injuries and injuries alone could derail all hope this team had to make the playoffs, let alone another return to the Stanley Cup.

Power Rankings Week Ending 01/03/2010

NHL Power Rankings presented by The Hockey Guys. These rankings will be released every Sunday directly following the show and summarize the thinking of Anthony Curatolo, Brandon Augienello and Dustin Leed.

Legend: Team – Record – Position Change (Last Week)

1. San Jose Sharks – 27-8-7 (4) +3  Winners of 8 straight have propelled the Sharks to the top of the THG Power Rankings. Best team in the league deserves the best.
2. Chicago Blackhawks – 28-10-3 (2) N/C The Hawks will not go away this year and look really strong. Don’t expect a drop out of the top five much at all.
3. New Jersey Devils – 29-10-1 (1) -3 Mr. Brodeur is the best in the game, and his Devils are atop the East. Need we say more?
4. Colorado Avalanche – 24-13-6 (12) +8 The Avalanche have made strides this season and are showing that not only was it a hot start to keep them where they are.
5. Nashville Predators– 25-14-3 (6) +1 The Preds have been coming on strong, more so as of late.  Dark horse in the West? Absolutely.

Injury Updates 01/02/2010

This thread will be updated all day, so keep refreshing it as the day goes along. Just a quick note, if I omitted a source it is due to a previous report with no recent updates. Here are your injury updates for tonight:

Injuries Tonight

Carolina Hurricanes

• Scott Walker and Sergei Samsonov out for today’s match. They will be replaced by Zach Boychuk and Jiri Tlusty.
• Eric Cole, Joe Corvo and Chad LaRose remain out.

New York Rangers

• Vaclav Prospal expected out another couple of weeks.

Vancouver Canucks

• Kevin Bieksa, Pavol Demitra and Ryan Johnson out.

Dallas Stars

• Everybody healthy!

Tampa Bay Lightning

• Matt Walker, Todd Fedoruk and Jeff Halpern still out.