Five Teams Off To Surprising Starts

With the NHL roughly two weeks into its schedule, lets take a five teams that are off to a surprising start in 2010-11.

Toronto Maple Leafs (4-0-1; 9 pts) – Lead by Phil Kessel and Jean-Sebastien Giguere, the Maple Leafs look like they’ve figured out a way to compete in the Eastern Conference this season. Kessel is hot with 7 points in 5 games, and Clarke MacArthur has been a surprise, picking up 5 goals so far for the Leafs. Giguere, a trade deadline pick up late last season, has been stellar so far. His 1.96 goals against average, and .911 save percentage have gone a long way in allowing Toronto to win games. Dion Phaneuf and Tomas Kaberle have been strong defensively, and the team looks much improved over last season.

Dallas Stars (4-1-0; 8 pts) – Through 5 games, the Stars have averaged 4 goals per game. A team that many thought were going to rebuild after letting Mike Modano walk away, is now playing extremely well. Brad Richards, James Neal, Mike Ribeiro, Brenden Morrow, and Loui Eriksson have all gotten off to a tremendous start. Richards, a former Conn Smythe winner with the Lightning, has 10 points in 5 games, and is currently sitting at plus 8 on the season. Kari Lehtonen hasn’t been ridiculous in goal, but he’s been good enough. He’s made 40+ saves, however, in 3 of 5 games, so the Stars should hope to tighten up defensively if they expect to keep this up.

Tampa Bay Lightning (4-1-0; 8 pts) – New general manager Steve Yzerman was quick to put some of the pieces in place to try to turn the Lightning into a contender again. However, it seems to be last years players who are getting it done again. Steven Stamkos picked up right where he left off last season, and has 5 goals in 5 games to start the season. On the flip side, newcomer Simon Gagne has yet to register a point, and is currently a minus 7. He has also been a minus player in each of the teams first 5 games. Victor Hedman should continue to improve throughout the season, and the return of Pavel Kubina should take some of the pressure off Hedman. Steve Downie continues to be a threat whenever he’s on the ice as well, with both his scoring and phsyical play.

San Jose Sharks (1-2-1; 3 pts) – Is it too early to say the Sharks made a mistake in letting Evgeni Nabakov walk away? It may be, but Antti Niemi and Antero Niittymaki have been far from spectacular so far this season. Niemi, who has started 3 of 4 games, is sitting in the goalie hot seat with a 3.71 goals against average and .880 save percentage. One of these goalies needs to stand on their head and take the reigns as a true number one netminder. In addition, Joe Thornton needs to make his presence felt on both ends of the ice. He’s currently minus 6 through 4 games. In those games, he’s managed to put up 4 points, but 3 have come on the power play. Big Joe and Dany Heatley need to be more productive at even strength to get this team fired up.

Vancouver Canucks (2-3-2;  6 pts) – Six points in their first seven games is not the start that the Vancouver Canucks were hoping for. This is a team that many have picked to be Stanley Cup contenders, and they are off to a slow start. Part of the reason they haven’t been successful has been their lack of secondary scoring. A guy like Ryan Kesler, who finished with 75 points last season, has only a goal and an assist so far. He owns that second line, and will have to start playing like it for the Canucks to improve. The Sedin twins are still excelling, as you would expect, but they need some help. Back in net, Roberto Luongo has been a bit of a disappointment thus far. His 2.92 goals against average and and .900 save percentage are less than acceptable for such a highly regarded Canucks team. Luongo will have to go on a tear here soon to get the Canucks back to the top of the division.

Those are my picks for five teams that have gotten off to a surprising start this season. What teams have surprised you so far?

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