State of the Northwest Division

With last night’s 4-1 loss to the Calgary Flames the Colorado Avalanche have fallen below .500 and are currently sitting in 12th place in the Western Conference. And if history is any indication, you’d be well served to bet against the Avalanche in their next two games.

After dropping three straight games to start the season, they proceeded to reel off five straight wins. And though the players downplayed the streaks as coincidence, a pattern is starting to take hold. 3 losses, 5 wins, 5 losses, 3 wins, rinse, lather, repeat.

Another disturbing trend has appeared. In their last five games, the Avalanche have scored a grand total of six goals. They’ve dropped from averaging three goals per game to barely cracking one goal per game. Though Joe Sakic has played only one period in those five games, this team is capable of much more on offense. With players like Milan Hejduk, Ryan Smyth and Marek Svatos in the lineup there are simply no excuses for not scoring.

Thankfully Peter Budaj has shaken off his early season jitters or the Avalanche never would have won their last three games. And to me, that’s disturbing. This team wasn’t built to have their goaltender steal every second game for them.

If the Avalanche want to climb back into contention, they need to wake up the slumbering offensive giant within.

4. Calgary Flames, as brought to you by Drew Goyon:

“It’s been a year of peaks and valleys for the Calgary Flames.

 

Through 19 games, the Flames have compiled a record of 10-8-1, which is good enough for third in the Northwest Division and seventh in the West, which are the exact same spots that the team occupied when the playoffs started back in April. One might say that this is a major accomplishment, given how many major pieces of the puzzle left Cowtown for greener pastures in July, but the manner in which the Flames have gotten there this year has got to be disconcerting for everyone associated with them.

 

I spent many, many hours watching the WWF around the turn of the millennium. For those of you who might not share that particular interest, the promotion was being booked by a guy named Vince Russo around that time. Russo’s writing style was dubbed “Crash TV”: the style, centered on plot twists, made it so that any part of the show – whether it was titleholders, allegiances, or anything else – could change at any time, so you never knew just what you were going to see when you turned the program on.

 

“Drew,” you’re saying, “I think you’ve lapsed into a wrestling blog.” Actually, there is a point to that aside, because watching the Flames play this year has reminded me of the Russo days, because I never know which team is going to show up. When they’ve won, the Flames have looked darn near unbeatable. Their offense can score in bunches, their defence can be stifling, and Miikka Kiprusoff can be a wall in net: of course, the key word in those sentences is “can,” because when the Flames lose, none of that stuff applies. They’ll be incapable of completing two passes in a row, refuse to hit anyone, and take eight tries to clear the zone every time the puck crosses their blue line. Players who look like All-Stars on some nights will resemble beer-leaguers on others, and from game to game, you never know which of these will be there.

 

While all of this makes game days more exciting, it’s not what Flames fans expected from the team going into this year. We were promised that this year’s squad, although low on flash, would win games with hard work and 60 minutes of effort every night, just like the 2004 team did. If the Flames did this, there’s little doubt that they’d be an easy favourite to win the division, as they’ve been lights out when they’re playing hard. Instead, playing half-awesome and half-awful has resulted in numbers that are merely decent. They’re around the middle of the pack in goals for, and if it weren’t for a few blowouts, they’d be there in goals against. Their penalty killing is decidedly average. They’re average in terms of shots for and against; they’ve outshot their opponents eight times, been outshot nine, and tied twice. About the only statistical category where the Flames rate above a “meh” is that of penalties drawn, as they rank third in the NHL in that area, trailing only Detroit and San Jose: this is critical, because even a decent powerplay will give a team an advantage if it gets enough chances, and that’s what’s holding the Flames’ heads above water right now.

 

All these middling numbers have added up to a middling record and a middling position in the West for the Calgary Flames. The problem with that is that Flames fans are no longer going to be satisfied with being a playoff team: we’ve been promised more than that in recent years, and another season where they end up with a low seed and run smack into the Wings or Sharks in the first round will not be acceptable.

 

The bottom line? If the up/down trend continues in Calgary and the team finds itself unable to make up ground on the Wild and the Canucks for first in the division, don’t expect Darryl Sutter to stand pat. Whether it’ll be behind the bench or on the ice, something will have to change.”

5. Vancouver Canucks, as brought to you by Kevin Madigan of Towel Power:

Coming into the season, the Canucks had two burning questions:

1) Will rookie GM Mike Gillis’ acquisitions pan out;

2) Can the Canucks finally give Luongo enough goal support to make it to the playoffs?

Nineteen games into the season, it looks as though both questions can be answered with a resounding “YES. FINALLY.”

In a situation that’s about as unlikely as Mike Keenan becoming a candy striper, the Vancouver Canucks are inexplicably tied for 7th in the league in goals-for – ahead of powerhouses like Pittsburgh and Montreal. And that is in no small part due to the acquisitions of Mike Gillis.

Kyle “Silk Hands” Wellwood, Gillis’ notorious waiver pickup, comes as the biggest surprise. After being benched or in limbo between the NHL and the AHL for 1/4 of the games played, Wellwood leads the Canucks in goals and looks to have solved – at least for the moment – the team’s anemic powerplay. Pavol Demitra, having freshly returned from his rib contusion, is showing new life as he has 8 points in nine games. Steve Bernier is solid with a bruising physical game to complement his 4 goals and 4 assists. Ryan Johnson is blocking shots like he’s made of steel. And Shane O’Brien, after a shaky first few games, is now as good as he’s ever been, having shaken off the nightmare that was Tampa Bay.

But the biggest headlines, and the keys to the Canucks’ success so far, are the resurgences of red-hot Roberto Luongo and Kevin Bieksa. There were concerns among Canuck fans that Bieksa’s monster sophomore performance two seasons ago was a fluke, and he’d never be able to live up to his 3.75 million dollar contract. Those concerns have vanished – Bieksa’s back to his old tricks, scoring at almost a point-per-game clip, while still bringing the ferocity and intensity he always has. And what can we say about Luongo? At this point, he looks to be the favorite to win the Vezina. Leads the league in shutouts and has a save percentage higher than Barack Obama’s approval rating in the month of November.

For the first time in over a year, Canucks fans can smile.

Illegal Curve would like to thank the writers for their time and insight into their favourite teams. Please take the time to check out their blogs and to leave any comments you might have. Look for us back here next Wednesday for updates on the Northwest Division, the Northwestiest division in hockey.