Who's Hot and Who's Not

To start this post this week, we're gonna re-visit my 3 predictions for big weeks by 3 players to see how I did.

Sidney Crosby (PIT) - 2 goals 6 assists 8 points

Safe to say this was a pretty good pick.

Alexander Ovechkin (WSH) - 1 goal 2 assists 3 points

Ovechkin had a good game against Edmonton and recorded an assist against Columbus. He had a decent week so it wasn't a terrible pick.

Matt Duchene (COL) - 3 goals 1 assist 4 points

Duchene had a solid week scoring 2 goals against the Stars and a goal and an assist against Buffalo.

Standings through 7 PM October 21st

	ATLANTIC	GP	W	L	OT	P	ROW	GF	GA	DIFF	HOME	AWAY	S/O	L10	STREAK
1	DETROIT	9	6	3	0	12	6	24	23	+1	3-1-0	3-2-0	-	6-3-0	LOST 1
2	TORONTO	9	6	3	0	12	5	30	22	+8	3-2-0	3-1-0	1-0	6-3-0	LOST 2
3	BOSTON	7	5	2	0	10	5	20	10	+10	2-2-0	3-0-0	-	5-2-0	WON 2
4	MONTRÉAL	8	5	3	0	10	5	26	15	+11	2-2-0	3-1-0	-	5-3-0	LOST 1
5	TAMPA BAY	8	5	3	0	10	4	26	21	+5	3-2-0	2-1-0	1-0	5-3-0	LOST 1
6	OTTAWA	8	3	3	2	8	3	21	24	-3	1-1-0	2-2-2	0-1	3-3-2	LOST 1
7	FLORIDA	9	3	6	0	6	2	20	32	-12	2-2-0	1-4-0	1-0	3-6-0	WON 1
8	BUFFALO	10	1	8	1	3	0	13	28	-15	0-5-1	1-3-0	1-0	1-8-1	LOST 2

	METROPOLITAN	GP	W	L	OT	P	ROW	GF	GA	DIFF	HOME	AWAY	S/O	L10	STREAK
1	PITTSBURGH	8	7	1	0	14	6	31	19	+12	5-0-0	2-1-0	1-0	7-1-0	WON 4
2	CAROLINA	9	4	2	3	11	4	22	26	-4	1-1-3	3-1-0	0-2	4-2-3	WON 2
3	NY ISLANDERS	8	3	3	2	8	2	25	23	+2	2-1-2	1-2-0	1-2	3-3-2	LOST 1
4	COLUMBUS	8	3	5	0	6	2	19	22	-3	1-2-0	2-3-0	1-0	3-5-0	WON 1
5	WASHINGTON	8	3	5	0	6	2	21	25	-4	3-3-0	0-2-0	1-0	3-5-0	WON 1
6	NEW JERSEY	8	1	4	3	5	1	17	26	-9	1-0-1	0-4-2	0-2	1-4-3	WON 1
7	NY RANGERS	7	2	5	0	4	2	11	29	-18	0-0-0	2-5-0	-	2-5-0	LOST 1
8	PHILADELPHIA	8	1	7	0	2	1	11	24	-13	1-4-0	0-3-0	-	1-7-0	LOST 4

	CENTRAL	GP	W	L	OT	P	ROW	GF	GA	DIFF	HOME	AWAY	S/O	L10	STREAK
1	COLORADO	8	7	1	0	14	7	27	12	+15	3-1-0	4-0-0	-	7-1-0	WON 1
2	CHICAGO	8	5	1	2	12	4	23	19	+4	4-0-2	1-1-0	1-2	5-1-2	WON 1
3	ST. LOUIS	7	5	1	1	11	4	27	19	+8	4-1-0	1-0-1	1-1	5-1-1	OT 1
4	NASHVILLE	9	5	3	1	11	5	19	22	-3	3-1-1	2-2-0	0-1	5-3-1	WON 2
5	MINNESOTA	9	3	3	3	9	3	19	22	-3	2-0-2	1-3-1	0-2	3-3-3	OT 1
6	WINNIPEG	9	4	5	0	8	3	22	25	-3	3-4-0	1-1-0	1-0	4-5-0	LOST 1
7	DALLAS	8	3	5	0	6	2	20	28	-8	2-1-0	1-4-0	1-0	3-5-0	LOST 2

	PACIFIC	GP	W	L	OT	P	ROW	GF	GA	DIFF	HOME	AWAY	S/O	L10	STREAK
1	SAN JOSE	8	7	0	1	15	7	39	16	+23	5-0-0	2-0-1	0-1	7-0-1	WON 1
2	ANAHEIM	8	7	1	0	14	6	30	19	+11	5-0-0	2-1-0	1-0	7-1-0	WON 7
3	PHOENIX	9	5	2	2	12	5	27	26	+1	2-0-1	3-2-1	0-1	5-2-2	WON 1
4	LOS ANGELES	9	6	3	0	12	3	24	22	+2	2-1-0	4-2-0	3-0	6-3-0	WON 2
5	VANCOUVER	10	5	4	1	11	5	27	29	-2	2-2-0	3-2-1	0-1	5-4-1	LOST 1
6	CALGARY	7	3	2	2	8	3	23	26	-3	2-0-1	1-2-1	0-1	3-2-2	LOST 2
7	EDMONTON	9	2	6	1	5	1	26	36	-10	1-2-0	1-4-1	1-0	2-6-1	WON 1

My Three Stars of the Week

Mike Smith - Phoenix Coyotes : 1-0-2, 8 goals allowed on 104 shots and 1 goal scored. (4-2-2, .916 save percentage, 2.83 GAA)

Smith played solid against Ottawa even though he lost in Overtime and lost in a shootout against Anaheim. Smith let in two goals early vs the Red Wings and then shut the door in part of a comeback win for the Coyotes, oh he also scored a goal (yes he SCORED) at the end of the Detroit game. Here's proof.

With this goal, he now has more goals than the former best player in the world, Claude Giroux and a few other NHL players.

Tukka Rask - Boston Bruins : 2-0-0, 2 goals allowed on 52 shots (5-2-0, .954 save percentage, 1.29 GAA)

Rask recorded wins against Florida and Tampa Bay and the win in Tampa was his 1st shutout of the season. The Bruins seem to be quiet right now for a team that is 5-2-0 and sitting in 3rd place in the Atlantic Division. Rask is continuing from where he left off in the playoffs last year and has been a reason to why the Bruins have had success.

Sidney Crosby - Pittsburgh Penguins : 3 games played, 2 goals, 6 assists, 8 points (8 games played, 7 goals, 10 assists, 17 points)

As if there was any question who the first star would be. Crosby is off to probably one of the best starts of his career. He's averaging over 2 PPG and is on pace for 174 points this season. He also has a 5 point lead over Joe Pavelski and Henrik Sedin for the NHL points lead and is tied with Marleau, Steen, Ovechkin and Hertl for the lead in goals currently.

And this post wouldn't be complete without our Three Duds

Dud #3 : Claude Giroux - Philadelphia Flyers : 2 games played, 0 goals, 2 assists, 2 points (8 games played, 0 goals, 3 assists, 3 points)

Giroux has virtually been invisible for a Flyers team who can't score. The Flyers haven't scored more than 2 goals in a game yet this year. The Flyers have 6 days off so we'll see if Giroux makes this list for the 4th straight week next week.

Dud #2 : Jarome Iginla - Boston Bruins : 2 games played, 0 goals, 1 assist, 1 point (7 games played, 0 goals, 2 assists, 2 points)

Iginla seems to just starting to get comfy in Boston but he hasn't been off to the start that the Bruins had hoped to. Iginla probably won't make this list very often but a goal scorer like him without any goals can't go unnoticed.

Dud #1 : Nail Yakupov - Edmonton Oilers : 3 games played, 0 goals, 1 assist, 1 point (7 games played, 0 goals, 1 assist, 1 point)

Yakupov was a healthy scratch in Washington on Monday because of some comment. He really hasn't done anything to start the year after finishing his rookie season last year strong. The Oilers did win their last game against the Senators and Yakupov had an assist so we'll see if that gets him going.

3 Predictions for a big week

1. James Van Riemsdyk - Toronto Maple Leafs (ANA, @ CBJ, PIT)

JVR quietly has 5 goals this year for the Leafs and he always seems to score some goal against the Pens. The Blue Jackets aren't off to a great start so he probably has a big game against them, look for him to score 2 or 3 goals this week and maybe an assist or two.

2. Anze Kopitar - Los Angeles Kings (CGY, PHX, EDM)

Kopitar has 8 assists so far this season and 0 goals, but games with the two teams from Alberta (Calgary and Edmonton) should change that. All of the Kings games this week are at home so I think Kopitar has a pretty big week.

3. Patrick Kane - Chicago Blackhawks (@ FLA, @ TB, MIN)

Kane has 4 goals and an assist so far for the defending champs, and games against the Florida teams should increase that. The Wild and Blackhawks seem to always play good games against each other but I think that Kane has a good week.

We'll see how good my predictions are this week.

In the meantime

Go hockey.

Go Pens.