Wow, I leave for a few days and all hell breaks loose. Colorado has lost Kariya to injury already and traded Battaglia for Steve Konowalchuk. On one hand, it is a bad thing, but on the other, Konowalchuk should add some much needed grit to an off-balanced team of stars. It was a good idea in theory, but when your power play leaves you more open to getting scored on then normal, something is very wrong. Kariya, meanwhile will be sidelined indefinitely with a sprained wrist. How he finished the game with that is beyond me. At least it is not broken. The Avs also called up winger Brad Larsen from Hershey to cover for the injury.
Meanwhile, Montreal continues to roll over the beginning of their season. With 4 wins in their first 6 games, they are only 2 points out of first place in the league. Boston holds that right now with 10 points. It was also just announced that Koivu should return to the Habs' lineup tonight against the Islanders. With Koivu back, it looks like left winger Niklas Sundstrom will be out of the lineup. So far Montreal has played a good defensive team game, with some timely scoring. Of course it helps that Theodore is playing well this year. So far in his first 5 games, he has a 1.60 GAA with a .930 save percentage. Lets hope they can keep it up.
Toronto on the other hand is in trouble. Last night they had a great win in Dallas. Both teams really only played the 3rd period though. It was a downright boring game until then. Both teams really turned it on in the third, but Belfour was up to the task of shutting down his old team and helped Toronto skate to a hard fought 3-1 win. They really really needed that win. Last year about this time, Toronto was struggling to win games. They turned it around once Belfour started playing well. This year the Toronto media are already calling for Pat Quinn to be fired. Now that Quinn is no longer GM of the club, I can agree his job is not as secure but calling for him to be fired after 6 games? Come on! People need to relax. Let Quinn (who last year was doing a great job getting the team to play together) a month at least to get this team to mesh before you start calling for his head. Then again, if you work in hockey in Toronto, I guess you should expect to be torn apart by the media. I don't see Quinn losing his job quite yet, but if Toronto is still having major problem come mid November, I don't think he will last very long.
Meanwhile, Montreal continues to roll over the beginning of their season. With 4 wins in their first 6 games, they are only 2 points out of first place in the league. Boston holds that right now with 10 points. It was also just announced that Koivu should return to the Habs' lineup tonight against the Islanders. With Koivu back, it looks like left winger Niklas Sundstrom will be out of the lineup. So far Montreal has played a good defensive team game, with some timely scoring. Of course it helps that Theodore is playing well this year. So far in his first 5 games, he has a 1.60 GAA with a .930 save percentage. Lets hope they can keep it up.
Toronto on the other hand is in trouble. Last night they had a great win in Dallas. Both teams really only played the 3rd period though. It was a downright boring game until then. Both teams really turned it on in the third, but Belfour was up to the task of shutting down his old team and helped Toronto skate to a hard fought 3-1 win. They really really needed that win. Last year about this time, Toronto was struggling to win games. They turned it around once Belfour started playing well. This year the Toronto media are already calling for Pat Quinn to be fired. Now that Quinn is no longer GM of the club, I can agree his job is not as secure but calling for him to be fired after 6 games? Come on! People need to relax. Let Quinn (who last year was doing a great job getting the team to play together) a month at least to get this team to mesh before you start calling for his head. Then again, if you work in hockey in Toronto, I guess you should expect to be torn apart by the media. I don't see Quinn losing his job quite yet, but if Toronto is still having major problem come mid November, I don't think he will last very long.
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