Goaltending woes around the NHL two weeks into the 2007-2008 season...

Often, even if your team has ammassed the cream of the crop of superstars on their roster, it may not be enough to win in a new and tough NHL era.

It might be really early, and I know you cannot blame a goalie for how he performs on most nights, but let's take a look at how some goalies are faring around the league almost 2 weeks into the new campaign.

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The Atlanta Thrashers have learned this the hard way, only 5 games into the season their goaltending monster of Kari Lehtonen and Johan Hedberg have combined for a total of 23 goals against and subsequently a zero in the wins column and 5 losses despite Ilya Kovalchuk putting up his usual spectacular goal-scoring fiesta night-in and night-out.

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In Toronto, the Maple Leafs and their fans have had to endure the shaky start of new acquisition Vesa Toskala in the blue and white.
The prized pickup of Leafs GM John Ferguson Jr. this offseason from down in Sunny San Jose currently leads all goaltenders with 18 goals allowed in only 4 games, complimented by a 4.48 GAA and a paltry .878 SPCT%.

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It's the same old story down in Tampa Bay, as the curse of Nikolai Khabibulin lives on.
With 3 wins so far this year, the Lightning have all the offence they need with Vinny Lecavalier, Martin St. Louis and Brad Richards to compensate for their lack of a solid starter between the pipes.
The Lightning lost a game last night 6-4 to their counterpart Florida Panthers and you could argue that TB's goaltending is back to its old habits again.
After three strong consecutive performances by Johan Holmqvist in the team's first 3 wins; the Swedish sophomore let 4 goals on 15 shots go right through his body against the Panthers yesterday evening with all of them being considered in your blogger's eyes quite soft.
He was replaced by Marc Denis, originally sought for the starting role 2 summers ago (but that didn't work out either) and nothing out of the ordinary or remotely solid came of him in his 7 shot stint besides one weak goal that killed the momentum Tampa Bay had going after scoring four unanswered goals on Tomas Vokoun that period.

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Manny Fernandez was supposed to be the answer for the Boston Bruins in goal, but Tim Thomas is showing why he should be the number one for the B's.
Two ordinary outings and 10 goals against have people wondering if Fernandez can get back to his previous form from 2 seasons ago with the Wild, the same season which he stole the starter's job from Dwayne Roloson.
Until he decides to play like his salary dictates, the Bruins have all the time in the world to watch Tim Thomas shine for them.
A 1.48 goals against average and a .957 SPCT% puts Thomas in the top 3 in each of those categories to start the season; and I see no reason why Fernandez and his 5.00 GAA should park their butts in Boston's crease as long as the Bear is playing like a superstar.

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Jonathan Bernier had fans salivating after a stunning game against the defending Stanley Cup Champs on Opening Night in the United Kingdom, but the hype has calmed down ever since.
2 games and 11 goals later, the former first round draft choice Bernier is on the bench again and could end up in Manchester pretty soon.
Jason LaBarbera hasn't been any better the rookie Bernier with no wins and a .827 SPCT% to get his NHL career back on track.

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Marc-Andre Fleury, Chris Mason, Miikka Kiprusoff, Martin Brodeur, Robert Luongo and Ryan Miller all need to be better if their teams have a chance at success this year.

Olaf Kolzig, Cam Ward, Nikolai Khabibulin, Manny Legace, Martin Biron and Cristobal Huet are carrying their teams with solid performances night-in and night-out.

Yours truly is a goaltender as well, and is only giving his two cents on this subject...things can change, it's only a few games, but here's how it's looking so far...

-BBeR

How the Edmonton Oilers went from the Stanley Cup finals to a sad, sad season...

Chris Pronger (left) and Ryan Smyth (right) stand next to Oilers GM Kevin Lowe (centre). The pair proved to be invaluable to the Oilers, and after their departures, the once respectable franchise became a sad mockery.

The Edmonton Oilers were a bad team in 2006-2007.

Face it, it's not pretty, but it's the truth.

This team went from making the playoffs on the last day of the season and coming oh-so-close to winning the Stanley Cup to a sad bunch who seem like they've lost all interest in playing hockey.

Let us evaluate what the players brought to the table.

Petr Sykora, signed to a 1-year deal late in the free agency period, has proved to be this team's top scorer after a previously miserable season with the Ducks and Rangers.
He finished with 53 points, and had the inversed stats of the departed Ryan Smyth, who equally had 53 points but he put that up in 53 contests while battling injuries and then eventually being dealt to the New York Islanders on Trade Deadline Day.
Sykora had 22 goals and 31 assists while Smyth put up those numbers...but inversed, 31 goals and 22 assists.

The young Ales Hemsky is set for a great career and is taking it one step at a time, he finished with 53 points as well and put up 40 assists in 64 games, he could've scored more, he has a great shot, but nevertheless, he would've beat out Sykora had it not been for injuries too.
The pair were argurably the only Oilers to have a strong season, if you want to call a measly 53 points as your team lead "strong", go ahead, but that's not good enough for most GM's and Kevin Lowe acknowledged that.

Lowe told the media yesterday, that they should expect 6 to 8 new faces this offseason in Edmonton.
When asked which positions, Lowe said practically all of them, and it's true.

The Oilers struggled on defence; Ladislav Smid, Matt Greene and Jan Hejda were not enough to compensate for the losses of Chris Pronger, Jaroslav Spacek and even the belated Dick Tarnstrom.

Injuries to Jan Hejda (shoulder), Daniel Tjarnqvist (inflamed pubic bone) and Steve Staios (kneecap) thrust many unproven minor-league players and prospects into the Oilers lineup.

Marc-Andre Bergeron was let go by the Oilers, he traded to the New York Islanders, and went off to have a superb second half which saw the young defenceman score 6 goals and add 15 assists for a total of 21 points in just 23 contests with the Islanders. The Oilers got a lost prospect back in Denis Grebeshkov, who hopefully, will return and play for Edmonton next season.
With Edmonton, however, he was not the Bergeron that the organisation saw last season, he struggled on defence and his offensive side was inconsistent.
He eventually was stuck in Craig McTavish's doghouse and then sent to the New York Islanders.

Bergeron was a steal for Snow, Pronger's flourishing in Anaheim, Spacek is a secondary powerplay quarterback for the Sabres and Dick Tarnstrom's putting up 29 points in 44 games so far with Lugano of the Swiss League.

The Oilers' defence was non-existant on offense, Steve Staios managed to get 17 points in 58 games after going down with surgery.

Other than that, only Daniel Tjarnqvist hit the 15 point plateau, the rest were stuck in mediocrity.

Tjarnqvist was also amazingly the only Oilers point man with a +/- rating above 0 (3), and he only played in 37 games, you could argue he's their best blueliner now.
Other than that, the Oilers combined for a horrific -83 +/- rating and managed to score a mere 15 goals and Tjarnqvist was the only one with a powerplay goal (he had 2).
And ironically, he missed more than half the season with multiple injuries.

Geez, this is already giving me a headache, and worse, the Oilers used 6 rookies on their blue-line throughout the course of the season, more importantly in their second half.

And to top it all off, the Oilers finished last in the league with a miniscule 2.34 GF per game, this stat was hugely affected after the Oilers lost Ryan Smyth on Trade Deadline Day.

They had already lost Ethan Moreau to shoulder surgery for the season, forward Jarett Stoll possibly forever with a devastating concussion, and they just didn't get anything from Fernando Pisani after a magical playoff run last year, Shawn Horcoff was invisible after Smyth was traded and after scoring 27 times last season, Raffi Torres dissapeared into the wind along with the non-existant Joffrey Lupul.

Yup, and here's the stat that mattered most: 2-18.
What's this? It's just the record the Oilers put up without Ryan Smyth after he was dealt, which ultimately cost them a chance to make the playoffs but gave them the oppertunity to go golfing in the month of March.

Jean-Francois Jacques, a promising player in Hamilton, was thrust between Wilkes/Barre and Edmonton 12 times throughout the season and he put up nothing on the scoresheet; he was pointless in 37 games.
Danny Syvret, one of the many rookie defencemen used by Craig McTavish and a promising point man, showed limited talent with only one assists and a -10 rating in 16 contests.
Zach Stortini scored 1 goal in 27 games and showed scouts why he will be destined for fourth line duty at best.
Tom Gilbert had a decent year, and averaged half a point per game (better than Sergei Samsonov) for the Oilers...in 12 contests.
Bryan Young, a defenceman, was equally a no-show in his rookie campaign and didn't put up a point in 15 games with the Oilers and managed only 2 shots on goal.

I know I'm not an Oilers insider, but it doesn't take a genius to see why the Oilers struggled last season, especially when they lacked talent and offensive production from their forwards, and stability on the back-end.

Dwayne Roloson had an OK season, and he was the reason the Oilers weren't worse than their 32-47-7 record.

I hope Lowe's right when he says there will be changes, as this team is desperate for some.