Greetings hockey fans! Whether you’ve officially entered the 2010-11 Manitoban Hockey Pool or just interested in keeping up with the goings on of the NHL regular season, the Manitoban has you covered. Look for weekly updates in print or online at themanitoban.com to keep abreast of key injuries, major storylines and interesting stats. Also, check online for the full list of hockey pool team standings.
The 10 best hockey pool team names:
Honey Nut Chelios
Datsyukian Destroyers
The Justice League
The Roof Daddies
Pickles & Cheese
Team Mediocre
Hal’s Johnsons
Ice-Ice Baby
Hugz Not Drugz
The Dirt Devils
Key injuries
In Boston, long-term injuries to center Marc Savard and winger Marco Sturm have opened roster spots and insured increased playing time for the likes of Tyler Seguin and Blake Wheeler. Both players have spent time in the preseason at the center and wing position and either one could land as high as the top line when the regular season begins.
Last week it was announced that Chicago defenceman Brian Campbell would be out at least a month after suffering a right knee injury. Fellow Chicago blueliner Duncan Keith is unlikely to be affected by this development but both Brent Seabrook and Niklas Hjalmarsson could see increased power play time while Campbell is out.
Islanders fans are reeling right now following news that both Mark Streit and Kyle Okposo require surgery and will miss significant time in the regular season. New York will have to rely heavily on the likes of John Tavares and Matt Moulson if fans are hoping to see any early season wins in Long Island.
Preseason stats
Both Zach Parise and Tomas Plekanec are putting together strong preseason performances, amassing nine points each in four total games. Forwards Kris Versteeg, Martin St. Louis, Jason Spezza and Derek Roy are also all well over a point-per-game production during the preseason.
Edmonton rookies Taylor Hall, Jordan Eberle and Magnus Pääjärvi-Svensson are all having strong showings thus far, each with at least three points in three games played. In Columbus, Nikita Filatov has impressed early, putting up four goals in five games. Rumours have the young forward starting in the Blue Jackets’ top six.
Pekka Rinne, Cam Ward and Ilya Bryzgalov are among the best of the preseason goalies, each posting a goals against average below 2.00 and a save percentage above 93.0 per cent.
