Pre Season So Far
Well, every team has played at least one game so far (some as many as four). The Edmonon Oilers, Chicago Blackhawks, New York Rangers, Minnesota Wild and Colorado Avalanche all are undefeated. Home teams have racked up 23 regulation wins compared to 12 on the road, but road teams have done well in OT, winning 4 or six games that went into overtime, as well as the only shootout. Home teams have outscored road teams 132-106. Phoenix has had the most difficult schedule so far, facing Dallas (2-2) twice and Edmonton (3-0-1) twice. Note that schedule difficulty is very innacurate, since there have been so few games played so far.
Leafs’ fans everywhere are paying more attention to the pre-season victory over Ottawa than the 7 losses last year. I (a Leafs’ fan myself) am looking forward to October 4th to see what the boys can do in a real game situation against their Ontario rivals.
Injuries are piling up but luckily noting really serious yet - Malkin dislocated his shoulder and is questionable for the opener but should be back soon; Jagr is also questionable for the opener but likewise is not expected to miss much time. Fedorov of course is out for a month or more. And plenty of very minor injuries are adding up - Chara in Boston, Kaberle and Kubina in Toronto, Alfredsson in Ottawa, the list goes on. These injuries are usually not even injuries - the teams simply don’t want their players risking further injury by playing on a sore ankle or knee during pre-season play.
Team stats are ready to go and working nicely through the pre-season testing; can’t wait to try them out for real in another few weeks. Individual player stats are likewise progressing nicely and hopefully I’ll have more than expected by the time the season gets underway.