National Hockey League’s Western Conference’s teams’ standings at the All-Star Game break
All critics are eyeing the Western Conference this year as the Stanley Cup winner. Strong performance and dedication is seen here. Vancouver Canucks is hungry for the cup this year and everyone can see the biggest motivational factor for Canucks, not having
won it yet.
Reviewing the top three and bottom three teams, we can try and analyse who has the highest chance at bringing the Lord Stanley Cup home this season.
Vancouver Canucks
Hat’s off to Vancouver Canucks this season, having improved so much in every aspect of its game. Canucks’ fans are going crazy this year. They are so close to the Stanley Cup that they can smell it.
Great goaltending by Roberto Luongo has kept the team confident and having a 17 game unbeaten streak, who shouldn’t be?
Winning 31 games and losing only 10 while being tied for 1st position in the NHL, the Stanley Cup is something that will eventually come to you.
Ryan Kesler and the Swedish Sedin twins are the key players for Vancouver who can take them on the path to lifting the Stanley Cup.
Detroit Red Wings
Being the No.2 team in the NHL while you have a list full of injured players is a great achievement when you look at it from all aspects. If players like Datsyuk, Cleary, Holmstrom and Stuart return to the roster, then you can expect Detroit to even make
it to the No.1 spot, overall.
Dallas Stars
The best thing about Dallas Stars is that even though it has had some upset matches against Vancouver and Calgary, it has chemistry in the team like no other.
It’s like they telepathically communicate with each other on the ice. Stars’ defense and goaltending is one of the best in the game, which keeps Dallas at No.3 in the Western Conference.
Calgary Flames
Wow, Calgary has turned up the heat considerably. Being a team that was in the Stanley Cup Finals in 2004, so close to winning it, and then all downhill from there, now it has started to make some drastic changes this season rather mid-season to be more
exact.
At the start of the 2010-2011 season Calgary was struggling to win, but a few weeks ago it all started to change.
With the loss of veteran, Craig Conroy, the team has managed to keep itself intact with great captaincy from Jerome Iginla.
Goalie, Miikka Kiprusoff, has been able to find his form again which has helped Calgary a great deal as seen by its four-game winning streak.
St. Louis Blues
Losing by 4-1 to Calgary in its last game has added to Blues’ four-game losing streak.
St. Louis has become a team frustrated by injuries of several match winning players including Andy McDonald and David Perron, but everything can’t be blamed on the injured since current players such as Erik Johnson haven’t been able to find their game lately,
ultimately hurting their performance as a team.
Blues’ fans seem to have become irritated at the lack of defence and offense. Being a young team, St. Louis Blues still has time to improve and show that it is young, but merciless.
A much better rotation of the roster’s line-up is required if it wants to go anywhere near the winning batch.
Edmonton Oilers
Having attained only 7 out of 42 points, Edmonton Oilers has caused disappointment this season.
Being a team that lost only by a fraction in the 2006 Stanley Cup Finals shows that this team still needs development and strategy, this season it stands last in the Western Conference and 2nd last overall in the NHL.
However, the team has changed since 2006. Many young players have joined the line-up and are still growing. Instead of pushing themselves over the cliff, Oilers should concentrate on the team and inner development of these players as professional hockey
players.
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