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2009-2010 Season Preview
(Page 1 of 7)
Flyers-Sharks tops Friday's six-game NHL schedule
Thursday, 11.19.2009 / 11:00 PM / 2009-2010 Season Preview
NHL.com
The Philadelphia Flyers and San Jose Sharks are two of the NHL's best teams, so a visit by the Flyers to the Shark Tank is worth waiting up for.

The teams meet for the second time in less than a month when the Flyers come to San Jose (10 p.m. ET, NHL Network-U.S) in one of six games on Friday's NHL schedule. San Jose leads the overall NHL standings, while the Flyers are 12-5-1, lead the NHL in power-play percentage and are coming off a 3-2 win at Los Angeles on Thursday. While fans in the East might have to stay up late, this figures to be one of the better games of the season.

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Expect a hard-fought battle in the West this season
Monday, 09.28.2009 / 5:00 PM / 2009-2010 Season Preview
NHL.com
The San Jose Sharks have added Dany Heatley in order to get over the hump in the Western Conference this season. The Vancouver Canucks retained three of their most important players in Roberto Luongo, Henrik Sedin and Daniel Sedin. The Chicago Blackhawks signed Marian Hossa and the Calgary Flames have Brent Sutter and Jay Bouwmeester. And there is the monolith that is the Detroit Red Wings staring down on the competition.

How will the West be won? It's going to be a season-long struggle, to be sure.

In order to clear up the picture, NHL Network analyst Craig Button breaks down what we will see from the West in 2009-10.

Central Division

Chicago Blackhawks -- The winds of change have blown into Chicago. The Blackhawks are good, expectations are deservedly high because of the talent that has been assembled and a Stanley Cup is no longer a dream.

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NHL Network's Button breaks down the East
Monday, 09.28.2009 / 5:00 PM / 2009-2010 Season Preview
NHL.com
Everyone is even today in the NHL. With the 2009-10 regular season opening Thursday, optimism reigns in hockey outposts in North America and even in Europe, where the Chicago Blackhawks, Detroit Red Wings, Florida Panthers and St. Louis Blues are opening the season in the 2009 Compuware NHL Premiere series.

But will everyone remain happy once the puck drops? NHL Network analyst Craig Button offers some clues as he breaks down the hockey scene for NHL.com.

Today, Button looks at the Eastern Conference, Tuesday, the Western Conference.

Here are some of the questions around the Eastern Conference that will need answering as the season begins.

* Will the Pittsburgh Penguins extend their postseason magic into the regular season?

* How about the Flyers? Can defenseman Chris Pronger and goalie Ray Emery push them over the top?

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Olympics
Boudreau is in Washington to win
Monday, 09.28.2009 / 3:00 AM / 2009-2010 Season Preview
By Mike G. Morreale  - NHL.com Staff Writer

"Our goal is to win the Stanley Cup and that hasn't changed. I don't know if we've gotten any closer with the changes made this summer but I do think our guys, to a man, think that if things could have gone a little different in Game 7 (against Pittsburgh last season) we would have had a great chance to win it. If anything, we're ready to at least defend our Southeast Division crown." -- Bruce Boudreau

For Washington Capitals coach Bruce Boudreau, winning is everything. It's one reason the 54-year-old coach has been chomping at the bit to begin training camp and start correcting whatever went wrong during his team's seven-game elimination to the eventual Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins in the second round of the playoffs last spring.

"Winning is it; I have a hard time thinking of doing anything without the ultimate goal - victory," Boudreau told NHL.com. "It doesn't always come true but if that's not your goal than you're looking to be mediocre. As a player, maybe I didn't learn that early in my career. But over the last half of my playing career and now in coaching, it's all about winning."

Boudreau recently took some time to discuss last season and his expectations for 2009-10 with NHL.com.

Here are a few highlights of that interview:


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Turnover-prone Caps need to take care of puck
Monday, 09.28.2009 / 3:00 AM / 2009-2010 Season Preview
By John Kreiser  - NHL.com Columnist

WASHINGTON CAPITALS
2008-09 SEASON STATS

Category Rank (Conference)
2008-09 Points 108
(2ND eAst/4th NHL)
Change from 2007-08 +14
Home Points 61
(2ND eAst/3RD NHL)
Away Points 47
(3RD eAst/8th NHL)
Advantage Margin            -50
Given the skill level of players like Alex Ovechkin, it's mind-boggling that the Caps were only 20th in power-play opportunities. They also need to do a better job in their own zone to cut down on the third-highest total of power plays allowed.

Even-Strength Goals Margin        +20
Not surprisingly, Ovechkin was tops in even-strength goals with 36 (no one else had more than 31). Alexander Semin added 26 of his 34 at even strength in only 62 games.
   
Special Teams Goal Margin        +8
Ovechkin had 19 power-play goals and defenseman Mike Green added 18 as the Caps connected 85 times and were second to Detroit in power-play percentage at 25.2. But the overworked penalty-killers allowed 75 goals, and the power play surrendered 11 shorthanded tallies.

Goals by defensemen            45
Green became the first NHL defenseman in 16 years to break the 30-goal mark. No other Washington blueliner scored more than three goals.

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Luongo wants opportunity to fix playoff mistakes
Monday, 09.28.2009 / 3:00 AM / 2009-2010 Season Preview
By Mike G. Morreale  - NHL.com Staff Writer

"I want to win the Cup.  The team we had this past season had as good a chance as any other in the playoffs. There was really no reason why I wouldn't come back." -- Roberto Luongo

Canucks goalie Roberto Luongo still feels he has something to prove. And until he reaches his goal, he has no intention of leaving Vancouver, signing a 12-year contract extension Wednesday.

Luongo has established himself as an NHL and international star, a leader in the dressing room and a player who appears to have this regular-season routine pretty well managed -- having won at least 30 games in each of the last four seasons.

The sticking point for Luongo, the Canucks' captain, has come in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. In particular, his team's six-game series defeat against the Chicago Blackhawks in the Western Conference Semifinals last spring, when he yielded an uncharacteristic seven goals during a 7-5 loss in the sixth and deciding game -- a loss that still haunts him today.

"You're a professional and there's always someone pushing you from behind," Luongo said. "Unfortunately, one game has ruined a lot of things for me, but you try to move on and turn the page. That (Game 6 against Chicago) is not who I am, but unfortunately, things happen. But we're all in this to win a Stanley Cup and I'm looking forward to the next few years to bring one to Vancouver."
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Scoring first pays off for Canucks
Monday, 09.28.2009 / 3:00 AM / 2009-2010 Season Preview
By John Kreiser  - NHL.com Columnist

VANCOUVER CANUCKS
2008-09 SEASON STATS

Category Rank (Conference)
2008-09 Points 100
(3RD WEst/7TH NHL)
Change from 2007-08 +12
Home Points 53
(6TH WEst/13TH NHL)
Away Points 47
(5TH WEst/7th NHL)
Advanatge Margin        -14
The Canucks made things especially tough for their penalty-killers on the road, allowing a Western Conference-leading 204 advantages away from home -- 37 more than they permitted at G.M. Place.

Even-Strength Goals Margin        +30
Alex Burrows gave the Canucks a big offensive boost by scoring 28 goals -- none on the power play. The Canucks also allowed only 126 goals while playing 5-on-5, fourth best in the League.
   
Special Teams Goal Margin        0
The Canucks' special teams were the definition of "middle of the pack": They were 17th on the power play, 16th on the penalty kill and within 0.3 percent of the League average in both.   

Goals by defensemen            35
Better health for Kevin Bieksa (11 goals, 43 points) and improvement by Alexander  Edler (10-27-37) gave the Canucks an offensive boost from the blue line   
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Ovechkin: Our time has come
Monday, 09.28.2009 / 3:00 AM / 2009-2010 Season Preview
By Dan Rosen  - NHL.com Staff Writer

"It's time to win some team trophies."  -- Alex Ovechkin

Forget about it, Alex Ovechkin says. History, after all, isn't his favorite subject.

"You have to live in this day," Ovechkin told NHL.com.

That's why, according to the Capitals' super sniper, Washington's 6-2 loss in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Semifinal to the Pittsburgh Penguins is a distant memory. The devastation he won't forget, but he won't talk about it or use it as motivation either.

There's no need to when you firmly believe your team is going to win the Stanley Cup this season.


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Improved 'D' will help Lightning strike in '09-10
Saturday, 09.26.2009 / 3:00 AM / 2009-2010 Season Preview
By Mike G. Morreale  - NHL.com Staff Writer
The Tampa Bay Lightning are primed for a turnaround this season. And when you consider the moves Lightning General Manager Brian Lawton made to upgrade the NHL's 29th-ranked team in 2008-09, it's easy to see why.

The roster reshuffling came to a head on Sept. 1 with the signing of forward Alex Tanguay. Prior to nabbing one of the League's premier puck distributors, however, Lawton spent the majority of the summer upgrading a defense that yielded 3.28 goals per game last season. Five players were added, including first-round draft pick Victor Hedman and veteran Mattias Ohlund.

It should also be noted that in addition to Hedman, Tampa's next pair of '09 draft picks -- wingers Carter Ashton (29th overall) and Richard Panik (52nd overall) -- opened some eyes in training camp.

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Home not friendly to Bolts in 2008-09
Saturday, 09.26.2009 / 3:00 AM / 2009-2010 Season Preview
By John Kreiser  - NHL.com Columnist

TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING
2008-09 SEASON STATS

Category Rank (Conference)
2008-09 Points 66
(14th eAst/29th NHL)
Change from 2007-08 -5
Home Points 35
(15th eAst/30th NHL)
Away Points 31
(14th eAst/28th NHL)
Advantage Margin            -62
The Bolts did a decent job of drawing power plays (343), but gave opponents more advantages overall (405) and at home (199) than any team in the NHL.

Even-Strength Goals Margin        -29
The Lightning were outscored by 16 goals while playing 5-on-5, but surrendered a League-high 13 goals during 4-on-4 play while scoring only six times.

Special Teams Goal Margin        -33
The Bolts' overworked penalty-killers allowed 89 goals, the most of any team in the NHL. Most of the problems came on the road, where Tampa Bay was last in killing penalties (76.2 percent, 49 goals allowed).

Goals by defensemen            17
The number of defensemen used by the Lightning (20) was higher than the number of goals those defensemen scored. Cory Murphy, who led the team with five, was allowed to leave as a free agent. The Bolts hope top pick Victor Hedman will help.   

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