Western Conference turned on its head

The Western Conference of the NHL is facing a serious upheaval this season, as four teams that made the playoffs last year might be looking forward to a whole lot of golf in the spring. The Pacific Division, home to past playoff performers such as the San Jose Sharks and Los Angeles Kings are instead doing all they can to stay afloat.

Even the Colorado Avalanche, Western Conference finalists last year, Stanley Cup champions the year before, are reeling from the effects of the upheaval. They now sit in fourth place in the Northwest division and ninth in the conference, forcing the front office to fire Coach Bob Hartley. Despite a brief improvement for a few games under new coach Tony Granato, Colorado remains lackluster with a 4-5-1 record in their last ten games.

However, at least the Avalanche is still in the playoff hunt. The Sharks were supposed to be the new powerhouse of the conference, possibly the league. Instead, after All-Star goalie Evgeni Nabokov's holdout at the beginning of the season, the Sharks sit in eleventh with an 8-11-4 record at home.

Any of these teams could still make the playoffs, but unless their play seriously improves, or another team has a collapse, it does not look likely with less than half of the season left.

At the other end of the spectrum, the Dallas Stars, Detroit Red Wings and Vancouver Canucks are looking to carry the division leads for the rest of the season. Dallas seems unstoppable, with last year's backup Marty Turco carrying an unbelievable league leading 1.80 Goals Against Average (GAA). Dallas also recently traded for playoff sparkplug Claude Lemieux from the Phoenix Coyotes, which should make the Stars a very difficult team to beat come the second half of the season.

Vancouver, despite less than amazing play since its ten-game winning streak in November, has fought through some injuries and mediocre play by goalie Dan Cloutier to keep the Minnesota Wild at bay. Defending champions Detroit can only get better with a new starting goalie, a new coach, and a returning Steve Yzerman all looking to improve in the second half of the season.

On the other side of the country, the Eastern Conference focuses more on financial concerns than playoff woes these days. The best team in the league, the Ottawa Senators, has a very uncertain future. The money has not appeared to buy the team, which is mired in bankruptcy, and rumors of contraction are starting to circulate around the league.

The Buffalo Sabres are still waiting for a group of local businessmen to front the cash to purchase the team, and like Ottawa a few weeks ago, the Buffalo players are having problems getting their paychecks on time.



Poach of the week

The Atlanta Thrashers hired fired Avalanche coach Bob Hartley and made the best steal of the season. Hartley led Colorado to success every year except for this one since he became head coach in 1998. The Thrashers, after signing free agent Byron Dafoe earlier this year, are starting to build a respectable base to build on. If Dafoe can ever get healthy _ he has been in and out of the lineup with a groin injury this year _ and if Hartley works as well with the young players as Atlanta is hoping, the Thrashers might push their way up the Southeast Division next season.