Early Surprises

It's obviously very early, but so far there have been some surprising teams and players in this young season.

- Despite having John Tavares and Mark Streit out of the lineup for the start of the season, the New York Islanders have shown that they can still score goals. Forwards, Blake Comeau and Josh Bailey each have 3 goals and 3 assists in 5 games.

- The Toronto Maple Leafs are playing some inspired hockey at start of the 2010-2011 season. At 4-0-0 thus far, the Leafs have shown improvements in all areas. Timely goaltending, a decent first line, secondary scoring, and most importantly an excellent penalty kill has led to an improved game. In fact, the thing that impresses me most about this team is its bottom six. Freddy Sjostrom has done incredible job on the penalty kill, along with tough guys Mike Brown and Colton Orr.

- Marian Hossa is off to a blazing start, tied with Brad Richards for the scoring lead at 9 points. Tomas Kopecky has been reaping the benefits of playing on a line with Hossa and Jonathan Toews. He is a solid player that was looked over in many fantasy leagues.

- With Kovalchuk locked in, the New Jersey Devils have got off to a very slow start, going 1-4-1 in six games. Offence seems to be non-existent so far.

- The offence has seemingly dried up in Phoenix as well. With only 8 goals in their first 4 games, it's no wonder they are 1-4-1 to start despite strong play from goalie Ilya Bryzgalov once again.

- The Dallas Stars are also 4-0-0 to start the season, riding Brad Richards and solid goaltending from Kari Lehtonen to the top of the Pacific Division.

- Michal Neuvirth is making a strong case to remain the Capitals' number one goalie, going 4-1 with a .930 save percentage and 2.16 goals against average, while Semyon Varlamov has been benched with injury. Now that Varlamov is healthy, one wonders what coach Bruce Boudreau will do. This is definitely an interesting situation to watch.

- The Boston Bruins are also in the midst of a goaltending controversy. Youngster Tuukka Rask is the obvious star goalie on he team, but veteran Tim Thomas refuses to go away like many thought he would. In my opinion, I've always seen Thomas as one of the most competitive players in the league, and to think he would fade into the background was silly. In two games so far, Thomas has 2 wins, 1 shut out, a .984 save percentage, and a 0.50 goals against average.