NHL at the All-Star Break

With the NHL season resuming tonight, here's a refresher of the first half of the season and a preview for the second half.

Eastern Conference Team to Beat: New York Rangers (32-12-4 66 pts.)- The Rangers have the second best defense in the NHL and goalie Henrik Lundqvist is having a career year (.937 save %, 1.87 GAA) and the Rangers are playing their best hockey in years. Look for the Rangers to compete with Detroit for the President's Trophy.

Western Conference Team to Beat: Detroit Red Wings (33-16-1 67 pts.)- The veteran-led Red Wings are running through the Central Division right now. The Wings have 5 players who have over 30 points and their defense is ranked 6th in the NHL. The Wings look to be a complete team and a force to be reckoned with in the West.

Surprise Team: Florida Panthers (22-15-11, 55 pts.) In a division that includes Washington and Tampa Bay, no one saw the Panthers sneak up and end up in a tie for first place. Behind Kris Versteeg (19 goals, 24 assists), who is well on his way to a career year, the Panthers have been able to generate enough offense to ride pleasant surprise Jose Theodore (2.50 GAA) to atop the division. The Panthers have considerably cooled off from their hot streak, but they have enough talent to hold off a listless Capitals team. The Southeast Division is shaping to be one of the top races of the second half.

Most Disappointing: TIE: Washington Capitals (26-19-3, 55 pts.) and Anaheim Ducks (18-23-7, 43 pts.) Both of these teams had high expectations heading into this season. The Capitals blazed out of the gate at 7-0 and were living up to their lofty preseason expectations. But soon, they collapsed. Their stars weren't scoring, their defense was crumbling, Tomas Vokoun was letting in soft goals, and Coach Bruce Bodreau lost control of his team. The team has since fired Bodreau and under new coach Dale Hunter the Caps have played better but have not reached their full capabilities yet. We'll see if they can turn it around and regain control of the division.

The Anaheim Ducks are another team that was predicted to do very well this season and with reigning MVP Corey Perry and steadfast goaltender Jonas Hiller the Ducks were sitting pretty. However a lackluster performance from Hiller and the entire Ducks' defense has been their downfall. They went through a 32 game stretch where they won only 6 games, and still have not fully recovered from that disastrous slump.



MVP: Pavel Datsyuk, C, Red Wings- With 14 goals, 39 assists, and a +20 rating, all while leading the first place Red Wings. Datsyuk also doesn't take bad penalties (only 12 penalty minutes) and has 17 points on the power play. He is also 5th in faceoffs won and has 58 hits this season.

Vezina Trophy- Henrik Lundqvist, Rangers. Lundqvist is having an incredible year ranking third in GAA (1.87) and save percentage (.937). Lundqvist is also anchoring the New York Rangers and has carried the team to their current conference lead