Jan 2011 In depth

Happy New Years everyone, I hope you all had a nice break. My best wishes for your happiness and perhaps more importantly a healthy new years.

My wife and I just returned from a circuitous trip around South East Asia visiting Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. It was an amazing trip and I would highly recommend an 80 degree christmas and new years in your life at least once.

On to the CCHL. What happened while I was away enjoying fantastic food and the warm sun on my face ? Corfield went and made his Musicmen a powerhouse AGAIN. Crikey bill give the rest of us a chance will ya ? :) I will leave the trade analysis up to my trading partner in River Cities Chris Kash but wow talk about a roster turnover.
Mr Dave Bole came on to run Havana after Michael Gilman and his new Aorta stepped down to pursue other matters. No sooner had Dave checked in, then he shook things up by trading all world Alex Ovechkin ! Talk about making a splash.

I thought this time I would take a closer look at some of the better special teams play in the CCHL so far this year. It is no surprise that Long Island's Sidney Crosby and now Wisborg's Ovechkin lead the pack with 10 apiece, but what I found very interesting is how Karlstadt's Ott has 9, and Dayton's Ian White has 8. Thats a heck of a total in one season, especially for Ott and White, I am left wondering if the disk really was as good as hoped for. Perhaps an issue for another day, however it certainly doesn't ruin such a wonderful first half of PPG for the Long Island pairing of Crosby and Parise, not to mention Victoria's own Dustin Penner with 8 on a lottery bound team.

Looking at the SHG situation Portlands Kesler is in a three way tie with 4 shorties at the first half mark along with DAY's Malone and WIN Bourque. Very impressive totals for half a season. I wonder if they can keep it up. Of note BEV has two players with Pettinger and Chimera with 3 each.

Special Kudos to Copenhagen's Steven Stamkos with 31 tallies in 37 games played. Those are Gretzky like numbers for sure. Not far behind are Bobby Ryan with 23 and Pat Kane chipping in 18 so far on the season. Great depth on that team and it shows as they are 17-0-2 with the lead after 2 periods. Hopefully it translated into a nice playoff run.

Not to be left out of the mix Niagara Falls leading scorer is defenseman Doughty with 36 points in 38 GP. Good balanced scoring on the team too with Kovalchuk potting 18 in 32GP, Seanus Avery with 15 and Datsyuk and Ribiero with 13 apiece. The only concern I see for the Thunder going forward this year would be in nets with the twin headed due of Nittymaki and Theodore not instilling much confidence in a long post season run. Then again anything is possible.

Last up on this edition of the update are the Timberwolves who have completed their rebuilding and are atop the CCHL. With 6 forwards having double digit goal scoring thats a very impressive attack, with guys like Rick Nash and John Tavares carrying water ? Wow. Acquiring Lundqvist should really improve things in Thunder Bay if thats possible.