Nothing But a Number

Looking at the stats to this point there are a few things that catch your attention immediately, even with the admittedly small sample size of five games:

- Chris Clark has already racked up 8 penalty minutes, tied for the team lead with big-time scorer John Erskine. A few of those were cheesy calls, but it's not good when your captain is spending more time in the box than anyone else.

- Five of the top ten scorers on the team to this point are defensemen - Green (1-3-4), Poti (0-2-2), Erskine (1-1-2), Pothier (0-1-1) and Jurcina (1-0-1).

- Think Ovechkin is doing okay so far? Yeah, me too. He's got three goals and two assists, 22 shots on goal (which by the way is more than the Caps got in either of their last two games), and only one penalty...although admittedly a badly-timed one. Even better is the fact that he's +1 to this point.

- Nylander is a team-leading -3...and that's with two goals and two assists. Yikes.

- Through five games, Fleischmann has no goals, no assists, five shots and two minors. I'm not one to call for roster changes this early in the season but since I've been saying this since training camp I'll continue - send him back to Hershey. Now. If we wanted someone in the lineup who didn't produce offensively we'd dress Sutherby...and at least he doesn't get pushed off of the puck as much. (No disrespect to Brian - you know I love him.)

- Even after giving up 7 goals, Brent Johnson's save percentage is still above 90%, although his GAA of 4.00 is a little cringe-inducing. But come on...7 goals, whether your fault or not, will still hurt the stats. He's been very solid in net.

- Sidney Crosby has four points in four games and is a -3. Mike Green has four points in five games and is even. Just sayin'...

- After seeing pieces of Maple Leafs games over the past week and seeing all of their scores, you have to ask yourself an important question: how are three of the Leafs (including Hal Gill) in the top 15 in +/-? Just another reminder that numbers don't always tell the tale...thus rendering this entire post pointless.

Thank you and good night!