Hockey recovers from bad image

With the Major League Baseball playoffs finishing up, the NFL season is getting into full swing, all the hype surrounding the beginning of the NBA and college basketball seasons and the closest and craziest presidential election still unresolved, the National Hockey League season has started rather quietly.\nBut the 2000-2001 campaign has been under way for more than a month, and some interesting stories are shaping up around the league.\nUnfortunately for the league, the only two things that brought significant national notoriety so far have been negative. The legal saga of former Bruins defenseman Marty McSorley isn't exactly the type of press the commissioner wants, and neither is the story of Colorado goalie Patrick Roy. A week after Roy broke the league record for career victories, he was arrested for investigation of misdemeanor criminal mischief and misdemeanor domestic violence counts.\nYou might have noticed looking though the standings that there are a couple teams you don't recognize. Don't be alarmed; the league expanded. Again. Now playing in the Western Conference are the Columbus, Ohio, Blue Jackets and the Minnesota Wild. \nGiving Minnesota a new franchise after their beloved North Stars left for the greener pastures of Dallas and won a Stanley Cup won't completely hush the complaints of Minnesota fans, but it will help. If you want to see a game with a lot of pride at stake, check out the Dec. 17 matchup of the Stars and Wild at Minnesota.\nWith Colorado, St. Louis, Detroit, Dallas and Phoenix, conventional wisdom is that the best teams are in the Western Conference. The toughest division in the league is definitely the Pacific. Dallas, a team that has been to the Stanley Cup Finals the last two years, now has a 7-4-2-1 record for 17 points, but they're tied for last place. Phoenix leads the division with 23 points on a 9-1-5-0 record. (For those of you who aren't quite sure how points are determined, here is the formula: Teams get two points for each victory, one point for each tie and one point for each overtime loss. Division standings are based solely on points.)\nBarring significant injuries, the Western Conference playoffs will probably come down to another championship series between two of the following teams: Colorado, Detroit and Dallas. These three teams have built some pretty interesting playoff rivalries in the past few years and always seem to figure out a way to beat less experienced teams. But don't count out teams who have gotten off to great starts, such as Phoenix and St. Louis. San Jose and Edmonton have looked strong so far as well.\nNo clear favorites have emerged so far in the Eastern Conference. Defending Stanley Cup champion New Jersey leads its division, but it hasn\'t dominated. The only team to get off to a really hot start has been Ottawa, leading the Northeast Division with a 9-1-4-0 record for 22 points. As far as the rest of the East, no one quite knows yet who will emerge to become playoff favorites. But that's why they play until spring to figure those things out.\nThe Southeast Division is terrible. Washington leads the division with a 3-7-4-1 record (11 points). Outside the division, only four teams have worse records in the entire NHL. The combined win-loss record for the Southeast is 13-31. Don't look for the Southeast to have any more than one team to make the playoffs.\nI would look for the New Jersey Devils to emerge from the Eastern Conference to take on the Colorado Avalanche in the Stanley Cup finals. The Avalanche will bring the Cup back to Colorado in a hard-fought seven-game victory, led by Roy's spectacular play around the goal.