Berg on Patrick Lalime: "Unfortunately Lalime will have to wait a while to provide more evidence of his ability, as he sprained his left MCL while shutting out Toronto on Saturday"

Top Shelf
On the positive side, Boston and Ottawa have left early marks in the East, but for different reasons. The Senators continue to be one of the great defensive teams in the NHL, giving up only six goals in their first four games. Much of the credit should be given to coach Jacques Martin's system, which is as tight as O.J.'s glove. But the goaltending of third year man Patrick Lalime is the anchor of that system, and he has not disappointed. With a 3-0-1 record, a 1.48 GAA and .950 SV% through four starts, Lalime has at least temporarily quieted any critics that thought him unprepared to be a number one goalie. Unfortunately Lalime will have to wait a while to provide more evidence of his ability, as he sprained his left MCL while shutting out Toronto on Saturday. No word, yet, as to how much time Lalime will spend on the IR. Jani Hurme - he of the one career NHL start - will man the pipes in Lalime's absence.

Boston's season got off to a swift start with a tie against Ottawa and then three convincing wins against teams with high expectations for the 00-01 season (Philly, Florida and Anaheim). Jason Allison has returned from injury with avengence, leading the league in points (through Saturday). Joe Thornton continues to show why he may be one of the NHL's next stars, picking up four goals and four assists in his first six games (all four of the goals and one of the assists coming on the power play). And Brian Rolston (part of the Ray Bourque deal of last year) has emerged as a force, notching six of his eight points on special teams. Just think how good these guys might be if Anson Carter was in the lineup (something that might very well never be the case again).

Problem is, Boston has given up more goals (19, five of which came during the thumping the Bruins received at the hands of LA on Friday) than everyone but the Flyers and Habs (21 and 19, respectively) during the first two weeks of the season. Byron Dafoe has looked shaky at times (and a strained hamstring won't help), John Grahame is gone for several months with a broken ankle, and Andrew Raycroft - who has played well thus far - is a rookie. So unless Dafoe returns to form or Raycroft performs like Grahame did early last season, all that offensive firepower might be necessary for Boston to garner wins.

Over in the West three of the four titans - Colorado, Dallas and St. Louis - have looked dominant (particularly Colorado), while Detroit has gotten off to their usual slow start. Not surprisingly Phoenix has jumped out of the gates, too, thanks mostly to the inspired play of Jeremy Roenick and Sean Burke. But the three most intriguing early success stories have been Edmonton, Los Angeles and Nashville. The Oilers have the same balance of offense and defense that they have had in the past, but this season they've been able to win the close games where last season they tended to come up short. Already Edmonton has three one-goal wins (including two over Detroit), and managed an impressive tie with division rival (and the NHL's best team, thus far) Colorado. With Tommy Salo continuing to play like one of the league's elite goaltenders, and Bill Guerin, Doug Weight and Ryan Smyth continuing to lead a youthful but hardworking lineup, the Oil should be one of the positive surprises of the season's first half.

Los Angeles' start mirrors that of 99-00, with success coming from an absolute arsenal of offensive weapons. Luc Robataille leads the league in scoring every October, so why would you be shocked that he's doing the same in 00-01? And Rob Blake and Ziggy Palffy are every bit as good as Robataille, so their offensive exploits should come as no surprise, either. So why should we expect the Kings to be able to maintain a high level of success where last year they hit the skids? My answer: Jamie Storr. In typical form Stephane Fiset is hurt (sprained knee dating back to Sept. 22). But Storr is the better and more consistent of the two (despite his embarrassing outing against Phoenix on Sunday), so I think that his opportunity to lock down the starter's role at the beginning of the season - and the stability that could come with that (something that LA hasn't had in several seasons) - will pay huge dividends for LA as we get into the heart of the season.

Lastly there's Nashville, an expansion team that has hit its third year in the NHL and badly needs to shake its "expansion" title. Not much has changed lineup-wise since last year, which is good and bad. In the defensive end, why fix it if it ain't broke? Mike Dunham (2-0-0 record, 1.00 GAA and .963 SV%) and Tomas Vokoun (1-1-0 record, 1.53 GAA and .953 SV%) represent one of the very best (and most underrated) goalie tandems in the league. The Preds have given up a league low 6 goals in four games, two of which were played against Jaromir Jagr and the Penguins (you know, the team that scored eight goals on the Rangers on Saturday). Unfortunately Nashville doesn't score many more than they give up, though not for a lack of effort. Cliff Ronning, Patrick Kjellberg and Scott Walker look like they'll continue to be the "big" offensive weapons on the team, with Drake Berehowsky and Kimmo Timonen chipping in from the blue line. But after that there's just not much reliable scoring punch available (with the possible exception of Vitali Yachmenev, who should follow-up his 32 points from last year with even better numbers). Until the Preds can add one or two more upper-middle class scoring threats, goaltending, patience and hustle are what Nashville will continue to have to rely on.

(NOTE: I realize that I chat up Nashville pretty regularly, but I don't think people realize just how few ingredients these guys need to become a competitive playoff team.)

Reverse Skate
Of course, there's plenty to talk about on the bad side, as well. Two teams that are expected to take their division crowns are Florida and Philadelphia, but neither look like division champs, thus far. Things started out well for the Flyers with a hard-fought win against a good Vancouver club. But since then things have gotten down-right ugly, with three bad losses to Boston, Dallas and Phoenix, and an embarrassing tie with expansion Minnesota. Last year's goalie solution has been anything but in 00-01, as Brian Boucher has posted a 4.21 GAA and .840 SV% in his first four starts. Backup Maxime Ouellet hasn't looked all that much better, so I don't think we have yet another goalie controversy in the City of Brotherly Love. But clearly questionable goaltending is a worst nightmare for Bobby Clarke now that John Vanbiesbrouck is on Long Island.

To make matters worse, Philly's No.2 star, Mark Recchi, has decided to take time off to nurse a head injury that he thinks he sustained on opening night. No one knows whether "time off" means a week or a month, but either way it's not a good situation for a team that badly needs leadership to right the ship. And to make matters much worse, the Philadelphia Inquirer is reporting that Philly's No.1 start, John LeClair (who's already sitting out for a week to heal an inflamed disk in his lower back), is contemplating surgery that could knock him out of action for two months (he's planning on making a decision on Monday). The Flyers always seem to be dealing with controversy, and last year they were able to overcome it. But there's not way any team can maintain any level of success with questions in net and the likes of Eric Lindros, Recchi and LeClair unavailable to give 100-percent.

In Florida things are considerably less dreary. Sure, the offensive juggernaut that boasts players like Pavel Bure, Viktor Kozlov, Igor Larionov and Robert Svehla has only managed a whopping seven goals in three games (while giving up ten). But the Panthers will get it right, eventually, at least offensively. Defensively, the goalie situation has got to be somewhat distracting. Trevor Kidd was given the starter's role to begin the season, but it's hard not to notice the "yours to lose" message that accompanied the announcement. Kidd then went out and stunk up the joint in the first game of the year, yielding four goals on twenty-one shots to Vancouver. But Florida's future, Roberto Luongo, stunk almost equally in his first opportunity, giving up four goals on twenty-two shots to Boston. Kidd made a slightly better case for himself in Friday's 2-2 tie with Carolina (stopping 22 of 24 shots). But Florida gave up an awful lot to acquire Luongo, so it likely won't take many negative starts by Kidd - or many semi-positive ones by Luongo - for the pressure to start mounting.

Other teams and individuals that are struggling to get on track? Try the Wings and Chris Osgood. Seems like Detroit always has trouble getting started on the right foot, which may be related to their aged roster. But Osgood really has no excuses. A 1-3-0 record, 3.32 GAA and .884 SV% aren't exactly the numbers of a champ. Sure, he hasn't had an abundance of help in front of him, as the Wings have hardly played inspired hockey in his first four starts. But great goalies play their best hockey when their team isn't playing theirs, and right now Osgood is simply not accomplishing this. Chances are good that Oz and the Wings will turn things around, but every year they get a little slower and a little less powerful while the other conference "sure things" distance themselves extend the gap.

And speaking of the "sure thing" squads, let's talk about Roman Turek. Having watched several of his first few starts, this year, I think the Blues' goaltending isn't nearly as rock solid as I once thought it was. Yes, it's extremely early. But Turek has looked like a big-time goalie in exactly one of his first three starts. And even that one bright spot comes with an asterisk, as the victory was earned against a Ducks team that couldn't have played much worse. I think Turek is too good to still be affected by last season's rickety playoff performance. But there's a big difference between the Turek of last year - his first as a starter - and the Turek of this year - his second as a starter, with even bigger expectations. The Blues and Turek will return to form, but I think they're going to have to work a lot harder for success than many (myself included) would have thought.

Oh, by the way, I was going to make mention of Jaromir Jagr's slow start in Pittsburgh (he was barely noticeable for most of the two games played in Tokyo). But then we went out and scored four goals against the Rangers on Saturday, so I'd say he's back in business.

Wounded Watch
Quick update. Injury misery continues for Saku Koivu. The Habs captain will miss three months of action after tearing a ligament in his knee last Tuesday. Like Montreal needed any more problems with injured stars. And like Koivu - who hasn't played more than 70 games in a season since his rookie year - needs it, either.

San Jose's star, Owen Nolan, just resigned with the team but will remain off the ice for at least another few weeks recovering from August hernia surgery. Nolan is a tough guy so he likely won't sit out any longer than he has to. But there's little chance he'll be back before the end of October.

In typical Russian Rocket form, Pavel Bure has managed to strain a leg muscle - this time a groin - early on in the season. The muscle strain kept him out of the third period in Friday's game against Carolina, but is not thought to be a significant issue. (READ: Stay tuned.)

In New York Brian Leetch is playing hurt (also with a groin pull), Mike Richter should return to practice, Monday, and will likely be able to return to game ice within a few weeks, and Vladimir Malakhov is gone at least a month with a sprained ACL.

Comments? Questions? Kudos! Drop me a line at ddberg@yahoo.com.