Best Sixes in the Pacific Division

Corey Perry	Brad Richards	Anze Kopitar	Wojtek Wolski	Joe Thornton
Ryan Getzlaf	Loui Eriksson	Dustin Brown	Ray Whitney	Patrick Marleau
Saku Koivu	Mike Ribeiro	Ryan Smyth	Shane Doan	Dany Heatley
Lubomir Visnovsky	Stephane Robidas	Drew Doughty	Keith Yandle	Dan Boyle
Toni Lydman	Trevor Daley	Jack Johnson	Ed Jovanovski	Kent Huskins
Jonas Hiller	Andrew Raycroft	Jonathan Quick	Ilya Bryzgalov	Antero Niittymaki

I've got to say that these sixes have been a lot of fun, I think I'll be doing them next Summer as well, possibly a little more frequently, just to see what the evolution of the sixes tend to look like.

The Pacific Division has a different feel to it this year, doesn't it?  There's a fresh scent in the air, some different names populating spots that had some familiars and a new optimism about it all.  This could be a good race to watch this year.

The favourite three forwards here still has to be the Sharks, especially after choosing Marleau over Nabokov in the off-season.  Keeping Thornton, Marleau and Heatley banded together was a fantastic decision by Sharks management.  There is plenty of firepower in Anaheim with Perry and Getzlaf, lots of puck moving in Dallas, good play around the net in Los Angeles and some new veteran leadership in Phoenix, but nothing really tops the sheer talent and desire to put the puck in the net like the trio in San Jose.

If there was a pairing that I like most on the blueline here is the one in Los Angeles, mostly on the shoulders of Doughty, because he's a pretty big superstar.  The gap between Doughty and Johnson is fairly big, but Johnson is still growing into his role in Los Angeles and has the legs to do a great job there.  The pair in Phoenix would be my second best bet, although Yandle still may not be too familiar with a lot of my poolies, not sure about yours.  He could be a pretty good pick-up as a point-scoring defender, but he's no Doughty.  Boyle and Huskins are two different types of defensemen, which drops the Sharks down, the Ducks pair are new to each other and the team and the Stars pair will work hard, but there's no guarantees.

In goal, there is one name that might be missing, but knowing his injury track-record these five might be the way things go this year.  Yes, I'm talking about Dallas and Kari Lehtonen, who should have the number one job there, but Raycroft has the better numbers from last year, which is why he has the spot right now.  Top spot for me would probably have to go to Bryzgalov as the better goalie of the five, but the points should be coming from Niittymaki, who is good enough to post a lot of wins for San Jose, so I might call this a draw.  Quick will have to be good enough to win some games for the Kings, which he is, while Hiller will have his work cut out for him behind a brand new defense corps.

In this division, I would have to guess that the Kings or the Coyotes would finish first having their entire six picked apart in the draft, since there shouldn't be a rush for Huskins, Raycroft or Lydman right away and I would guess Jovanovski goes before Johnson, unless someone has a hunch.