How the Draft Opens After the Break

In one week's time, the NHL season will be ready to resume action and we'll be back at our normal hockey pool paces right off the hop. The season will only have six weeks left in it and only four weeks until the final jersey is given away. On the bright side, there is still 309 NHL games left to be played when the schedule resumes, so that should provide ample opportunity for points down the stretch.

I just want to take a quick look at the teams that are definitely in the race for the money and give you an idea of what it will take to either stay in the money, catch-up to their rivals or come from behind as a whole. Hopefully, we can all have a starting off point for the Draft teams to compare from.

Leon will open the homestretch in the lead, where he has been since Week Five of the season. He will start Week Twenty-One with a 22-point lead on Larry, who sits second and a 23-point lead on Wes, who sits third.

Leon's best player in the pool this season has been Ilya Bryzgalov, who registered Russia's only loss in the Olympics (versus Slovakia), so it will be interesting to see how he bounces back to save his pool team.

For Leon to be safe (and reasonable), he should be looking for top five finishes in weekly numbers and hoping they stay away from bottom five numbers. In the last three weeks leading up to the Olympics, Leon has been one of the hotter teams, finishing with 74 points, only two points back of the leader in that department.

In injury news, Leon only has Nathan Horton on the shelf, but as of tomorrow, that will make him out four weeks with his broken leg and five weeks when the season resumes, so he should be close. That would give Leon a healthy team, which will be hard to beat.

Larry, as you saw above, has the task of trying to make-up 22 points to take the big prize of the year, which only means he has to make up 4 points every week to end up passing Leon and that doesn't seem to be the worst task in the world to take on. Possibly the biggest task will be fending off Wes, who is right behind him in third and Wayne sitting a few extra points back in fourth.

Larry has been leaning heavily on Martin St. Louis this season, as he leads the team in points with 71. St. Louis was not chosen to play in the Olympics for Canada, which means he'll be well-rested for the season's restart. He'll be the one to watch for Larry going forward, for sure.

Larry's team has been hot of late as well, being the hottest team in the five weeks leading up to the Olympic Break, with 146 points and he is second in the past three weeks with 75. With that kind of firepower of late, he certainly has a chance of overtaking first or maintaining second.

On the injured list, Larry will open the stretch on the healthy side of the ledger, having no players on the list at the moment, but he's keeping a close eye on his Olympic players, which he has five of.

Wes has had a bit of an up-and-down season, but he'll come out of the Olympic Break eyeing up the first place position in the Draft, as he needs the same sort of make-up rate as Larry does above him. 4 points a week will be enough to eclipse Leon in the end and continue to be in the drag race against Larry.

Wes is also going to be relying on goaltending down the stretch, as USA back-up goalie, Jonathan Quick, has been Wes' pride & joy this season, leading all of his players with 74 points before the break. Quick has done well with the Kings and is getting practice time with the USA, although he's not considered to be having any starts in this tournament.

Heading into the break, Wes' team has been the hottest over the last three weeks, leading all teams with 76 points. His 142 points in the last five weeks ranks second, so there has been a lot of catching up on first place already.

No names on the injured list for Wes for when the league opens up again, but he has nine Olympians to watch at the games, so it will be a tense last week of competition, as he'll want all of his bodies to survive and be there when the NHL starts.

Sitting just outside the money, but is well within striking distance is Wayne. Wayne currently sits 29 points out of first place, 7 points out of second and 6 points out of third. One good week could push him over second and third, but he'll be looking at making up 5 points per week down the stretch to overtake Leon. Consistency will definitely be a factor for Wayne, but its definitely possible.

Swedish Olympian, Nicklas Backstrom of the Capitals, is Wayne's best player this season and he leads the team with 76 points earned. Backstrom is a regular in the Swedish line-up at these Olympics, so his health will be a paramount concern for Wayne down the stretch.

Wayne's team has not been as solid as the top three teams above him going into the break. His team only managed 58 points in the last three weeks and 127 points in the last five. Saying that, all it takes is for the team to recharge and turn it around, when the Post-Olympic schedule begins.

On the injured list, Wayne has one of his goalies on, Cam Ward, who didn't play the last couple games before the break because of an upper-body injury. With the way the Hurricanes have described the injury, it was just more of a break before the Olympics, which should give him ample time to recover for the first game after the break. If that is the case, he should be healthy opening up the stretch run, but missing a goalie could be huge.

Lurking around in fifth place in the standings, we find Dale B., who isn't in bad shape with only six weeks remaining. He officially sits 40 points out of first place, which is a long way back, equating to a make-up rate of 7 points per week. I think when teams get into the double-digits in trying to make up points, that's where the real difficulty is. Dale only sits 18 points out of second and 17 points out of third, which is getting to be more of those reasonable numbers to make-up points.

The player to watch for Dale's team is Henrik Sedin of the Canucks, who is also a mainstay on the Swedish Olympic team, along with brother, Daniel. Henrik has 80 points to lead the Canucks and Dale's team this season and will likely continue to play his game. The Canucks open up the break on their massive road trip, which hasn't been good to the Sedins, so they are likely looking to the Olympics for a rebirth of their scoring touch.

Dale's team has also been a little cooler leading up to the break, as their 3-week total is only 55 points and their 5-week total is 122 points. This will require a turnaround, if points are going to be made up down the stretch

Dale does have a healthy team, but one player is in the doghouse for his respective NHL club, as Slava Kozlov has been a healthy scratch for the Thrashers more often than not in the few weeks leading up to the break. There is some concern that he might be dealt when the roster freeze lifts, which makes some sense and it would help Dale's team immensely, if Kozlov can find his way to a new team and some ice-time. Otherwise, he's okay on the list, but watching eight Olympians.

Those are your top five teams right there. Clayton, Benson, Allan & Dale C. should be considered out of the race for first and are definitely long-shots for the money, but they are within earshot and some hot starts to the back end of the season could make all the difference.

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