NORDIQUE HOLIDAY WRAP
A season of optimisum in QuebecRight away, the Quebec Nordique were off to a bad start when right after selecting Stu Barnes in the first ever CPHL dispursal draft, their expansion buddy, the Winnipeg Jets, snagged Rick Dipietro. It was a sign of things to come for the franchise. But over the last 3 seasons, GM Prottotype has assurted himself as a player in the trade market, bringing in names such as Roberto Luongo, Jaromir Jagr, Markus Naslund, amunst others. While a one year turn around wasn't in the cards, dedication to the team's future was.
The 2007/08 season started off like any of the past 3 seasons for the Nords. Questions about playoffs popped up. Could the team finaly break into the post season? Serious doubts popped up when the team moved Franchise Goalie Roberto Luongo to Pittsburgh right before the start of the season for a package including Saku Koivu, Olaf Kolzig and prospect Karl Alzner. Alzner was shipped off to Columbus, along with Jerred Smithson and Joe Pavelski for Slava Kozolv and Sami Kapanen.
Now, instead of placing each game on the shoulders of one player, the team had some great depth to work with. Something that they've never had heading into a season before.
Slava Kozlov and Olaf Kolzig paid immediate dividends as the team started the season at the top of the leaderboard, consistantly trailing Atlanta for the top spot in the league. Both Koz and Kolz statistically at the top of the league for a period of time as well.
This had raised hopes in Quebec about that elusive playoff spot that has dogged the team. That was until Slava Kozlov's sports hernia, which has put him on the shelf for atleast 10 games as of the writing of this article. Since that time the team has fallen from grace, matching the output of Nordique teams of the past.
Shane Doan was brought in from the Minnesota Wild in exchange for Saku Koivu, who had his own injury issues which he never seemed to recover from. Doan has proven to be a leader on and off the ice.
Lately the pairing of Raffi Torres and Scottie Upshall have clicked, and the other player from the Columbus trade, Sami Kapanen, and stepped up his game as well.
The defense core looks suspect on paper, but Jay McKee, Rhett Warrener, Brendan Witt, Ossi Vaananen and Denis Seidenberg have proven to be solid additions to the team. All sport a positive +/- raiting, with only Jason York sporting a -1. The team would like to improve themselves on the blueline, but defense has always been tough to aquire.
The Nordique don't expect to see Slava back on the ice until the final stretch drive. All they can do at this point is hang on for the ride, and put themselves in a position to fight for a spot when Kozlov makes it back.
97 Points got the Sabres into the 8th spot in the Gretzky conference last season. The Nordique's start has them in a good spot to stay in the top 8, but it's up to the team, and how they play until over the next 30 games. By game 60, the team should have a good indication if they will be joining the post season dance for the first time, or if they should cut their losses and look to next season.
Player Grades (10 GP or more):
Grades based on player production, depth chart not considered.
A
Slava Kozlov - GP 31 20G 19A 39PTS
Olaf Kolzig - GP 35 3.15 GAA 17W 12L 4T 2A
Shane Doan - GP 44 21G 16A 37PTS (w/ Nords - 10 GP 5G 4A 9PTS)
A-
David Vyborny - GP 40 14G 21A 35PTS
B
Raffi Torres - GP 42 14G 19A 33PTS
Scottie Upshall - GP 40 13G 18A 31PTS
Craig Conroy - GP 42 11G 21A 32PTS
B-
Sami Kapanen - GP 41 12G 12A 24PTS
Jay Mckee - GP 41 3G 19A 22PTS
C
Dan Cloutier - GP 15 3.24GAA 5W 4L 0T 0A
Kris Beech - GP 34 5G 14A 19PTS
Dennis Seidenberg - GP 42 5G 13A 18PTS
Rhett Warrner - GP 41 5G 10A 15PTS
Brendan Witt - GP 39 3G 10A 13PTS
D
Jordin Tootoo - GP 42 5G 6A 11PTS
Ossi Vaananen - GP 40 1G 9A 10PTS
Zack Stortini - GP 30 1G 7A 8PTS
Byron Ritchie - GP 36 4G 4A 8PTS
Donald Brashear - GP 36 3G 4A 7PTS
F
Jason York - GP 41 2G 4A 6PTS
John LeClair - GP 36 2G 2A 4PTS
Nordique Holiday Wrap
