11-15-2018, 10:07 PMGoonerBear Wrote: Who would you say is the surprise team in the standings? (for good or bad)

It's about time the North Stars made significant advances in the standings. Chris York's monumental efforts had been going to waste for seasons while he lorded over the League in scoring, though even he could not carry Toronto to playoffs alone. With a team effort and still putting on a high-level performance thus far, it's a good surprise for TNS to lead the East halfway through.

I think a huge reason for Toronto's success is the play of goalie Michael McFadden. McFadden leads the league in every category, with a .933 save percentage, a GAA of 1.92 (the only goalie below 2.00), 3 shutouts, and 19 wins. With these numbers he is a shoe in for the John McBride Award and maybe even a chance at an MVP, which would be remarkable for a goalie to win.

There are some worrying factors with the Stars though. They are a big hitting team and hit the most in the league (which is actually good), but it does get them in penalty trouble, as they are the 2nd most penalized team in the league (only behind Buffalo). They do have a middle of the pack penalty kill at just over 80%, but really strong teams in the playoffs will make teams pay for taking penalties, so they are best to reduce their PIMs once they are in the playoffs (they can probably get away with it for the remainder of the season). The other concern is their face-off success, as they are 7th at just over 50%. The main worry here is that they are only better than one playoff team (Texas), and will probably be at a bigger disadvantage come playoff time when they match-up against the elite face-off teams. A team that doesn't control the puck is chasing the puck, and that can also lead to penalties, so their two problems feed into each other.

With all this said, I do think Toronto finishes first in the East and has a good chance of having home-ice throughout the playoffs, which should be a key for a long, Cup run.