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Friday, November 3
First-half drama plays out
in New Jersey and Philly

By Rob Parent
Special to ESPN.com

Right on cue at the season's halfway point, New Jersey's hockey team is appropriately back where it started: Ruling the Eastern Conference with an iron neutral-zone hand, strengthened by youthful charm and ages-old wisdom.

But if you were enacting a three-part tragedy, the Devils would be a smart casting call. Scott Gomez and Petr Sykora as young knights; Scott Stevens and Ken Daneyko as their perspicacious elders ... the Meadowlands representing the crumbling empire they swear to protect, but ultimately won't.


	Scott Gomez, right, has been a major story in the East thus far.

Act II will be almost as refined as the first, with this heroic band defending the honor of working-class teams by fighting off the evil, rich empires from across the river and down the turnpike en route to the regular-season title. Ah, but come time to realize their playoff fortune, the expected romantic climax will instead be catastrophe, the heroes suddenly struck down by an unseen enemy -- another eighth-place opponent playing with nothing to lose. Or worse, that unruly mob from Buffalo that always seems to get in the way of a someone's happy ending.

So once more, a seasonal tragedy will play out in the Meadow, while stories of glory could be heard from the long dormant power down the road in Philadelphia, or more likely from the surprising capital of the hinterlands called Ottawa.

As for other second-half scripts to be followed in the East ...

Cup contenders
To be called a true Stanley Cup favorite, as long as it's still the regular season, the Flyers have to be put right up there with their tragic turnpike foes. While the Devils' last two seasons have ended with stunning first-round losses to Pittsburgh and Ottawa, the Flyers have matched them with first-round disasters of their own, numbing losses to Toronto and Buffalo.

But the Flyers are beginning to show that they are the most powerful offensive force in the conference.

Mark Recchi is playing out of his mind; Rod Brind'Amour is healthy again, and there's still Eric Lindros and John LeClair to worry about. The problem with the Flyers is defensive in nature. And while the addition of Swedish battering ram Ulf Samuelsson has helped solidify them, there is still doubt that John Vanbiesbrouck can keep enough pucks out of the net to keep them solvent. With Lindros down, they needed him to do just that against Toronto last spring, and while Vanbiesbrouck played very well, he still allowed two awful goals that both counted as game-winners for the Maple Leafs.

It wouldn't be a shock if Bob Clarke made a move at the deadline to help shore up this hole in goal.

To pick a leading Stanley Cup contender, however, you always have to look at that March trading deadline for guidance, and it is there that the Senators will realize their power. All they have to do is cut loose that nagging problem named Alexei Yashin and add a center of physical stature and perhaps another mobile defenseman and Cup glory could be, should be, theirs.

And then the franchise can be sold and moved out of town.

On the outside (looking in)
Can you believe it's January and Pavel Bure is healthy? Well, he's not completely. But at least he's playing.

So are the Florida Panthers, who lost their starting goalie for the year, but behind their flashy superstar Bure and other speedy forwards, continue to rack up victories. Now that Mike Vernon has been acquired to man the crease -- he's even older than Vanbiesbrouck -- there is hope in South Florida that the Panthers can repeat that wondrous 1996 playoff run they built a fan base around.

And if they had any kind of defense, maybe there'd be some validity to the hope.

As for another team that fits perfectly in this category, those monied Rangers are still peering through the looking glass from their non-playoff position in the standings. But how long can a team with that kind of talent continue to fall on its face? Look for Brian Leetch to come back and help lead the Rangers to at least a modicum of respectability down the stretch. They might even play the part of playoff spoiler that the Sabres and Penguins have enacted so well in recent years.

On the Outside (looking down)
Speaking of those Penguins and Sabres, they still have the two finest weapons in hockey. A wizard on skates named Jaromir Jagr and a rubber magician named Dominik Hasek. But even Jagr can't outscore opponents who have no Penguins (including the always injured Tom Barrasso) blocking their route to the net. And, in case you haven't heard, Hasek is not only injured, but ready to retire.

So go the Buffalos.

But into this mix is the team so easily forgotten, the Maple Leafs.

When they won a couple of rounds behind goalie god Curtis Joseph last spring -- then started this first half with a runaway lead in the East -- people finally stopped shedding their frozen tears over the dismantling of Maple Leaf Gardens and held up Pat Quinn (or tried to) as the new icon to be admired. And he should be, because the Leafs are still at the top of their weak division despite having a group of forwards with plenty of sizzle but no substance.

Mats Sundin plays like a player half his size. Steve Thomas is old. Sergei Berezin and Jonas Hoglund ... do you know who they are? What Quinn has done is use an elite weapon called speed and mobility on defense to overcome a lot of forward shortcomings. After that, it's all up to Cujo ... but they still haven't shown they can move anywhere beyond the playoff cusp. And recently, they've been playing like a team exposed for its weaknesses.

Would you believe they'd be the team thinking about acquiring Yashin or that other superstar sitting at home, apparently ex-Carolina leader Keith Prmeau?

In Toronto, no rumor is unbelievable.

Midseason awards

MVP: Through his first 39 games, Jagr had 32 goals and 39 assists to leave the NHL scoring race all but over. If he stays healthy, he'll finish with Mario Lemieux-esque numbers, and probably lift his team into a low-seed playoff position.

Since the Penguins have one of the worst defenses in the league and a perennial deadbeat of a goalie, just doing that would be worthy of an MVP award. If, however, you could somehow dismiss the fact that Jagr is the best player on the planet, no player in the East has done more for his team than Mark Recchi.

Alternating on two scoring lines, quarterbacking the league's best power play, he has 18 goals and 38 assists, many of which were either goals or setups to win a game. Re-signed in the summer by the Flyers to what some considered a ridiculous five-year, $25 million contract, Recchi has thus far proven Bob Clarke right -- that he was the best available free agent out there, including ones named Theo.

Best rookie: Phil Esposito huffed, puffed and blew out 10 minutes of compliments in his network spot Tuesday night about the rookie find in New Jersey called Gomez. In 10,000 words or more, Phil raved about how this kid who "has all the tools" and "can just score" is a role model for "Spanish kids" everywhere. And Phil's right. If Gomez happens to be from Alaska, so what?

He's still, far and away, the leading contender for a Calder Trophy.

Best coaching job: Herb Brooks.

Just kidding.

No, this Eastern honor goes not to an Olympian coach, but an NHL veteran who is performing Olympian feats in Florida -- Terry Murray.

Aside from Bure being healthy, is there any reason why the Panthers are running away with the Southeast Division? OK, the other clubs in that division stink. But at 23-14-3-3, Florida has an impressive record to go along with its current No. 3 seed status. Murray is driving career lackies like Viktor Kozlov and Robert Svehla to put out maximum efforts, and he's even tried to re-light a torch in Ray Sheppard by showing him all the disrespect he deserves.

Along the way, the Panthers' weak defense didn't hinder them from being the conference team with the second-least goals scored against it. Coaching plays a large part in that.

Biggest surprise: Might have been Trevor Kidd's ascension as an elite goaltender until he was injured in a skills exhibition. Could be that Gomez's impact in New Jersey qualifies for this, but then, any rookie with an immediate impact is a surprise. And how about Neil Smith and his bottomless budget not pulling off a deal for Yashin or Primeau yet? You can't get any more surprising than that.

But in keeping with the player-award program, Recchi gets this nod. Not only is he second to Jagr in the league scoring race, but he's created this dream half after slogging through a season that included pneumonia, concussions, migraine headaches and a relieving trade from Montreal to Philadelphia last March. He not only is the offensive force he used to be with the Flyers in the early '90s, but also is a much more complete player.

Biggest bust: In honor of the $60 million Rangers' 11th-place standing in the East, we take one of their many free-agent symbols and hold him up as an example of the disgrace money can bring to sports:

Valeri Kamensky signs a contract that pays him $6 million a year. From the start of training camp, he comes up with every sort of malady imaginable. Yet he has managed to suit up for 18 games so far, scoring all of one goal, four assists and logging a minus-7 rating in that short time.

There is much to criticize the Rangers front office for. But when you look at Kamensky, you know there is much more wrong with this league than just one wealthy team telling its president and general manager to buy players at will in every effort to win a championship.

Kamensky is every fan's argument for the institution of a salary cap.

Congratulations.

Rob Parent covers the NHL for the Delaware County (Pa.) Times. His NHL East column appears every week on ESPN.com.


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