The Puck Stops Here

As I noted in my last post, scoring on the power play is significantly increased in the "new" NHL. Likely, as the season progresses, the number of penalty calls will decrease, so it may be useful to "poolies" to look at who is scoring at even strength (which is becoming a dying thing). My theory is that even strength scoring is more "safe" since it is not as dependant upon the referees calling an excessive amount of penalties. Also, in the short term it may be a way to identify players who are scoring well but in some cases have not yet earned a spot on their team's power play.

Here are the top ten even strength scorers so far this year

Name	Team	Games Played	Even Strength Goals	Even Strength Assists	Even Strength Points	Total Points
Vaclav Prospal	Tam	10	6	5	11	12
Eric Staal	Car	9	5	6	11	15
PJ Axelsson	Bos	11	3	6	9	10
Simon Gagne	Phi	7	6	2	8	11
Vincent LeCavalier	Tam	10	5	3	8	12
Craig Conroy	LA	10	3	5	8	9
Henrik Zetterberg	Det	10	3	5	8	13
Steve Eminger	Was	10	2	6	8	9
Sidney Crosby	Pit	9	1	7	8	12
Peter Forsberg	Phi	7	0	8	8	12

This list is quite different from the current NHL top scorers list.