NHL Hockey: Concentrate on Winning the Second Half

As Bear Bryant once famously said, "Don't give up at halftime, concentrate on winning the second half." And that's pretty much all that hockey players and fans can do at this point. With only 48 games to play in the season left from the lockout, the NHL teams have half the time to work for that three and a half foot trophy that is the oldest in North American sports; The Stanley Cup.

The Blackhawks defeated the reigning Stanley Cup Champions

26 teams played today, for a total of 13 games sure to keep most (if not all) hockey fans content with their lives.

Games included:

NJ-NYI 2-1
PIT-PHI 3-1
COL-MIN 2-4
OTT-WPG 4-1
CHI-LA 5-2
NYR-BOS 1-3
TOR-MTL 2-1
WSH-TB 3-6
CAR-FLA 1-5
DET-STL 0-6
CBJ-NSH 3-2
PHX-DAL 3-4
ANA-VAN 7-3

Aging Martin Brodeur picked up a key win in today's game versus the Islanders

Now anyone who even knows a moderate amount notices that some of those scores are not what is normally predictable. St. Louis shutting out Detroit? Toronto beating Montreal? Anaheim crushing Vancouver? And these are not pre-season games, sparing fans the pain of how terrible their 3rd and 4th lines are. These are the big games, with the starting lineups.

With the depart of Nicklas Lidstrom, Detroit was still expected to be a superior performance in this season, while the New Jersey Devils were expected to fall with the elderly Martin Brodeur in the crease. Pittsburgh defeated Philadelphia with the return of Wunderkid Sidney Crosby. Philadelphia appears to still have some goaltending problems in the way of Ilya Bryzgalov.

Detroit suffered a surprising shut out versus St. Louis; conference rivals

In perhaps the biggest upset of the day, the Chicago Blackhawks defeated the reigning Stanley Cup Champions, the Los Angeles Kings, possibly showing their prowess to obtain the Cup once again in the 2000s. Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane, as well as Marian Hossa and goalie Corey Crawford showed true teamwork and offensive talent, enough to take on the league for the remainder of the 47 games.

Once again, the favorites to win the Cup include San Jose, Vancouver, Tampa Bay, Pittsburgh and Boston. The West could come away with the trophy again, but as everyone knows, game 1 is far to early to be making predictions, regardless of the lack of games.

It's a Great Day for Hockey.