NHL: YOU CAN KEEP YOUR HAT ON

I was going to try to do a "week in review" for the NHL, but I only sporadically blog on this thing, and even then I don't get all my thoughts out there. Okay, so it's more like a "Weakened Review".

Let's Go Buffalo! I didn't say "let's go TO Buffalo", mind you. They had 14" of snow on Sunday night, causing massive power outages and much strife, but Sabres fans still packed the HSBC Center for the home opener vs. the Rangers. They weren't disappointed as they cruised to a 7-3 win thanks to a Briere hatter. Last night they blew out the Flyers 9-1, and skated circles around their defense. This is a scary team. They are going to be the cream of the Easter crop this season. Out west, Minnesota is off to a great start, but the Sharks are the most impressive scoring team.

Speaking of hat tricks, there have been a flurry of them lately. Three natural hat tricks were recorded in ONE DAY, on 10/12/06: Brian Gionta, Ryan Smith (who scored all 3 in a 2:01 span, breaking Gretzky's old Oilers record by 17 seconds), and Jonathan Cheechoo all netted three unexplained goals. All told there have been 8 hat tricks, 7 of them in the past 10 days: Mathieu Schneider, Ryan Smyth, Jonathan Cheechoo, Brian Gionta, Mats Sundin, Chris Drury and Williams. That's a lot of donated hats.