Coyotes, Avs no pushovers for Blackhawks this week

When the Blackhawks' schedule came out last July, it looked like a chance to pocket 4 easy points this week with road games to Phoenix and Colorado - two clubs picked by many to finish side by side at the bottom of the Western Conference standings.

It doesn't look like an easy week anymore, not with the Coyotes and Avalanche playing some of the best hockey in the NHL.

The biggest reason for the quick starts in Phoenix and Colorado has been goaltending, where the Avs' Craig Anderson and the Coyotes' Ilya Bryzgalov have combined to lose only 10 of 29 games.

Anderson has been brilliant with a 10-3-2 record and league-best .936 save percentage while Bryzgalov already has pitched 3 shutouts.

"Those two guys have probably been the MVPs of the league right now," Hawks coach Joel Quenneville said. "Both guys are giving them a lot of confidence and their teams are checking well in front of them. Both guys are fueling the success of their team."

The Coyotes' financial and ownership problems haven't affected the team's play under new coach Dave Tippett.

It was finally settled in court this week that the NHL would take over the day-to-day operation of the Coyotes until the team could be sold to a new owner that would keep it in Arizona.

"Phoenix is a team where people probably underestimated them with all the things that were going on away off the ice," Quenneville said.

USA! USA!

The three goalies invited to the U.S. Olympic camp at Seven Bridges in Woodridge last August were Boston's Tim Thomas, Buffalo's Ryan Miller and Los Angeles' Jonathan Quick.

While Thomas and Miller are locks for Vancouver, Quick may not be, especially with the Colorado's Craig Anderson, the Park Ridge native and Barrington High School product, off to the best start of any goalie in the league.

"Craig Anderson suddenly has put himself in a very good spot by how he's played up to this point," Maple Leafs and Team USA coach Ron Wilson told ESPN.com. "But we still have two months to make up our mind."

More big hurts

Some of the NHL's biggest stars continue to go down with injuries.

Washington's Alex Ovechkin is the latest big name to get hurt. He's week-to-week with an upper body strain, according to the Capitals.

Ovechkin joined the list of sidelined stars that includes Evgeni Malkin, Ilya Kovalchuk, Jonathan Toews, Johan Franzen, Marc Savard, Daniel Sedin, Sergei Gonchar and Mike Modano.

Around the rinks

• The St. Louis Blues are 1-5 at home and have scored only 7 goals at Scottrade Center, 1 of them an empty netter.

"Enough is enough here," center Brad Boyes said. "We're not playing tough."

The Blues started slowly last year as well before going on a tear late to make the playoffs.

"We need to stop talking about last season," coach Andy Murray said.

• Another team off to a slow start is Boston, a team many predicted would win the Stanley Cup. The Bruins took a 6-6-1 record into Tuesday's game in Detroit.

"We were very ordinary last year in October," coach Claude Julien told The Boston Globe. "You can't expect it'll happen again, but our game is coming around."

The Bruins' power play was just 6-for-42 in the first 11 games without the injured Marc Savard and Milan Lucic, and with Phil Kessel having been traded to Toronto.

• The Devils' 7-0 start on the road is the best since Buffalo went 10-0 away from home to begin the 2006-07 season.

Rumor mill

It's no secret the Detroit Red Wings are trying to trade for a goalie and the latest name to be on the way to Hockeytown is Martin Biron of the Islanders. - Two coaches said to be on the hot seat a month into the season are Paul Maurice in Carolina and Randy Carlyle in Anaheim. The Hurricanes are off to a 2-8-3 start.

Expensive ice time

With the Winter Classic set for Boston's Fenway Park on Jan. 1 (the Bruins against the Flyers), The Boston Globe reports the ice is being made available starting Dec. 18 for corporate events or pickup games.

All it will cost to play in the shadow of the Green Monster is $7,500 to $10,000. That's per hour.

The list

Five players off to terrible starts:

1. Vesa Toskala, Toronto: The Maple Leafs' No. 1 goalie was 0-2-2 coming out of the weekend with a 5.13 goals-against average and .836 save percentage. GM Brian Burke would like to trade him, but no luck so far.

2. Jonathan Cheechoo, Ottawa: No goals yet for one of the guys the Senators got from San Jose for Dany Heatley.

3. Mike Komisarek, Toronto: The Leafs' big free agent acquisition on defense was minus-9 and without a point before Tuesday's games.

4. Chris Higgins, N.Y. Rangers: The key guy the Rangers got back from Montreal in the Scott Gomez trade has no goals and now is on the trade block.

5. David Backas, St. Louis: A 31-goal scorer a year ago, he has 1 goal and 1 assist in 12 games.

Ex-Hawk of the week

How good would the Hawks' defense look today with James Wisniewski back there?

Wisniewski, dealt to Anaheim at the trade deadline last March for Sammy Pahlsson, has 9 assists in nine games for the Ducks, is plus-6 and playing more than 25 minutes a night.

While Pahlsson helped the Hawks in the playoffs last spring to a certain degree, it's a deal former GM Dale Tallon likely would want back.