The First Place Team

One of the constants in the NHL this season has been teams rapidly shuttling in and out of the first place position in the NHL. There have been many lead changes throughout the season so far. Even a team currently in 18th place by points - the Minnesota Wild were in first place overall in late November. At All Star break the first place overall team is the Detroit Red Wings. In part this is because they have more games played than some teams (50). Both the Boston Bruins and the New York Rangers have better winning percentages in fewer games. Detroit seems like a perennial contender because of the way they went from a Stanley Cup winning team built around Steve Yzerman, Brendan Shanahan and Sergei Fedorov to a Stanley Cup winning team built around Nicklas Lidstrom, Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg. This turnover in personal occurred without Detroit going through a weak rebuilding stage. In fact the Red Wings have qualified for the playoffs every year since 1990. Continue ...