In every professional sport, each and every high paid player knows that they get paid to perform in the clutch. When their team is down, that is when they need to put them on their shoulders and say to themselves, "I'm going to take us to this win. From the Lakers' Kobe Bryant to the Red Wings' Pavel Datsyuk all the way to Yankees' captain Derek Jeter, each and every one of those players are high profile players that the team can look to in the time of need. But every year, there always seems to be those that have popped out and surprised us all. They may be cast offs from other teams or draft picks that have matured faster than everyone expected. One way or another, these patch of players have breakout seasons that teams hope they can continue to have seasons after seasons from now. While others, just have surprising seasons, and are considered one-hit wonders.
The NHL is no different. All hockey fans remember the Sharks' Jonathan Cheechoo's 56 goal, 93 point year in 2005-06, and now, Cheechoo is having trouble even hitting 56 points, let alone goals. On the flip side, Washington's shifty offensive defenseman Mike Green has continued his stellar performance from a year ago. After just 12 point in 70 games played 2 seasons ago, Green played in all 82 games last year and had 18 goals (led all NHL defenseman) and 56 points with a +6 rating. Green's stellar play continued onto this year, as he has 12 goals and 33 points at the midway point of the season. The 2008-09 season has provided us with more than one surprise, here are the top three players that have surprised everyone at this point of the season.
#1 Boston Bruins, C, David Krejci:
The 2004 63rd overall draft pick has come out and surprised everyone this year. Krejci has not missed a game playing in all 47 games so far for the Eastern Conference best Bruins. He is 2nd only behind Marc Savard in team scoring posting 17 goals and 52 points, it also puts him 3rd in goals scored behind Phil Kessel and Michael Ryder. This all coming off a season where he was a 3rd, sometimes 4th line grinder, and posting just 6 goals and 27 points.
#2 Boston Bruins, G, Tim Thomas:
There's a reason why the Bruins' record looks so good this year, and with the help of Krejci and the rest of the offense, 34-year old Tim Thomas has given opposing offenses a headache this year. Thomas came out this year and almost literally took the starting job from Manny Fernandez and has run with it. Starting 29 of the 47 games, Thomas has posted a 20-5-4 record with a NHL best .937 save percentage. He has already matched his number of shutouts from last year and his 2.09 goals against average is 4th in the league.
#3 Columbus Blue Jackets, G, Steve Mason:
Coming into the season, it seemed the Jackets had no goaltending problems. But when top goaltender Pascal LeClaire struggled out of the gates, and then went down in early in January to ankle surgery, the problem arose. Enter Steve Mason. The 3rd round draft pick of the Blue JacketsJackets in the 2006 entry draft was slated to be in the minors for another long while for more seasoning, but Mason has proved there's no need for that. Mason has since started in 30 games, posting a 17-11-2 record and NHL bests in goals against average with 2.05 and 6 shutouts, including 3 straight games with a shutout from December 27th to the 31st.
Terence Pang - Welcome to my Suite101. I'm a university student studying in writing in hopes to become a sports writer one day. I specialize in a variety ...
