in the West.

McLellan is a very good coach and he's put in a system that's fun and sometimes effective.

Kopitar looks good, a lot of people forget he had a weak 16-17 before bouncing back strong. We'll see how many years of this deal he gets through but overall pretty encouraging.

Carter we'll see what happens. He lost a lot of time to lower body injuries which usually means you are playing catch up with conditioning. So far I think he looks better than last year but not great, doesn't have that killer first step any more and he's not getting open for those kind of intermediate range shots that make him so dangerous.

I was really concerned about their defense coming into the year. It's still kind of beat but not quite as bad as I figured. Hutton was a guy a lot of Vancouver fans didn't want to see let go and for so cheap. He's pretty solid, doesn't try to do too much and makes smart plays. Bjornfot will be like that eventually but I doubt we see him play any more as a King this year. Walker has some speed and can move the puck, he's still pretty lost defensively. Outside of Doughty, Martinez and Hutton, I don't think these guys would be playing for most teams, but Walker might improve over the season and he's already giving them some energy.

They are starting out like a house on fire but fizzling. That tells me they don't have much depth. The good thing is they aren't using that as an excuse to burn out their stars. They want to keep Doughty fresh and not over-use Kopitar either. I think overall there are a lot of positives but they were starting from a pretty low point, too.