I heard about Darren, and listened to him on a couple of hockey radio shows on the west coast. I loved his straight forward approach and analysis on the progress allot of teams have made over the first quarter of the season, I sent him an email and he kindly agreed to take my questions in a Q&A format
Q – Darren, who emerges from the west as quiet and under-rated so far ?
A – Watch out for Colombus, San Jose and the St. Louis Blues, I know the east gets allot of noise on Detroit, Chicago, Vancouver and Dallas but not allot of people are talking about what guys like Rick Nash (Clb) and Paul Kariya (Stl) are doing in the west.
Q - Have you been watching any of the eastern conference teams ? Any favorites ?
A – I love teams that have a dramatic atmosphere around them, teams that have great elements that are the life … well and the death of that team when they don’t show up, Tampa has been a blast to watch through their ups and downs, I like watching Toronto and Pittsburgh as well.
Q - How does the northeast look for you and how do these teams compare to any teams in the west ?
A - Ottawa has the ability to take it all this year, but I think we're starting to realize that without Daniel Alfredson, it's a team that depends on Spezza who I compare allot to Alex Kovalev in his prime and Danny Heatley who is a tempermental scorer. This team is in trouble as the other lines take advantage of that pep produced by line 1 to drive games home.
Toronto has an incredible game breaker in Mats Sundin but is starting to look allot like the New York Yankees, older guys who are trying their best
Buffalo looks good but I think that team still has a persona to build and I'm hoping a Tim Connolly finds a groove and profile in this league, I'll go as far as saying Tim Connolly can be allot like Jason Spezza when all cylinders are clicking.
Montreal is a team that keeps teasing you but always ends up dissapointing, I feel that they could have made the Cup Finals that year when Koivu came back from Cancer, they were a better team than the Canes. But it's a team that loses itself in it's identity, I look at players like Higgins and Latendresse, they still can't figure what kind of game the team wants from them.
good coaching gives you that plus.
Q - What would a team like Montreal need to be a mainstay top team ?
A - Allot, give those guys stable goaltending, give them consistent scoring, give them smart players and dangerous snipers, they have good guys coming up but a team can't make the Stanley cup finals with six fifty point guys, you need an impact guy.
