Taking Stock at Halfway Point

The Tampa Bay Lightning sat atop the standings in the early weeks of the season but is no longer among the top eight teams in the East.

Vancouver’s Jason King, the NHL’s rookie of the month for November, had no points in December and was on the bench as January began.

The Detroit Red Wings’ shaky first 20 games fueled speculation that Dave Lewis would be forced out as coach and replaced by Scotty Bowman. No one’s saying that anymore, with the Red Wings leading the league in victories, 26, and goals, 145.

After 10 games, the Philadelphia Flyers were 4-2-3-1 and Coach Ken Hitchcock and Jeremy Roenick were butting heads. The Flyers lost only five times in regulation in their next 30 games, but Hitchcock and Roenick are still sparring. Some things don’t change.

Many other players and teams have changed course dramatically since the start of the season. The Florida Panthers, Washington Capitals and Carolina Hurricanes fired their coaches, and the Columbus Blue Jackets’ Doug MacLean gave up coaching but stayed on as general manager. The Chicago Blackhawks fired their general manager with little apparent gain.

The mathematical halfway point of the season will arrive Thursday, making this a good time to reflect on the best and worst so far:

* Most valuable player of the half season: Martin Brodeur, New Jersey. Honorable mention: Mats Sundin, Toronto; Ziggy Palffy, Kings.

Brodeur rarely gets more than two goals’ support but is never frazzled, having compiled a league-high eight shutouts and a 1.78 goals-against average.

Sundin helped keep the cliquish Maple Leafs from splintering after the team’s slow start and is a big part of a powerful offense.

Without Palffy, the Kings would have been an AHL team many nights. He has been among the leaders in points, power-play assists and power-play points and doesn’t take games off.

* Rookie of the half year: Trent Hunter, New York Islanders. Honorable mention: Andrew Raycroft and Patrice Bergeron, Boston.

Hunter, a right wing, leads his surging team with 15 goals.

Raycroft (2.16 goals-against, .919 save percentage) has also made an impact and earned the No. 1 goaltending job over Felix Potvin.

Bergeron, the 45th draft pick last June, gives the Bruins balance beyond their top line. He has nine goals and 22 points.

* Coach of the half year: Hitchcock. Honorable mention: Bob Hartley, Atlanta; Andy Murray, Kings.

Hitchcock gave his forwards more offensive freedom, allowing them to thrive without neglecting defense. He has a better handle on when to push and when to let up enough so players believe they’ve bested him.

Hartley held his team together through the car crash that killed Dan Snyder and injured driver Dany Heatley. He also raised standards while nurturing the Thrashers’ young talent.

Murray squeezed a lot of points out of not very much material early on but has had trouble keeping the Kings in the West chase while rivals have built momentum.

* Half season Norris: Chris Pronger, St. Louis. Honorable mention: Mathieu Schneider, Detroit; Adrian Aucoin, Islanders.

Pronger has been “the man” while Al MacInnis recovers from eye injuries. He plays about 27 minutes a game, scores, hits and leads.

Schneider has eclipsed Chris Chelios and Nicklas Lidstrom on Detroit’s defense, no easy feat.

Aucoin isn’t flashy but averages 26 minutes and is an NHL-best plus-25 in a superb defense corps.

* Half season Vezina: Brodeur. Honorable mention: Miikka Kiprusoff, Calgary; Patrick Lalime-Martin Prusek tandem, Ottawa.

Brodeur is a workhorse and a winner.

Kiprusoff, a fine acquisition by General Manager-Coach Darryl Sutter, had a league-best 1.48 goals-against average when he sprained a knee ligament last week. He might sit out six weeks.

Lalime and Prusek are the backbone for a team that’s gaining confidence and uses its depth well.

* Biggest hit (team): Thrashers. Honorable mention: Flames, San Jose Sharks, Islanders.

The Thrashers are thin on defense and inconsistent, but they don’t lack heart.

Kiprusoff carried the Flames to the top eight in the West, but they’ll struggle without him and injured centers Craig Conroy and Steven Reinprecht.

The Sharks and Islanders have turned to youngsters and are getting contributions from everywhere. They’re potential playoff dark horses.

* Biggest flop (team): Mighty Ducks and Blackhawks. Dishonorable mention: Capitals, Blue Jackets, Pittsburgh Penguins.

The physical and mental tolls of last year’s playoffs apparently still burden the Ducks, who lack cohesion and are sloppy defensively.

The Blackhawks have some decent kids but are years from respectability.

The Capitals are awful everywhere; the Blue Jackets have Rick Nash and little else. The Penguins are beyond the help of even Mario Lemieux, out indefinitely because of a hip injury.

* Biggest hit (individual): Ilya Kovalchuk, Atlanta; Nash; Pavel Datsyuk, Detroit.

Kovalchuk (22 goals) is worth the price of admission. So is Nash (23 goals).

Datsyuk’s playmaking and scoring savvy have made Red Wing fans forget Sergei Fedorov. Datsyuk and Brett Hull are the league’s most dynamic duo.

* Biggest flop (individual): Mike Modano, Dallas Stars; Jean-Sebastien Giguere, Ducks.

Modano (eight goals, 25 points) let financial woes distract him on the ice, selfishly hurting a team that must claw and scratch for goals.

Giguere isn’t the near-invincible goalie he was last spring, and the difference goes beyond minor modifications to his equipment to meet new standards. But he’s also not getting much help from a largely passionless team.

Youth Will Be Served

Team USA’s 4-3 victory over Canada on Monday in the finale of the World Junior Championships is especially heartening because it signals a renewed flow of talent through a pipeline that hasn’t gushed in a while.

The mainstays of U.S. teams in international play -- Chelios, Derian Hatcher, Bill Guerin, Modano, Brian Leetch, Roenick, Tony Amonte, Doug Weight, and Keith Tkachuk -- form the best group ever produced in the U.S. but they’re all over 30 and Chelios will soon be 42.

The group that followed had some talent in Chris Drury, Scott Gomez and Bryan Berard, but the 22-30 age group wasn’t as good as its elders.

Judging by this tournament, the next generation looks good. Center Zach Parise, a 2003 Devil draft pick, showed impressive sense and skills. Steve Werner, a Capital draft pick, scored key goals. Brady Murray, son of the Kings’ coach, played as well in Finland as he has at the University of North Dakota. Dan Fritsche, on loan from Columbus, acquitted himself well.

Coach Mike Eaves’ work also merits praise. He’s in the forefront of U.S.-born coaches, a small group that was grievously thinned with Herb Brooks’ death. Eaves probably will be on the staff of the U.S. team at this summer’s World Cup of Hockey, a welcome fresh face with fresh ideas.

Slap Shots

The New York Daily News’ list of top 10 New York sports moments for 2003 included “Chad Pennington gives Jets hope,” but omitted the Devils’ Stanley Cup victory. Laugh? Cry? You decide.

No one bit when the Phoenix Coyotes left goalie Brian Boucher available in the preseason waiver draft, and they’re now glad he escaped notice.

Boucher recorded his third consecutive shutout Sunday, extending his shutout streak to 200 minutes 45 seconds. He blanked the Kings at home and Dallas and Carolina on the road in extending his personal streak to 4-0-3.

MacLean missed a few practices before he gave up his coaching job at Columbus -- but not because of illness, as he’d originally said.

“I was sick of hockey,” he told reporters in Columbus. “It’s called the hockey flu.”

He was smart to step back. The general manager’s job is too consuming to allow time for coaching, especially with a team that must produce to retain fans in its fourth season.

Gerard Gallant, appointed interim coach, was a player and assistant coach and has the right personality to relax players who are gripping their sticks too tightly.

The Penguins are not moving to Winnipeg, no matter that Winnipeg Deputy Mayor Dan Vandal wrote to Lemieux to ask him to consider relocating the club.

Yes, an arena is being built for the minor league Manitoba Moose, and the Penguins’ plans for a new arena in Pittsburgh fell through when they were refused public financing.

But the problems that led the Jets to leave Winnipeg for Phoenix in 1996 remain unresolved: The city lacks a large corporate base to buy suites, and a 15,000-seat arena is small for a league that will rely even more on gate receipts if its rights fees shrink in the next U.S. TV deal, as is probable.

Dreaming is fine, but whatever the NHL looks like under the next labor agreement, there’s no chance Winnipeg will be part of it.