For those who have been entrenched in the MLB playoffs, and find themselves focusing more on the NFL regular season, here is what you have missed during the first month of the NHL regular season. Stats as of October 31. Scoring is up. When the calendar turned to November, around 6.1 goals were being scored in every game, up from 5.83 last season. If the trend continues, it will be the second straight season that scoring has increased. Only once since 1996 has scoring been up over six goals per game, and that was in 2005-2006. Scoring leaders. It should be no surprise that reigning 2-time MVP Alexander Ovechkin led the league in scoring after the first month, scoring 14 goals in 13 games and totaling 23 points for an outstanding pace of 1.77 points per game. (Unfortunately he is now out an unknown amount of time with an upper body injury.) Behind him is the emergence of Kings forward Anze Kopitar (21 points, 14 games), and the re-births of Patrick Marleau and Dustin Penner (19 in 14 each). In the top-30 you see a lot of familiar faces (Gaborik, Nash, Crosby, Thornton, Heatley, Alfredsson, Henrik Sedin), but the exciting part for hockey fans is the crop of great young talent finding their way onto the leaderboards (Stamkos, Bourque, Wolski, Neal, Hemsky, Rich Peverley). 26 of the top 30 point-getters in October were averaging more than a point per game. 15 of those players were on pace for over 100 points this season (Ovechkin, Kopitar, Marleau, Penner, Gaborik, Nash, Brad Richards, Kaberle ? fresh off of a 12-point week, Backstrom, Alfredsson, Stamkos, Perry, St. Louis, Peverley) with 10 more on pace for 90 or more points. Hot goalies. The reason I love the start of this season is because under the radar players are playing far better than marquee players, and goalies are no different. Colorado?s Craig Anderson, pretty much a career backup, had the most wins with 10. He had only two regulation losses, a .939 save percentage and an outstanding 2.04 goals against average. If voting for the Vezina right now, would you take those numbers over Bryzgalov?s three shutouts and 1.78GAA? Marc-Andre Fleury has shown no Stanley Cup hangover, going 9-2 with a 2.07GAA., while Ryan Miller (8-1-1, 1.86GAA) has been red-hot trying to claim the Olympic starting goalie role for Team USA and little-known Jonathan Quick is someone to watch for this year (8-3-2, 2.59GAA). Rookies. Fantastic news hockey fans: John Tavares did not lead rookies in scoring in October and the world did not stop spinning! Don?t get me wrong, I think he is and will be a fantastic player, it bothers me when one player receives so much press that it takes away from a large group of other talented players. Rangers defenseman Michael Del Zotto lead all rookies in goals (4) and points (12) and was rightfully named Rookie Of The Month by the NHL. Colorado?s Ryan O?Reilly was second with 11 points, while Tavares, Dallas? Jamie Benn and James van Reimsdyk of Philadelphia had 10. 2nd overall pick Victor Hedman had four assists in his first month, proving to be a big physical force while at times looking lost. He will be special though, he is still learning the North American style. Cold starts. Datsyuk didn?t score his first goal of the season until October 27th, and all Red Wing fans (this one included) were concerned. However since that game he has been on the score sheet frequently. Anaheim needs to be worried though, because their star forward Ryan Getzlaf has only one goal thus far. His teammate Bobby Ryan had only two goals until his two-goal game on October 30th. And has anyone seen Vincent Lecavalier?s scoring touch? The former 50-goal scorer only had one in October. Is it too early to call Calgary?s acquisition of Olli Jokinen (2 goals, 4 assists) a bust? Also slumping early is Jonathan Toews (1-4), Jason Spezza (no goals) and Nicklas Lidstrom (3 points, only 1 at even strength). And feel free to send out the search parties for the following goalies: Tim Thomas (4-4), Chris Osgood (4-2-2, 3.10GAA), Steve Mason (5-4-1, 3.48), Niklas Backstrom (5-7), and Roberto Luongo (6-6). Injuries. The list is long and troublesome of players missing extending time already this season, a lot of which could miss most of November: Ilya Kovalchuk, Daniel Sedin, Marc Savard, Roberto Luongo, Jonathan Toews, Andrei Markov, just to name a few. Different playoff picture this year? In the East, you have the usual suspects dominating early in Pittsburgh, Washington and the NY Rangers. But Buffalo is on fire with only 2 regulation losses, and the Devils and Philadelphia are still very strong teams. Montreal and Boston fans are sure hoping their teams turn things around quickly, as both started November out of the playoff picture. Atlanta started hot, winning 4 of their first 5, but have since tailed off. While the Leafs (one win) and Hurricanes (two wins) are early favourites to finish in the basement. In the West, things are even more confusing. Perennial powerhouses Detroit and Anaheim find themselves outside of the top-8 while the Sharks and Avalanche (no, that was not a typo) are dominating things early on. Also inside the top-8 are up and coming teams full of young talent ? Columbus, Phoenix, and the LA Kings. Could this year be a changing of the guard? Comments and feedback always welcome ? [email protected]