Last season was the first year of the CMHL and it was great. The season was great and the playoffs were exciting with some great upsets. Ottawa's top line tore the league up, Philadelphia had the most points, Colorado won the Stanley Cup, and with these were salavating to tear the league up again.

..but it hasn't happened.

Now a quarter into season two, seven teams that made the playoffs (New Jersey,Ottawa,Montreal,Nashville,Minnesota, and Los Angeles) are currently out of the playoff picture. What's even more surprising is the seventh team that made the playoffs that is currently in the bottom half of the league, is the defending cup champion the Colorado Avalanche.

Minnesota, New Jersey and LA are currently 28th, 29th and 30th respectively, and these teams (minus Jersey) were expected to push for the playoffs again. I mean look at LA with guys like Thornton and Jagr, Minnesota with Forsberg and Luongo. These teams can't buy a win and this trend can only go on for so long before Forsberg,Thornton,Jagr and co. are dealt for younger, cheaper talent.

Ottawa, Montreal and Colorado were supposed to fight for the presidents cup. Not fight for their playoff lives. Mogilny, Hossa, and Sundin were supposed to fight each other for the scoring races, yet are barely outscoring Eric Fehr and Andrei Kostsisyn.

But its not as bad as i make it out to be. Most of these teams are starting to pull it together, but they have to fight off teams that have been playing good all season.

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