MVN: Most Valuable Network

1. Columbus - This is personal preference, but I'm putting Columbus as my big surprise this season. There's always a difference between knowing a team has talented players and seeing those players show up, perform, and gel together at the professional level. This team had for quite some time been "Rick Nash and...those other guys" but this year has been different. First the Jackets went and pilfered R.J. Umberger from the Flyers, and youngsters Jakub Voracek and Derikc Brassard showed up ready to roll, and the team is suddenly in serious playoff contention.

Not only has their start been a surprise, but they continue to shine. The team was supposed to be dead in the water when Brassard was lost for the season, but a continued resurgence by the long-maligned Kristian Huselius and the continued great play of rookie goalie Steve Mason - only 18 goals allowed in 14 games prior to Saturday's loss at St. Louis - have kept this team playing well and thinking about June.

2. Chicago - You'd think with how often I talk about them in gushing tones that I'm actually a fan of the Blackhawks, not the Penguins. As I said with Columbus, it's been known for a while that the talent is there, but seeing it all actually come to fruition and succeed on an actual "winning games" basis is even better. They kind of got dominated by Detroit and need another year before they can finally catch and pass the Red Wings, but Kane, Toews and Co. have definitively arrived at the NHL level and aren't going anywhere. Probably. You never know when someone might want to trade.

3. Ottawa - What the hell happened here? The Senators are now 3-9-1 since beating Pittsburgh a month ago, which puts the team at a rather lame-duck 40-46-14 since winning 16 of 19 at the start of last season. Problems exist everywhere - Alex Auld and Martin Gerber are rotating in net, but Auld hasn't given up fewer than 4 goals since that Pittsburgh game, and Gerber has been better but not really good since the team's close loss to Chicago. Nobody beyond Alfredsson and Spezza (yes, you, Dany Heatley) is scoring on anything resembling a regular basis. Mid-season is a strange time to make big changes, but I personally have never considered current GM/former coach Brian Murray to be among the best at his job, and he is one of the few things that hasn't changed during this span.

4. Doug Weight - A true surprise here. Weight is about to turn 38 and sticks out like a bit of a sore thumb in New York for a terrible Islanders team. He sticks out not just because he's an ugly old man on a very young team, but also because a team that struggles to get consistent scoring from any player has a guy like Weight who has actually found his old 65-70 point scoring touch with almost no help. He has always been a solid contributor, but looks to have rebounded back towards his old self a little bit this season. He will be a huge boost to some contender's power play.

5. Atlanta - The Thrashers have been fairly terrible this year, to the point that their coach just said on Sunday that the team's "give-a-crap level is at zero." (Is that even measurable?) In spite of the kind of poor play that caused them to get embarrassed 4-1 by Tampa Bay, they have had a number of surprises. Everybody knows about Kovalchuk, but center Todd White is on pace for his best offensive season since his glory days in Ottawa and youngster Bryan Little, expected to be a third or fourth line guy, is suddenly on pace for a ridiculous 40 goals.

6. Craig Anderson/Tomas Vokoun - Vokoun spent last season as Florida's starting goalie and has continued in that role this season after a number of solid, if injury-prone, years with Nashville. Anderson appeared in 22 total games each of the past two seasons and had been as much of an afterthought with Florida as he had been with Chicago. Vokoun makes $5.5 million, Anderson makes roughly 1/10 of that. Vokoun has rarely put together consecutive strong starts and has been pulled early from his last two games. Anderson has given up 4 or 5 goals in three of his last four starts, but has otherwise been strong (as evidenced by his 2.35 GAA - second in the league). The two have combined to allow 30 goals in the last 10 games, and that is including two shutouts by Vokoun. Perhaps these two can somehow be genetically molded together?

7. Minnesota - The Wild may not be the most massive surprise. They've always been a team that has been extra-solid defensively and struggles to score, which coach Jacques Lemaire doesn't mind, but it just isn't enough anymore, as a team that finished one win shy of 100 points last season is now struggling to stay above .500 in spite of going undefeated in their first seven games. The team's offense has long been Marian Gaborik and not really anyone else on a consistent basis, and it has certainly showed this year, as the team has only lost one time when they've scored more than three goals but has only done so nine times. Things are not going to get better soon, as Gaborik, who had only played in six games so far this year, has now had hip surgery and will not be back until March at the earliest.

8. Boston - Just like Chicago and Columbus, Boston has had the young talent, but it has certainly come of age all at once, which is great for the Bruins right now. The Patriots aren't in the playoffs and the Celtics have cooled since their hot start, so the Bruins are peaking just when Boston fans have not much else to watch, so the arena might be overflowing sooner than later. If only people would stop hitting Patrice Bergeron in the head...

9. San Jose - It might seem strange to see San Jose on this list, since they were a very strong team last year and weren't expected to drop off this year. However, their post-season woes last year were directly linked to a lack of leadership, both vocally and on the ice, by Patrick Marleau and Joe Thornton, among others. Those two finally came to play this year, and it's a telling sign that youngster Joe Pavelski is on pace to finish the year with 25 goals and 60 points and is only sixth on the team in scoring. It has to go down as a surprise that a team which finished 2008 on a middling 3-1-3 run could still play sub-.500 hockey the rest of the season and break the 100-point barrier.

10. Carolina - Who would've thought that a coaching change would actually work for these guys? They're still struggling every now and then, as evidenced by their need to erase a 2-0 deficit against Tampa in their most recent victory, but the team is now 8-3-2 in the past month and is actually starting to get scoring from players not named Staal. We'll find out what they're really made of when they go on the road to play Boston this Saturday.