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There has been a small, but noticeable shuffle at the bottom of the Western Conference standings, where the races are far less compelling, unless you're a team in the middle stages of a rebuilding phase that can use maybe one more blue-chip piece of the rebuilding puzzle before making that final push towards respectability.

It's mostly the result of a Phoenix Coyotes surge that brought them past what was once known as the .500 mark in the pre-shootout, pre-overtime loss era. The Calgary Flames earned major kudos this past week for sweeping a six-game road trip that put them in a playoff spot for one of the first times this season, but the Coyotes did almost as well. On the heels of Thursday night's 2-1 shootout win over the San Jose Sharks, the Coyotes won five of six on a trip that started and ended in California, but also featured a swing through the three Manhattan-area teams, plus the Philadelphia Flyers. Of late, everybody's been beating up the New York Rangers (and after an exceptional start, goaltender Henrik Lundqvist is looking decidedly ordinary), but it was a heartening place for Coyotes' coach Wayne Gretzky to win, given that the Great One finished his playing career in Manhattan and Phoenix hasn't played there since the lockout ended.

The Coyotes have played a disproportionate number of games on the road this season — 20 of their first 33 — but their 12 road wins (compared to eight losses) is tied for most in the league with the Sharks.

In what was mostly two awful years for Gretzky on a personal level (starting with Canada's Olympic performance in Turin two Februarys ago and the spillover of Operation Slapshot, the New Jersey state police gambling probe into his personal life), this was not a bad way to finish off 2007 — and also demonstrated just how much smarter a coach anyone can be at the NHL level as soon as they get good goaltending.

For that, the Coyotes can thank Gretzky's old friend Brian Burke, the Anaheim Ducks' general manager (who, in point of fact, is more Glen Sather's old friend). Burke put his de facto back-up, Ilya Bryzgalov on waivers to fulfill a promise that he made to the quirky off-beat Russian — that if he couldn't find a home for him via the trade market, he'd give him the opportunity to find a home as an NHL starter by essentially giving him his release. At the time, the Coyotes were trying to figure out which of three new faces (Mikael Tellqvist, Alex Auld or David Aebischer) was the answer in goal, after deciding not to bring Curtis Joseph back. It turns out none were (although Auld might be the answer in Boston — another story for another day).

Interestingly, Gretzky was the first person I spoke to at the start of training camp for the 2007-08 season. He brought his Coyotes to Anaheim for the start of the exhibition on a Sunday in mid-September, after only having been in training camp for three days. At that time, Gretzky talked about how difficult it was to start a new season, with so many of his former long-time associates (Michael Barnett, Cliff Fletcher, Rich Nairn and others) put out to pasture by the change at the top of the organization and his primary assistant coach, Rick Tocchet, still in limbo as a result of his gambling admissions (Tocchet returns to the Coyotes' bench in early February).

Gretzky was unexpectedly low-key about his team's expectations, knowing they would be extraordinarily young and inexperienced (with four legitimate NHL rookies on the roster, plus a handful of others in their first couple of pro seasons).

Evaluations were still in the early stages, but Gretzky acknowledged in a whisper that a couple of new faces, Peter Mueller and Martin Hanzal, would probably make the team because there weren't a lot of other options and thus would get a chance to learn their trade at the NHL level. Mueller is second among NHL rookies in goal-scoring and potted the shootout winner versus the Sharks. Along with Radim Vrbata, Hanzal plays with Fredrik Sjostrom on the VHS line, which has provided some scoring on an offensively challenged team. On that day in September, near his old stomping grounds in Los Angeles, Gretzky assessed the Coyotes' challenge by saying: "Obviously, we've got an uphill climb. We're in a tough situation here. We're an organization that's gone the young route and we're going to stay that course for now and see what happens here."

However, Gretzky also suggested: "Because of the salary cap and salary structure, (a turnaround) can happen like that," he said, snapping his fingers, before concluding: "I will say this - the skill we have today is higher and better than it's ever been, which is a testament to the scouting group and what we've done in the last three years, not just today. It's exciting to have some of these guys coming."

MORE ON THE NHL'S BOTTON FEEDERS: All those extra points awarded for shootout victories and losses has created a league in which only five teams officially have more losses than wins in the standings through Friday. Of those five, three (the Nashville Predators, Atlanta Thrashers and Tampa Bay Lightning only need a decent week to get to that level). That leaves just two teams in the ranks of the genuinely awful — the Washington Capitals (19 losses compared to only 13 wins, but better since they made the switch behind the bench from Glen Hanlon to Bruce Boudreau) and the Los Angeles Kings, who lead the league with 21 defeats against only 12 victories and have now slipped eight points back of the Coyotes in the race for 13th place in the Western Conference.

The only time the Kings have been remotely respectable this year is a point after they sent Jonathan Bernier back to junior and installed Jason LaBarbera as their No. 1 goalie. LaBarbera had a good run there for a while, before getting injured. Since then, they've given J.S. Aubin a look; were forced to play rookie Jonathan Quick because Dan Cloutier, the other goalie with NHL experience on their roster, is injured in the minors. The Kings have been respectable offensively by today's NHL standards, but their 119 goals-against in 35 games makes them the most porous team defensively in the league — a curious development considering they have some decent personnel on the blue line (Rob Blake, Lubomir Visnovsky, Brad Stuart, Tom Preissing, Jaroslav Modry and youngster Jack Johnson). Of course, without effective goaltending, it tends to all go for naught.

After a fast start — scoring at a goal-a-game pace for the first 10 games - Mike Cammalleri has struggled to find the back of the net. Alexander Frolov has missed games with injuries. The three primary free-agent acquisitions up front — Michal Handzus, Ladislav Nagy and Kyle Calder — have combined for just 13 goals.

Apart from Anze Kopitar, who is rapidly evolving into a front-line NHL talent, and Dustin Brown (who was injured in the game against the Detroit Red Wings earlier this week, but is showing signs of becoming a young power forward), they have been pretty awful — and getting little from the bottom end of their roster.

About the only saving grace, from a Kings' perspective is that, if there were ever two years to sink to the bottom of the NHL barrel, this year and next year might be the ones. In 2008, teams in the draft lottery can choose from among Steve Stamkos, plus a trio of highly regarded defencemen: Alex Pietrangelo, Drew Doughty and Luke Schenn. Stamkos, Doughty and Schenn will all be on display when the world junior championships begin on Boxing Day in the Czech Republic. In 2009, the draft class gets even more interesting — with John Tavares leading the way, but also a couple of others coming.

Hockey Canada's chief scout these days is Al Murray who — in a curious twist of fate — held the job with the Kings for years and is responsible for Kopitar, Brown, Cammalleri and Bernier, who will likely be Canada's starter for the tournament. Murray and his staff were dismissed by Kings' general manager Dean Lombardi following last year's world junior tournament; as a result, Lombardi's new team was responsible for the 2007 draft, in which the Kings selected defenceman Thomas Hickey fourth overall in last year's draft, which was a bit of reach, given that the various scouting combines mostly had him ranked towards the end of the first round. (Most thought that the Kings would opt for Karl Alzner, captain of this year's squad, who was subsequently chosen by the Capitals fifth overall). At their current level of performance, the Kings look as if they'll be back in the draft lottery again this June.

According to Murray, "2008 is going to be a strong draft and 2009 might take it to another level. The '91 year in Canada is unbelievable and then you add in John Tavares and Viktor Hedman, the best Swedish player, as a couple of late '90s — those two guys would compete for first overall this year as (players born in) 1990. It might be comparable to that (2003) draft, with all the 1985-borns, where almost the entire first round has become top-end players. That draft two years from now, is going to rival that by the looks of it, when you consider the contributions the '91-born players are already making to their major-junior teams. They're all big parts of their team. The Swedes also have another '91, (Magnus) Svensson-Paajarvi, he's the first player that young ever to play for Sweden at the world junior, and he's a very good player. He played for their (world under-18) team in the tournament we were at this summer and was very impressive."

THIS AND THAT: Just a guess, but probably not many people would have anticipated that on the weekend before Christmas, with almost half the NHL season in the books, that Chicago Blackhawks' Patrick Sharp would have as many goals as Sidney Crosby. Sharp scored his 15th on Wednesday night, sixth while playing a man short, and then added his 16th on a power play in a win over slumping Nashville. There is a little bit of a Chicago-Philadelphia pipeline. Just before the holiday roster freeze went into effect last week, the Flyers reacquired defenceman Jim Vandermeer from the Blackhawks in exchange for Ben Eager. Though it represents something of a minor deal (all you ever really see at the NHL level prior to January), it seemed a little one-sided in the Flyers' favor. They needed to add some grit on the blue line, given Derian Hatcher's ongoing problems with his right knee, and were willing to give up an energy forward (albeit one who plays only about six minutes per game) in order to do so. Vandermeer, who played for Flyers' coach John Stephens in the minors for years, was seeing upwards of 20 minutes of ice time in Chicago. The Blackhawks were prepared to give him up because they think Cam Barker, the third player chosen overall in 2004, is ready for regular NHL duty. It was just a little over two years ago that the Blackhawks pilfered Sharp from the Flyers for Matt Ellison and a third-round pick. Sharp was playing mostly for the Flyers' minor-league affiliate the Phantoms at the time of the trade, making 66 NHL appearances over a three-year period and scoring 10 goals in that span. With the Blackhawks, he managed nine in the 50 games he played at the end of the '06 season; was a 20-goal scorer for them last year (three of them shorthanded) and is on his way to a career high this year. That improved secondary scoring is one of the reasons the Blackhawks are staying close in the playoff race. Turnarounds, as Gretzky implied, sometimes can happen in a hurry, once a team gets a handful of maturing young prospects and the odd unexpected production from a relative unknown. In Chicago, it isn't coming just from Sharp either. They are also getting good work from Dustin Byfuglien, who they've been using as a swing man thus far this season — sometimes at forward, sometimes at his natural position, defence. Byfuglien is one of those long-shot draft choices that bloomed late and now looks like a legitimate NHL player. Drafted 245th overall in 2003, the Minneapolis-born 22-year-old played for Chicago Mission of the MAHL as a 17-year-old before moving to the WHL, where he played parts of four seasons with Brandon and then Prince George. After spending most of last season with their AHL affiliate in Norfolk (where he scored 44 points in 63 games), Byfuglien scored his eighth of the season (in only 21 games) against Nashville Wednesday. Eager, incidentally, had zero points in the 23 games he dressed for in Philadelphia, but he assisted on Byfuglien's goal in his Blackhawks' debut.

THE SHOOTOUT: Not everyone is in love with the shootout, but you won't hear a discouraging word about it in Edmonton, even though the Oilers finally lost a game in the penalty-shot contest (to the Dallas Stars, who ruled the shootout roost in the first post-lockout year, winning 12 games via that method). That loss dropped the Oilers to 10-2 in games decided by a shootout, still a remarkable record and the primary reason why they're not down there with the Kings, trying to avoid 30th overall (which doesn't help them at all, given that the Ducks own their No. 1 pick in the '08 draft). To put it another way, of the Oilers' 16 victories, only six have come in regulation time (versus their new arch-rivals, the Ducks, twice, plus single wins over Calgary, Columbus, Phoenix and Philadelphia). Were you to subtract those 10 extra points (which would have been ties in the old days), the Oilers would have exactly six victories in 35 games. It's hard to imagine that even a popular and accomplished coach such as Craig MacTavish could have survived that kind of start … One more sign that the Blackhawks are gradually moving into the 21st century. Newly installed president John McDonough, whom they convinced to join them from the Cubs last month, ended the Blackhawks' long estrangement with Bobby Hull this week, bringing him back into the fold as an official team ambassador, along with another former Chicago great Stan Mikita. They are two of only four Blackhawks' players to have their numbers retired; Hull and Chicago have been on the outs for the better part of 35 years, or after he bolted the team in a contract dispute to join the Winnipeg Jets of the WHA.

INJURY UPDATE: That groin injury suffered by Colorado Avalanche captain Joe Sakic is taking forever to heal. Sakic was scheduled to practice with the Avs Thursday after missing 10 games and probably won't be able to play before Christmas. Meanwhile, the Flyers' Simon Gagne — at 18 consecutive games and counting on the sidelines recovering from a concussion, skated lightly and took some contact at practice this week, but they're going slow with him too. An early January return is the most optimistic guess for Gagne ... Meanwhile, the Bruins' Patrice Bergeron took his first tentative steps back by getting on an exercise cycle at Bruins' practice this week. Unlike Gagne, who is on the ice again, Bergeron is limited strictly to light off-ice workouts, which can get progressively heavier, provided he has no setbacks (headaches or other symptoms of the severe concussion he suffered at the hands of the Flyers' Randy Jones 10 games into the season … NHL scoring leader Vincent Lecavalier gained some ground on Crosby in the NHL all-star balloting this week, but Crosby is still miles ahead (more than 380,000 votes to a little over 168,000 for Lecavalier). What's interesting is the absence of a Vote For Rory write-in campaign this season. It's not clear if the NHL took steps to prevent such a manipulation of the system, or if simply nobody bothered. There are three write-in candidates attracting attention — the Canadiens' Alexei Kovalev, the Flyers' Mike Richards and the Leafs' Nikolai Antropov — but not enough to make them legitimate candidates for a spot on the starting roster for the game to be played at the end of January in Atlanta. Kovalev is a little over 56,000 in the voting, which is noteworthy only insofar as that puts him one spot ahead of the Rangers' Jaromir Jagr in the balloting. Jagr had two assists in the loss to the Wild where Marian Gaborik scored five goals, but he is in the midst of another one of those quirky seasons in which he just doesn't seem to be there all the time. Coming out of the lockout, Jagr had a strong year and almost won the scoring title; last year, he finished eighth in the scoring race despite playing with a bad shoulder all year. This year? More was expected, after the Rangers signed Scott Gomez and Chris Drury as free agents and the expectation was that his shoulder would be stronger. He must miss Michael Nylander more than anyone would care to admit.

AND FINALLY: The problem, annually, with acknowledging the variety of hockey books on the market prior to Christmas is that so many of them were written by friends, thus making objectivity more problematic. As colleague David Shoalts noted in his amusing blog post ("Meet Me") about a month ago, when he was flogging his own recent addition to the publishing world, it seems to fall heavily into the category of shameless self-promotion. The two books attracting the heaviest attention, sales-wise, are Bob McCown's The 100 Greatest Hockey Arguments, ghosted by Globe colleague David Naylor; and Hockey Night In Canada By The Numbers, written by Scott Morrison (in the interests of full disclosure, I did some leg work on his behalf, as part of CBC's Satellite Hot Stove team last year). I also did the ghost-writing for Dave King's King Of Russia, A Year In The Russian Super League, which has received many kind critical notices, from newspapers across the country and also the hockey-blogging community, including Joe Pelletier's Hockey Book Reviews. Of the rest, the most unique book is Cold-Cocked On Hockey by Lorna Jackson, about her passion for the Vancouver Canucks. Dave Bidini, who knows a little about hockey and music, called it a "real triumph" and "one of the best hockey books of our era." Finally, in an odd bit of timing, Jack Falla — who along with Roy McGregor — really is the best hockey author of our era, has produced his first novel. Called Saved and to be published in January by St. Martins/Dunne in the United States (thus missing out on Christmas book sales), it is a Dan Jenkins-ish look at the world of professional hockey, through the eyes of a 31-year-old Boston Bruins' goaltender, Jean-Pierre Savard. Saved is to publishing what Slap Shot was to cinema, a smart look at the sport, with a slightly ribald edge. Publishers Weekly called it a "hilarious look at how players, coaches and owners get through a grueling season" in the quest for the Stanley Cup. It too is worth running down.