Sound familiar?

"After subtracting the NHL's top two teams (the Detroit Red Wings and Ottawa Senators) and its bottom one (the Washington Capitals), there were 27 teams separated by 10 points as of Thursday morning, when the first quarter had officially concluded. In the West, only eight points separated the bottom-dwelling Los Angeles Kings from the No. 2 team in the conference, the San Jose Sharks. In the East, 10 points separated the 14th-place Buffalo Sabres from the second-ranked New York Rangers — and the Sabres held three games in hand."

- Erik Duhatschek

So, while only 15 points separates the top 8 teams in the FUNHL, a similar pattern is exhibited in the NHL where the logham behind Ottawa and Detroit is pretty serious.

I suspect the two trends may be related. With parity in scoring in the NHL, comes parity in performance in the FUNHL. Interestingly, the top players from the teams in the NHL are not dispersed widely among FUNHL teams. The Severed Heads had (until last week) the top LW and D-man (and now holds the top LW and TG), to go with converted to backup Ray Emery. The Personal Vendetta are stacked with Red Wings - yet neither of these FUNHL teams have separated themselves from the FUNHL pack the way the Red Wings and Senators have.

Why? Depth. The Severed Heads have had ineffective goaltending (after drafting both of the starters for these clubs they have instead played themselves into being backups. Ironic, eh?). Meanwhile the PV despite the heavy contingent of Big Red, lack pop from anyone else. If Zetterberg, Lidstrom and Co. don't put up numbers, they don't get any points.