-original comments left in black...comments from this posting in blue-
EASTERN CONFERENCE
1 – Washington Capitals: The offense is the best in the league and will carry them to enough wins for the President’s Trophy. The weak division doesn’t hurt. The division wasn't as week as expected but despite a shaky portion early in the season Washington was still able to capture the top of the East.
2 – Pittsburgh Penguins: Will be better than last year and in the race for the Cup once again. They will challenge for the #1 spot in the regular season but fall just short. Had they not lost key pieces they could have dethroned Washington but given the fact both Malkin and Crosby missed significant time they still had a successful season. They should be here in the #2 spot, however the new tiebreaker rules puts them in 4th despite more total wins than Philly.
3 – Boston Bruins: Bouncing back from a disappointing year they find some offense and win their division. With a great season from Tim Thomas and having found an offense, the Bruins vaulted themselves back into a division win.
4 – New Jersey Devils: Brodeur, a good defense, and an offense that should put points on the board. This should be a good year in Jersey but they won’t take the division from Pittsburgh. My first big miss, the Devils began the season horribly. After a coaching change though they went on a tear before finally falling out of the playoffs in the 11th spot. However had they played the entire season as they did the second half they could have made this 4th spot.
5 – Buffalo Sabres: Goaltending puts them above the rest of those fighting for playoff spots. The best goalie in the league only gets you so far on a mediocre team though. Buffalo wasn't a spectacular team but a late season surge put them firmly in the 7th spot in the East.
6 – Philadelphia Flyers: Goaltending questions hold back this team which otherwise has a lot of talent that should be capable of winning games. Sergei Bobrovsky came in as a pretty much unknown rookie and solved the Philly goalie problem for much of the season. The rest of the team won right along with them and ended up with the division title (though they should have finished 4th having fewer total wins than Pittsburgh).
7 – Ottawa Senators: If the Senators get good goaltending they could be a good team this year that will be difficult to play against. The Sens didn't get good goaltending, nor did they get much good play anywhere else. Near the bottom of the league all season they ended up 13th in the conference.
8 – Montreal Canadians: While they will be fighting for position up to the end of the season they are talented enough that they will be in the playoffs. They did fight right up to the end and in a close race at the bottom of the playoff grouping they managed just a couple more points than others and ended up 6th.
9 – Carolina Hurricanes: The difference between 7th and 12th is likely to be pretty close this year. Carolina is up and down through the season and misses out on the playoffs. Carolina let the playoffs slip through their fingers on the final weekend of the regular season, losing the final playoff spot to the Rangers and indeed finishing 12.
10 – New York Rangers: King Henrik can’t carry the team forever and while they have some very good pieces this isn’t their season to make it back. Henrik carried the team for another season and they got some decent performances from young players you wouldn't have expected them from. They still had to battle and nearly lost their playoff spot on the final weekend of the season but they snuck in at the 8th position.
11 – Tampa Bay Lightning: Tampa provides exciting offense through the season but the backend doesn’t hold up their end of the deal. Tampa gave up plenty of goals, nearly 3 per game, but were good offensively. They were very streaky but played good more often than bad and ended up in the 5th spot in the conference.
12 – Toronto Maple Leafs: They were better than they played last year. This year they have solid defense, goal, and some talent up front. They head the right direction and are competitive but really watch for them next year to push for a playoff spot. This year's Leafs were competitive and made strides forward, even making a late season run that had people thinking the playoffs weren't out of the realm of possibility, however they fell short and finished 10th in the conference.
13 – Atlanta Thrashers: No Kovalchuk hurts this team more than expected. Despite the additions they struggle through the season. Atlanta and "Big Buff" started out the season on fire, leading the division for a time even. A poor second half however saw them tumble down the standings from playoffs all the way to 12th in the conference.
14 – New York Islanders: Goaltending is always a question with this team and isn’t going to be solved this year either. They have some young talent but are missing pieces and the loss of Streit for an unknown period of time doesn’t help. Goaltending was indeed a question again with this team and they struggled and while they have some pieces for the future they need more. A high pick after finishing in 14th will help.
15 – Florida Panthers: Exciting young prospects are a year or two away from making a real difference. Offense will be inconsistent and while the goaltending should be good this team should be looking at a lottery pick to add to an already deep prospect pool (perhaps at forward this time). As expected a 15th place finish and lottery pick should help to add yet another piece to a young squad that should look pretty good in a couple of years.
WESTERN CONFERENCE
1 – Vancouver Canucks: The team if healthy has all the pieces to push Washington for the President’s Trophy. Should be the team to beat in the West this season when talking about Cup contenders. A very good team from game 1 to game 82 they indeed did win the President's Trophy and are one of the favorites to win the Cup.
2 – San Jose Sharks: Will continue to be dominant during the regular season but can they put it together deep in the playoffs? In what was the best division in hockey San Jose battled their way to the top. Each team led the division at one point but great play late in the season put the Sharks on top.
3 – Detroit Red Wings: A Return to the top of the division should be expected this season. A team that consistently has a good team keeps injecting talent and will again be good. Yet another year, yet another division win. Despite not locking it up until late in the season Detroit did in fact come out on top despite a few injuries and less than expected performances. Still a team to beat.
4 – Chicago Blackhawks: The offseason losses will hurt some but the team is still very solid. They will push Detroit for the division into the final weeks of the season. The offseason losses did indeed hurt and they had to battle to make it into the playoffs all season, never challenging for the division. In fact they nearly lost their spot at 8th but Dallas was unable to win on the final day as well.
5 – Los Angeles Kings: Young team that continues to improve and has a solid core of youth. This season should be no different as they continue to take steps towards being solid contenders. Two points separated 4th and 8th (and only 5 separated 4th and 10th) places in the West. The Kings were in that battle all season and finished 7th.
6 – Nashville Predators: The “wait, they are in the playoffs” team of the past several years will do it again this year. At the end of the season everyone will look at the standings and see Nashville in the playoffs but have no idea they even played hockey this season. Nashville has done it again, making the playoffs in that 5th spot and having done so in typical Nashville fashion.
7 – Colorado Avalanche: A Sophomore Slump is a foreign term in Denver and the kids just improve. Goaltending is good, but struggles defensively keep the team from going too far. Still good enough to sneak into the playoffs though. If the season stopped in January this could be true, however a team that was 6 points behind Vancouver on January 1 ended up 48 behind them at season's end. A stretch of nearly 2 months with only 1 win took the team from playoff contention to 29th in the league, 14th in the west.
8 – Phoenix Coyotes: The Cinderella run of last year isn’t repeated. The team struggles at times but is good enough to still make the playoffs and be competitive. The Coyotes built on last year's success and challenged for the division late into the season. They finally settled into their spot in the playoffs in the 6th spot.
9 – St Louis Blues: Halak improves the team and they battle right to the end. However in the competitive West they just miss out on the postseason at the very end. The Blues struggled this season and fought in the last few weeks to get out of the bottom ten in the league. In the end the highest they could climb was 11th in the West.
10 – Calgary Flames: Bringing back the team’s past doesn’t equate to going forward for this team. They will be competitive but not enough so to make the playoffs and the future isn’t any brighter. Definitely competitive the Flames didn't miss out by much ending up in this 10th position by just a few points. They still aren't getting any younger though and don't boast a big prospect pool.
11 – Anaheim Ducks: Great top line, goalie should play well, but the defense leaves a lot to be desired. Playing in the division they do isn’t going to help Anaheim’s case. Surprise, surprise ... look at what that defense accomplished. They were a big enough surprise to go from 11th predicted all the way to 4th in the West.
12 – Columbus Blue Jackets: Question marks in a number of places doesn’t bode well for the Jackets attempts to return to the postseason. This team just continues to be unable to put it together and could use a few good draft picks to help going forward and should get at least one this year after finishing 13th in the West.
13 – Dallas Stars: Lehtonen will make the Stars a decent team … until he gets hurt. They will play competitive but need to retool the blue line to start the improvement process needed in Big D. Lehtonen stayed pretty healthy and made this Dallas team very competitive, and had they won on the season's final day they would have taken the final playoff spot from last year's champions, however they didn't and finished in 9th place.
14 – Minnesota Wild: The defensive system they maintain will keep them close in games but they won’t score much either. Not much to say about this team other than they need some scoring help. They did manage to finish 12th in the conference but that just leaves them with a low to mid 1st round draft pick.
15 – Edmonton Oilers: The young forwards this year could be exciting to watch and should show glimpses of what is to come, however there are just too many places needing upgrades to make a jump this year. Will battle Florida for the #1 pick position before the lottery drawing. 1st overall pick last year and could do so again this year having finished 30th in the entire league. They have some young guys that are fun to watch and with another top pick this year could be exciting down the road.
All in all I would say that I didn't do too bad. There are a few teams that moved up or down just a bit and a couple that I was way off on, but overall it was pretty close and in many cases spot on. If I had to pick a few surprises from this year...
- New Jersey (bad) : What a horrible start. How they finished is how I expected them to play all year but that start was way too much to overcome.
- Anaheim (good) : I had some questions about this team and it started with the defense but they played much better than I expected.
- Colorado (horrendous) : They were right where I expected at the end of January competing for a playoff spot. The collapse from February on however was epic and the worst I can think of in sports. Nearly 60 calender days with only 1 win? 11 points in the last 33 games (66 possible points)? Only 1 of their 5 wins in that time in regulation? Wow, what a collapse.
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