A new year is upon us and for that, every pucker is eternally grateful. With four games tonight including entertaining rivalries Montreal/Toronto and San Jose and Los Angeles renewing acquaintances for the Kings banner raiser, it should be hectic. Philadelphia visits Boston and Calgary hosts Vancouver. Technically, four rivalry games which is not a bad way to start.
Rather than go into detail on who improved and vice versa, I’ll just get to each division.
EAST
Metropolitan
*1.Rangers
*2.Penguins
*3.Blue Jackets
*4.Devils
*5.Islanders
6.Capitals
7.Flyers
8.Hurricanes
Atlantic
*1.Lightning
*2.Bruins
*3.Canadiens
4.Red Wings
5.Maple Leafs
6.Panthers
7.Sabres
8.Senators
WEST
Central
*1.Blues
*2.Blackhawks
*3.Wild
*4.Stars
*5.Avalanche
6.Predators
7.Jets
Pacific
*1.Kings
*2.Ducks
*3.Sharks
4.Coyotes
5.Flames
6.Oilers
7.Canucks
AWARDS
Hart-Steven Stamkos
Norris-Alex Pietrangelo
Vezina-Henrik Lundqvist
Calder-Johnny Gaudreau
Selke-Anze Kopitar
Art Ross-Sidney Crosby
Rocket Richard-Steven Stamkos
Lady Byng-Ryan O’Reilly
Honestly it’s almost impossible for me to predict the Metro aside from the Canes finishing last. A lot of it will come down to injuries and perhaps bad early starts (like ours last year). In the Caps’ case it’s how will those players acclimated with run and gun mesh with Trotz, will it be a Rudy T with the Lakers type fit? With the Isles, they have hype and a lot of new players but how long will it take them to gel and will Captain Jack survive a slow start? Columbus has a lot of early injury issues though getting Johansen back helps. The Flyers have offensive talent but yech, that D could be almost as bad as the football Jets’ secondary. Still they were a playoff team last year. Pittsburgh it’s a matter of how far the big two can carry them. Your team should be pretty good, it just depends on whether they show wear and tear after the long playoff run. We probably have the biggest seperation between our potential celing and floor given the old forwards and young defensemen.
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