2015 EASTERN CONFERENCE PREVIEW

EASTERN CONFERENCE

THE ATLANTIC-

Tampa Bay is best team in the Atlantic. Detroit’s new coach Jeff Blashill will inject life into the year’s playoff lock Red Wings. Montreal’s old coach Mike Therrien has maybe one last chance in Montreal. Florida gets the nod over Ottawa. Their kids have higher pedigrees. Boston could either bounce back into playoffs or trade their way to rock bottom. Speaking of rock bottom, Toronto will win more games the Buffalo. The Sabres may have a better roster but Toronto has a better coach.

1.   Tampa Bay Lightning – Anytime Steven Stamkos is not on your number one line you have a great team. The number one line is the triplets Tyler Johnson, Nikita Kucherov and Ondrej Palat seem to be able to score at will sometimes.   Alex Killorn and Ryan Callahan will also help a team that did not lose any important players from last year’s Stanley Cup Finals. Defense leader Victor Hedman is scary good. Andrej Susr is a big kid with promise. The rest of the defense is steady but not spectacular. The team’s biggest question is mark is at goal. Ben Bishop did lead the Lightning to the Finals but count this writer as one of his skeptics. If the puck continues to hit him and Stamkos’s contract negotiions aren’t too distracting the Lightning are the team to beat in the Atlantic.

2.   Detroit Red Wings – New Detroit coach Jeff Blashill has many weapons. Two future Hall of Famers Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg are joined by young studs Gustaf Nyquist and Tomas Tatar. The Wings have tons of talented youth including Riley Sheahan and Tomas Jurco. Conn Smythe winner Brad Richards was signed to help the maturation process. Gritty Justin Abdelkader is not young anymore and leads by example with his heart on his sleeve. A steady defense is led by rock solid Nick Kronwall. A little Mike Green could go a long way to add scoring from the blue line. Petr Mrazek took the starting  goaltending job from Jimmy Howard and is a top flight young goalie.

3.   Montreal Canadiens – Michel Therrien might have more pressure on him than anyone in the league due to his team’s early playoff exit. Montreal has a talented group of forwards who need to put it all together when it counts. The Canadiens named Max Pacioretty their newest captain. Max now has to add leadership to his impressive scoring resume.  David Desharnais, Brendan Gallagher, Tomas Plekenac and Alex Galchenyuk may not be the biggest guys but they have ample skill and heart. Zack Kassian was brought in to help Dale Weise in the size and toughness department. If Devan Smith –Pelly can get in shape he could be a wild card. P. K. Subban is one of the NHL’s best human beings as well as the league’s best defensemen. Jeff Petry will be in Montreal all season so will the oft injured Andrei Markov hopefully. Jarred Tinordi is a young monster who could add snarl to this steady group. Carey Price is the best goaltender in the World. Price keeps Montreal in contention every year.   

4.   Florida Panthers – The Florida Panthers are reeping the benefits of a decade of high draft picks. Jonathan Huberdeau, Aleksander Barkov and Nick Bjugstad have all star pedrigree. Mixed in with the young star are veterans  Dave Bolland, Jussi Jokinen and Shawn Thorton. Living legend Jaromir Jagr seems to drink from the fountain of youth every year. Locker room leadership is covered in Florida.  Calder (rookie) Trophy winner Aaron Eckblad’s next trophy maybe the Norris (defenseman). The rest of the defense can get the job done with two time Cup winner Willie Mitchell and playing on the edge Dmitry Kulikov. Veteran goalie Roberto Luongo seemed rejuvenated last year. Florida needs that Bobby Loo to make the playoffs.

5.   Ottawa Senators – The Senators had a fairy tale regular season and goaltender hero that would make Disney proud. Andrew Hammond become a cult hero and in season replacement coach looked like a genius. The trick will be doing it two years in a row. Captain in the making Curtis Lazar will keep emotions high but it maybe too much to ask Mark Stone, Mike Hoffman, Mika Zibanejad and Kyle Turris to all play over their heads this year too. It’s not too much to ask of Norris trophy winner Erik Karlsson. The Karlsson/Marc Methot pairing is a classic offensive guy and stay at home defenseman pairing. Cody Ceci is an underrated number three blueliner. Craig Anderson has already been named number goaltender for this year. Let’s see if he’s the starter at the All – Star break. Consistency and durability are not Anderson’s strong suits.

6.   Boston Bruins – Boston coach Claude Julien is on a short lease. It will turn into a noose if the one two center combination of Patrice Bergeron and David Kejci sleep walk thru another season. Injuries were a factor but the Bruins lost their big, bad swagger last year. King of the rats Brad Marchand had a good season but he was an outlier. Matt Beleskey needs to bring scoring and some fresh air into the Bruins locker room. On defense the great Zdeno Chara is showing his age. Dennis Sidenberg and Adam McQuaid are top four on any team. Minature Torey Krug I’m not sure about. Tuuka Rask was a top five goal tender. He wasn’t last year.

7.    Toronto Maple Leafs – Uber boss Brandon Shanahan handed the keys to the franchise over to two Hall of Famers. GM Lou Lamoriello and Head coach Mike Babcock.

I think Mike Babcock can get a few wins with forwards James Van Riemsdyk, Tyer Bozak and Joffrey Lupul. Leo Komarov is a gutsy winger. The kind of player Babcock gets the best out of. Dion Phaeuf is still a Leaf. The rest of the blue line is filled with journeyman, what Phanuef maybe be very soon. In net Jonathan Bernier has to finally win the starting job from James Riemer. If Bernier can’t outplay Reimer all of Babcock’s genius will go to waste.

8.   Buffalo Sabres – The Buffalo Sabres won Jack Eichel this summer. Second is winning when you live in Buffalo. Sam Reinhart is Buffalo’s the other big time talent. Evander Kane now is Buffalo’s head ache, hopefully it won’t be as big as Ryan O’Reilly’s head ache after his late night activities. Z Girgensons will be a favorite of new coach Dan Blysma’s. The defense has some skilled veterans like Zach Bogosian and Josh Gorges who may play well in hopes of getting moved at the deadline. Robin Lehner is the Sabres goalie. Knowing how much Disco Dan stressing defense and responsibility, Robin better makes sure he stretched.

 

The METROPOLITAN –

The top four teams in the Metro Washington, Pittsburgh and the two New York teams each could win this division if things break their way. They are the cream of the crop. If you could box them like a lottery pick I would. The Capitals and Islanders have the deepest rosters. The Rangers have high end talent but rely too much on the aging Henrik Lunqvist. It appeared the Brandon Saad trade catapulted Columbus into the Metro’s big four then Pittsburgh traded for Phil Kessel and jumped back over them. The Flyers have some high end talent but no depth. The Devils don’t have much high end talent. The Hurricanes can plan their golf vacations now.

1.   Washington Capitals – The Capitals will continue regular season dominance under coach Barry Trotz in his second season in Washington. Alex Ovechkin and Nicholas Backstrom lead the Caps as arguably the game’s best center/ winger combo. The Capitals will miss forwards Joel Ward and Troy Brower’s goals and  toughness but Marcus Johansson,  Evgeny Kuznetsov and Andre Burakovsky are young guns are ready for bigger roles. TJ Oshie should bounce back in his new city. Justin Williams was brought in to score those elusive big playoff goals. On defense Trotz will worry that Brooks Orpik will look his age but John Carlson and Karl Alzner are steady two way blueliners in their prime. Goalie Braden Holtby is bona fide star.

2.   New York Islanders – The Islanders have the best 1-12 forwards in the East. John Tavares is one the top five players in the league. Tavares’ running mate Kyle Okposp is ready to roll after injuries marred his 2014 season. Josh Bailey, Ryan Strome and Anders Lee will add depth scoring. The best fourth line in hockey Cal Clutterbuck, Matt Martin and Casey Cizekas will have the hipsters rocking in their new Brooklyn home. The defense is also the best top to bottom in the East. Johnny Boychuk and Nick Leddy get a lot of the press but Travis Harmonic is as good as he is underrated. The only question is Brooklyn maybe is whether Jaroslav Halak is a Stanley Cup net minder.

3.   Pittsburgh Penguins – Everything in Pittsburgh starts with Sidney Crosby and Geno Malkin and this year is no different. What is different though is now the Penguins will have four lines. The additions Phil Kessel, Eric Fehr and Nick Bonino give the Pens depth they haven’t had in years. The youth movement will be put on hold another year as Pascal Dupuis, Chris Kunitz and Patric Hornqvist return for yet another run for Sid and Geno to get number two.

Two is the number of high quality defenseman the Penguins have. Kris Letang and Ollie Maata need to stay healthy on defense because they’re great, the rest of the defensemen are question marks because they’re either too young or too old. Marc Andre Fleury, a Cup winning goalie is playing remarkable net who hopes he doesn’t need to be counted on quite as much in 2015.

4.   New York Rangers – The Rangers once again are counting on the ever aging goaltender Henry Lunqvist to carry them to the promised land. Henry is great but last year it was Cam Talbot who won a large chunk of their regular season games while Hank was on the self. The Rangers traded Cam Talbot. The Rangers and new back Antti Raanta hope Lundqvist stays healthy.  Rick Nash silenced critics last season with a great 2015 campaign. The Rangers acquired Jared Stoll to go along with Derek Stepan and Derick Brasssard at center. All three are good solid centers but the Rangers still do not have a bona fide first line center. 2015 is the year big Chris Kreider needs to put it together for a whole season. The Blue Shirts top four defensemen Ryan McDonagh, Dan Girardi, Marc Staal and Kevin Klein are as good as anybody’s. The problem is in the third pairing where Dan Boyle is old and Keith Yandle is soft.

5.   Columbus Blue Jackets - The Blue Jackets ended last season on fire. Can they keep it going this year? Well you can’t say the front office isn’t trying. Columbus traded away three productive forwards for Brandon Saad. Saad is a clutch two way performer. He is only twenty four and he already has two Cups. Saad gives center Ryan Johansen a big time winger for years to come. Newly named Captain Nick Foligno will be asked to duplicate last year’s career year. Boone Jenner and Cam Atkinson will be throwing their big young bodies around and hopefully some pucks in the net. The Jackets are counting on rugged forwards Scott Hartnell and David Clarkson to regain the form they had at other organizations. The Jacket’s defense led by Jack Johnson and Feder Tyutin is big and tough but not the most skilled bunch. Goaltender Sergei Bobrosky needs to be more consistent. He is either lights out or he can use the red light as a tanning bed.

6.   Philadelphia Flyers – New head coach Dave Hakstol has a potent power play led by Jacob Vorachub who had a career year in 2015 and premier center Claude Giroux. Wayne Simmonds is a superb power forward but after those three the cupboard is bare. Flyer fans who are used to Flyers management making sweeping changing are stuck this season with Brayden Schenn, Michael Raffi and Sean Couturier playing major roles.  The Flyers hope the once great Vinnie Lecavialier can live up to at least some of his bloated contract. The Flyers defense adds little offense but is more mobile than recent additions. Gritty Radas Gudas was added. Marc Streit and Andrew MacDonald are adequate but can anyone believe that Micheal Del Zotto will have two good years in a row. The one thing Philly has going for it is they may have finally solved their generational goal tending woes with the steady if not spectacular Steve Mason. Dave Hakstol will need to make the Flyers at least look like they’re trending upward because Flyer management and fans are notorious for having no patience.

7.   New Jersey Devils - The post Lou Lamoriello Devils are interesting. New Jersey has twelve pretty good forwards. That’s the problem they’re all pretty good, no one is very good. Patrick Elias was great. Stefan Matteau could be in the future. In between those two are the likes of Travis Zajac, Adam Henrique and new comer Kyle Palmieri. The defense is adequate but inexperienced. Andy Greene and Adam Larsson need to mature fast. Goaltender Cory Schneider needs to peek out from beyond Marty Broduer’s huge shadow and play great in net to give new coach John Hines and new GM Ray Shero a shot at the playoffs.

8.   Carolina Hurricanes – The only truly promising thing about the Canes is their young defenseman Justin Faulk. He will be teamed with the ancient James Wisniewski. There is no reason to pile on the Canes defense if the Staals ( Eric & Jordan ) continue to underwhelm. They will be golfing somewhere else after the trade deadline. Jeff Skinner could be a bright spot if he stays healthy. Odds are goaltender Cam Ward will either be injured or traded. Eddie Lack, who wanted to play more in Vancouver will see all the pucks he wants in Carolina. It’s a long rebuild for Ronnie Francis and we wish him the best luck. 

NHL OFF SEASON GRADES

NHL Off Season Report Cards

 September means our summer of discontent is over, the puck drops soon enough. Here’s my off season grades.

EAST-

METRO-

Pittsburgh- A- The  Penguins made a big splash by taking Toronto’s disgruntled scoring star Phil Kessel. Turning Brandon Sutter into Nick Bonino and Eric Fehr may have saved GM Jim Rutherford’s job. Not replacing Paul Martin’s 25 + minutes of quality defense was a big mistake though.

NY Rangers- C- Rangers fans saw the Blue Shirts take other teams AHL garbage and not replace goalie King Henry superb back up Cam Talbot. Jared Stoll’s signing was a rare positive in what has been a disastrous off season and that’s only if Stoll overcomes his personal problems. Marty St Louis retired. Carl Hagelin was traded for Emerson Etem to give the Rangers some size though Hagelin’s timely goals will be missed.

 Philly- C- A team known for a making big changes made very small ones and is a long way from being a playoff team. Michal Neuvith  is an upgrade over Ray Emery for back up goalteander  and losing meat head Zac Rinaldo has to be a plus. On the bright side Captain Claude Giroux didn’t assault a cop or break his hand golfing.

 Columbus - A Columbus added Brandon Saad, a great young talented forward. They gave up three forwards productive forwards Artem  Anisimov, Marko Danno  and Corey Tropp but Columbus now has something they’ve never had a bona fide big time winner.  

NYI- C+ The Islanders added Thomas Greiss to play backup goaltender, not a huge move but a needed one because starter Jaroslav Halak is no iron man. The skaters can be tweaked in season when their needs are more glaring because this team is a deadline deal away from real Stanley Cup contention.

New Jersey - C-  The Devils new GM Ray Shero added Kyle Palmieri, a nice pick up but he needs about fifteen more to turn this franchise around. Lou Lamoriello is now in Toronto so New Jersey not only needs to find goals they need to find a heart and soul.

Carolina  –  C-  Eddie Lack will now be facing a hurricane of pucks in Carolina. GM Ron Francis is hanging on to the Staals like his favorite t shirts  and like old t shirts pretty soon they can only be used for rags.

Washington- A + The Capitals, who never win big games signed Mr. Game 7 Justin Williams.  Goal scorer T J Oshie should flourish in a new environment.  When Braden Holtby signed a very reasonable contract to play net at a Vezina level this summer was a hat trick for Caps fans.

ATLANTIC-

Detroit- B+ Budding star Gustav Nyquist has been secured for the future and Brad Richards bring his wealth of skill and leadership to a proud franchise in transition. New coach Jeff Blashill will bring a new energy to this group of very talented youngsters. Mike Green can be a plus on the blue line if he’s not asked to play too much defense.

Ottawa- C- The Senators only move was dump goalie Robin Lehner who was expendable. The Senators are drinking their own Kool Aid.

Toronto- B+ Toronto installed a Hall of Fame management team with Lou Lamoriello as GM and Mike Babcock as Head Coach.  Shawn Matthias  and PA Parenteau can help but the latter will not be around when the Leafs are finally good.

Boston- D+ Boston off season makes you wonder if they think Connor McDavid is in next year’s draft. Milan Lucic was the Big Bad Bruins and Gregory Campbell was always a good soldier in Boston. I didn’t understand why they let the serviceable Carl Soderberg go but Matt Beleskey was a nice addition.  The addition of Zac Rinaldo makes no sense.

Florida- B  This talented team only needs to gain experience. The Panthers kept the immortal Jaromir Jagr to help guide them on their journey to greatness.

Tampa Bay- B  The Eastern Conference champs held steady. Steve Yzerman knows what he’s doing.

Buffalo- B-   Ryan O Reilly came to town looked around and got a DUI. Robin Lehner gives the Sabres a competent goalie and they will need him to a great them under Disco Dan Bylsma’s porous system. Jack Eichel is a nice silver medal though.

Montreal - B  The Habs lost middle weight Brandon Prust but acquired heavyweight Zack Kassain. He will play well under Mike Therrien the question is will the mercurial Alex Semin.

WEST-

CENTRAL-

Chicago – B+  It’s hard giving a positive grade to a team that lost Brandon Saad but I like what they got in return. Anisimov is a big second line center (needed in the West), Danno can score and Tropp is a large individual.  Trading Patrick Sharp to a division rival was risky but Ryan Garbut is full of grit and Trevor Daley is a younger Johnny Oduya with more offense but maybe not as durable

Winnipeg – B When your franchise is on the rise don’t fix what isn’t broke.

Dallas- A   Antti Niemi will give the Stars a much needed number one goalie, sorry Kari Lehtonen.  Patrick Sharp gives the ultra talented young forwards a leader and Johnny Oduya gives the blue line someone who is defensively responsible.

St Louis- C The Blues secured their best player Vlad Tarasenko for years to come and dropped the underachieving T J Oshie but all of the overrated defensemen are still there as well as coach Captain Kangaroo Ken Hitchcock.

Minnesota- B-  The Wild locked up goalie Devan Dubnyk long term and made no mistakes. Unfortunately the Wild the Av and Stars both got much better.

Colorado-  A The Avs got exactly what they needed a big, steady top pair defenseman in Francois Beauchemin .Versatile  top nine forward Carl Soderberg from Boston for nothing was an added bonus. ****

Nashville- C The Predators needed more help up front and only marginally added to their already strong defense with Barrett Jackman

PACIFIC-

Los Angeles  –  B  You would think that acquiring Milan Lucic would give the Kings an automatic A but they lost reliable backup goalie Martin Jones and did not pick up a top four defenseman.

Anaheim -  B   The Ducks got tough and steady defenseman Kevin Bieksa  to replace Francois Beauchemin and Carl Hagelin to replace Matt Beleskey. Chris Stewart could turn his career around if he emulates the leaders on this Cup or bust team.  BBQ Bruce Boudreau is still their coach at least until Thanksgiving when coach in waiting Paul McClain in ready.

Vancouver – D  Vancouver lost defenseman Bieksa and forwards Bonino, Matthias and Kassian and went out and got the only Sutter sister. Sorry Brandon.

San Jose- A-  The Sharks acquired the underrated Paul Martin so their defense is improved. Martin Jones will play good to great in net. Joel Ward’s go to the net skill is an excellent addition. There are a lot of positives  but Thorton and Marleau are still on the team,

Calgary  - B-   Calgary’s big move was to give the overrated Dougie Hamilton too much money and crowd their already solid blue line core. I do like the addition of forward Michael Frolik though.

Edmonton- A+ Super job by Edmonton. They finally got a few capable defensemen.  Andrej Sekera is a top four and Eric Gryba who’s a big thumper and can protect those talented kiddie forwards. The Oilers also got Cam Talbot ,their first good goaltender in a generation. Oh. I almost forgot  Conor McDavid.

Arizona - F  John Scott is a sideshow, Zybnyk Michalek is a orange traffic cone and Steve Downey is due to implode.

**** Disclaimer, I did not address the Patrick Kane situation