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Eastern Conference Preview

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Home Page > Sports and Fitness > Hockey > Eastern Conference Preview

Eastern Conference Preview

Posted: 22 September 2008 | Comments: 0
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Training camp opens in North America over the past week and hope are, abound. Leaving the Tampa Bay Lightning, New York Rangers is coming soon for the Czech Republic and the Pittsburgh Penguins and Ottawa Senators to be heading for Sweden to open their seasons. All teams are contenders in September, but in February after their courage was tested, some do not give up making the playoffs. Here is how the Eastern Conference Standings look heading into the season.

The division winners:

1 Montreal Canadiens. – The Habs its 100th Season by winning the Northeast Division and celebrate finishing the top of the Eastern Conference for a second year in a row. Montrealers suffered through a long rebuilding but with a cheeky swagger, Montreal is near the top of the league again. Montreal will try its 25th Cup and at the end of the longest droughts ever on the back of sophomore goalie Carey Price. The price is a safe bet to fill his cloak with Vezina trophies in his career. Newcomer Alex Tanguay will provide extra scoring punch in the Habs Top 6 The only loss was significant power play point man Mark Streit.

2 Washington Capitals -. The Capitals come back to the top in the increasingly competitive Southeast Division. The goaltending combination of Huet and Kolzig that the season was ended by former league MVP replaced Jose Theodore, who bounced back with the Avalanche after a few down years. Rookie defender Karl Alzner is a strong commitment to the team to make this season as 19 years old. Will look for the inpatient stay at home blue liner with future Norris Trophy winner Mike Green matched and often jump on the green light for Green on the offensive rush need. Oh, and the Capitals have this kid named Ovechkin, which is more effective than General Electric for lighting the lamp.

Philadelphia Flyers 3. – The Broad Street Bullies era in Philadelphia has been revived. The Flyers are led by courageous captain Mike Richards. The team guts out to win and be backed by competent goaltending of Martin Biron. The team is 4 lines deep with players who score, hit, and can defend. Braydon Coburn is an excellent two-way defenders, much like Dion Phaneuf emerging markets. Two years ago, Flyers were last in the NHL, but for wise moves made by GM Paul Holmgren a remarkable turnaround. The most significant loss in the off season was captain Jason Smith, clearly on the downside of his career. There are a lot of youngsters to his departure.

Playoff Teams:

Pittsburgh Penguins 4 -. It was a turbulent season for the Stanley Cup finalists. The team lost many important free agents, including playoff rental Marian Hossa, Ryan Malone, local kid, gray-haired veterans Gary Roberts, Jarkko Ruutu plague, enforcer, Georges Laraque and Ty Conklin's backup goalie. Fortunately for GM Ray Shero, he was able to prevent the performance of inpatient stay at home defender Brooks Orpik to keep that summer by a complete loss. Pittsburgh less than adequately this player Miroslav Satan, with aging comes from a down year with the Islanders and solid third liner Ruslan Fedotenko, who replaced a shot with Crosby getting. Crosby, Staal and Malkin leading the Pens to the front, while veteran Sergei Gonchar, Ryan Whitney is getting better and blue-chip prospect Kris Letang shore up the blue line.

Ottawa Senators 5 -. Last year, the Sens came out of the gate and had the best start to an NHL season, never falling off the wheels. Troubled goalie Ray Emery has in fighting on the practice when he showed up on time. Injuries hurt the Sens coach John Paddock and was in an attempt to shake the team thrown out of his funk. Ottawa was too dependent on Dany Heatley, Daniel Alfredsson and Jason Spezza for goals last season and has not changed much. Young players like Antoine Vermette and Chris Kelly and Mike Fisher will be joined by Nick Foligno, as counted on the front for secondary scoring. The biggest change for the Ottawa blue line, where catastrophic long-term Senator Wade Redden left via free agency after two seasons. Ottawa traded Andrej Meszaros also, after his contract demands were too steep for GM Bryan Murray. New to the Sens blue line Filip Kuba and Alexandre Picard promising youngster acquired in a trade with Tampa Bay and former Oilers and Flyers captain Jason Smith will be. Alex Auld replaced Ray Emery Martin Gerber back on as the undeniable (for better or worse) No. 1 goalie this year. The expectations are so low in Ottawa as they have been since 1995.

6 New York Rangers -. The Rangers were very active in remaking their roster this summer, and their big step is probably still to come. It is believed to add at some point before November, the Rangers, the former Maple Leafs captain Mats Sundin. If / when Sundin when they inked Scott Gomez are looking for a defender to support the blue line to deal with. The Rangers are also like Nikolai Zherdev, Markus Naslund and Dan Fritsche and forward Dmitri Kalinin and Wade Redden, their blue line. Gone are former New York captain Jaromir Jagr, veteran Brendan Shanahan leader, super pest Sean Avery and Fedor Tyutin. Despite all the re-jigging, the Blueshirts will go as far as goalie Henrik Lundquist will wear them.

7 Carolina Hurricanes -. Injuries have made the Hurricanes make the playoffs the past two seasons and has already prevented the Hurricanes are looking at health issues. Winger Justin Williams was the team's first work of injured and miss 4-6 months. Most of the roster is intact from last season with Joni Pitkanen is the only newcomer to the series. Pitkanen was acquired in a trade for Erik Cole. Bret Hedican and Glen Wesley defender retired in the off season. The Hurricanes will again be led by Eric Staal and Cam Ward goalkeeper. Carolina must win their cross-divisional games to have a chance at the playoffs as Tampa Florida and will neck.

. 8 Boston Bruins – The Bean towners again in the playoffs last season by a strong defensive game under new coach Claude Julien. The team was without its best Player, Patrice Bergeron for the majority of the season after a hit from behind led to a terrible concussion. Michael Ryder is the only result of the acquisition for a long time Bruin Glen Murray was bought out. Improvement is from the inside with Bergeron back and youngsters like Milan Lucic, Phil Kessel, Chuck Kobasew and are counted on a bigger contributions. Goalie Manny Fernandez will return from injury after watching Tim Thomas for the No. 1 challenge role, both on her shoulder, Tuukka Rask, as is expected for a roster spot challenge.

On the outside looking in:

. 9 New Jersey Devils – Lou Lamoriello, the Devils have held in the race for the last 15 years despite losing players free agency and abrasion. This is finally the year that Lou will be magic wears off. The team lost no players of consequence and repatriated former Devils Brian Rolston and Bobby Holik, but that will hardly keep them with the powers of the Atlantic Division. After the young upstarts from Pennsylvania (Flyers and Penguins) play 12 times and six games against the Rangers may be enough to keep the Devils from post-season action. Also against the Devils, Martin Brodeur is aging and does not seem to play as 75 games per season the situation more. He was against the Rangers and Sean Avery make ordinary rattle his cage. If Brodeur signs of the absence of dark shot shows a playoff spot will dissolve.

. 10 Tampa Bay Lightning – No team has more changes than the Lightning this summer. The team has new owners, new GM, new coach, and almost a completely different roster than the one who opened the 2007-08 season. Program sales should reach a record high in St. Pete. Only a star player from the squad that finished last overall in 2007-08, and that is away Dan Boyle. He was in a package, the young defender Matt Carle landed traded. The team also has Alex Picard and Filip Kuba Andrej Meszaros for specifying the two building blocks for the Lightning blue line, go with the talented young forwards traded. Superstars and Vincent Lecavalier Martin St. Louis is of first Steven Stamkos Tickets are connected. The Lightning was in free agency adding Ryan Malone, Gary Roberts, Mark Recchi, Radim Vrbata, Vaclav Prospal and active. Despite all these acquisitions, the fortunes of Lightning goalie Mike Smith of the play hinges. Smith was acquired at the trade deadline from Dallas and still has to prove that he is capable of dealing with number one task. He is due to aging veteran Olaf Kolzig, via free agency after a long career purchased are backed up in Washington.

. 11 Buffalo Sabres – The good news for Sabres fans is that the team is Ryan Miller, who could lock a free agent at the conclusion of the upcoming season and the Sabres would almost certainly have been abandoned. The bad news is that the team is still of the departures of Chris Drury and Daniel Briere in the summer of 2007 and will again miss the playoffs. The depth of the minor league system held the advantage in the Sabres last year and will again this season. Derek Roy and Jason Pominville intensified, but a thin blue line proved too much to overcome for the Sabres. No casualties were a result of the acquisition or GM Darcy Regier, whose future with the Sabres was only solidified this week when he signed a contract extension. No major changes will lead to the same result as last year.

12th Florida Panthers-Two big changes this season for the Panthers. The first is that leading the Coyotes Olli Jokinen was traded on draft days for defender Keith Ballard and Nick Boynton. The second is the new coach Peter DeBoer replaces Jacques Martin, who served as coach and GM of last season and was advised of the property to pick a job. Veteran Cory Stillman was also signed and Bryan McCabe was acquired in a trade on the Toronto Maple Leafs for Mike Van Ryn. Jay Bouwmeester, Steve Weiss, and Nathan Horton: Any improvement the Panthers will play in strong cross-sector and lead the development of young players. If Florida is nowhere near a playoff berth in February Bouwmeester expect to lose the tired to want to move into a trade because he will be eligible for free agency next summer and would be lost for nothing.

The Tavares Sweepstakes:

. NY Islanders 13 – It was another exciting season for the Islanders. Ted Nolan lost his power struggle with GM Garth Snow and was abruptly replaced as coach. The stumbling block was the direction of the team. Nolan wanted to use more experienced players and try to make the playoffs, while Snow decided it was time for a full-fledged youth movement. The team was in the hunt until an All-Star Game starting goalie Rick DiPietro pause injury and the team without their franchise player playoff hopes were dashed. Ruslan Fedotenko and Miroslav Satan, two veterans who were let go, while the team signed Mark Streit from the spark plug power play Montreal and added Doug Weight from Anaheim via free agency in a pair of curious moves. Blake Comeau, Kyle Okposo, Jeff Tambellini and Sean Bergheim are young people who will increase their role with the team. A nice mix of vets and young players on the blue line will help to combine with DiPietro, the Islanders in some games, but lack of firepower will be the Achilles' heel.

. 14 Toronto Maple Leafs – The Leafs had a solid run from 1998 to 2004 contending for a playoff spot and making noise. You do not have the playoffs since the lockout made in 2008-09 and will enter full rebuild mode. Leafs Mats Sundin are long gone, top scorer in franchise history, Bryan McCabe and Darcy Tucker. Add in the march from the city were chronic underachiever Kyle Wellwood and Andrew Raycroft flash in the pan. The Leafs did give veterans Nicklas Hagman and Jeff Finger on veteran stability at extremely high wage increases. Even Curtis Joseph out of retirement with a post-play job with the team coaxed. The Leafs were pushovers last season and Ryan Hollweg and Jamal Mayers added in trade, to a certain courage and tenacity to provide. Hope For Leafs fans is years away, but the first steps will be taken as Nikolai Kulemin strengthened the team from Russia and "The Human Eraser" Luke Schenn was drafted 5th in the overall standings. The team is younger, tougher and stronger defensively, but will fight for in the first season under coach Ron Wilson as the guest. The team is waiting for Brian Burke to arrive to take over as president and GM of Anaheim in 2009. The best hope is that the movements of the leading teams in the league in the cellar and the possibility of local phenomenon John Tavares draft.

. 15 Atlanta Thrashers – New coach John Anderson, a team with superstar Ilya Kovlachuk inherits and not much else. Some depth was acquired when Marian Hossa was traded, but the team lacks talent and top 6 forward has a very thin blue line. Ron Hainsey and Jason Williams is the third Level added free in the summer during aging Bobby Holik and Alexei Zhitnik players were shown the door. Often contradictory and always injured Kari Lehtonen goalie enters the year as a starting point, but will be challenged by Ondrej Pavelec. Bryan Little and this year the 3rd Pick Zach Bogosian is deficient in roles on the squad this talent challenge. There will be a long year for the rookie coach in his long overdue first chance in the NHL-level

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Marcus Robbins –
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Marcus Robbins feeds sports fans with the latest thinking in RootZoo.com, where this article was originally published. He is always on top of the NHL championship leader and loves to discuss. He is also a bigtime Cincy Reds fan and always have the latest news reds .

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