Vancouver Canucks - Are right were they are supposed to be right at the top of the NHL standings with home ice all the way through the playoffs and they start with the LA Kings who do one thing very well keep the opponents off the scoreboard thanks to Jonathan Quick who has 10 shutouts this season. The Canucks have a huge injury in Daniel Sedin who is out until farther notice and the Canucks are just going to have to get down and dirty to get the cup while Luongo and SCHNEIDER are going to have to step up their games.
Ottawa Senators - The Sens are the surprise of the season with breakout seasons from guys like Jason Spezza who ended up with 84 points, Erik Karlsson who had more goals with 19 (18), assists 59 (53), and points 78 (71) than he had in his first two seasons with the Sens, and Craig Anderson was back to form after having a really bad season last year where the Avalanche dropped him like a bad habit after he took them to the playoffs the season before that. The Sens will be facing the New York Rangers who have finally got some scoring in front of Henrik Lundqvist with 2.7 goals/game in the regular season so it will be a tough matchup for a team that was supposed to be one of the worst in the league.
Winnipeg Jets - all in all the Jets played very good at home and really held their own in the playoff race and this from a team that moved from Atlanta in the off-season and they missed both EVANDER KANE (8 games) and DUSTIN BYFUGLIEN (16 games) for stretches of the season but lost a lot of their players from time to time. The Jets are in a position to spend some money and make themselves better in the off-season with the only downside will be the travel as they will still be in the Eastern conference and the southern division.
Edmonton Oilers - The Oil are young especially their talented players in Jorden Eberle, Taylor Hall, and RYAN NUGENT-HOPKINS who are the top three points leaders by far on the team and will have a 18.8% chance of getting No.1 in the draft again and will diffidently be in the top 5 but they need to get Hall to tone himself down as he missed a lot of games this season again to injuries (21). It looks like the Oilers Brass will be cleaning out the people in-charge with STEVE TAMBELLINI being most likely out as GM and TOM RENNEY out as coach as well as his assistants ws everybody is at the end of their current contracts so it will be an interesting time in Edmonton this summer.
Calgary Flames - I do not know why the Flames continue to try and sneak into the playoffs year after year as they are only getting older with contracts that simply can not be moved so this off-season they should be looking seriously at getting younger players and using a guy like MIIKKA KIPRUSOFF or maybe it's time to let Jerome roam free and get something for him to make the team stronger in the long run. They eighth team @ 28.3 years old and just 17 mil in cap space and 6 spots to fill and a southern Ontario team maybe looking for a goalie (just saying).
Montreal Cadiens - To say that the 2011-12 season was disaster on and off the ice for the Canadiens is putting it mildly as they send MIKE CAMMALLERI out of town in a cloke of mystery and they fire their head coach and bring in Randy Cunneyworth in an interim basis who does not speak french and then basically say he only here for the rest of the season and then there will be someone new. The Canadiens fired GM Pierre Gauthier a week before the end of the season and the new GM will have a good shot @ the No.1 pick with a 14.1% chance of moving up from 3 - to - 1. The Canadiens got better than expected with MAX PACIORETTY having 33 goals and 65 points to lead the team and DAVID DESHARNAIS had 60 points while Erik Cole lead the team with 35 goals.
Toronto Maple Leafs - The Leafs were looking good after a home win against the Oilers in early February to put them in sixth place and then fall hader than hard as the fans chant "fire Wilson" (which does happen), "fire Burkey" (he may just do that himself this summer", and then got ready for Blue Jays season by chanting "lets go Blue Jays" @ a Leaf game. They got themselves in thick of the lottery hunt and then start winning at the end of the season barely have a chance @ No.1 @ 8.4% so this team can not do anything right as Canadiens can even lose better than the Leafs. They did get good performances from Phil Kessel with 37 goals and 82 point but should of been @ 40 goals as tailed off down the stretch and Joffery Lupul before got hurt was playing extremely well with Kessel and missed 16 games and still had 67 points and 25 goals. Even with such a young team (second youngest in the NHL) it will be hard to get this team into the playoffs because when the going gets tough this team disappears and if Reimer can refocus his game and clear his head (#concussions) it would be a start and maybe Randy Carlyle can get the team playing better D it would be even better.
Playoffs start soon for a couple of teams
Tom Mehegan
No comments:
Post a Comment