NHL Season Preview: Atlantic Division
Philadelphia Flyers
The Flyers were simply dreadful in 06-07. They made a huge splash into the Free Agent Pool inking Daniel Briere, Scott Hartnel. New goalie Martin Biron, acquired at last years trade deadline, is expected to be the answer to the inconsistent goaltending that has cost some very good Flyer teams recently a chance to go far. Their top two lines consist of the likes of Briere, Scotty Upshall, Simon Gagne, Mike Richards, Hartnell, and youngster Ryan Parent. However, the Flyers have depth issues and still have large amounts of money tied to sub-par, over-the-hill performers like D Derian Hatcher, who should think of hanging them up, as his best days are behind him. I think the Flyers are going to be better than they were last season, but that's not saying a lot. Don't expect this team to make the playoffs this season.
Pittsburgh Penguins
The Penguins, just a few years ago being a basement dweller, now is a contending team built around four great young superstars in Evgeni Malkin, Sidney Crosby and Jordan Staal. They also have a great goalie in Marc-Andre Fluery, although he still has to develop. Fluery is prone to giving up the huge rebound and that's going to cost his team more than a few times this season. To protect their prized possessions, the Penguins have a few players who's primary role is to protect Crosby, Malkin and Staal in Georges Laraque and superpest Jaarko Ruutu. The Penguins also have aging veterans Gary Roberts and Mark Reechi. Expect this team to be exciting to watch and to wreck havoc in the NHL this season.
New Jersey Devils
The Devils of 2006 are pretty much the Devils of 2007: a team built around star netminder Martin Brodeur and a defensive system designed to stifle the other team and allow a minimal number of shots. This team may not be the most glamorous to watch but they are effective at what they do. Patrick Elias and Bryan Gionta will be relied upon to provide the offense. This is a basically a one-line team offensively filled with many solid checking forwards and defenders, although they have declined since winning three cups. They'll contend because of Brodeur. Schedule-wise it's going to be very difficult in the first month with the first nine games of the regular season spent on the road.
New York Islanders
The team from long island just squeaked into the playoffs by a toe save by back-up Wade Dubielewicz. This was another team hit hard by the free agent market losing Ryan Smyth, Jason Blake, Victor Kozlov and Richard Zednik. They overpayed for Billy Guerin. This is a team that will struggle defensively and will struggle to fill the void of losing 5 of its top 7 scorers from last season. The Islanders will be on the outside looking in come the end of this season and will be at or near the bottom of the NHL standings. At least they know their starting goalie for the next fifteen years.
New York Rangers.
The team that plays under the bright lights of NYC made a mega-splash in the free agent market picking up Scott Gomez and Chris Drury. Both these players know what it takes to be successful with Gomez having won the Stanley cup with NJ and Drury reaping the benefits of playing for a powerful Buffalo team. Perhaps one player in Shean Avery may be poison to the locker room, depending on if he shoots his mouth off on or off the ice with childish antics. Up front the Rangers are strong, same as between the pipes with superstar Henrik Lundquist. The one area where the Rangers may struggle is defensively. I believe they will challenge for the division title, but fall short by a hair.
How these teams will finish in the2007-08 divisional standings:
1. Pittsburgh Penguins
2. NY Rangers
3. New Jersey Devils
4. Philadelphia Flyers
5. NY Islanders
The Flyers were simply dreadful in 06-07. They made a huge splash into the Free Agent Pool inking Daniel Briere, Scott Hartnel. New goalie Martin Biron, acquired at last years trade deadline, is expected to be the answer to the inconsistent goaltending that has cost some very good Flyer teams recently a chance to go far. Their top two lines consist of the likes of Briere, Scotty Upshall, Simon Gagne, Mike Richards, Hartnell, and youngster Ryan Parent. However, the Flyers have depth issues and still have large amounts of money tied to sub-par, over-the-hill performers like D Derian Hatcher, who should think of hanging them up, as his best days are behind him. I think the Flyers are going to be better than they were last season, but that's not saying a lot. Don't expect this team to make the playoffs this season.
Pittsburgh Penguins
The Penguins, just a few years ago being a basement dweller, now is a contending team built around four great young superstars in Evgeni Malkin, Sidney Crosby and Jordan Staal. They also have a great goalie in Marc-Andre Fluery, although he still has to develop. Fluery is prone to giving up the huge rebound and that's going to cost his team more than a few times this season. To protect their prized possessions, the Penguins have a few players who's primary role is to protect Crosby, Malkin and Staal in Georges Laraque and superpest Jaarko Ruutu. The Penguins also have aging veterans Gary Roberts and Mark Reechi. Expect this team to be exciting to watch and to wreck havoc in the NHL this season.
New Jersey Devils
The Devils of 2006 are pretty much the Devils of 2007: a team built around star netminder Martin Brodeur and a defensive system designed to stifle the other team and allow a minimal number of shots. This team may not be the most glamorous to watch but they are effective at what they do. Patrick Elias and Bryan Gionta will be relied upon to provide the offense. This is a basically a one-line team offensively filled with many solid checking forwards and defenders, although they have declined since winning three cups. They'll contend because of Brodeur. Schedule-wise it's going to be very difficult in the first month with the first nine games of the regular season spent on the road.
New York Islanders
The team from long island just squeaked into the playoffs by a toe save by back-up Wade Dubielewicz. This was another team hit hard by the free agent market losing Ryan Smyth, Jason Blake, Victor Kozlov and Richard Zednik. They overpayed for Billy Guerin. This is a team that will struggle defensively and will struggle to fill the void of losing 5 of its top 7 scorers from last season. The Islanders will be on the outside looking in come the end of this season and will be at or near the bottom of the NHL standings. At least they know their starting goalie for the next fifteen years.
New York Rangers.
The team that plays under the bright lights of NYC made a mega-splash in the free agent market picking up Scott Gomez and Chris Drury. Both these players know what it takes to be successful with Gomez having won the Stanley cup with NJ and Drury reaping the benefits of playing for a powerful Buffalo team. Perhaps one player in Shean Avery may be poison to the locker room, depending on if he shoots his mouth off on or off the ice with childish antics. Up front the Rangers are strong, same as between the pipes with superstar Henrik Lundquist. The one area where the Rangers may struggle is defensively. I believe they will challenge for the division title, but fall short by a hair.
How these teams will finish in the2007-08 divisional standings:
1. Pittsburgh Penguins
2. NY Rangers
3. New Jersey Devils
4. Philadelphia Flyers
5. NY Islanders
posted by opinionator777 at 9:11 PM
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