Thursday, September 25th 2008

By neelarjo rakshit

The Pittsburgh Penguins, aka, Sidney Crosby and company, will go far in the playoffs. With the stellar play of Malkin, Jordan Staal and Marc-Andre Fleury, they are bound to have a good regular season. Having stalwarts such as Whitney and Gonchar isn’t half bad either.

The Philadelphia Flyers missed the presence of Simon Gagne and his 45 goals last year. Mike Richards, Daniel Briere and Jeff Carter will lead the team in scoring this year and along with the stellar play of defenseman Kimmo Timonen, look for the Flyers to go even further into April this year.

Martin Brodeur and the New Jersey Devils need to keep up with the Flyers and Pens on offence if they want to win the division. Unfortunately, they don’t have any promising scorers besides Brian Gionta. The Devils should miss the playoffs this year due to lack of scoring. Brodeur can still win a few games on his own, but 40 is a bit of a stretch.

The New York Rangers are getting better year-by-year. The departures of Sean Avery and Jaromir Jagr leave the weight of the team on the shoulders of Gomez and Drury. Look for Brandon Dubinsky to improve on the 40 points he had last year. With a tight system on Defence, the acquisition of Redden does nothing but help.

It should not come as a surprise that the Islanders will fall to the bottom of the NHL for a second consecutive season. They only have one line (of Bill Geurin and Mike Comrie) scoring for them, and DiPietro`s play isn’t stellar. The only bright spot in the Islanders organization is the play of Kyle Okposo – look for him to challenge for the Calder trophy this year.

Northeast Division

Toronto is in an admitted rebuilding year, but still, they can’t do worse than last year. The brightest spot in the organization is the promising future star Luke Schenn. There aren’t high hopes for the Leafs this year, but if there is one thing a young team can do, it is put in effort and steal some games. Don’t count the Leafs out just yet, but don’t expect too much either.

Now that Emery has taken his issues with him to Russia, the Ottawa Senators finally have a starting goalie in Gerber. Departures of Redden and Meszaros (to Tampa Bay) will put Chris Phillips and newly acquired Jason Smith in the spotlight on Defence. The Senators still have the reliable trio of Heatley, Spezza and Alfredsson to score plentiful. The real problem for the Senators will be getting scoring from its other forwards such as Vermette, Stillman and Foligno.

The Buffalo Sabres have a fresh start this year. Look for them to contend for a playoff spot with the likes of Pominville, Derek Roy and Thomas Vanek scoring. The Sabres’ biggest asset is their speed. With the departure of Brian Campbell, the Defence does not look good. However, having Ryan Miller in net will take some of the pressure off of the Defencemen.

The Boston Bruins have the most under-appreciated center in Marc Savard. He should comfortably get around 80-85 helpers this season and along with the play of Kessel, Schaefer and big-D Chara, the Bruins should compete for a playoff spot. However, the Bruins need to improve their penalty killing (28 last year) and power play stats (16 last year) this year if they want to contend for the Cup.

The Montreal Canadiens. Many think this team will go far with Koivu, Kovalev, Higgins, Ryder, Markov and Streit. This is true, but the Habs will still have trouble with a tough Western Conference, just like they did last season. They should comfortably win their division with Carey Price solidifying his position as starting goalie.

Southeast Division

The most-boring division became the most-fun-to-watch division with the rise of Alexander Ovechkin and Mike Green in Washington. Ovechkin is going to new heights each game he plays and is one of few Europeans to play a North American style of hockey. Nicklas Backstrom is the best set up man that Ovechkin has ever had in Washington. And with the addition of Jose Theodore between the pipes, the Capitals finally have a goaltender that can win games for them.

This will be another rebuilding year in Atlanta. The only bright spot will be the play of Kovalchuk and the rising play of rookies Bryan Little and Zach Bogosian.

Don’t expect too much from the Panthers this year, Vokoun will win games on his own simply because he is that talented. But other than Nathan Horton and McCabe there is no bright spot in Florida this year.

Eric Staal and the Hurricanes will have to tough it out for a playoff spot due to the departure of Erik Cole and the injury to Justin Williams. Brind’amour, Ray Whitney and Samsonov will help with the scoring. But their ever-improving play along with the rise of goalie Cam Ward should allow them to get into the playoffs.

Finally, the Tampa Bay Lightning. Steven Stamkos should win the Calder. He has a great mentor in Lecavalier, who should compete for the Art Ross. With the likes of St. Louis, Malone, Roberts, shoot-out specialist Jussi Jokinen and Jeff Halpern, they have a good balance of youth and experience. With a good goaltender in Mike Smith and the likes of Matt Carle, Mike Lundin and Meszaros on Defence, it is hard to overlook this team.