Eastern Conference Preview

Penguins Third Jersey, Training camps opened across North America this past week and hope is abound. The Tampa Bay Lightning, New York Rangers will be leaving shortly for the Czech Republic and the Pittsburgh Penguins and Ottawa Senators will be heading for Sweden to open their seasons. All teams are contenders in September but by February after their mettle has been tested, some will resign themselves to not making the playoffs. Here is how the Eastern Conference Standings look heading into the season.

The Division Winners:

1. Montreal Canadiens - The Habs will celebrate their 100th season by winning the North East division and finishing atop the East conference for a second consecutive year. Montrealers suffered through a long rebuild but with a cocky swagger, Montreal is near the top of the league again. Montreal will seek its 25th cup and end its longest drought ever on the back of sophomore goalie Carey Price. Price is a sure bet to fill his mantle with Vezina trophies in his career. Newcomer Alex Tanguay will provide extra scoring punch in the Habs top 6. The only loss of significance was power play point-man Mark Streit.

2. Washington Capitals - The Capitals will again come out on top in the increasingly competitive south east division. The goaltending combination of Huet and Kolzig that ended the season has been replaced by former league MVP Jose Theodore, who bounced back with the Avalanche after a few down years. Rookie defensemen Karl Alzner is a strong bet to make the team this season as a 19 year old. Look for the steady stay at home blue liner to be paired with future Norris Trophy winner Mike Green and for Green to have the green light to jump into the offensive rush more frequently. Oh, and the Capitals have this kid named Ovechkin who is more effective than General Electric at lighting the lamp.

3. Philadelphia Flyers - The Broad Street Bullies era has been revived in Philadelphia. The Flyers are led by courageous captain Mike Richards. The team guts out wins and are backed by the competent goaltending of Martin Biron. The team is 4 lines deep with players that can score, hit, and defend. Braydon Coburn is emerging as an excellent two way defensemen, similar to Dion Phaneuf. Two years ago the Flyers were last in the NHL but after shrewd moves by GM Paul Holmgren have made a remarkable turnaround. The most significant loss in the off season was Captain Jason Smith, clearly on the downside of his career. There is plenty of youth to make up for his departure.

Playoff Teams:

4. Pittsburgh Penguins - It was a tumultuous off season for the Stanley Cup finalists. The team Penguins Third Jersey lost many key free agents, including playoff rental Marian Hossa, local kid Ryan Malone, grizzled veteran Gary Roberts, Pest Jarkko Ruutu, enforcer, Georges Laraque, and back up goalie Ty Conklin. Luckily for GM Ray Shero he was able to retain the services of steady stay at home defensemen Brooks Orpik to prevent the summer from being a complete loss. Pittsburgh less than adequately replaced these players with aging Miroslav Satan coming off a down year with the Islanders and solid 3rd liner Ruslan Fedotenko who will get a shot with Crosby. Crosby, Staal, and Malkin will lead the Pens up front, while veteran Sergei Gonchar, the always improving Ryan Whitney, and blue chip prospect Kris Letang will Penguins Third Jersey shore up the blue line.
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5. Ottawa Senators – Last year the Sens come out of the gate and had the best start to an NHL season ever before the wheels fell off. Troubled goalie Ray Emery got into fights at practice when he showed up on time. Injuries hurt the Sens and Coach John Paddock was fired in an attempt to shake the team out of its funk. Ottawa was too dependent on Dany Heatley, Daniel Alfredsson, and Jason Spezza for goals last season and not much has changed. Young players like Antoine Vermette, Chris Kelly and Mike Fisher will be joined by Nick Foligno as forwards being counted on for secondary scoring. The biggest change for Ottawa will be on the blue line where long time Senator Wade Redden left via Penguins Third Jersey free agency after 2 disastrous seasons. Ottawa also traded Andrej Meszaros after his contract demands were too steep for GM Bryan Murray. New to the Sens blue line will be Filip Kuba and promising youngster Alexandre Picard acquired in a trade with Tampa Bay as well as former Oilers and Flyers Captain Jason Smith. Alex Auld replaces Ray Emery as back up to Martin Gerber the unquestionable (for better or worse) number 1 goalie this year. Expectations are as 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 move is still likely to come. It is believed that sometime before November the Rangers will add former Maple Leafs captain Mats Sundin. If/when Sundin if inked look for Scott Gomez to be dealt for a defensemen to shore up the blue line. The Rangers will also welcome Nikolai Zherdev, Markus Naslund, and Dan Fritsche up front and Wade Redden and Dmitri Kalinin to their blue line. Gone from New York are former captain Jaromir Jagr, Veteran leader Brendan Shanahan, super pest Sean Avery and Fedor Tyutin. Despite all the re-jigging, the Blue shirts will go as far as goalie Henrik Lundquist will carry them.

7. Carolina Hurricanes – Injuries have prevented the Hurricanes from making the playoffs the past two seasons and already the Hurricanes are having health issues. Winger Justin Williams was injured in the team’s first work out and will miss 4-6 months. Most of the roster is intact from last season with Joni Pitkanen being the only newcomer of consequence. Pitkanen was acquired in a trade for Erik Cole. Defensemen Bret Hedican and Glen Wesley retired in the off season. The Hurricanes will again be led by Eric Staal and by goalie Cam Ward. Carolina will need to win their divisional games to have a shot at the playoffs as Florida and Tampa will be breathing down their necks.