With the best hockey players in the world headed to Vancouver to represent their respective countries at the Winter Olympiad, the NHL is now put on a temporary hiatus until the games end.
Each team only has around 20 games left until the end of the season, meaning that this break will prove incredibly important for those teams in the playoff race: resting time for some teams near the top, re-evaluation and mental preparation time for those that are on the outside of a playoff spot and looking in.
With such a crucial time coming up after the break, I’m going to take a look at the current standings in each conference and give some analysis/predictions about what the near future has in store for each.
For now, here’s the East:
1) Washington Capitals: Already sitting at the top of the league, this break will benefit the Caps probably more than any other team. Semyon Varlamov, the most talented goalie the Caps have, missed a large portion of the season with an injury, but will be given plenty of rest over the break and should be back to 100% when the NHL resumes. Meanwhile, Ovechkin, Semin, and Backstrom will be out dominating the Olympics and, should their respective national teams (Russia and Sweden) find success, might come back riding a lot of momentum. The Caps will continue their hot streak right into winning the President’s Trophy, and most likely a place in the Conference Finals.
2) New Jersey Devils: Ilya Kovalchuk hasn’t quite meshed with his new team thus far, and will have to put any chemistry building on hold for another two weeks. The Devils are still going strong, once again led by Marty Brodeur, and will likely win their division, but everything in the postseason will rely on whether or not Kovy can give the Devils the scoring depth that they need to make a big playoff push. If he or the team’s forgettable defensive core falters, then the Devils might be on the receiving end of another first round upset.
3) Ottawa Senators: At the start of the season, nobody expected the Sens to be an apparent playoff lock, let alone leading their division, but here they are, a slim point ahead of Buffalo atop the Northeast. The team has shown amazing heart (*cough* MIKE FISHER *cough*), but how long can they keep overachieving for? Adding Matt Cullen is a big step in the right direction, but unless they add at least another piece before the deadline they won’t be making too big of a run at the Cup.
4) Pittsburgh Penguins: Two years ago it was Marian Hossa; last year it was Bill Guerin and Chris Kunitz. Who will the mighty Pens add at this year’s trade deadline to bolster their scoring capabilities? Rumours are circulating around Ray Whitney, but the only thing that’s certain now is that the Pens need to add a scoring winger, AGAIN, to play with Sidney Crosby. Either way, with the experience that the young (and always improving) Pens have after back-to-back finals appearances they’ll once again be a top contender. Is there a Dynasty in the making…?
5) Buffalo Sabres: Always the bridesmaid, but never the bride. Aside from San Jose, there’s no team that continually succeeds in the regular season but falters in the playoffs like the Sabres do. They’re having another great year thus far, but the team’s faithful are screaming for a finals berth. Lindy Ruff’s time as head coach is on the verge of running out if the team doesn’t go far enough. Unless they make a big splash at the trade deadline they likely won’t get that far, although this team is just as feisty as any other in the East and could potentially pull some surprises.
6) Philadelphia Flyers: A popular prediction for a Cup winner before the season even started, the Flyers haven’t nearly lived up to expectations (but really, is Ray Emery still a #1 goalie in this league anyways?), spending most of the season below the bottom 8. They’ve gone on a tear recently, thanks to finally accepting the defensive mentality of new head coach Peter Laviolette, and look like the same fearful Flyers from the preseason. They could easily melt down again down the stretch or in the first round, but they’re a damn tough team, and if they can get to the second round they’ll likely carry that momentum a lot further. Another Pens/Flyers conference final would be explosive.
7) Boston Bruins: The B’s are easily the most confusing team in the league right now. Despite winning the President’s Trophy last year, Boston has suffered a full collapse this year. They sit in a playoff spot by a mere two points, but that’ll be a tough spot to hold. Something just doesn’t feel right for the Bruins this year: is it Thomas slacking with his new contract? The injury to Savard? Over-confidence? Whatever it is, if it strikes again soon then the team will succumb to all the pressure, missing the playoffs. But hey, at least they have either Taylor Hall of Tyler Seguin to look forward to…
8) Montreal Canadians: You can’t just throw a bunch of paint at a canvas and hope that it will turn into a great painting. Montreal tried to do that in the offseason, adding expensive players (like Scott Gomez) who clearly aren’t good fits for the team. Nobody really knows what will happen to the team next. Unless all of their big players can play to their contracts and they find some miracles cures for all their injury woes, the Habs’ playoff fate will come down to the last couple games of the season; it could go either way from there.
9) Tampa Bay Lightning: Much like the Habs, the Bolts have a roster of pieces that simply don’t fit together properly: you can see it in the lacklustre play of Vincent Lecavalier. A major deadline turnover could give the team some spark going forward, but their management has made it clear that they’re quite content with the aforementioned big pieces, wherever they can put them. Barring a miracle from Steven Stamkos, Marty St. Louis and some passable goaltending, the Bolts will keep grinding the same old gears and miss their playoff chance yet again.
10) New York Rangers: These guys are easily my dark horse for this season. They haven’t always played like a playoff team, but something about them is starting to click. Olli Jokinen in Calgary was a failed experiment, but he’s making a concentrated effort to redeem himself in New York. Marian Gaborik (finally unleashed from his defensive chains) and Henrik Lundqvist (2006 Olympic Gold medallist for Sweden) will play sensationally in the Olympics, and their spark will carry over to the NHL and drive the rest of the team. Call it a hunch if you will, but them making it to the second round or further wouldn’t surprise me one bit.
11) Atlanta Thrashers: The Thrashers are only two points out of a playoff spot, but their postseason dreams ended when they traded Kovalchuk to New Jersey. It was even more evident when Kari Lehtonen, seemingly the goalie of the franchise, was moved to Dallas for a prospect and a pick. GM Don Waddell doesn’t seem to think that the team can find any playoff success this year, and that vibe resonates throughout the entire locker room. A strong push after the break isn’t completely out of the question, but it sure would be a surprise.
12) Florida Panthers: Really, who’s surprised by this? The Cats have never been a true playoff threat, even when they made the Cup finals in 1996. The team’s too thin; talent’s too sparse. Recently, their management even went so far to make a formal apology to their fans for being so futile for so long. Ouch. Drastic, foundation-shaking changes were promised, so expect to see anyone or everyone involved at the trade deadline.
13) New York Islanders: They tried hard; they really did. For a while, they were even sitting in 6th in the Conference. But in the end, the Isles are still the same old Isles. They’re progressively getting better through their youth, and Dwayne Roloson must be taking CheliRoids to play this well at such an old age, but a playoff spot would have been nothing short of a miracle. Don’t be surprised if some depth veterans, namely Martin Biron, find new homes at the deadline.
14) Carolina Hurricanes: The ‘Canes are currently riding a 5-game winning streak, putting them at currently at 55 points…still 9 points out of a playoff spot. No winning streak could have fixed their abysmal start to the season at the bottom of the league. Nick Wallin and Cullen gone with Whitney likely to follow, but don’t expect much more beyond that. The Canes really aren’t as bad as their position suggests. They’ll suck it up, draft high this year, and come back a lot stronger in 2011 (and following their up and down trend since the lockout, likely make it to the Cup finals again!)
/D-Wreck
