To begin every NHL season, I always like to predict who will make the playoffs and who wont. These predictions were my initial thoughts coming into the season. My predictions are as follows.
Western Conference:
1. *San Jose Sharks
2. *Chicago Blackhawks
3. *Vancouver Canucks
4. Los Angeles Kings
5. Detroit Red Wings
6. Nashville Predators
7. Anaheim Ducks
8. St. Louis Blues
9. Minnesota Wild
10. Calgary Flames
11. Dallas Stars
12. Colorado Avalanche
13. Edmonton Oilers
14. Phoenix Coyotes
15. Columbus Blue Jackets
Teams in bold make the playoffs.
*Division leaders
Eastern Conference:
1. *Buffalo Sabres-P
2. *Pittsburgh Penguins
3. *Washington Capitals
4. Philadelphia Flyers
5. Boston Bruins
6. Tampa Bay Lightning
7. New York Rangers
8. Montreal Canadiens
9. Toronto Maple Leafs
10. Florida Panthers
11. New Jersey Devils
12. Carolina Hurricanes
13. New York Islanders
14. Winnipeg Jets
15. Ottawa Senators
Teams in bold make the playoffs
*Division leaders
P is the Presidents Trophy winner for best team in the league.
In the West, San Jose would probably start out a bit slow, but then find another gear and end the season on a high note. For Chicago, I thought that after their disappointing regular season last year, they would play well and win their division. Vancouver would prey on a weak Northwest division to cap the final division. I really thought that Phoenix would really struggle without Bryzgalov in net, and would have a hard time winning games. For St. Louis, I thought it would be a break out year for them and they would start to become a very good team for years to come. Teams like Minnesota, Dallas, and Calgary would be the teams that would float around .500 all season and would be competing for those final playoff spots all season. Also, I felt that the 2 worst teams in the league (Edmonton and Colorado) would take a step in the right direction, just not enough to fight for the last playoff spots.
In the East, I thought that Buffalo, with their new additions would be an absolute dominate force in the NHL along with Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. I thought that the Washington Capitals would take advantage of a very weak Southeast division and only have the Lightning to worry about to win their division and get themselves to the 3rd seed. The Stanley Cup champs from the year before would be good again, just not as good as Philly or their division opponent Buffalo Sabres. My surprise pick for the East was the Florida Panthers. I didn't think they would be good enough to make the playoffs, but after gelling as a team, they would go on a run to try and make it to the final playoff spots. Finally, I didn't think that Winnipeg was going to be significantly better than their Atlanta counterparts mostly because the team was pretty much the same from Atlanta and they finished 12th.
Now I would like to look at the current standings as of now, Friday December 16th, 2011 at a little after midnight. Standings courtesy of nhl.com.
Western Conference:
1. *Minnesota Wild
2. *Chicago Blackhawks
3. *Dallas Stars
4. Detroit Red Wings
5. St. Louis Blues
6. Vancouver Canucks
7. Nashville Predators
8. San Jose Sharks
9.Phoenix Coyotes
10. Los Angeles Kings
11. Calgary Flames
12. Edmonton Oilers
13. Colorado Avalanche
14. Anaheim Ducks
15. Columbus Blue Jackets
Teams in bold make the playoffs
*Division leaders
Eastern Conference:
1. *Philadelphia Flyers
2. *Boston Bruins
3. *Florida Panthers
4. New York Rangers
5. Pittsburgh Penguins
6. Toronto Maple Leafs
7. Washington Capitals
8. Buffalo Sabres
9. New Jersey Devils
10. Montreal Canadiens
11. Winnipeg Jets
12.Ottawa Senators
13. Tampa Bay Lightning
14. Carolina Hurricanes
15. New York Islanders
Teams in bold make playoffs
*Division leaders
First off...this season has been very odd. Out of the 16 playoff teams I predicted, I got 12 correct. Not bad I suppose, but there are a lot of oddities in the standings. The Minnesota Wild and Florida Panthers being the weirdest ones. No one, I mean NO ONE, would have predicted that Florida and Minnesota would be leading their divisions and in the case of the Wild, leading the entire NHL!
Along with the feel-good teams, there are just as many disappointing teams too. Anaheim, Los Angeles, Montreal, and Tampa Bay have been majorly disappointing. I predicted all four of these teams to make the playoffs and they are sitting outside the playoff bubble. Montreal though is tied for 8th place with 33 points. Anaheim has been baffling because they are essentially the same team. A team that flew into the 4th spot late in the 2010-11 season. Tampa Bay is probably the biggest disappointment of them all. This team went from an Eastern Conference Finals appearance and only one win away from a Stanley Cup Finals appearance and now sits at 13th in the East.
There are also some underachieving teams such as Buffalo, Washington, San Jose, and Vancouver. Vancouver is seemingly hitting their stride however, and will most likely be a high seed once things are said and done. Buffalo probably just needs time to gel as a team, and that may even take a full season to do. Washington is a team that will be judged not by their regular season, but by their playoff performance. Maybe a little adversity will do the Caps some good. Finally, San Jose is in the same boat as Washington. The Sharks will be judged by how far they go in the playoffs. In fact, they are my pick to be the Western representative in the Stanley Cup. That though is for another time.
That said, in my next post, I will discuss my predictions for the playoffs. See ya soon
-Colorado Cross Checker
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