1 - Vancouver (I like their off-season additions / movement) 2 - Los Angeles (Quick or Bernier will get it done to help them reach the next level) 3 - Detroit (Too many vets. It's like going through the motions) 4 - Phoenix (Not a fluke) 5 - San Jose (Niemi doesn't help them in the regular season like Nabokov did) 6 - Colorado (I really don't think they'll finish this high, but they seem better than the teams below them) 7 - Blackhawks (Still have enough firepower in the right positions, Turco is good enough, I guess) 8 - Predators / Blues (I can't pick between these two. I believe in Rinne and the Blues just have too much depth up front for me to deny them a shot) ------------------ 9 - Blues / Predators (Halak helps this team get over the hump and into the mix) 10 - Flames (Some form of collapse at some point this season, it's only natural) 11 - Ducks (Hiller faces a tough challenge with that D) 12 - Stars (Lehtonen nor Raycroft get the job done despite having a decent and well coached team) 13 - Wild (Excellent goalie, solid defense, not enough scoring depth unless Havlat and Koivu's shoulders grew immensely over the summer) 14 - Blue Jackets (Rick Nash, Filatov and Voracek carry them as far as they can 14th place) 15 - Oilers (Probably the last time they're in the basement, if they can figure out their goalie situation)
EAST
1 - Washington (The regular season Peyton Manning stat whores of the NHL, Varlamov's 3.89 GAA is good enough for 40 wins) 2 - New Jersey (Brodeur has his last Vezina-type season. They finally get enough scoring to win games 3-1 instead of 2-1) 3 - Buffalo (Miller carries this team again. He becomes the best goalie in the East, dethroning Brodeur) 4 - Pittsburgh (Malkin regains his Art Ross form. Except for their 6/7th defensemen, this is their deepest team in years. They'll miss Staal at the begining as the league tests P.K. Subban's skates for VD) 5 - Boston (Horton and Seguin should help, but proven scoring keeps them from establishing themselves where they should be - an Eastern contender) 6 - Tampa Bay (The southern hype machine lives up to their projections. Stamkos somehow takes another step forward) 7 - Carolina (They seem to alternate between good and bad years, Cam Ward helps their consistency) 8 - Philadelphia (Their goalie situation is so bad that they could finish 12th. Somehow Laviolette will get them on track) ---------------------- 9 - Montreal (Carey Price does enough, but doesn't handle the work load as well as he should've) 10 - Ottawa - (Another fugly goalie situation. Losing Volchenkov drops them to 10th, yes he was that important) 11 - New York Rangers (Gaborik, Del Zotto and Lundqvist. They get this far on those three) 12 - Toronto (Another rebuilding year. A healthy defensive unit goes a long way as the Leafs dress two of them to play goalie at the same time) 13 - Panthers (Poor Tomas Vokoun. That's about it) 14 - New York Islanders (I don't know how, but they finish above someone in the East) 15 - Atlanta (I don't think anyone has a clue what is going on down there. They have enough talent to play respectively, but don't put anything together until it's too late. It's what Atlanta does best)
Cup - Vancouver (Now that I've cursed them...)
Hart - Kopitar
Vezina - Brodeur
Calder - Seguin (on account of his team being better because of him)
Norris - Doughty / Weber
Presidents - Washington
Wales - New Jersey
Campbell - Vancouver
Adams - Ruff / Murray
__________________
"As long as those gnome elite molecules emerge, we certainly can reduce casualties. Their warplanes troops would be nice."
West 1. Vancouver 2. San jose 3. Chicago 4. Los Angeles 5. Calgary 6. Detroit 7. St. Louis 8. Nashville 9. Phoenix 10. Anaheim 11. Colorado 12. Columbus 13. Edmonton 14. Dallas 15. Minnesota
East 1. Washington 2. Pittsburgh 3. Boston 4. Carolina 5. New Jersey 6. Ottawa 7. New York Rangers 8. Tampa Bay 9. Toronto 10 Philadelphia 11 Buffalo 12 New York Islanders 13 Atlanta 14. Montreal 15. Florida
Cup - Washington
Hart - Ovechkin
Vezina - Lundqvist
Calder - Magnus-Paarajvi
Norris - Chara
Presidents - Washington
Wales - Washington
Campbell - Detroit
Adams - Guy Boucher
-- Edited by Predsgm on Thursday 7th of October 2010 10:13:07 PM
West 1. San Jose 2. Detroit 3. Vancouver 4. Chicago 5. Los Angeles 6. Nashville 7. Colorado 8. Phoenix 9. Minnesota 10. Columbus 11. Calgary 12. Anaheim 13. St. Louis 14. Edmonton 15. Dallas
East 1. Washington 2. New Jersey 3. Buffalo 4. Pittsburgh 5. Philadelphia 6. Boston 7. Montreal 8. Tampa Bay 9. Atlanta 10. NY Rangers 11. Ottawa 12. Florida 13. Carolina 14. Toronto 15. NY Islanders
1 - Detroit 2 - San Jose 3 - Vancouver 4 - Los Angeles 5 - Blackhawks 6 - Colorado 7 - Blues 8 - Phoenix ------------------ 9 - Predators 10 - Blue Jackets 11 - Stars 12 - Oilers 13 - Wild 14 - Ducks 15 - Flames
EAST
1 - Washington 2 - New Jersey 3 - Buffalo 4 - Pittsburgh 5 - Philadelphia 6 - Tampa bay 7 - Boston 8 - New York Rangers ---------------------- 9 - Montreal 10 -Carolina 11 - Ottawa 12 - Panthers 13 - Thrashers 14 - New York Islanders 15 - Maple Lafs
Cup - L.A Kings (bernier shines behind their defense and kopitar steps up in playoff grind)
Hart - Crosby (60g, 70a = hart)
Vezina - Miller (is the dominate goalie in the nhl right now and myers helps protect him more and more with his own experience.)
Calder - Neuvirth (will be their goalie and his win total will win him a hart)
Norris - Doughty (70pts is the new niedermayer)
Presidents - Washington (they crazy regular season team)
Wales - Washington
Campbell - L.A Kings
Adams - T.Murray (team is on rise and he will push the right buttons)
West 1. Vancouver 2. Chicago 3. San Jose 4. Detroit 5. Phoenix 6. Los Angeles 7. Calgary 8. Nashville 9. Anaheim 10. Columbus 11. St. Louis 12. Colorado 13. Minnesota 14. Dallas 15. Edmonton
East 1. Washington 2. Buffalo 3. Pittsburgh 4. Philadelphia 5. New Jersey 6. Boston 7. Tampa Bay 8. Toronto (by 1 pt. over Ottawa!) 9. Ottawa 10. Montreal 11. NY Rangers 12. Atlanta 13. Carolina 14. NY Islanders 15. Florida
Cup - Washington
Hart - Ovie
Vezina - Miller
Calder - Carlson
Norris - Doughty
Adams - T. Murray
Presidents - Vancouver
__________________
2007-08 - missed playoffs (29th overall) 2008-09 - missed playoffs (26th overall) 2009-10 - 7th place in Western Conference (99 pts), Conference Semi-Finals 2010-11 - missed playoffs (19th overall) 2011-12
1 - San Jose 2 - Vancouver 3 - Detroit 4 - Chicago 5 - Dallas 6 - Los Angeles 7 - Anaheim 8 - St. Louis ------------------ 9 - Colorado 10 - Edmonton 11 - Calgary 12 - Nashville 13 - Phoenix 14 - Columbus 15 - Minnesota
EAST
1 - Pittsburgh 2 - Washington 3 - Boston 4 - Philadelphia 5 - Montreal 6 - Ottawa 7 - Buffalo 8 - New York Rangers ---------------------- 9 - New Jersey 10 - Tampa Bay 11 - Toronto 12 - New York Islanders 13 - Carolina 14 - Atlanta 15 - Florida
Cup - Washington (In an epic eastern conference final win over pitts, then over #1 seed in west SJ)
Hart - Malkin (crashes the Sid/Ovy debate over who is best player in NHL.. will benefit HUGE from playing with J.Staal for most of the season)
Vezina - R. Luongo (unreal D and weak competition in division = lots of wins)
Calder - T. Hall (25G, 35A gets it done)
Norris - Doughty (How could it not be this guy, Pronger, or M.Green?)
Presidents - Pittsburgh
Wales - Pittsburgh
Campbell - San Jose
Adams - M. Crawford (team is on rise)
__________________
Get ahold of me soon, or my players will already be dealt!
1 - San Jose 2 - Vancouver 3 - Detroit 4 - Chicago 5 - Dallas 6 - Los Angeles 7 - Anaheim 8 - St. Louis ------------------ 9 - Colorado 10 - Edmonton 11 - Calgary 12 - Nashville 13 - Phoenix 14 - Columbus 15 - Minnesota
EAST
1 - Pittsburgh 2 - Washington 3 - Boston 4 - Philadelphia 5 - Montreal 6 - Ottawa 7 - Buffalo 8 - New York Rangers ---------------------- 9 - New Jersey 10 - Tampa Bay 11 - Toronto 12 - New York Islanders 13 - Carolina 14 - Atlanta 15 - Florida
Cup - Washington (In an epic eastern conference final win over pitts, then over #1 seed in west SJ)
Hart - Malkin (crashes the Sid/Ovy debate over who is best player in NHL.. will benefit HUGE from playing with J.Staal for most of the season)
Vezina - R. Luongo (unreal D and weak competition in division = lots of wins)
Calder - T. Hall (25G, 35A gets it done)
Norris - Doughty (How could it not be this guy, Pronger, or M.Green?)
Presidents - Pittsburgh
Wales - Pittsburgh
Campbell - San Jose
Adams - M. Crawford (team is on rise)
How do the Penguins win the Prince of Wales in your scenario???
1 - San Jose 2 - Detroit 3 - Vancouver 4 - Phoenix 5 - Los Angeles 6 - Chicago 7 - Nashville 8 - Flames ------------------ 9 - Blues 10 - Colorado 11 - Anaheim 12 - Minnesota 13 - Columbus 14 - Dallas 15 - Edmonton
EAST
1 - Boston 2 - Washington 3 - New Jersey 4 - Pittsburgh 5 - Philadelphia 6 - Buffalo 7 - Montreal 8 - New York Islanders ---------------------- 9 - Ottawa 10 - Carolina 11 - Tampa Bay 12 - New York Rangers 13 - Toronto 14 - Atlanta 15 - Florida
Washington Pittsburgh Boston New Jersey Montreal Buffalo Carolina -------------- Ottawa Rangers Islanders Atlanta Toronto Florida (Vokoun will be traded by mid-season. They have nothing else.)
West: Los Angeles Chicago Vancouver (will have less points than SJ and Det) San Jose Detroit Anaheim St. Louis Nashville --------------- Phoenix Colorado Dallas Calgary Minnesota Edmonton Columbus
I think the Penguins will win the cup. Yes, I know i'm a blantant homer, but its looking good this year. Shero has put together an amazing group, and still will have some cap space to play with at the deadline. Very tough team to play against.
The Islanders will be a better team, but will finish in last place due to the fact that half of their games are against the Penguins, Flyers, and Devils, with some games vs the Crapitals in between.
Ovechicken**** and the rest of the Semin lovers will run away with the presidents trophy again, then crumble in the playoffs. Might make it all the way to the conference finals this time, but I just dont see them getting past Pittsburgh, Philly, Jersey, and Boston in a best of 7. Maybe one, but not 2 or 3 of them. Hell, if Buffalo is an 8th seed, I wouldn't count out Miller beating them single handed.
Finals: Penguins over Pheonix. Hart: Crosby Norris: If Lidstrom has a decient season, it will go to him as a swan song on his way out. If not, then Chara if the Bruins stay healthy and they win their division. Vezina: Brodure (see above). But Miller or Bryzgalov wouldnt surprise me. Calder: John Carlson
__________________
"Theres also talk of creating more room at the end of the rink by making the nets more shallow, which would be accomplished by encouraging them to spend all their time listening to pop music and reading Twilight books."
West 1. Vancouver 2.San Jose 3. Chicago 4. LA 5.Detroit 6.Col 7.Columbus 8.Nash 9.Phx 10.Stl 11.Edm 12.Ana 13.Dal 14.Cal 15. Minnesota
East 1. Washington 2. Boston 3. Pittsburgh 4. Philadelphia 5. New Jersey 6. Tampa 7. Buffalo 8.Carolina 9.Ott 10.Mtl 11NYR 12.Tor 13.NYI 14. Atlanta 15. Florida
so now that the season is over we can look back at what we all thought.... i like Rob Ives picks 7-1 in the West 6-2 in the east making it.. plus predicting president trophy winner Vancouver... but i think the real winner and wow impressive as well.. is ..... John of the Avs.. 7-1 in the west and east.. only missed out on anaheim in the west and the rangers in the east..
playoff predictions should get quite interesting...