Arizona makes the playoffs over Vancouver and the rest above them

Boston over Ottawa. Bruins are losing a lot of their team from last year, but they also had 65 wins so even if they get 15 wins less, that's 100 points not including OTLs...

I'm not sure, their offence is good but there defense still needs a lot of work. In a few years they should be a contender tho

Good take. I think they will make it too but Ottawa fans will get real mad if the Sens are not in a playoff spot

Sens fans get mad anyway. They're Ontario hockey fans. Look at how well that works in Southern Ontario

Vancouvers easily above Arizona

They will, but OTT won't make playoffs



This isn't fair, we all remember when our teams were up and coming and are almost over that hump and how it would piss us off that others weren't rating our team as high as we would have liked

See, I'm a Canes fan... I'm used to people putting out teams and players lower than they should be.

And you've commented your fair share of "Hey, why is this lower than this", right?

More, my point was more that I have to do it all the time because everyone underrated this team

And how's that any different from any other fanbase doing the same thing?

It happens way more frequently in smaller markets. For some reason, Carolina more than most. If you ask a casual fan, Carolina have a team of average players and just fluke their way to being among the best in the NHL every year... it's different than say Ottawa because first of all everyone can name the difference makers in Ottawa. Chychrun, Chabot, Stutzle, Tkachuk etc... their issues are more is Korpisalo going to hold up and is that team defense going to be better under DJ Smith

The Hurricanes are also underrated because of the style of game they play and they don't have a guy who puts up massive offensive numbers

Avs are in the central and oilers in the pacific.

Oops. I will fix that

Are you talking about the Canes as a team or the Canes as players... BC the team itself is viewed as serious contender... Only being voted by the majority (I have the Canes winning the division) bc of how overrated the Devils are as the new hot comodidy.

As for the players, you have a few under appreciated players, Aho, Martinook, Necas, Staal and Svech are all underrated... But how's that any different then people undervaluing big market teams' players, bc they're hyped up by a lot of people

(side not: Ottawa's a small market team, so IDK why you took a shot at another small market team)

I think you are out to lunch on most everything you say, however, yup. They aren't even losing half as much as people think. Orlov was on a different team for most of the season, they were fine without him. There defence will still be really good. They still have pastrnak and marchand. Bergeron had a good season but he was fed major offensive zone starts and way less ice time than seasons past. Yeah he's a loss but he wasn't half as good as people treated him. Right now it's pastrnak and marchand's team. I bet they fall back for sure but it won't be half as bad as people think. They'll be 2nd or 3rd in the division. Tampa could fall off worse I think. Hedman aging, still great but he's just not what he was 2 years ago. Their team is entering the Pittsburgh phase now. They will still be a good team and could even go on a run but I also wouldn't be surprised if they fall into a wild card spot. Florida is a crap shoot, are they a contender or did Bobrovsky go on one magical run and goes back to being an overpaid backup again? Big question marks everywhere. Will buffalo regress or get better? Their goaltending is a huge question mark and a lot of guys had career years, will they again or even match it? Ottawa I feel is very poorly coached and I could see them start slowly and fire Smith. Could they make it? They have the talent but their system is awful defensively and well structured teams I think could hurt them. Detroit's better I guess but not much.

This is a long round about way to say, yeah Boston isn't going lose 50 points on the season from last year. 20, absolutely, 30? Likely but not much more than that. I bet they finish over 100 points and finish 2nd.

A lot of what you say amuses me, but this is a very good take. I could see Florida finishing above 2nd above the Bruins if Bobrovsky has a Vezina year and not an unusable one, but Boston are more than likely going to be a playoff team. They're losing Hall, Foligno, Krejci and Bergeron. The center depth takes a big whack, but they still should be fine overall. I could see Tampa regressing too, but Vasilevskiy is going to cover all the blemishes on that team anyway.

The two Florida teams I think would be the ones to drop behind of of Buffalo, Ottawa and Detroit (highly unlikely)

I trust Bob and Vasy more than Korpisalo, Reimer and Husso, or Devon Levi and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen. Florida have the offensive firepower to keep up with anyone too. Tampa could fall a bit, but that goaltending is just so strong. It very much is a weaker Atlantic Division behind the Leafs it seems.

I mean I do as well but everybody that you mentioned except Vasy is either super inconsistent, unproven or just plain bad

Vasilevsky hasn't been all world the last couple of years, apart from the playoffs where he's still nuts. And the Tampa defence isn't what is was 3 years ago.