As promised here is my attempt to give predictions for the rest of the Eastern Conference before I break down the Atlantic.

Today we look at the SouthEast Division. Here were last years standings:

Team	Wins	Losses	OTL	Points	Goals For	Goals Allowed
Atlanta	43	28	11	97	246	245
Tampa Bay	44	33	5	93	253	261
Carolina	40	34	8	88	241	253
Florida	35	31	16	86	247	257
Washington	28	40	14	70	235	286

Let’s attack these teams one at a time.

Atlanta

Unrestricted Free Agents: LW J.P. Vigier, LW Cory Larose, D Andy Delmore.

Re-Signings: RW Brad Larsen, D Steve McCarthy, LW Pascal Dupuis (1-year, $880,000 contract), F Slava Kozlov (3-year, $11 million contract), D Garnett Exelby (multi-year contract), LW Eric Boulton, RW Jim Slater (2-year, $1.55 million contract).

Notable Additions: C Todd White (Wild, 4-year, $9.5 million contract), Chris Thorburn (Penguins - trade), LW Eric Perrin (Lightning 2-year, $1.5 million contract), D Ken Klee (Avalanche, multi-year contract), C Alexandre Giroux (Capitals, multi-year contract).

Notable Subtractions: LW Keith Tkachuk (Blues), RW Jon Sim (Islanders), D Greg de Vries (Predators), C Eric Belanger (Wild), D Shane Hnidy (Ducks), D Andy Sutton (Islanders).

Outlook: The Thrashers won the division last year only to be manhandled by the Rangers. In fact the only 2 teams that made the playoffs from this division, the Thrashers and Lightning, both got defeated by better Atlantic Division teams. This is not surprising. This division is incredibly weak, despite sporting 2 of the last 3 Stanley Cup Champions. The Thrashers will be decidedly weaker this year. With no additions of note, and suffering some fairly noticeable losses, particularly from the team that suited up in the playoffs, the Thrashers will be lucky to break 90 points this year. Expect a firing or 2 in Atlanta, with Waddell, who sacrificed their future by pushing for their quick playoff appearance last year likely to be on the hot seat, and coach Hartley who also made questionable decisions, not far behind.

Tampa Bay

Unrestricted Free Agents: D Nolan Pratt, LW Rob DiMaio, LW Eric Healey.

Re-Signings: D Shane O’Brien (2-year, $2 million contract), F Jan Hlavac (1-year contract), F Nick Tarnasky (2-year contract), F Kyle Wanvig (1-year, two-way contract), D Paul Ranger (3-year contract).

Notable Additions: F Chris Gratton (Panthers - trade), RW Michel Ouellet (Penguins, 2-year, $2.5 million contract), D Brad Lukowich (Devils, 3-year, $4.7 million contract).

Notable Subtractions: D Cory Sarich (Flames), LW Eric Perrin (Thrashers), LW Ruslan Fedotenko (Islanders), D Luke Richardson (Senators).

Outlook: These guys will score goals. We all know it. They have the epitome of a top heavy team. They have their big 3 who rival any other 3 forwards on any other team. They also have a stud defenseman, who is ridiculously underrated in Dan Boyle. The question is, can the bottom part of this top heavy team, which includes their goaltender, keep pace. My guess would be enough to make the playoffs but not much else. You don’t win in the playoffs without defense and goaltending. Getting rid of Cujo killed these guys, and you saw it last year when Ranger reject Johan Holmqvist looked flat out terrible against a very beatable New Jersey Devils team.

Carolina

Unrestricted Free Agents: RW Anson Carter, D David Tanabe, RW Shane Willis, RW Jesse Boulerice, C Josef Vasicek.

Re-Signings: F Scott Walker (3-year, $7.5 million contract).

Notable Additions: C Matt Cullen (Rangers - trade), G Michael Leighton (Canadiens - trade), D Wade Brookbank (Bruins, 1-year contract).

Notable Subtractions: D Andrew Hutchinson (Rangers).

Outlook: The Canes probably should have made the playoffs last year. However a horrendous start to their season due mainly to a ridiculous string of injuries really hampered their ability to do so. With these guys it all comes down to goaltending. If Ward is on, their offense is definitely dangerous enough to win them games. If Ward is terrible like he was for much of last year, they don’t stand a chance. I’m leaning more towards last years Ward being the actual Ward, rather than the Stanley Cup winning Ward of 2 years ago. They will miss the playoffs by a point or two, and Ward will be a goat.

Florida

Unrestricted Free Agents: G Jean-Marc Pelletier, RW Juraj Kolnik.

Re-Signings: RW Nathan Horton (6-year, $24 million contract), D Bryan Allen (5-year, $14.5 million contract), G Craig Anderson (2-year, $1 million contract), C Jozef Stumpel (2-year, $4.5 million contract), C Stephen Weiss (6-year, $18.6 million contract)

Notable Additions: F Richard Zednik (Islanders, 2-year, $3.25 million contract), F Brett McLean (Avalanche, 3-year, $5.1 million contract), G Tomas Vokoun (Predators - trade), RW Radek Dvorak (Blues, 2-year, $3.1 million contract).

Notable Subtractions: F Chris Gratton (Lightning), LW Martin Gelinas (Predators), D Alexei Semenov (Sharks), G Alex Auld (Coyotes), G Ed Belfour (Leksands - Sweden).

Outlook: Adding Tomas Vokoun was a coup-de-tat for the Panthers. They add an elite goaltender to a very good, young team. More importantly the Panthers will get a full season to play under Jacques Martin, a phenomenal hockey guy, and they get more time to forget what Mike Keenan taught them. Keenan might be the most overrated coach in history, riding the coattails of Mark Messier to fame in New York, and showing a consistent inability to maintain healthy relationships with his players. Negativity is infectious, getting away from Keenan will help this team a lot. I expect them to be far more competitive, though just missing the playoffs. A definite improvement should be expected.

Washington

Unrestricted Free Agents: D Bryan Muir.

Re-Signings: D Steve Eminger, C Brian Sutherby, F Chris Clark (3-year, $7.9 million contract extension), D John Erskine (2-year, $1.75 million contract).

Notable Additions: D Tom Poti (Islanders, 4-year, $14 million contract), C Viktor Kozlov (Islanders, 2-year, $5 million contract), C Michael Nylander (Rangers, 4-year, $19.5 million contract), C Joe Motzko (Ducks, 2-year contract).

Notable Subtractions: Kris Beech (Blue Jackets).

Outlook: Worst to First? It’s possible, and I think it’s going to happen. Last year I predicted Washington would be around the top of the division, and I was wrong, I’m hoping that doesn’t happen 2 years in a row. The addition of Nylander, and rookie sensation (and my predicted Calder winner) Backstrom should spell a complete turnaround for the Caps. You have to admit it, they did things right in Washington. They are doing it with youth, and a heckuva coaching staff. These kids play hard, and never ever give up. It really is a joy to watch kids grow up before your eyes, and with Alex the great and Semin already establishing themselves as stars the Caps are well on their way to being a legitimate threat.

Thoughts

I think this will be a tough division, in that all the teams are roughly as good as each other, however just because all the teams are even doesn’t mean all the teams will be very good. Youre going to see a frantic push by the bottom teams to make the playoffs, and some questionable deadline deals from a lot of these teams. Nobody is safe, nobody is the clear cut winner, and nobody is the clear cut loser. Put names in a hat, pick out your standings, and they could be right. There is just no telling with this division. Yet, with all that said, I still feel this is as good a prediction as you are going to see. Washington and Tampa will make it, barely. The rest will not.

 

Projected Final Standings

Team	Points
Washington	95
Tampa Bay	94
Carolina	92
Florida	88
Atlanta	86

-Inferno

Rangers Review | No Comments »

I actually saw this game late last night/early this morning but haven’t got around to typing anything about it till now. Why? Because you’ve heard it all. This was another game that showed you very clearly how a well coached, and adaptive team like the Canadians can, even on an off day, manhandle an unorganized Russian squad. Despite keeping things even through 2, including a goal by Anisimov (he wasn’t given credit for it at the time it was scored, but he clearly was the one who tipped it in), the Russians really didn’t appear to have what it takes to win. Varlamov was keeping them close with some terrific goaltending (for once), and the Canadians were making things easy on the Russians by not exerting their physical presence, and the Russians in the form of AA even tried a cheapshot of their own with a knee on knee hit (I’ll get to that in a minute). Still, the Canadians turned it on when they had to, and went for the already bone dry jugular of the Russian team.

Regarding the knee on knee hit, you know I am not going to let that one go. It was a stupid, dirty play by AA. I forget who it was he hit, and I’m too busy to look it up at the moment, but whoever it was, it definitely looked intentional to me, and could have been a serious injury for both the players involved, and considering the state of his knee as it is, it wasn’t very smart (though it may have been the other knee this time, I cant remember).

Still, that was the last we will see (Thankfully) from Artem in this pointless, and decidedly one-sided “series”. The rookie is on his way to join the Rangers squad for the Traverse City tournament where the Rangers will be well represented sending this, highly skilled and tough squad:

Anisimov
Barnes
Bourret
Dubinsky
Dupont
Hillier
Korpikoski
Owens
Pyatt
Busto
Potter
Staal
Sauer
Sanguinetti
Lafleur

The players in bold are your “most likely to be NHL’ers” of the bunch, or your players to watch. Either way, its an incredibly strong lineup, with some excellent well rounded players. Though it should be noted one Nigel Dawes is not on this list. Nor is Ryan Callahan or Daniel Girardi. One can only assume this means Nigel will be joining the big club this year since it seems the Rangers feel he will not benefit from this “exercise”.

Regarding the tournament itself, I have been trying fruitlessly to find a way to watch the games, if anyone knows, please contact me on the HFBoards here. However I suspect there is no real way to watch it for us die hards. With that said, there is always the possibility the Rangers On Demand site will have portions of the games, highlights, analysis, or possibly entire games. Of course its also likely they won’t, I guess we will see. However I would suggest 2 things…

Visit Blueshirt Bulletin daily for their analysis and recaps, Jess and Dubi do a really great job on this kind of stuff

Visit the HockeysFuture site, Leslie Treff will once again be giving us excellent, on hand analysis as well.

Since I will not be seeing these games with my own 2 eyes unless something unexpected pops up, I will refrain from giving any opinions on what has happened there. So that means I will finally have time to do my Eastern Conference Previews. I’m hoping to start in the next few days.

-Inferno

Rangers Review | 1 Comment »

So I finally watched the game from yesterday, and what a game it was indeed. Not in a good way mind you. The Canadians, for the first time in this series, played 60 minutes of CLEAN and absolutely dominating hockey. The worst part of it for the Russians? That it should have been worse. If Babrovsky hadn’t stood on his head for much of the game (letting in 1 soft goal of 8 if my memory holds) it would have been closer to 17-1 or something disgusting like that. The fact of the matter is, the Russians have no organization or team concept whatsoever. It really shows on their futile, and frankly embarrassing powerplay alignment.

Did you guys see how they ran the power play? They had 3, count em, 3 guys on the blue like, one guy in the high slot, and one guy floating near the net. Uhh, yeah, how exactly are you going to score with that kind of a setup? They forced themselves into a perimeter game with this alignment, and took their down low presence completely out of the game. This lets the defenders aggressively check the men with the puck, and use 2 guys to guard 3 up high very easily. If there is no down low presence, the D can stretch without fear of being torched down low. If the Russians would have had a more conventional setup, like the Canadians had, they would be better than the 3 for 218,493,908,509,832,095,830,950,953 that they currently are in this (I jokingly call it a) series.

Another thing the Russians do terribly is take point shots. They dont shoot them off the pass very often, instead they accept the pass, set the puck, and fire it. This 2 second process let’s team-Sutter get into position to block shots, and do they ever block shots. If the Russians used quick passes and shot off the pass you can bet your ass they would be more effective than they are now.

Finally, coaching. The Russians are just getting outcoached at every aspect of the game. In the first period the Russians had a few scoring chances, and played pretty decently defensively (decent for this team at least). They were trying to force things at the nearside blueline and were getting turnovers from that. After the first period, Sutter had far side men coming in hard into the zone, and his nearside guy would just dump it in. Before the Russians could get there, the Canadians had 2 or 3 guys already setting up a play. THAT is called coaching. The Russians never adjusted, and wham, a 0-0 game becomes a 5-1 game after the 2nd period.

On to the player of interest to us Ranger fans, Artem Anisimov. He had something like 2 decent scoring chances, and always seemed to go to the net playing a very north south game, however he was more or less invisible. Im not sure if its just the Sutter line completely nullifying his line, or if it is just his injury creeping up on him effecting his skating (he definitely seemed to lack the easy stride I saw in earlier games) but whatever it is, he was invisible, as he has been for most of this series. Don’t think it will be a regular thing with this kid folks. Remember, you are seeing a classic display of how an organized attack dismantles an unorganized “floating” game the Russians are playing. When AA comes to NY or Hartford, he will learn our system, and our system seems tailor made for a kid with his ability.

-Inferno

Rangers Review | No Comments »

I was all set to watch todays shellacking by the Canadians but my internet connection started to die (god bellsouth just sucks) so instead ill download the game later tonight, when its available, and give you my thoughts then. hopefully tomorrow, though if i can get the game soon i have no problem watching it tonight.

-Inferno

Rangers Review | No Comments »

I’ve been so freaking sick of the discussion over on the HFBoards that I made this video.

nothing else needs to be said.

-Inferno

Rangers Review | No Comments »

The mark of a good coach is being able to rally your team after they go down a goal. Its about making them play in the right zones, get the pucks on net, and keeping em out of your own net by playing as a 5 man unit.

If that is the mark of a good coach, then Sergei Nemchinov is a horrendous coach.

My connection goes in and out, so I am missing a whole lot, and in fact, I think I am going to go to bed so there wont be a post game wrap.

-Inferno

Rangers Review | No Comments »

Ok, he doesn’t “really” have brain damage, however I am not sure how else you explain him playing in this game. After suffering what looked like a fairly brutal knee on knee collision, hes back just 24 hours later. Umm, why exactly?

Dont get me wrong, he actually looked GREAT out there, and skating freely. But if its true he was planning on leaving after game 6, then why even stay now? The Canadians are clearly out to injure, not to just win, but obliterate. This doesnt bode well for their best (remaining) player.

AA, trust me, pretend youre hurt, fly to America, watch the games in the stands if you must, and get ready for a big regular season for you as a professional hockey player.

Btw, am I the only loser who stayed awake (I had work to do, so I worked through the night and got my weekend clear) for this game?

-Inferno

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