My co-worker and I broke it down into three groups for the conference, which I think works best. Mind you this is as the rosters stand now.
1-4 seeds(in no order)
Vancouver
Chicago
SJ/St.Louis
LA
5-13
St. Louis/SJ
Calgary
Detroit
Nashville
Minnesota
Dallas
Anaheim
Edmonton
Colorado
14-15
Columbus
Phoenix
The middle of the pack is Pejorative Slured huge. So many teams have so many question marks on paper.
Calgary is relying on a lot of unknowns in Cervenka, Backlund, Bartschi, and Hartley.
Dallas has to hope Lehtonen can stop more goals than their slightly above average forwards can score. Their defence still sucks.
Anaheim is in similar straits to Dallas. ****** D. Not a whole lot of forward depth after RPG and Selanne. If Hiller starts the season like last year they don't stand a chance.
Minnesota has some huge guns at each position but depth is still questionable, especially on defence.
Colorado has very little consistency from year to year from their fowards and goaltending.
Can Elliot and Halak put up such Pejorative Sluredly good numbers again? Can they afford to score by committee of whoever isn't slumping at the moment?
Nashville lost once of the best in the game on defence. Will Weber suffer without his partner? Will their grab bag of forwards be able to score enough?
Detroit lost the best the best defenseman in the last twenty years. That's gonna be huge. Also relying on a lot of young guys, far more than they've had to in more than a decade.
Edmonton has yet to rise from the bottom of the league. Can the young stars make up for an otherwise lacklustre roster?
Hell even Vancouver is gonna suffer from a complete lack of second line. It's gonna be made up of Raymond, Higgins and one of Booth/Burrows. Only one of those three has been close to a 2nd line producers in past years. And if Schnieder falters after Luongo is moved...
LA won the Cup with a very strong roster last year. They also barely snuck into the playoffs last year. On the other hand perhaps they've avoid the traditional Stanley Cup hangover with the lockout lol.
SJ has an atrocious bottom six, and not the best goaltending, but not bad either. That's pretty much all I've got against them.
Chicago needs Kane to put aside the off ice drama and be the forward they know he can be. A return to form for Keith and Seabrook would help immensely and Crawford only needs to be average with the roster in front of him.
Phoenix lost Ray Whitney's 70 points and replaced it with... David Moss. Sure they got Michalek back, but I suspect Vrbata won't be scoring as many without Whitney feeding him pucks, so I think they're in trouble. I also have my doubts about Smith repeating last year.
And sorry Columbus, but even with you're additions, your roster is still pretty patchwork. Granted, there is room for improvment over last season, as Bobrovsky alone could be a huge improvement over Mason, and Jack Johnson played really well for them down the stretch
This shortened season is simply about who can be hot in the first 25 or so games.