Yeah, the Lightning are a tough pick for me and that one has the biggest chance for an oops. I'm just not seeing the hype here, yes Bishop had an unworldly season last year but I'm not convinced he can do it again. Being swept by the Habs without him cemented my view.
Well they are a young team with several stars coming up who are only going to get better and they addressed the biggest team need which was stability on the back end with Garrison and Stralman.
Stamkos, Drouin, Johnson, Palat and Kucherov is a deadly group of youngsters. They are going to be really good for a while. Complimenting that core with veterans like Filppula, Callahan, Morrow and Boyle makes for a formidable group.
I think we have just seen the start of how good Hedman is going to be, big players take longer and he was absolutely dominant last year.
Bishop is good but the goaltender prospect (Vasilevski) they have coming is generally considered the best or second best in the world after Gibson.
The coach has a proven track record with most of the players that won the Calder cup two years ago. With a fully healthy Stamkos/Bishop and a star talent like Drouin coming along everything to me points to a really good hockey team with tremendous speed skill and balance. Ottawa also beat Montreal in 5 games the previous season. I thought Lindback was god aweful and montreal got all the breaks. I think this year will be different and they will push Boston for the division.
1. Boston
2. Tampa
3. Montreal
4. Detroit
5. Ottawa
6. Florida
7. Toronto
8. Buffalo
1. Pittsburgh
2. Columbus
3. Washington
4. NYR
5. New Jersey
6. Philly
7. Carolina
8. NYI
I honestly think 2 through 8 in the metropolitan division will be very tight with Pittsburgh running away with it.
