Atlantic Division

x- made playoffs

The Breakdown

The story of the Atlantic Division for the upcoming season is which team got worse the least. This Division was hit hard by the salary cap. It saw several of its elite players head out to other teams and leagues. In spite of all the player turnover, this division will still be evenly matched and will once again come right down to the wire. The Atlantic saw four out of its five teams in the playoffs and two (Flyers and Penguins) play in the Eastern Conference Finals. This was by far the most competitive division in the Eastern Conference and will be again in 2008-09.
 

Despite losing Marian Hossa, Ryan Malone, Jarrko Ruutu, Gary Roberts, Gary Roberts, and Adam Hall, Pittsburg is still the cream of the Atlantic. That reason; Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin. No team can match the strength and depth of their center men with Crosby, Malkin, Jordan Staal, and Maxim Talbot down the middle. Their problem may come in on how well their wingers can score. The Pens hope by adding a couple of Islanders in Miroslav Satan and Ruslan Fedotenko, as well as,  Vancouver’s Matt Cooke that they can get some production from them. One wild card to keep and eye on is Janne Pesonen, who lead the Finish Elite League in scoring and then signed on with the Penguins over the summer. Defensively the Penguins will be hurt by the long term absence of their two best defensemen. Ryan Whitney (foot surgery) and Sergei Gonchar (shoulder) both start the season on the IR. The Pens will need Brooks Orpik and Kristoper Letang to become that number one unit. If not it might be a long year for Marc-Andre Fleury, who is finally starting to look like the kid they drafted to be a star.
 

Another team that had a major shift in players was the New York Rangers. The Rangers GM Glen Sather conducted a Manhattan version of Extreme Makeover. Offensively, the Rangers will no longer have the services of Jaromir Jagr, Sean Avery, Martin Straka, Fedor Tyutin, and perhaps Brendan Shanahan, who remains unsigned. Instead, they brought in Dan Fritsche and Nikolai Zherdev from Columbus, Patrick Rissmiller from San Jose, the ageing Markus Naslund from Vancouver, and Aaron Voros from Minnestoa. Are they better up front? Probably not. They have to rely on big things from Scott Gomez, Chris Drury and the young kids have to assume a more primary role. There is no longer a Jagr or Shanahan to bail them out. Defense is now a big part of the Blue- Shirts’ game. Adding Wade Redden and Dimitri Kalinin to an already strong puck moving unit, will help the Ranger forwards as Redden is one of the best puck movers in the game. The only thing that this unit lacks is a strong physical presences and someone to clear that crease out for goalie Henrik Lundqvist. Lundqvist looks to have another good season and is becoming an NHL elite.
 

In Philly, the Flyers are an interesting team to watch this season. Their offense has six 20 goal scorers and that’s not included scoring stud Simon Gagne, who missed most of last season with concussion like problems. If he returns the Flyers could have a dominant first line with Gagne, Daniel Briere and rookie Claude Giroux. Perhaps they will be the new “French Connection” line. The Flyers offense will  be the strength of their team as they  encompass a complete and well balanced scoring attach. Losing RJ Umberger, because of salary cap reasons, will hurt but the Flyers hope the Giroux shows the scoring touch he had in the 2008 world juniors and QMJHL playoffs. The weakness of this team is in their defensive unit. Untested and young, the Flyers D will sorely miss their captain and character guy Jason Smith, who now is in Ottawa. In goal the tandem of Martin Biron and Antero Nittymaki are capable netminders but need to be more consistent. Much like the entire team.
 

For some reason the New Jersey Devils always find themselves at the top of the Eastern Conference year after year, despite being dubbed as the team that will finally miss the playoffs every pre-season. While every team in their division got a little worse, the Devils have gotten better; at least on paper. New Jersey welcomed back Booby Holik and Brian Rolston back to the organization. Adding these two players has given the Devils offense a much needed boost and another dimension that they were sorely lacking. If Brian Gionta can regain his two year removal of a 48 goal season, then these won’t be your same old defensive minded Devils. There defensive unit is not sexy by any means but that’s ok. Coach Brent Sutter just asked them to be steady, safe, and unexciting. As long as they play like that, the Devils will win a lot of games. Martin Brodeur will play just about every night and give them a chance to win.
 

Providence Bruins ex-coach Scott Gordon gets his first crack at a NHL head coaching job for the New York Islanders. Not a bad job for Gordon to take. GM Garth Snow has re-iterated all summer long that he is committed towards a youth movement. Gordon specializes in development of young players. Besides Mike Sillinger, Bill Guerin and newly acquired Doug Weight being the elder statesmen, the Isles offense is relatively young and still developing. Kyle Okposo is young 20 year old power forward that the Islanders hope becomes an impact player as early as this year. They need him and the continued development of youngsters Sean Bergenheim and Blake Comeau in order to improve upon their league worst 2.3 goals per game. The Islanders are not bad defensively but have major health concerns, as only one of their top six defensemen played more than 60 games. Adding former Canadien Mark Streit will help this unit. Shut down types such as Brendan Witt and Andy Sutton are expecting to be healthier. That bodes well for netminder Rick DiPietro who already has had surgery on both hips and is only 26 years old. DiPietro tweak his hip during All-Star weekend in the skills competition.   

Rookie Watch

Janne Pesonen (Pittsburg), LW (26)- Dynamic winger, looks to take his game to N. America from Finland

Claude Giroux (Philadelphia), RW (20)- Slick winger with speed and good hands, can light the lamp in a hurry

Lauri Korpikoski (NY. Rangers), LW (22)- Speedy two way player, should be a 2nd or 3rd liner.

Anssi Salmela (New Jersey), D (23)- Great offensive skills; could be valuable in NJ

Kyle Oposko (NY. Islanders), RW (20)- Power forward, strong on puck, plays a complete game.

Coaches

John Stevens, Philadelphia Flyers

Brent Suter, New Jersey Devils

Scott Gordon, New York Islanders

Tom Renney, New York Rangers

Michael Therrien, Pittsburgh Penguins

Forwards Ranks

Pittsburgh Penguins- Tough to compete against Crosby, Malkin, and Staal up the middle.

Philadelphia Flyers- Balanced attach may have seven 20 goal scorers this year.

New Jersey Devils- Rolston adds a new dimention and takes pressure off Gionta and Elias

New York Rangers- They hope Zherdev can be the star he wasnt for Columbus.

New York Islandes- Comrie lead the team with 49 points last season…… yikes!

Defense Ranks

New York Rangers- Wont hit you but wont let you touch the puck either.

Pittsburgh Penguins- Will be hoping that Gonchar and Whitney can make speed recoveries.

New Jersey Devils- No big names, only results. Very steady unit, wont make alot of mistakes.

New York Islanders- Health is the only concern. Good balance of puck movers and stay-at-homers.

Philadelphia Flyers- Young and untested group that will miss Smith, especially if Hatcher knees are a problem.

Goalie Ranks

New Jersey Devils- Brodeur is a work horse. Except he never gets tired.

New York Rangers- Lundqvist is the man on Broadway. Gets stronger as the season progresses.

Pittsburgh Penguins- Fluery improved upon his consistency and made strides to become an NHL elite.

New York Islanders- The very talented DiPietro cant seemed to stay healthy. When healthy among the best.

Philadelphia Flyers- Biron gets slighted in a very deep goalie division. Inconsistency is only his weakness.

Breakthrough Player

Travis Zajac, New Jersey Devils

After scoring 17 goals as a rookie, Zajac experience a sophomore slump by only netting 14 goals. Now at 23 years old and a couple of NHL seasons under his belt, there is now way he shouldn’t hit the 20 to 25 goal mark. This would re-establish himself as a top six forward and a promising young star. He could find himself playing major minutes in Jersey and could even seen time on the power play. Coach Brent Suter will most likely start him on the third or fourth line. It wont be where he’ll end up.

My Predictions

This is a hard division to figure out. Four of the teams (Rangers, Devils, Flyers, and Penguins) have a legit shot of winning the Atlantic and the other (Islanders) is not that far off. My gut tells me to go with Pittsburgh because of their firepower. I don’t doubt that they are the best team but I think losing Gonchar and Whitney for that long will ultimately effect their win total. I don’t quit trust the re-doing of the mid 90’s Devils and doing well in the playoffs doesnt translate into regular season success the following year for the Flyers. So by default I am taking the Rangers barring that they can add some scoring help aka re-sign Shanahan.

New York Rangers

Pittsburgh Penguins

Philadelphia Flyers

New Jersey Devils

New York Islanders

Dark House-

New Jersey Devils- Every year they seem to overachieve in this devision. Last season they finish second, just a couple of points behind the powerhouse that was the Penguins. They were the only team to seem to get better in the off-season by bringing former Devils Rolston and Holik back. Adding these two will help them in all aspects of the game. Compile that with Hall-of-Famer Brodeur between the pipes, I wouldnt be surprise if this team found itself at the top of the Eastern Conference.

Completely Bias Opinion

I went out to get the most bias opinion on the Northeast Division. So I called some old college buddies. Dan Haynes, a head coach from from Downsville, NY and Steve Lanieri, an EMT from Sommerville, NJ  both call themselves part of the Rangers faithful.

Dan Haynes, Downsville, NY

Steve Lanieri, Somerville, NJ