The Hockey News Yearbook predicts the Rangers will finish second in the Metropolitan Division, and as such, based on the way the seeding system works, they will make the playoffs. New York will be joined by Pittsburgh, who is predicted to finish first, and Philadelphia, who finish third. Interestingly, THN predicts the other five playoffs spots will all come from the Atlantic Division, with Montreal and Toronto outpointing Columbus (fourth in the Metro) to earn a berth. Locally, the Islanders are slated to finish fifth and have 40-1 odds while the Devils are predicted last with 125-1 odds.

Steve Zipay from Newsday wrote the team preview and the magazine puts the Rangers odds to be Stanley Cup Champions at 17-1. Their finals prediction is Pittsburgh-St. Louis with the Penguins prevailing. Zipay's preview did not yield any major surprises. Offensively, he noted the keys to an improvement on a return to form by Brad Richards and continued growth by Derick Brassard. I believe a major piece, which I will cover in the next installment of my off-season 20+ questions, concerns Rick Nash stepping up, but hard to argue with the two Zipay highlighted. Defensively, no surprise is the questions about Marc Staal's eye and need for more consistency from MDZ. His X-Factor is Richards. If he fails to show any or enough rebound, the Rangers will be hamstrung due to the lack of cap room. The one intriguing piece is that Zipay projects Richards to be the second line center between Benoit Pouliot and Ryan Callahan with Brassard centering Chris Kreider and Mats Zuccarello.

In a differing view, the Sports Forecaster came out with their preview and they predict the Rangers to finish fifth in the division and miss the playoffs.

All of these are fun to read, but as well all know, once the puck is dropped, they can be thrown out the window, mine included. The keys to the season have been highlighted by Zipay and others, with other ones in the mix, an improvement on special teams, adaptation to the new system and the creation of chemistry, especially if Callahan and Carl Hagelin begin the year on injured reserve. In addition, peaking late rather than early also may be key and/or getting hot at the right time as Boston did last year and LA did the year before.

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