This division is tough to get a read on.

I think a lot of people are overestimating Columbus. They did not improve this offseason IMO (getting Hartnell for Umberger is a lateral move to me) and goals will be tough to come by. Johansen had a breakout season but who's to say he builds on it or even reaches the same level of play? Horton back healthy should help but for a lot of the time that Horton was out, they had a healthy Gabby and were still average.

Pittsburgh got worse IMO. They traded Neal, on the best snipers in the league, for Hornqvist who is an above average 1st liner and a spare part in Spaling. You put a lot of emphasis on Corsi but then praise the Erhoff signing; Erhoff is a "possession anchor" as you like to say. Orpik is a depth guy as you said nowadays but still solid and good defensively. The kid taking his place will struggle with inexperience plus Maatta (and I think another regular blueliner?) are out long-term to start the season. Combine that with the time necessary to adjust to the new coach (from the Rangers experience of last year, well after January 1st) and a bad start from Pitt could lead to them getting dethroned as the division champs.

Philly will be in the race all year long. They're too talented offensively and Mason was good enough last year that if he repeats a similar performance they will make the playoffs.

Even Carolina and Washington I think are good teams. They remind me of Colorado from last year; everyone predicted they would be bad based on the previous season's standings but then they play well and everyone looks at the pieces on their roster and realize it was actually pretty good on paper the whole time. Niskanen and Orpik will help Washington out tremendously and Carolina have nice forward pieces including J. Staal, E. Staal, Semin, Skinner, Lindholm, and Tlusty and their defense is more solid now. Also, they have 2 very competent goalies in net.

New Jersey has improved but I still don't see how they're going to be scoring goals. Cammalleri will provide a decent offense punch but not enough to make up for Elias and Jagr's decline. A lot of young defenders also means there will be a lot of defensive mistakes so Schneider will really have to have a Vezina-worthy season for New Jersey to have a chance.

The Islanders...they're really deep on offense (albeit some key pieces their penciling in for success like Strome and Nelson and Lee are still unproven as of yet) but I'm still not sold on their defense. Halak is obviously a huge improvement but he's not exactly elite. Grabovski and Kulemin help but I'm not sure if they'll score more than 45 points each. Plus their coach is absolutely terrible. They can have the deepest offense in the league but if their offensive system sucks and leads them to get neutralized by a good defensive system and a player like Nash can skate into the slot with 5 Islanders watching him and snipe their goalie like he did in a game last season, it will be more of the same for the Islanders.

As for the Rangers...I think we sacrificed defense for offense a bit this offseason. Losing Boyle and Stralman will make us less rock-solid but the additions of Dan Boyle and Stempniak to replace them will definitely provide more offense. Pouliot's size and chemistry will be missed but he's very replaceable. Richards' point production will be difficult to replace. But JT Miller and Lombardi definitely have the potential to at least match Pouliot and Richards' combined point production and much of the Rangers success will hinge on these 2 players. If they breakout, we will be a contender for the Eastern title. If they don't, we will be in the middle of the dogfight. I think a very overlooked aspect is that with MSL now more comfortable and now that he will play a full year, he and hopefully a better Nash (who had the worst season of his career IMO last year) will make the Rangers offense better overall.

Predictions:
Rangers
Penguins
Washington
Philly
Columbus
NYI
NJ
Carolina

But I can see any team making the playoffs and besides the Rangers and Penguins, I can see anything missing it.

Adding Kulemin and Grabovski instantly makes the Islanders much better, as well as dumping off MacDonald and adding Halak.

The more I look at NYI, the more I like their team.

The lower half of the roster is questionable, but they'll certainly be competitive.

Philly and Washington seem committed to buying everybody else's junk, though.
- BINGO!

If you're talking about bottom 6 forwards then I'll have to disagree. Nielsen centering a line of Grabner & Lee or another forward will be a very solid 3rd line and their 4th line of Martin Cizikas Clutterbuck will be making guys miserable all year by pounding them into the glass on a nightly bases. I actually think they have one of the better bottom 6 in the league. It comes down to the Isles D and whether they can stay healthy and adding Halak & Johnson will make the D look even better, at least I hope it does

Everybody does.

There's a reason for that.
- BINGO!

Yeah we could of made the playoffs if we played in the East more often.

The Penguins were 13 points better in the regular season last year than the Rangers. What have the Rangers done to bridge that gap??
- cap1681

We've adjusted to our coach finally. It took us over 2 months to do so, but after those 2 months, we were one of the better teams in the NHL. It will be the opposite this year with your team now that it has a new coach and will take you over 2 months to adjust to him.

I'd say the reason is that both their bottom-6 and their defense are vastly improved, not to mention they lost the most man games due to injury in the NHL last year and still won the division...pretty good reasons.
- jmatchett383

Steve Downie is in the worst form of his career and Craig Adams still has a roster spot locked up. One injury and who steps into the lineup? Megna?

Let's be honest every team in the metro is garbage so much so none of the teams will make it.

Ehrhoff is a wash with Nisk?

So... there is something you will find very few to agree with right there. I like Nisk, I won't deny that, but I'm not stupid. Him repeating his level of play when not in the 5-6 defensive pairing is HIGHLY unlikely.

Ehrhoff > Nisk. -1 to your argument


Horn vs Neal... regular season stats, I might even give it to Neal by a couple goals. Post season, Neal was crap, Horn plays the style of game that is needed. A game the Rags were better than the Penguins at, you should recognize that. Spaling... would have preferred a 2nd round pick instead of him, they had 2.

Horn > Neal. another -1.

Defense... They will be beyond questionable until Mattaa and Pouliot are back and in good health... but dead foot Orpik gone, and a plethora of young defensemen ready to come up to fill... ONE (frank)ING POSITION! Two if Scuds is dumped... so boo hoo, a rookie defensmen is going to play for a few months until Maatta comes back.
And again, Ehrhoff > Nisk.

-1 point to your argument again.

Bottom six is better, top 6 virtually the same.



ITS A BETTER TEAM NO MATTER HOW MUCH YOU DON'T WANT TO BELIEVE IT

You are beyond homering this, good day bud.
- Guile

Niskanen is a lot better defensively than Erhoff, something that you will miss with all the inexperienced rookies and Letang the forward back there.

Hornqvist is definitely not an upgrade to Neal.

Defense an upgrade?....maybe...but right now it's a huge question mark.

Let's be honest every team in the metro is garbage so much so none of the teams will make it.
- blizzzard

I don't know how to out sarcasm that

If you're talking about bottom 6 forwards then I'll have to disagree. Nielsen centering a line of Grabner & Lee or another forward will be a very solid 3rd line and their 4th line of Martin Cizikas Clutterbuck will be making guys miserable all year by pounding them into the glass on a nightly bases. I actually think they have one of the better bottom 6 in the league. It comes down to the Isles D and whether they can stay healthy and adding Halak & Johnson will make the D look even better, at least I hope it does
- Vukota

Clutterbuck.

But yes, it's mostly how young the D are that concerns me.

This division is such a toss up every night. Everyone has the firepower to beat everyone on any given night. Whether or not anyone can do it consistently is going to be the problem.

Hornqvist is definitely not an upgrade to Neal.
- rangerdanger94

Your opinion... its wrong, even for an opinion, but ok.

When Neal hits 30 goals without Malkin, I'll consider your opinions to be more than humor.

Clutterbuck.

But yes, it's mostly how young the D are that concerns me.

This division is such a toss up every night. Everyone has the firepower to beat everyone on any given night. Whether or not anyone can do it consistently is going to be the problem.
- BINGO!

I guess you're not a fan of Clutterbuck? Yeah its going to come down to their D for sure. I still think they will make a trade since they have I believe 16 forwards under contract

Niskanen is a lot better defensively than Erhoff, something that you will miss with all the inexperienced rookies and Letang the forward back there.

Hornqvist is definitely not an upgrade to Neal.

Defense an upgrade?....maybe...but right now it's a huge question mark.
- rangerdanger94

Erhoff is an absolute steal. The D is WAY better with him. Also, losing Orpik is addition by subtraction.

Hornqvist is definitely an upgrade over Neal. He'll produce better than Neal did based on where he plays (Hint: He goes to the net) and he won't take ridiculously undisciplined penalties like Neal does.

This division is tough to get a read on.

I think a lot of people are overestimating Columbus. They did not improve this offseason IMO (getting Hartnell for Umberger is a lateral move to me) and goals will be tough to come by. Johansen had a breakout season but who's to say he builds on it or even reaches the same level of play? Horton back healthy should help but for a lot of the time that Horton was out, they had a healthy Gabby and were still average.

Pittsburgh got worse IMO. They traded Neal, on the best snipers in the league, for Hornqvist who is an above average 1st liner and a spare part in Spaling. You put a lot of emphasis on Corsi but then praise the Erhoff signing; Erhoff is a "possession anchor" as you like to say. Orpik is a depth guy as you said nowadays but still solid and good defensively. The kid taking his place will struggle with inexperience plus Maatta (and I think another regular blueliner?) are out long-term to start the season. Combine that with the time necessary to adjust to the new coach (from the Rangers experience of last year, well after January 1st) and a bad start from Pitt could lead to them getting dethroned as the division champs.

Philly will be in the race all year long. They're too talented offensively and Mason was good enough last year that if he repeats a similar performance they will make the playoffs.

Even Carolina and Washington I think are good teams. They remind me of Colorado from last year; everyone predicted they would be bad based on the previous season's standings but then they play well and everyone looks at the pieces on their roster and realize it was actually pretty good on paper the whole time. Niskanen and Orpik will help Washington out tremendously and Carolina have nice forward pieces including J. Staal, E. Staal, Semin, Skinner, Lindholm, and Tlusty and their defense is more solid now. Also, they have 2 very competent goalies in net.

New Jersey has improved but I still don't see how they're going to be scoring goals. Cammalleri will provide a decent offense punch but not enough to make up for Elias and Jagr's decline. A lot of young defenders also means there will be a lot of defensive mistakes so Schneider will really have to have a Vezina-worthy season for New Jersey to have a chance.

The Islanders...they're really deep on offense (albeit some key pieces their penciling in for success like Strome and Nelson and Lee are still unproven as of yet) but I'm still not sold on their defense. Halak is obviously a huge improvement but he's not exactly elite. Grabovski and Kulemin help but I'm not sure if they'll score more than 45 points each. Plus their coach is absolutely terrible. They can have the deepest offense in the league but if their offensive system sucks and leads them to get neutralized by a good defensive system and a player like Nash can skate into the slot with 5 Islanders watching him and snipe their goalie like he did in a game last season, it will be more of the same for the Islanders.

As for the Rangers...I think we sacrificed defense for offense a bit this offseason. Losing Boyle and Stralman will make us less rock-solid but the additions of Dan Boyle and Stempniak to replace them will definitely provide more offense. Pouliot's size and chemistry will be missed but he's very replaceable. Richards' point production will be difficult to replace. But JT Miller and Lombardi definitely have the potential to at least match Pouliot and Richards' combined point production and much of the Rangers success will hinge on these 2 players. If they breakout, we will be a contender for the Eastern title. If they don't, we will be in the middle of the dogfight. I think a very overlooked aspect is that with MSL now more comfortable and now that he will play a full year, he and hopefully a better Nash (who had the worst season of his career IMO last year) will make the Rangers offense better overall.

Predictions:
Rangers
Penguins
Washington
Philly
Columbus
NYI
NJ
Carolina

But I can see any team making the playoffs and besides the Rangers and Penguins, I can see anything missing it.
- rangerdanger94

Ehrhoff's possession numbers were bad because he played on a dreadful team. His possession numbers relative to the team were much better, meaning they got a lot more shot attempts when he was on the ice than on the bench. He's a driver, not an anchor.

Clutterbuck.

But yes, it's mostly how young the D are that concerns me.

This division is such a toss up every night. Everyone has the firepower to beat everyone on any given night. Whether or not anyone can do it consistently is going to be the problem.
- BINGO!

Things have certaintly turned in the East, insofar as through the first half of last year, the Metro was seen as the weakest Division in the league. Now, when you look at the Atlantic, you have the Bruins, Habs, Lightning, and to a lesser extent Detroit, and then some huge question marks after that (although I see some teams there that will be good in a couple of years).

We will see I guess. Right now, I think the Canes are probably the worst team in the Division, but I also don't see it as beyond the realm of possibility that they can contend for a playoff birth. No doormats in the Metro.

I guess you're not a fan of Clutterbuck? Yeah its going to come down to their D for sure. I still think they will make a trade since they have I believe 16 forwards under contract
- Vukota

I like him in that he's a hell of a lot of fun to watch, but good lord is he ineffective with a puck.

Niskanen is a lot better defensively than Erhoff, something that you will miss with all the inexperienced rookies and Letang the forward back there.

Hornqvist is definitely not an upgrade to Neal.

Defense an upgrade?....maybe...but right now it's a huge question mark.
- rangerdanger94

Neal might be better offensively, but Hornqvist is a better 2 way player, which the Penguins need. With Crosby and Malkin on this team, offense will never be a problem. All off the Penguins moves this offseason made this Pens team harder to play against.

If you're talking about bottom 6 forwards then I'll have to disagree. Nielsen centering a line of Grabner & Lee or another forward will be a very solid 3rd line and their 4th line of Martin Cizikas Clutterbuck will be making guys miserable all year by pounding them into the glass on a nightly bases. I actually think they have one of the better bottom 6 in the league. It comes down to the Isles D and whether they can stay healthy and adding Halak & Johnson will make the D look even better, at least I hope it does
- Vukota

Don't look now, but the Isles actually have the best forward depth in the division by a mile and are up there with the Lightning and Bruins for the conference.

Literally any team in this division could plausibly make the playoffs. Some thoughts on each:

-The Penguins are different, not sure if better or worse, but certainly still good and will probably finish at the top of the Metro.
-The Rangers lost a lot this summer and gained very little, but should still be solid. Wouldn't be too surprised to see them fall off towards the bubble but they could surprise a few people and sit towards the top of the division all year.
-The Devils have been one of the top possession teams in the league for a couple seasons now, only behind LA and Chicago. They'll have much steadier goaltending, Cammalleri is a nice add for scoring, and they literally can't be worse at shootouts. Could definitely be top 3, or could also be way out.
-I'm not quite as high on the Blue Jackets as many are, but they're certainly a solid team and will definitely be in the playoff hunt. A lot will rest on Johanson having another great year and Bobrovsky remaining solid.
-The Islanders definitely improved this summer with Halak in goal and the additions on forward, but with the division how it is and the Isles being the Isles I probably see them on the outside looking in.
-I have a hard time seeing where the Flyers end up. Great scoring at times, but the D is suspect and I'm not convinced Mason will have as solid of a season as last year. Could finish anywhere from 2-7 in the Metro IMO.
-The Capitals signed a lot of d-men, but did they actually improve? Trotz is a great coach and Ovi is Ovi, another team I could see finishing anywhere from 2-7.
-The Hurricanes aren't bad, but they aren't really good either. They definitely could hang by the bubble all year, but ultimately I'd pick most of the other teams in the division over them.

I don't know how to out sarcasm that
- Guile

Its silly we are all rivals but no one or very few and even myself at times have a hard time joking with each other about teams everything is taken so seriously. If a team has young defense they are optimistic about growth but everyone else is hell bent on regression and its like that for every position on every team. Some people go so far as to say how their young players 100% improve then go on to say to another fan their teams young guys are 100% going to rwgress . The metro is the hardest to predict because whether any of the teams like it or not they are all fairly close in terms of talent going into next year whether its old talent young talent fast talent slowwl talent the playing field is more even then its ever been and every team has reasons to believe their team will be better

Your opinion... its wrong, even for an opinion, but ok.

When Neal hits 30 goals without Malkin, I'll consider your opinions to be more than humor.
- Guile

Neal has always been a gifted goal scorer before playing with Malkin. In his rookie and sophomore seasons, he scored 24 and 27 goals respectively. This was when he was a young 21 and 22 year old. As a 23 year old, he scored 21 goals in 59 games before being traded to the Penguins (where he only scored 1 goal in the final 20 games of the season). He most likely benefited from playing with Malkin, but given his progression since his rookie season, 35 goals on any team in the league is not out of the question.

Don't let one (or even two) bad postseasons take away from a player's entire career.

I like him in that he's a hell of a lot of fun to watch, but good lord is he ineffective with a puck.
- BINGO!

True but he hits everything in site and is an excellent penalty killer. Plus at the end of the year he is gonna have 12-16 goals. Can't complain about that from your 4th liner

Its silly we are all rivals but no one or very few and even myself at times have a hard time joking with each other about teams everything is taken so seriously. If a team has young defense they are optimistic about growth but everyone else is hell bent on regression and its like that for every position on every team. Some people go so far as to say how their young players 100% improve then go on to say to another fan their teams young guys are 100% going to rwgress . The metro is the hardest to predict because whether any of the teams like it or not they are all fairly close in terms of talent going into next year whether its old talent young talent fast talent slowwl talent the playing field is more even then its ever been and every team has reasons to believe their team will be better
- blizzzard

That's the problem. Sometimes they act like you just called their mom a skank or something

This division is tough to get a read on.

I think a lot of people are overestimating Columbus. They did not improve this offseason IMO (getting Hartnell for Umberger is a lateral move to me) and goals will be tough to come by. Johansen had a breakout season but who's to say he builds on it or even reaches the same level of play? Horton back healthy should help but for a lot of the time that Horton was out, they had a healthy Gabby and were still average.

Pittsburgh got worse IMO. They traded Neal, on the best snipers in the league, for Hornqvist who is an above average 1st liner and a spare part in Spaling. You put a lot of emphasis on Corsi but then praise the Erhoff signing; Erhoff is a "possession anchor" as you like to say. Orpik is a depth guy as you said nowadays but still solid and good defensively. The kid taking his place will struggle with inexperience plus Maatta (and I think another regular blueliner?) are out long-term to start the season. Combine that with the time necessary to adjust to the new coach (from the Rangers experience of last year, well after January 1st) and a bad start from Pitt could lead to them getting dethroned as the division champs.

Philly will be in the race all year long. They're too talented offensively and Mason was good enough last year that if he repeats a similar performance they will make the playoffs.

Even Carolina and Washington I think are good teams. They remind me of Colorado from last year; everyone predicted they would be bad based on the previous season's standings but then they play well and everyone looks at the pieces on their roster and realize it was actually pretty good on paper the whole time. Niskanen and Orpik will help Washington out tremendously and Carolina have nice forward pieces including J. Staal, E. Staal, Semin, Skinner, Lindholm, and Tlusty and their defense is more solid now. Also, they have 2 very competent goalies in net.

New Jersey has improved but I still don't see how they're going to be scoring goals. Cammalleri will provide a decent offense punch but not enough to make up for Elias and Jagr's decline. A lot of young defenders also means there will be a lot of defensive mistakes so Schneider will really have to have a Vezina-worthy season for New Jersey to have a chance.

The Islanders...they're really deep on offense (albeit some key pieces their penciling in for success like Strome and Nelson and Lee are still unproven as of yet) but I'm still not sold on their defense. Halak is obviously a huge improvement but he's not exactly elite. Grabovski and Kulemin help but I'm not sure if they'll score more than 45 points each. Plus their coach is absolutely terrible. They can have the deepest offense in the league but if their offensive system sucks and leads them to get neutralized by a good defensive system and a player like Nash can skate into the slot with 5 Islanders watching him and snipe their goalie like he did in a game last season, it will be more of the same for the Islanders.

As for the Rangers...I think we sacrificed defense for offense a bit this offseason. Losing Boyle and Stralman will make us less rock-solid but the additions of Dan Boyle and Stempniak to replace them will definitely provide more offense. Pouliot's size and chemistry will be missed but he's very replaceable. Richards' point production will be difficult to replace. But JT Miller and Lombardi definitely have the potential to at least match Pouliot and Richards' combined point production and much of the Rangers success will hinge on these 2 players. If they breakout, we will be a contender for the Eastern title. If they don't, we will be in the middle of the dogfight. I think a very overlooked aspect is that with MSL now more comfortable and now that he will play a full year, he and hopefully a better Nash (who had the worst season of his career IMO last year) will make the Rangers offense better overall.

Predictions:
Rangers
Penguins
Washington
Philly
Columbus
NYI
NJ
Carolina

But I can see any team making the playoffs and besides the Rangers and Penguins, I can see anything missing it.
- rangerdanger94

It's called improving from within

Johanson might stay at the same level, but Jenner will probably pick up where he left off last year and improve on that, same for Murray, and that is without saying that Rychel or Wennberg might make the team.

If your saying that were bad because where the same team then based on your logic your Rangers will have a hard time this year because they lost some pieces.

Don't look now, but the Isles actually have the best forward depth in the division by a mile and are up there with the Lightning and Bruins for the conference.
- Snowblind

That's a slight exaggeration. I think you are overvaluing Grabovski and Kulemin. They are good 2nd liners but there are teams with a lot better 2nd liners in the division.

Don't look now, but the Isles actually have the best forward depth in the division by a mile and are up there with the Lightning and Bruins for the conference.
- Snowblind