Its looking like the wildcard race in the East is going to be exciting

[BigDaddyLurch]

...it may be the sentimental maroon in me, but I'd honestly luv to see Columbus run the East this year, win the Cup, and give rings to Johnny Hockey's kids...there wouldn't be a dry eye in the entire NHL community...

 

[SteelCityCannon]

It's a crazy race. I think CBJ has gotten points in like 12 of their last 15 games, and it still feels like we're falling behind lol. Gonna be a fun few months of hockey here.

 

[Captain Mountain]

There, you answered your own question.

Toronto and Washington will not win their divisions, Carolina and Florida will.

Washington is 8 points up on Carolina. Carolina is 8 points up on the wild card race.

 

[Tawnos]

Yeah the only "safe" teams in the East are Washington, Toronto, Carolina, Florida, and New Jersey. 7 other teams are within 3 points of each other, and Tampa despite having games in hand is only one point up on all of Ottawa, Montreal, and Boston for the last Atlantic Divisional slot.

Devils might not be that safe. If Rangers or CBJ wins both games in hand, they're only 4 and 3 points ahead of those teams, respectively. Most likely they'll stop sliding and it won't be an issue, but if they don't turn around fast and those teams stay hot, they'll be dragged into the race too.

 

[theVladiator]

What does that mean?

If the notion is last year's top Atlantic teams suffer from having to play improved bottom Atlantic teams this season...leaving the Leafs as the middling team essentially unchanged from last year...and the bottom teams with points that would have been top teams points last season...is there evidence to support such a position?

Well, unlike you own personal opinion (Atlantic teams are weak), there is actually evidence to support the opposite.

If you bothered to check the records, you'd see that the Atlantic teams as a whole do much better against the Metro teams, and also against the Western Conference teams, than they do against each other.

 

[NVious]

Rangers are just too talented to be this bad.

Shesty, Fox are in their prime, Panarin is still a beast. If Zib, Kreider, Laf and Trocheck can get going I can't see them missing the playoffs.

 

[EveryDay]

I like this Cbus team, but I'm gonna pump the brakes on them (and the Canadiens). This is what young teams with inspirational coaches do. They overperform for six weeks, take opponents by surprise, and stack enough wins to exit the basement. But some of their hot players will cool down, and adrenaline will wear off as guys hit 100+ NHL games.
Meanwhile, Pittsburgh is deflated, both New York teams are completely flat, and Detroit just isn't good.
My eyes are on...

• Boston players stepping up and rallying
• Tortorella squeezing a little bit more out of the Flyers
• Ottawa keeping the ship upright and not tearing a hole in their own sails

MTL have been playing well for more then 6 weeks. This is since november 10th

 

[kerrabria]

MTL have been playing well for more then 6 weeks. This is since november 10th

Fair enough

 

[MCR74]

Well, unlike you own personal opinion (Atlantic teams are weak), there is actually evidence to support the opposite.

If you bothered to check the records, you'd see that the Atlantic teams as a whole do much better against the Metro teams, and also against the Western Conference teams, than they do against each other.

Don't waste your time with him.

 

[kerrabria]

Echoing my earlier post, a wild card spot is...

Ottawa's to lose
Boston's to lose (they are doing so)
Tortorella's to bulldoze into
Columbus' to take
Montreal's to take

 

[MCR74]

I'd like to see Columbus and New York take the remaining spots.

 

[chaz4hockey]

Well, unlike you own personal opinion (Atlantic teams are weak), there is actually evidence to support the opposite.

If you bothered to check the records, you'd see that the Atlantic teams as a whole do much better against the Metro teams, and also against the Western Conference teams, than they do against each other.

"Atlantic teams as a whole do much better against the Metro teams",

Silly thing about facts.....proof in the pudding......
Metro's top teams record versus the Atlantic:
Caps are 9-3-3
Canes are 4-6 (1-0 Leafs, 0-2 Tpa, 1-2 Fl....although misleading since they played very weak AHL goalies in 3 games against Tpa and Fl)
Jersey 8-5-3
Ny Rangers 10-4-1
Columbus 6-5-1
Philly 7-5-1

 

[Razamanaz]

Rangers are just too talented to be this bad.

Shesty, Fox are in their prime, Panarin is still a beast. If Zib, Kreider, Laf and Trocheck can get going I can't see them missing the playoffs.

Zibanejad is so bad you can't even understand this year aruond. And the rest of Rangers will follow.

 

[theVladiator]

"Atlantic teams as a whole do much better against the Metro teams",

Silly thing about facts.....proof in the pudding......
Metro's top teams record versus the Atlantic:
Caps are 9-3-3
Canes are 4-6 (1-0 Leafs, 0-2 Tpa, 1-2 Fl....although misleading since they played very weak AHL goalies in 3 games against Tpa and Fl)
Jersey 8-5-3
Ny Rangers 10-4-1
Columbus 6-5-1
Philly 7-5-1

While it is incorrect to compare top teams from one conference against the whole of the other as the way to compare conference strengths (it obviously should be all-vs-all, not strongest-vs-all), I will admit to making a mistake here. The conferences record against each other are about the same (around 0.600). There seems to be a lot of overtime between them, so both Atl vs Metro, and Metro vs Atlantic records look like winning records if one isn't careful about overtime (which I wasn't).