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

[Divine]

The strength of a single team is not an indicator of whether an overall division is stronger than another.

Riding the coattails of Tpa and Fl ignores the sub-meh of over 1/2 the Division in Buffalo, Ottawa, Detroit and Montreal the past few years.

Btw: has the Caps lost 5-1 to the Atlantic’s 5th place team at home this year?

Tampa, Florida, Boston and Montreal have made the finals more recently than any Metro division team. Only one team can win the Atlantic every year, and that team always beats the Metro. That doesn't mean the second or third place team couldn't beat the top Metro team - it's just designed so we'll never know as they have to go through tougher competition to win the Atlantic bracket. We see this argument every season because the Metro teams for some reason always finish with more points than the Atlantic and always lose to the Atlantic in the playoffs.

They did split up the Atlantic one year... and 2 Atlantic teams made the finals. Personally, if I was choosing, I would rather go through the Metro bracket than the Atlantic.

 

[TheOrangeDesk]

as an oiler fan who suffered the decade of darkness i am fully rooting for buffalo and ottawa. great teams on paper too

 

[chaz4hockey]

Tampa, Florida, Boston and Montreal have made the finals more recently than any Metro division team. Only one team can win the Atlantic every year, and that team always beats the Metro. That doesn't mean the second or third place team couldn't beat the top Metro team - it's just designed so we'll never know as they have to go through tougher competition to win the Atlantic bracket. We see this argument every season because the Metro teams for some reason always finish with more points than the Atlantic and always lose to the Atlantic in the playoffs.

They did split up the Atlantic one year... and 2 Atlantic teams made the finals. Personally, if I was choosing, I would rather go through the Metro bracket than the Atlantic.

Montreal was a gift due to Covid.

My point stills stands. Ignoring Atlantic’s coattail teams from previous years, Metro has been a much deeper Division recently as Atlantic had 1/2 of the division made up of very low bottom feeders (that is finally changing this year).

Washington-Jersey-Canes is comparable to Leafs-Fl-Tampa this year but none of the six would be prohibitive SC favorites (FL doesn’t have the same depth and 2 long years of playoff runs could be a danger for them).

IMO, the West is the favorite with Oilers or one of Avs, Wild, Jets and possibly Dallas in the Finals that should win it all.

Naturally, injuries and TDL deals can mix up the favorite list.

 

[Wayfarer13]

Habs won't make play offs. Recent hot streak has been good. (won 7 of last 13)
Log jam is more a result of so many 3 point games. How much of a gap do we really expect after 45 games?
Habs and wings stunk till about a month ago and are still in it.
I think the Sens will make it this year.

So when is this falling off the cliff for the Habs going to start? Could happen as they are the second youngest team in the league yet where is the signs of this?

 

[NikolaTesla]

It’s strange that the bruins have the 2nd worst goal differential in the east. -22.

I love it

 

[Wayfarer13]

Montreal was a gift due to Covid.

My point stills stands. Ignoring Atlantic’s coattail teams from previous years, Metro has been a much deeper Division recently as Atlantic had 1/2 of the division made up of very low bottom feeders (that is finally changing this year).

Washington-Jersey-Canes is comparable to Leafs-Fl-Tampa this year but none of the six would be prohibitive SC favorites (FL doesn’t have the same depth and 2 long years of playoff runs could be a danger for them).

IMO, the West is the favorite with Oilers or one of Avs, Wild, Jets and possibly Dallas in the Finals that should win it all.

Naturally, injuries and TDL deals can mix up the favorite list.

Seems to me every team had to play to the challenges the Covid era presented. They beat some really good teams on their run.

 

[chaz4hockey]

Seems to me every team had to play to the challenges the Covid era presented. They beat some really good teams on their run.

They would have played Tampa early on and lost and that’s why comment that it was a Covid gift.

Anyway, good to see the Habs with a good squad again.

 

[NikolaTesla]

Montreal was a gift due to Covid.

Oh, cry me a river.

 

[Wayfarer13]

They would have played Tampa early on and lost and that’s why comment that it was a Covid gift.

Anyway, good to see the Habs with a good squad again.

Don't know about that. They were built for the playoffs and would have been much fresher.

 

[Byron Bitz]

Ottawa could also finished in the top 3, when Ullmark returns they will have one of the best goalie tandem in the league with Leevi Merilainen. Also they finished the season playing 7 of the last 8 games at home. Don't sleep on the Sens!

And now they are on the verge of getting double shut out by two teams they battling in the wildcard race.

 

[FoxyClean]

I’m guessing it’ll be the Devils and Blue Jackets as the Wild Card teams in the end.