1. Toronto - good regular season team & should be fired up after last season's embarrassment..
2. Florida - can end up 1st, same idea as Toronto.. putting them here due to the ol' homer vote
3. Tampa - cup hangover + not going all out for the regular season.. cruise into playoffs, and try to go on another run from there..
4. Boston - core's getting older and lost a couple key players, won't keep up with #1-3
5. Ottawa - will be stealing points from teams expecting easy wins
6. Montreal - not good regular season team, lost captain and #1 C.. kids won't keep up for a full season
7. Detroit - rebuild
8. Buffalo - rebuild
Toronto
Florida
Tampa
Boston
Montreal
Ottawa
Detroit
Buffalo
I'm clueless, but I think Toronto is better coming from a Toronto fan. LOL. Cant wait. Your team has a top 4 and then a wide array of mediocre.
Then we must have been Mediocre as well last year. The biggest loss was Bogosian IMO, and if that's your biggest loss
the team seems to be OK. I don't believe Hyman was that huge of a factor, and Andersen certainly wasn't. I also don't see
how getting younger is worse.
I'm not really sure that's fair. Leafs fans have typically been very low on Hyman, and I think you know that. Hyman was not a factor at all in the playoffs, and his best contributions came when he was on the 3rd line. Especially with Mikheyev and Engvall. Credit to him for making tremendous strides in his game with the puck, but his play away from the puck typically gets overrated.I've never seen such a complete 180 on a player like we're seeing from Leafs fans on Hyman after he left.
Out of all the teams in this division, is it unreasonable to think that Montreal will regress the hardest?
Theres talent enough there that they’re not a bottom feeder, and IMO not a contender or playoff team. I don’t think you’ll see a ‘regression’ per se as much as they’ll just be similar to last regular season.Out of all the teams in this division, is it unreasonable to think that Montreal will regress the hardest?
I'm not really sure that's fair. Leafs fans have typically been very low on Hyman, and I think you know that. Hyman was not a factor at all in the playoffs, and his best contributions came when he was on the 3rd line. Especially with Mikheyev and Engvall. Credit to him for making tremendous strides in his game with the puck, but his play away from the puck typically gets overrated.
I've never seen such a complete 180 on a player like we're seeing from Leafs fans on Hyman after he left.
Depends, regress from their regular season total? Unlikely.Out of all the teams in this division, is it unreasonable to think that Montreal will regress the hardest?
The Bruins always get dogged here. Last time around in the Atlantic division they were consensus 3rd place and they won the President's Trophy by a longshot: NHL Standings Fan Predictions - Third in Atlantic
The Bruins always get dogged here. Last time around in the Atlantic division they were consensus 3rd place and they won the President's Trophy by a longshot: NHL Standings Fan Predictions - Third in Atlantic
I'm a Leafs fan... Hyman was an important part of our forecheck, and was an incredibly hard worker. The Leafs will definitely miss those qualities. He helped make lines better. He wasn't very good with puck most of the time, but was good when he kept things simple.
As far as my predictions, 1-4 will be a crap shoot, between Boston, Florida, Tampa and Toronto... injuries, goalie voodoo play, whether Tampa plays hard full season, and some luck will determine the exact order.
Montreal should be 5th.
Ottawa should be 6th, though Murray could end up playing horrible, and Detroit could somehow beat them.. but that would take luck.
and then there is Buffalo.
You mean some Leafs fans. (Edit. I see your post above and you addressed it). His presence and compete will be missed. I have Leafs competing for the wildcard position. Hope some players step up but we are missing a lot of what Hymen brought and what we need is the higher paid players to bring what Hymen did. Leafs could surprise and play better but let’s be honest no matter where they place in the regular season it’s all about not choking post season and I’m not even sure they make the playoffs with such a top heavy Atlantic.I've never seen such a complete 180 on a player like we're seeing from Leafs fans on Hyman after he left.
Out of morbid curiosity...do you think you guys are a president's caliber team?
And that's fair. When I say "Leaf fans" I'm referring to the ones I'm quoting (the guy I quoted isn't the only time I've seen that kind of downplaying mentioned). Plus you've got CantwinwithoutMatthews defending those takes for some reason.