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Where do the Isles Finish in the Metro Division?

As of right now, here's how I see it shaping up....the Metro division is hard as there is one front runner (Pitt), one team that's slightly behind the pack (Jersey), and six teams that could reasonably finish in any of the other positions....

01 - Pittsburgh
02 - Rangers
03 - Columbus
04 - Islanders
05 - Washington
06 - Philadelphia
07 - Carolina
08 - New Jersey
 
3rd. I'm too much of a homer to think any of the Rags/Flyers/Blue Jackets/Caps are obviously better than us, but I assume at least one of those teams will probably finish ahead of us.
 
Did we just get Thwarted into a weaker division? Mind you..this looks very similar to the Patrick Division.

Welcome back Washington.

Caroline should not be in our division..they should be playing against nashville/florida etc.
 
bvon44 said:
As of right now, here's how I see it shaping up....the Metro division is hard as there is one front runner (Pitt), one team that's slightly behind the pack (Jersey), and six teams that could reasonably finish in any of the other positions....

01 - Pittsburgh
02 - Rangers
03 - Columbus
04 - Islanders
05 - Washington
06 - Philadelphia
07 - Carolina
08 - New Jersey
Click to expand...

Similar to mine, but I have Washington at 3, Columbus at 5.
 
I'm going with 3rd, though if everyone stays healthy and Garth does something to improve the goaltending situation (or Nabokov plays above his head, or Poulin morphs into an ace overnight) I could even see 2nd as a possibility.

My idea of how the division might look come April, with some notes below:

PIT
NYR*
NYI*
CBJ*
PHI**
WSH
CAR
NJ

*If "Bob Bobrovsky" has another great year, and guys like Horton and Gaborik play to their potential, I can see NYR and CBJ switching spots or bumping the Isles down to 4th. Rags have the Queen and some very good d-men, but their forwards don't inspire a lot of scoring confidence - we'll see how everyone responds to the new coach.

**Philly is a wildcard - kind of the opposite of the NYR in that on paper they have some deadly scoring ability up front, but suspect defense and goaltending. I don't have much faith in Mason anymore and Emery's average at best, but I could see the Flyers climbing into the top 3 if either goalie catches fire. You also have to wonder if Lavy's act has gotten tired for the guys in the locker room, and I recall rumors that he would be fired after last season... if Philly sucks coming out of the gate, I wouldn't be surprised to see him get the ax and (unfortunately for us) have the team collectively wake up as a result.
 
Pitt
Rags
ISLES
CBJ
Caps
Pfilthy
Canes
Devs

If things go right we beat the Rags out of 2nd.
 
Anyone putting Wash ahead of us care to elaborate? I just don't see it — they've likely decreased in talent (Ribeiro > Grabovski) and they won't have the Florida teams to beat up on.
 
My opinion....

Pittsburgh
NYR
NYI
Philly
Columbus
Devils
Carolina
Washington

Honestly though other than Pittsburgh finishing top 3, no other order would surprise me. I think it comes down to NYR/NYI/Philly and Columbus fighting for the last two (possibly three) spots.
 
You guys are assuming (yet again), that our guys are gonna play like they should.

For the past 3 or so years, both KO and Bails have played like ass the first half. What makes you think that anything would improve or change? Some people will jump out on fire and others would be so cold and off their game, they might be sent down. A new contract doesn't make those promises happen either.

I say, we eek out a 7th spot finish and it will take almost to the very last game to solidify. We are gonna hit a few losing streaks, then pull out all the stops like we always do.
 
Pfilthy kind of a wild card with their hope and pray goaltending and shaky defense anchored by a small, injury prone 39 year old. Streit is not gonna shore up the defensive side and will not fit in with Lavvy's go-go offense with his slooow meanderings up-ice.

Vinny will need to have a serious rebound season for them and some of the kids, Schenn, Couturier will need to get to another level on offense while Hartnell is unlikely to repeat last few seasons as he will get much more checking as he and Giroux are it for the team.

They will cause problems but fade to 4/5th and when we meet them it will be more on equal physical terms. No more bullying taken from that bunch of thugs, we have enough muscle to deter or answer back.
 
1) Penguins
2) Rangers
3) Islanders
4) Blue Jackets
5) Capitals
6) Devils
7) Hurricanes
8) Flyers

EDIT: I think the Flyers could end up being a top-5 pick this year. That defense is just atrocious.
 
PWJunior said:
A pretty good analysis of the Isles and their playoff chances.

http://www.shutdownline.com/hurrica...metropolitan-division-new-york-islanders.html

Pretty good write up from a Carolina site. Weird, got this from Lighthouse.
Click to expand...

Really good, except that (understandably) the Canes blogger doesn't know much about Isles prospects, so there's no mention of Brock Nelson or Strome and it's assumed that Cizikas or Regin will slot into the third line C role.

Re: Philly, does anyone else find it aggravating how Streit's contract is anchoring peoples' perception of his play? Reading analysis from outside NY, there seems to be no understanding that he played exclusively on our third pairing last year.
 
I am shocked at how high everyone is ranking the Rangers.

They essentially finished last season in a dead heat with us.

They have a new coach who it remains to be seen if he can improve upon Torts. I for one think they are going to take a step back learning a new system. I also wouldn't be surprised if Henrik regresses a little as a looser system will expose him to more "true" scoring chances.

I don't think their roster is as talented heading into this season as it was the last 2 seasons.
 
MatthewBarnabysTears said:
Really good, except that (understandably) the Canes blogger doesn't know much about Isles prospects, so there's no mention of Brock Nelson or Strome and it's assumed that Cizikas or Regin will slot into the third line C role.
Click to expand...

They mentioned Strome and Nelson as both competing for spots further down in the article. I also agree with them that Strome would most likely slot as a wing if he's up here early (and that the Islanders would be best keeping him down until injuries.) Cizikas and Regin are both better off in 3rd and 4th line roles. I suppose there's a chance that Strome gets dropped into the second line center role and then Nielsen plays between Grabner and Clutterbuck, but that's a lot of pressure on Strome to produce (and seems to be against what the coaches have consistently done here in the past.)

The biggest thing I disagreed with in the article was the Islanders getting subpar goaltending during the regular season. In reality, they received really erratic goaltending, but it was exceptionally good down the stretch when games were the "hardest". Nabby was below average to very poor in the first two months and above average to almost elite in the second two months of the season. He was 7-0-4 in April with a .928 save pct. and 1.76 GAA. Compare that to February and it's like night and day.

As for my own list:

Penguins
Islanders
Rangers
Blue Jackets
Capitals
Hurricane
Flyers
Devils

Even in a hypothetical, I'm not putting the dirty ****ing Rangers above us (and I think teams 2 to 5 are all a crapshoot at this point.) Hard to figure out Washington now that they're going to be playing defensively stronger teams more often, but that's why I dropped them. I think Columbus is better suited against the division. Rangers obviously have the goaltending edge, but they only finished a point ahead of us last season; not sure why that makes them #2 on so many lists.

I might be in the minority, but I think the Islanders are built better as a team for this coming season. It would have been nice for them to shore up goaltending and defense to reduce the chances of those going to ****, but I've come to expect the lingering question marks heading into the season. Also, while our forwards are more balanced overall, our top-6 is still smaller than I'd like. (I'm assuming the most likely top-6 as of this point. If they really mix up the lineup, we have more diversity at wing than in the past. I'd still love to have a much bigger 2nd line center. I really hope Nelson pans out in that role and Strome finds the wing.)

:),
Mitch
 
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stranger34 said:
I am shocked at how high everyone is ranking the Rangers.

They essentially finished last season in a dead heat with us.

They have a new coach who it remains to be seen if he can improve upon Torts. I for one think they are going to take a step back learning a new system. I also wouldn't be surprised if Henrik regresses a little as a looser system will expose him to more "true" scoring chances.

I don't think their roster is as talented heading into this season as it was the last 2 seasons.
Click to expand...

I think they will still be very close in the standings.

The new coach thing.... yeah, no one knows if he will be better. But it was clear that Tortorella lost that team early, and with a new coach, typically the guys play harder at least initially. They also started the season with awful center depth, which was rectified in the Brassard trade.

They were a good team two years ago because of their depth and role players. When they traded Dubinsky/Anisimov and let Fedotenko leave, they lost a lot of that. The trade(s) for Brassard/Dorsett/Powe and mid season addition of Zuccarello replaced a lot of that.
 
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