For starters, the Columbus Blue Jackets and Detroit Red Wings both moved to the Eastern Conference to give them more favourable travel schedules. Both teams now won't have to fly out west as often, greatly reducing the fatigue accompanied by flying first class across the continent.
How did the NHL make room for them in the Eastern Conference? Simple! They cut the number of divisions from six to four. Now, the conferences are split 16-14 in favour of the East. Gone are the Northeast, Southeast, and Northwest Divisions. Enter the Metropolitan Division. Yes, that's right. That's the name the league settled on.
With the new divisions, there was also a new playoff format. The top-3 teams in each division make the playoffs. Then, the next two highest point totals in the conference make the playoffs as Wild Cards.
Anyways, this is the preview for the newest division in the NHL: The Metropolitan Division!
Carolina Hurricanes
The biggest addition this offseason for the Hurricanes may just be a healthy Cam Ward. When healthy, Ward and the Hurricanes were 9-6-1 during his 16 starts. The rest of the season? Dan Ellis and Justin Peters' combined record was 10-19-3-2. Bring back an all-world talent will definitely put Carolina back on track in the division. His presence between the pipes will improve the team's defence, especially picking up some abysmal plus-minus ratings on the team (Jordan Staal and Jeff Skinner were a combined -39). The Canes also survived a scare during the World Hockey Championship when Eric Staal had a knee-on-knee collision with Alexander Edler. Staal, Carolina's captain, will be back in time for the regular season and he will need to continue his stellar play from last year, putting up 53 points in 48 games. The Hurricanes won't be one of the top-3 in the division, but they could challenge for a Wild Card spot. However, the Staal Brothers and the Hurricanes won't make it this year.
Columbus Blue Jackets
Jarmo Kekäläinen begins his first full season as General Manager of the Blue Jackets and he made some moves in the offseason. Kekäläinen signed Nathan Horton away from the Boston Bruins (even though he'll miss the first couple of months with a shoulder injury) and re-signing Vezina-winning goalie Sergei Bobrovsky to a contract extension. Bobrovsky carried this team last year, as his play was the only reason the Blue Jackets were even talking about the playoffs in March. He had to win games on his own as no player on the current roster had more than 30 points last season (Marion Gaborik only had 8 points after being acquired from the Rangers). When Horton gets back, he'll be expected to carry some of that load offensively. Keep an eye out for rookie Boone Jenner. He was a man amongst boys in the OHL last season and is looking like he'll play on Columbus' first line when the season opens. It'll be a much tougher test for the Blue Jackets this year. With the new alignment, I don't expect to see Columbus anywhere near a playoff position.
New Jersey Devils
The Devils made the best move of any team when they stole Cory Schneider from the Vancouver Canucks for their first round pick. Compared to what the rumours were last season for Roberto Luongo and what the Canucks were allegedly asking for from the Oilers, New Jersey comes out smelling like roses. They have a goalie who can now play right away, while slowly taking the reigns away from future Hall of Famer Martin Brodeur. It will protect the Devils in case of injury in the crease, but also set them for the future. What ruined some future plans was the "retirement" of Ilya Kovalchuk. He was their main offensive weapon last year and was supposed to be a major threat going forward. The Devils have now lost three of their best players in two years with Zach Parise signing in Minnesota and David Clarkson signing in Toronto. For New Jersey to stay competitive, they'll need Adam Henrique to bounce back and Jaromir Jagr to keep fighting off Father Time. Also, Travis Zajac will have to put up some numbers to support the extension he recently signed. If the Devils win games this year, they will be of the 2-1 or 3-2 variety. Unfortunately for them, that won't be good enough in a very competitive division and conference.
New York Islanders
One of the pleasant surprises from last season was this Islanders team making it into the playoffs and giving the Pittsburgh Penguins a scare in the first round. Led by MVP candidate and new captain John Tavares, I don't see this Brooklyn-bound team taking a step backwards this season. His game will continue to improve and the chemistry with linemate Matt Moulson will keep the offence flying on Long Island this season. The question will be on the back end as they failed to sign former captain Mark Streit. There are some holes defensively now, which might expose aging netminder Evgeni Nabokov. The Finnish goalie had 23 wins on the season last year, but had an average save-percentage of .910. Tavares and Moulson will have to put up impressive numbers again for this young team to be competitive in the division.
New York Rangers
The New York media will have some much calmer post-game conferences as John Tortorella was fired by the team during the offseason. Enter Alain Vigneault as the new coach. He inherits a team that floundered in the second round of the playoffs last year against the Bruins. You can't count out this Rangers team when they have a goalie as good as Henrik Lundqvist playing 65 to 70 games this season. Arguably the best goalie in the world, Lundqvist provides stability for New York's defence. He proves the saying that you build a team from the crease out. The defence also does an outstanding job of blocking shots for their goalie, making them a hard team to score goals against. The return of Mark Staal will help bolster the back-end to make the unit even stronger. New York hopes that Brad Richards will return to form after a very disappointing season that saw him become a healthy scratch in the playoffs. If he gets his game back, expect to see a bump in points to Rick Nash as well.
Philadelphia Flyers
It seems strange to say, but one of the concerns for the Philadelphia Flyers would have to be the blueline. Chris Pronger is still on injured reserve as does not look like he'll play again. They brought in Mark Streit to help out the unit. He, Kimo Timmonen, and Andrej Meszaros will provide veteran leadership amongst the defenders to guide young guns like Luke Schenn to improvement. Offensively, this team should be fine. Led by captain Claude Giroux, the Flyers will have plenty of scoring with the likes of Vincent Lecavalier, Jakub Voracek, and Scott Hartnell. Keep an eye out for Sean Couturier and Brayden Schenn to have big seasons as they fully adjust to the NHL level. As always, questions between the pipes will arise as Ray Emery and Steve Mason will fight for the starting job. Emery will probably emerge as the Number One guy, but the team will still struggle at times.
Pittsburgh Penguins
It's hard to bet against a team that has the two of the top three players on the planet in their starting line-up. Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin will continue to produce at an unbelievable level. If healthy, you can pretty well pencil them both in for 100-point seasons. The Penguins are also deep. They can run three lines at you that can score, with many of them being able to play above average to good defence. Adding Rob Scuderi will help improve the depth amongst the six defencemen. Kris Letang will also quarterback a very intimidating power play unit. Like the Flyers, the question will be be in net. Marc-Andre Fleury didn't make it through the first round agains the Islanders. He was replaced by Tomas Vokoun who demonstrated his ability to take the ball and run with it. Will Fleury be able to overcome whatever is between his head and have a bounce back season? That will determine where the Penguins finish in the standings this year.
Washington Capitals
The Capitals are always a curious team. They put up great regular seasons, but flame out quickly in the playoffs. How much of that was due to the weak Southeast Division? Well, we'll find that out this year as the Capitals will only bring the Hurricanes with them to the new Metropolitan division. As for breaking down the team, Alexander Ovechkin continues to be the spark plug and motor of this team. As he goes, so do the Capitals. If he plays anything like the second half of last season which earned him the Hart Trophy, then Washington will be fine. Nicklas Backstrom will help Ovechkin carry the load offensively. Martin Erat was a nice pick up last season to add secondary scoring. A big factor for the Caps I believe will be the addition of Mikhail Grabovski. While he never lived up to the contract in Toronto, he provided great energy and grit amongst the bottom six when he settled into his role in Randy Carlyle's system. On the back end, the group is largely unchanged. Mike Green - when healthy - can put up great offensive numbers. Karl Alzner will continue to provide great defence and take a lot of the minutes in their own zone. In net, Braden Holtby and Michal Neuvirth will continue to fight. However, Holtby has proven he can take the majority of the starts. The Capitals could be a dangerous team this year.
Division Standings
- Pittsburgh Penguins
- New York Rangers
- Washington Capitals
- Philadelphia Flyers
- New York Islanders
- Carolina Hurricanes
- New Jersey Devils
- Columbus Blue Jackets
Well, that's how I think the Metropolitan will play out this season. When I finish the Northeast Atlantic Division preview, I'll combine the two and show how I think the full conference will play out. Come back and check it out!
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