2006-07 NHL Predictions

[picasso]

With the regular season less than a week away, I'm going out on a limb here and pick the top 8 teams from each conference in no particular order at this time as this is going to be a long and exciting season.
Eastern: NJ, NYR, Ottawa, Montreal, Philadelphia, Buffalo, Carolina, Toronto
Western: San Jose, Vancouver, Anaheim, Nashville, Detroit, Calgary, Edmonton, Dallas

As far as the Habs, the offense will improve with the front line of Kovalev/Samsonov and Plekanec -- good riddance, Mike Ribeiro!-- while on defense, if Souray can improve upon his performance of last year to go with the dependable Markov and Huet in goal, I believe MTL can go as high as the 4th seed come playoffs time.

 

[EagerBeaver]

Picasso,

I picked up the Hockey News and they like Carolina and Anaheim to meet in the Stanley Cup finals. They are also very high on Nashville and the NY Rangers.

They have the Canadiens barely making the playoffs.

 

[Cosmo]

Personaly I think the Habs will be struggling to make the play-offs,just like they did last year.
The Ribeiro/Niniima trade was a good one considering Ribeiro had an awful season last year despite the ''new'' way of enforcing the rules.
And the Habs badly needed a defenceman to fill the void left by Souray,Buillon and even young Coté's injury.
Teams that I think might cause some surprise would be Boston,with their new aquisitions (Savard,Chara),T-Bay,can't count them out, and Buffalo because of their overall team chemistry displayed in the p.offs.
Remember, they were beaten in the 7th game by the SC champs,with 4 regular defencemen out of the line-up.
Pittsburgh should be a treat to watch if Malkin is healthy and Sid should only improve from an already good first year.
Ottawa,well,their Ottawa;a bunch of underachievers.Should they find a trusty goalkeeper they could finally make it to the cup.
I'm not sure Gerber is the guy though.

 

[picasso]

Picasso,

I picked up the Hockey News and they like Carolina and Anaheim to meet in the Stanley Cup finals. They are also very high on Nashville and the NY Rangers.

They have the Canadiens barely making the playoffs.

EB,

I subscribe to the NHL FACEOFF magazine and they've picked the Habs to finish 10th in the Eastern Conference! I happen to think that these magazines tend to look for big name superstars on the roster and the fact is, the Habs don't have one. Can't believe everything you read. So, I'm going contrarian as far as the Habs.

It's highly unlikely that Carolina will repeat. The last team to do so was the Red Wings in 1997-98. It's extremely difficult in this era of free agency.

I also see the balance of power shifting to the Western Conference. Anaheim, Nashville and Vancouver look loaded on paper with some big names off-season acquisitions.

 

[joelcairo]

Agree completely with Cosmo. Good riddance to Mickey Ribs but the Habs will still do squat. Huet won't be as good this year. Ottawa has a history of underachieving and this year's team is a lot weaker than last year's, Boston (amazingly) made some good moves for once and Pittsburgh is on the way up, but neither will make it all the way. The NHL is getting tougher and tougher to call because of salary caps, parity and aging stars.

 

[gohabsgo]

Eastern: NJ, NYR, Ottawa, Montreal, Philadelphia, Buffalo, Carolina, Toronto
Western: San Jose, Vancouver, Anaheim, Nashville, Detroit, Calgary, Edmonton, Dallas

I agree with your picks for the East, except take Toronto off - they wont make the playoffs - Raycroft was a bum last year for the Bruins and their new d-man Gill is a pylon, Kubina is also too slow for the new NHL and no one to play with Sundin. Look for Boston or Tampa to make the post season instead. West sounds right.

 

[EagerBeaver]

At what point will the Penguins improve? Crosby and Malkin are perhaps the two best players in the world under 21 years of age. The Pens also have a talented young goalie. Are they going to keep finishing last and stockpiling high draft picks, or at some point do they make the leap to playoff team? When will that happen?

 

[EagerBeaver]

Slap Shots From Larry Brooks

Here is the analysis of Larry Brooks, the esteemed hockey beat writer for the NY Post:

http://www.nypost.com/seven/10012006/sports/now_you_can_die_again__sports_larry_brooks.htm?page=3

He has the Ranger defeating Anaheim in 6 in the finals, exactly the same finalists that the Hockey News have playing.

Brooks has Montreal #7 in the East, and Toronto #8.

 

[Cosmo]

At what point will the Penguins improve? Crosby and Malkin are perhaps the two best players in the world under 21 years of age. The Pens also have a talented young goalie. Are they going to keep finishing last and stockpiling high draft picks, or at some point do they make the leap to playoff team? When will that happen?

Hey there E.B.

Of course I don't think it will happen overnight,but I think that brithter days are ahed for the Pens.
Maybe they'll climed up a few spots from last year.
They might even play trouble makers early in the season.
One thing I'm pretty sure is that they should be a dandy to watch.
In a way their present situation reminds me a bit of the Nordiques in the early 90's.
The team was centered around Sakick,then they added Nolan,then Sundin,then Forsbergh and they went on to become one of the best teams for half a decade at least,not to mention a spectacular one.
Crosby,Malkin and Fleury will have a lot to say in the teams future IMHO.
But they won't make the play offs this year.
bye

 

[picasso]

Penguins

I'd say the Pens are about a year or two away from making the playoffs. They need to surround Crosby and Malkin with hard-nosed, playoff-tested veterans like what Carolina did last year surrounding their star pup Eric Staal with Brind'Amour.

 

[Uncle Kracker]

Just a personal opinion... Bruins are looking pretty good this year, now I'm not say we're gonna be in the running for the Cup... But they seem to be doing a good job rebuilding...

Never-the-less, I've got myself a good number of tickets already this year, a couple even in Montreal...

 

[picasso]

Habs 1st win of the season

against archrival Toronto tonight. Good omen for Carbonneau's team!

 

[Cosmo]

I don't want to spoil anyone's fun,but I always thought that overtime and shout-out victory are kind of half-victory.
The ''losing'' team gets a point and I think that it's a mistake.
Of course I was disapointed Friday after the Habs ''loss'' in the shoot-out,but I wasn't as satisfied as a real clean cut win against the Leafs yesterday.
In baseball do they allow 1/2 game for a loss in the 10th inning?
Anyway,that's a bit off topic,I suppose.
So let's hope for a ''real'' victory soon for the Habs.

 

[StripClublover]

The Habs look a bit better this season. They seem to have two #1 goalies and while that may be an issue in the playoffs, for the regular season that wins you alot of games. Huet saved the Lakers atleast 2-3 goals on Friday and Abesh. was rock solid at the ACC.

It's going to be a dogfight all season for the playoffs. I think the Habs will make it though - I really like that they traded some offense for defense in the Dallas deal.

 

[Touch]

It was nice to see Bob Gainey actually smile once -- albeit a small one -- when Ryder put in the shootout winner on Saturday night.

Touch

 

[StripClublover]

Habs are 2-0-1 all on the road. It's arguable that if they don't call that Timeout in Buffalo, they are 3-0 right now. Still, I will take 5 points over 3 tough road games (Buf, Tor, Phil) any day of the week.

Ab looks rock solid and we may have yet another goalie contraversy in Montreal ! Most impressed by their defense to tell you the truth. They are outworking their opponents and just playing some very physical defense. Samsonov isn't scoring but he has speed and D that this team needed. Hopefully that 2nd line can get going and the Habs get really dangerous.

 

[picasso]

Habs are 2-0-1 all on the road. It's arguable that if they don't call that Timeout in Buffalo, they are 3-0 right now. Still, I will take 5 points over 3 tough road games (Buf, Tor, Phil) any day of the week.

Ab looks rock solid and we may have yet another goalie contraversy in Montreal ! Most impressed by their defense to tell you the truth. They are outworking their opponents and just playing some very physical defense. Samsonov isn't scoring but he has speed and D that this team needed. Hopefully that 2nd line can get going and the Habs get really dangerous.

Carbonneau's specialty is defense. The guy is a 3-time Selke trophy winner awarded to the best defensive forward. So, it's not a surprise and good to see the Habs do well there. Offensive firepower is what the Habs lacked last year and it will take some time to integrate Samsonov into the scheme of things. But once the Habs find the right offensive line combination, I think they'll be a force to reckon with in the division.

 

[gohabsgo]

Does Carbo go with the hot hand and start Aebischer tomorrow or go back to Huet?

 

[picasso]

Does Carbo go with the hot hand and start Aebischer tomorrow or go back to Huet?

Logic says Aebischer but emotion says Huet. Being the home opener and knowing how the home crowd loves Huet, my guess is that Carbo will start Huet.

 

[StripClublover]

He should go with the goal tender that's winning the games and that's Aebischer. The Sens are going to be desperate for a win and the Habs need to beat teams in their own division any chance they get. In recent times, the Sens have had great succcess at scoring against us so we need to have the best defense possible - which starts with the goal tender. They are 1-1 in their own division and even in the win they gave the Leafs a point. I would like to see a winning record against division rivals.