Is this the year the perennial top of the Atlantic Division teams fall and the year away teams make their move ? According to these fearless yearly predictions it is.
- The Toronto Maple Leafs will dominate the regular season. Auston Matthews considers forty goals a bad year. Mitch Marner and William Nylander have contract numbers on their minds. New wingers Max Domi and Tyler Bertuzzi  do as well. John Klingberg was not the defensemen they needed but it won’t matter until May.
- The Buffalo Sabres center Tage Thompson is a force of nature. The Swords have surrounded him with an impressive group of forwards.They have a nice mix of size, speed and skill. The Buffalo blueline is led by Rasmus Dahlin. He is a meaner Nicklas Lidstrom. The Sabres added veterans Connor Clifton and Erik Johnson to help develop Owen Power. Buffalo’s Devon Levi will have a breakout season in net.
- The Detroit Red Wings have waited a long time to be relevant again. Captain Dylan Larkin is finally centering a superstar winger, Alex DeBrincat. JT Compher, Andrew Copp and David Perron bring veteran leadership. Klim Kostin and Rasmussin bring physicality. Moritz Seider is a modern day Larry Robinson. Ville Husso and James Reimer is the best Motor City net combo in a decade.
- The Tampa Bay Lightning will be without the best goalie of this generation Andrei Vasilevskiy for at least ten weeks. The once vaunted Bolts cannot give away ten weeks anymore. Tampa still has Steven Stamkos, Nikita Kucherov, Brayden Point and Anthony Cirelli upfront but their depth has been decimated by the salary cap. Winners want to get paid. Victor Hedman , Mikhail Sergachev and Erik Cernak ensure the Lightning defense is formidable. The goaltending situation is a battle of unknowns Jonas Johansson and Hugo Alnefelt.
- The Boston Bruins had an historic record-breaking regular season last year. They then proceeded to have a historic collapse in the post season. This summer the Bruins lost their captain, Hall of Famer and number one center Patrice Bergeron. They also lost 2nd line center David Krejci, wingers Taylor Hall and Tyler Bertuzzi. The Bruins still have Brad Marhand and David Pastternyk but Pavel Zacha and Charlie Coyle are not top six centers on a playoff team. The Bruins defense and goaltending were elite until the playoffs. The Bruins need a year to recover from the franchise’s dreadful spring and summer.
- The Florida Panthers ruined the Bruins, Maple Leafs and Hurricanes seasons. The Panthers squeaked into the playoffs and made the Stanley Cup Finals. Matthew Tkachuk put the Panthers on his back last spring. Aleksander Barkov , Sam Bennett , Sam Reinhart and Carter Verhaeghe give the Big Cats a solid forward group. The Panthers blueline is in flux.  Aaron Eckblad and Brandon Montour may not ready for the regular season. Florida replaced Radko Gudas with a group of underachievers. Sergei Bobrovsky finally lived up to his contract last spring. He needs to live up to it this fall.
- The Ottawa Senators have been pretending to be a playoff team for a while. They will keep pretending this year too. No one overpays players who have never proven anything like the Senators. Brady Tkachuk is a warrior. Tim Stutzle has tremendous upside. The rest of the roster is hailed by Canadian media but doesn’t pass the eye test or the box score test. Vlad Tarasenko will be trade bait faster than Joonas Korpisalo is proven not to be the answer in net.
- The Montreal Canadiens are a bad hockey team. At least they won’t have to pretend a healthy Carey Price can save them. The have some gifted forwards like Cole Caufield, Nick Suzuki and Kirby Dach. Josh Anderson and Brendan Gallagher are too injury prone. Mike Matheson is a number one defenseman on an AHL team. Jake Allen is a backup goalie.
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