The St. Louis Bloooosers are the defending Stanley Cup Champs. Over fifty years of frustration ended last spring.
The fun continues this fall.
The St. Blues (1) are the best team in the highly competitive Central Division. Everyone knows the Blues went from last place in January to Stanley Cup Champions in June. The Blues have an edge coming into the upcoming season. The Blues want to prove last season was no fluke. Center Ryan O’Reilly won the Conn Smythe and became the Midwest’s Mark Messier. Veteran Blues’ forwards Vlad Tarasenko and Jaden Schwartz want to play like last post season not regular season. Young forwards Oskar Sundqvist, Sammy Blais and Ivan Barbashev want to continue their excellent play from last post season. The only major off season change the Blues made was trading for All Star Defenseman Justin Faulk. Faulk along with Captain Alex Pietrangelo and mammoth Colton Parayko give the Blues the overall top defensemen trio in the division. No one wants to prove last year was no fluke more than goaltender Jordan Binnington. He even signed a smallish contract to put his money where his pads are.
The Dallas Stars (2) took the Blues to the brink of elimination (Game Seven Double Overtime) in last year’s playoffs. The Stars have the three best young defensemen in the division. John Klingberg and Miro Heiskanen are points machines. Esa Lindell eats big minutes at both ends of the rink. The Stars top line needs to have a more consistent regular season. Tyler Seguin, Jamie Benn and Alexander Radulov should not need management calling them out to produce. The top line will get more secondary scoring help this season. Former Sharks Captain Joe Pavelski brings goals, grit and intangibles to a second line (Roope Hintz and Jason Dickinson) already bursting with potential. The Stars goalie tandem of Ben Bishop and Anton Khudobin give the Stars the most reliable net minding in the division.
The Colorado Avalanche (3) have the least reliable goaltending in the division. Philipp Grubauer has never been a number one starter before. Colorado does have the best top line west of Boston. Nathan MacKinnon, Mikko Rantanen and Gabriel Landeskog beat you anyway you want to play. They have speed, size, skill and snarl. Nazem Kadri gives the Avs a bona fide second line center. Colorado’s defensemen Cale Makar and Samuel Girard are young but spectacular.
The Nashville Predators (4) defense used to be spectacular. Those days are gone. PK Subban was traded. Roman Josi, Mattias Eckholm and Ryan Ellis are aging. Nashville acquired center Matt Duchene over the summer. Hopefully for Nashville he will not be as disappointing as all of their other centers (Ryan Johansen, Nick Bonino and Kyle Turris). Nashville needs Duchene to be able to play the pivot with Nashville’s elite wingers Filip Forsberg and Viktor Arvidsson. Goaltender Pekka Rinne always disappoints at some point in the season. Back up Juuse Soros has to be disappointed he’s not the starter yet.
The Winnipeg Jets (5) offseason was a disaster until GM Kevin Cheveldayoff signed key forwards Patrik Laine and Kyle Connor days before the start of the regular season. Now what’s missing from last season’s Stanley Cup contenders are two thirds of its defense. Of the Jets top six defensemen last season, three are gone to new teams (Jacob Trouba, Tyler Myers, Ben Chiarot). A fourth, Dustin Byfuglien has not decided if he’s playing this season. The Jets still have the dynamic duo of Mark Scheifele and Blake Wheeler up front. The Jets need goaltender Connor Hellebuyck to bounce back after a disappointing 2018-19.
The Chicago Blackhawk’s (6) window is re opening. Hall of Famers Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews are receiving scoring help from Alex DeBrincat and Dylan Strome. DeBrincat is a budding superstar. Strome is finally realizing his potential. The Hawks acquired forwards Ryan Carpenter and Zach Smith and reacquired Andrew Shaw. These three players exponentially improve the Hawks sandpaper quotient. They also brought in veteran defensemen Calvin de Haan and Olli Maatta. Both add much needed depth to help Duncan Keith and Erik Gustafsson on the blueline. Goaltender Corey Crawford wants to prove last season was an aberration. Robin Lehner wants to prove it wasn’t. Crawford was brittle. Robin Lehner was excellent.
The Minnesota Wild (7) are used to disappointment. Forward Zach Parise and Ryan Suter have never lived up to their massive contracts. Suter needs to yield ice time on the blue line to Matt Dumba and Jared Spurgeon. Parise needs youngsters Ryan Donato, Kevin Fiala and Jordan Greenway to push other veterans to the golf course. Devan Dubnyk is a solid net minder but there only so much he can do.
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