The Tampa Bay Lighting (1) won the President’s Trophy last year. The Lightning were then swept by the Columbus Blue Jackets in the first round of the playoffs. 
This would lead many to think the Lightning will not worry about the regular season and maybe not finish first atop the highly competitive Atlantic Division.
Not me. Lightning goaltending is too good not to finish anywhere but first. Andrei Visilevskiy won the Vezina Trophy last season. Visilevskiy’s back up Louis Domingue had a double-digit winning streak. Curtis McElhinney was brought in this summer to add even more depth.
Tampa Bay’s defense is also top notch with Norris Finalist Victor Hedman, veteran Ryan McDonagh and young stud Mikhail Sergachev.
I haven’t even mentioned their embarrassment of riches up front. Steven Stamkos isn’t even one of the top two forwards on this team. MVP Nikita Kucherov and Brayden Point are. Forwards Alex Killorn , Ondrej Palet ,Anthony Cirelli and Mathieu Joseph add round out a lineup that has everything experience, grit, speed and youth, just no ring.
The Toronto Maple Leafs (2) have the same offensive fire power that Tampa Bay does. Auston Matthews and John Tavares have taken the team two best centers in the game title away from Pittsburgh. Sorry Malkin.
With Mitch Marner signed for $10.0 million a year for six years, the Leafs settled their most pressing issue. A motivated William Nylander along with Kasperi Kapanen, Andreas Johnsson and newly acquired Alexander Kerfoot will find their way on the score sheet if not their own end.
The Leafs still don’t have enough shoulders for corner battles in the post season. New acquisitions Cody Ceci will help the Leafs blueline in the corners and Tyson Barrie will help them on the power play. Uber defenseman Morgan Reilly helps them everywhere. Frederik Anderson is a top flight goalie but the Leafs don’t have as much depth at the position the Lightning do so I put them at number two.
Recent history tells you the Boston Bruins come in third. Not this year. I’m picking the Florida Panthers (3). Hiring Hall of Fame Coach Joel Quenneville gives this underachieving franchise a sense of urgency.
The Panther’s solved their biggest problem from last year, goaltending. Sergei Bobrovsky is a sensational regular season net minder. I’m not impressed with Florida’s defensemen after Aaron Eckblad and Mike Matheson but Coach Q will stress team defense. Team offense will be no problem for the Panthers. Aleksander Barkov, Jonathan Huberdeau, Vincent Trocheck and Mike Hoffman give the Panthers as good of top end talent as any team in the division.
It doesn’t seem logical to pick a team that was one game away from winning the Stanley Cup last season fourth in the division this season. I still believe the Bruins will make the playoffs as a wildcard but they have issues. The Bruins are a veteran team that had a very short summer to heal. It will take the Bruins until after the New Year to rev up the body. Especially because Boston knows it doesn’t matter where you finish in the division you just have to get into the dance. Boston has the best top line in hockey with Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak but lost depth from last year. Second line center David Krejci plays good every two years. Krejci had a career year last year.
Do the math. Boston’s young blueline stud Brandon Carlo is not in camp, at least Charlie McAvoy and the Bs came to an agreement on a three-year deal this weekend. Veteran blueline stud Torey Krug’s future with the team is up in the air. Captain Zdena Chara’s future with the team is as long as he wants but how much longer can it be. He’s as old as the other Boston sports legend Tom Brady but unlike Brady Chara gets hit.
Boston’s goaltending tandem of Tuuka Rask and Jaroslav Halak is strong enough to keep the Bruins in contention until their spring push.
The top four Atlantic teams have Stanley Cup aspirations . The bottom four do not. Of these four, I’m picking the Detroit Red Wings (5) fifth. I believe in their young forwards more than I believe the other four bottom team’s forwards. Dylan Larkin , Anthony Mantha, Andreas Athanasiou , Tyler Bertuzzi and Michael Rasmussen are young but also talented and above all hungry. GM Steve Yzerman added veteran Valtteri Filppula to give Detroit a veteran in their top six. If Mike Green and Trevor Daley stay healthy the Wings defense will be able to jumpstart the Wings offense. Goaltender Jimmy Howard has his detractors but he had a solid 18-19. Jonathan Bernier and Calvin Pickard are more than adequate backups.
I was supposed to pick the Buffalo Sabres (6) fifth but I have them sixth. Buffalo has yet another new coach, Ralph Krueger. Krueger has limited experience behind an NHL bench. I have faith Rasmus Dahlin will be a perennial All star but what if he has even a minor sophomore slump. Their next best Rasmus/defenseman ,Ristolainen wants out of Buffalo. I have less faith Buffalo Jeff Skinner can live up to his new contract. I wonder if Buffalo still has faith Jack Eichel will live up to his contract. Carter Hutton looked promising in net but in typical Buffalo fashion fell apart halfway thru the season.
The Montreal Canadiens (7) almost made the playoffs last year with smoke and mirrors. Claude Julien is a great coach but he’s not a magician. This season the mirror cracks. The Atlantic division’s non playoff teams all improved over the summer. GM Marc Bergevin did nothing to help Jonathan Drouin, Max Domi, Brandan Gallagher and Tomas Tatar up front. Can all these forwards who played great last season be expected to again? If Montreal stumbles out of the gate the French Canadien vultures will be circling Bergevin. Bergevin did bring in Ben Chiarot to help the defense which needs help. Aging Shea Weber can only do so much. Goaltender Carey Price can’t carry a bad team to the playoffs anymore. Is Montreal a bad team? Max Domi is not the number one center on a good team.
The Ottawa Senators (8) are in the acquiring dead contracts phase of a dying franchise. They need to either relocate, get a new arena, a new owner or all three. Until then they are last.
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