Ranking the NHL Eastern Conference
Here’s a look at the National Hockey League teams in the East, with our preseason rankings:
Eastern Conference
1. Washington Capitals
What’s new: Caps stood pat.
What’s gone: Jose Theodore, Joe Corvo, Eric Belanger and Brendan Morrison.
What’s up: Caps will roll through regular season fueled by memories of their first-round playoff ouster, but they won’t win it all.
2. Pittsburgh Penguins
What’s new: Defensemen Paul Martin and Zbynek Michalek.
What’s gone: Sergei Gonchar, Bill Guerin, Mark Eaton, Ruslan Fedotenko and Alex Ponikarovsky.
What’s up: New blue-line additions will help Penguins and Sidney Crosby get back to the Finals.
3. Boston Bruins
What’s new: Nathan Horton and rookie Tyler Seguin.
What’s gone: Dennis Wideman, Miro Satan and Steve Begin.
What’s up: Marc Savard’s questionable health troubling for an offense that ranked last in the league.
4. New Jersey Devils
What’s new: Jason Arnott, Anton Volchenkov, Henrik Tallinder and coach John MacLean.
What’s gone: Paul Martin, Jay Pandolfo, Rob Niedermayer and Mike Mottau.
What’s up: Goalie Martin Brodeur turns 39 in May and will be asked to be great again with so many question marks defensively.
5. Philadelphia Flyers
What’s new: Nikolai Zherdev, Sean O’Donnell and Andrej Meszaros.
What’s gone: Simon Gagne, Ryan Parent, Ray Emery and Arron Asham.
What’s up: Flyers already have goalie trouble with Michael Leighton out a month with a back injury. They should have signed Antti Niemi.
6. Montreal Canadiens
What’s new: Dustin Boyd and backup Alex Auld.
What’s gone: Jaroslav Halak, Sergei Kostitsyn and Marc-Andre Bergeron.
What’s up: No goalie is under more pressure than Carey Price, whom the Canadiens elected to keep instead of Halak.
7. Buffalo Sabres
What’s new: Rob Niedermayer and Jordan Leopold.
What’s gone: Henrik Tallinder, Toni Lydman and Raffi Torres.
What’s up: Goalie Ryan Miller alone makes the Sabres a playoff team.
8. Toronto Maple Leafs
What’s new: Kris Versteeg, Colby Armstrong and Brett Lebda.
What’s gone: Viktor Stalberg and Garnet Exelby.
What’s up: I’m drinking the blue Kool-Aid; GM Brian Burke will get the Leafs to the playoffs led by the big three on defense of Dion Phaneau, Tomas Kaberle and Mike Komisarek.
9. Tampa Bay Lightning
What’s new: Simon Gagne, Pavel Kubina, Brett Clark and GM Steve Yzerman.
What’s gone: Antero Nittymaki, Andrej Meszaros, Kurtis Foster, Alex Tanguay, Zenon Konopka and Matt Walker.
What’s up: Looking for a possible surprise team in the East? Here it is. Big four up front of Martin St. Louis, Steve Stamkos, Vinny Lecavalier and Simon Gagne will score a lot of goals.
10. Ottawa Senators
What’s new: Stood pat.
What’s gone: Anton Volchenkov, Matt Cullen, Andy Sutton and Jonathan Cheechoo.
What’s up: Senators will miss Volchenkov on the blue line, and goalies are mediocre at best.
11. New York Rangers
What’s new: Alexander Frolov, Derek Boogaard and Martin Biron.
What’s gone: Olli Jokinen and backup Steve Valiquette.
What’s up: GM Glen Sather did little to improve his ordinary team, though he did sign Boogaard for four years at $6.6 million. That’s nuts.
12. Carolina Hurricanes
What’s new: Joe Corvo.
What’s gone: Rod Brind’Amour, Ray Whitney and Brian Pothier.
What’s up: Goalie Cam Ward is going to have problems behind the league’s fourth-worst defense.
13. Atlanta Thrashers
What’s new: Dustin Byfuglien, Andrew Ladd, Brent Sopel, Ben Eager, Chris Mason and coach Craig Ramsay.
What’s gone: Colby Armstrong, Johan Hedberg, Pavel Kubina, Marty Reasoner and Slava Kozlov.
What’s up: Former Hawks will bring a winning attitude, but it won’t be enough.
14. Florida Panthers
What’s new: Chris Higgins, Steve Bernier, Dennis Wideman and GM Dale Tallon.
What’s gone: Nathan Horton and Keith Ballard.
What’s up: Tallon just doesn’t have the horses yet, especially on offense.
15. New York Islanders
What’s new: Mark Eaton.
What’s gone: Martin Biron and Jeff Tambellini.
What’s up: With No. 1 defenseman Mark Streit and first-liner Kyle Okposo already hurt to start the season, the Isles don’t have a chance.