Welcome aboard Julie. Julie is a life long hockey fan and well often has the same okay here it is and GO philosophy on blogging. Without further adieu….here is her debut. Go easy on her.
A co-worker e-mailed me this morning, asking which two of the following teams had the best chance of making the playoffs this year: Islanders, Thrashers, Panthers, Predators, Avalanche, OIlers, Coyotes, or Wild?
My first reaction was “Did they ask you to join the party as an after thought?”
Because at first glance, the chances of any of those teams making the playoffs is slim to none. But then I got to thinking.
The Islanders are not making the playoffs. Are they?
Honestly, no. They’re not. Neither are the Coyotes. There are too many off-ice questions surrounding both teams, not the least of which is where both teams will be next season.
But the other teams? Cases could be made for all of them. Even the Thrashers.
Okay. Seriously? The Thrashers are not making the playoffs. But they still have Kovalchuk, and they do have a host of under-rated younger players around him. Lehtonen is a decent goalie on the rare occasions when he’s healthy, and when he’s not, they have options, including Johan Hedberg and youngster Ondrej Pavelec. They’re also in the Southeast Division, which isn’t the weak division it used to be, but it’s not the Central yet. And they signed Maxim Afinogenov, which just screams of desperation.
The Panthers almost made the playoffs last season, and one would presume they’ve improved during the offseason, because that’s the general goal of all teams… but the Panthers didn’t improve. They lost Bouwmeester to free agency, and that’s a big loss, no matter how you look at it.
The Predators also are not making the playoffs. They’re in a very tough division, especially with the emergence of the St Louis Blues, who look to improve on last year’s surprise performance, and despite the fact that they have two very good goaltenders in Dan Ellis and Pekka Rinne, and one of the leagues top defensemen in Shea Weber, they are not playoff-bound.
The OIlers signed Nikolai Khabibulin. But Khabibulin is not the answer. Oh, and they made a move on Dany Heatley, which didn’t pan out, but with what they were offering, Heatley may not have been the answer either.
Which leaves us with the two teams who have the best chance of making the playoffs. The Wild and the Avalanche.
The Wild are without Jacques Lemaire for the first season, thus opening the gates to the possibility of playing a more offensive style, which should greatly benefit some of their players, including Marek Zidlicky, an offensive-minded defenseman who was not being used to his potential under Lemaire. They signed Martin Havlat and Petr Sykora to add more offense, and despite losing Marian Gaborik to the NY Rangers during the offseason, look to be a higher scoring team than they have been in the past. And with the hopeful new attention to offense, don’t count them out defensively. A lot of players have played under Lemaire and will still play the way they know. Also, they have one of the best young goalies in the game in Backstrom.
Many people are probably going to count the Colorado Avalanche out, seeing as they traded away Ryan Smyth, and lost their captain, Joe Sakic, who retired. And their performance last year left much to be desired. So why do they have a shot at making the playoffs this year?
First, the majority of their problems last season branched from the lack of a No. 1 goaltender. They brought in Craig Anderson, who has yet to really prove himself as an everyday starter, but who has already shown himself to be an above average goaltender, especially playing behind a worse defense than that of the Avs with Florida last season.
Second, they are healthy this year. They lost a ton of man-games to injury last year. Also it wasn’t just role players they were missing, it was their scorers and team leaders.
The major strike against them is their division. They’ll be competing with Calgary and Vancouver, and the less impressive Edmonton and Minnesota for a playoff spot. So who will make it out of those two teams? Maybe none…one or both. But I figured I would at least give them a shot.
