Who's gonna take Lord Stanley

There are currently 6 franchises that have never made it to the Stanley Cup finals. They are the Atlanta Thrashers, Columbus Blue Jackets, Minnesota Wild, Nashville Predators, Phoenix Coyotes, and the San Jose Sharks. Only two of these six are currently sitting in a playoff spot. These two teams also sit in first place in their divisions. The Minnesota Wild hold the division leaders spot for the Northwest Division and the San Jose Sharks hold the division leader position for the Pacific Division. The rest of the teams are in the hunt or are still working towards a position.

This season is full of teams that have what it takes to win the cup. Some of these teams bulked up at the deadline and filled certain positions their team has been lacking in.

These are my reasons for why the following teams will not compete:

Carolina has been putting on a strong push to maintain their stranglehold of the Southeast division. They have gone 8-2 in their last 10 and have a great home record but a soft away record. They have also been on the receiving end of many goals. I don’t believe this team has a strong enough roster to last through the playoffs. Joe Corvo and Patrick Eaves were huge pick ups, though. Eric Staal has replaced Rod Brind’Amour. Injuries to David Tanabe, Ray Whitney, and Justin Williams will hurt the strength of this team through the long drive of the playoffs.

Ottawa has been the biggest surprise for everyone this season. They had a great start and looked unstoppable. They hit a few roadblocks and aren’t looking strong. They have huge goaltending and defensive issues. They still score alright, but not as easily as before. Cory Stillman and Mike Commodore aren’t looking like such great additions to their team. Even I thought Bryan Murray would help this team become what it once was. Their problems are much bigger than we see. Ottawa really needs to look to their leadership for their woes. Their team needs to have some sort of intervention.

Boston and Philadelphia have similar problems going on. They both were having a great season until they crumbled. Their defences have fallen apart and they have received sub-par goaltending. Both are now at risk of seriously losing their playoff positions, let alone contend.

Minnesota has a good team and good goaltending. Their coaching from Jacques Lemaire has been excellent and probably one of the biggest reasons the Wild have remained competitive. The problem is they have slowed down big time going 4-2-4 in their last 10. The reason why they were a threat (if not beaten by the Ducks) last season, was their defense and they haven’t held their own defensively. You must be good in the back end to compete and they simply are not.

Vancouver has Roberto Luongo, who has solely helped them stay alive. Ryan Kesler has done his best to keep this team competitive, but it looks like the Sedin twins (Daniel and Henrik) and Markus Naslund didn’t really like the playoffs last season and plan on going home this spring.

Colorado is good but their roster is constantly depleted. This season has been about the 4 S’s for them; (Ryan) Smyth, (Joe) Sakic, (Paul) Stastny and (Marek) Svatos. They’ve been performing really well but you can’t have your best players always injured and expect to win.  They’ve also only received decent goaltending but never exceptional.