NHL 2009-10 Atlantic Division Preview

(Photo by Jamie Sabau/Getty Images)

The Atlantic division has always been one of the most unpredictable divisions in the NHL. Every team in the division has enjoyed runs of success, with the Pittsburgh Penguins being the most recent, as they won the 2008-09 Stanley Cup.

Today I will give my projected standings, and analysis on each team in the Atlantic division, here are my projected standings.

Atlantic Division

Pittsburgh Penguins  103 pts

Philadelphia Flyers 98 pts

New York Rangers 96 pts

New Jersey Devils 93 pts

New York Isalnders 82 pts

The Pittsburgh Penguins seem the obvious pick, due to their immense amount of talent, but it won't come easy. The Penguins blue-line took a hit, as they lost defensemen Hal Gill and Rob Scuderi, both solid defensemen. The Penguins also lost Petr Sykora, a reliable goal scorer, with playoff experience. Pittsburgh is still left with many strenghs, offensively.

The Penguins offense will be explosive, as always. Evgeni Malkin, Sidney Crosby Chris Kunitz, and Jordan Staal will do that to any offense. The Pens have the ability to score on all four of their lines. Players like Bill guerin, and Tyler Kennedy add grit to the Penguins line-up, along with scoring touch. If Pittsburgh makes another deep playoff run it will be on the strength of excellent offense.

Defense will be a bit of a question mark for Pittsburgh. They have a solid top four, with the likes of Sergei Gonchar, Kris Letang, Brooks Orpik and newly acquired defenseman Jay Mckee, but they have very little depth.

It seems Alex Goligoski and Mark Eaton will be relied on as the third pairing, on the Pens blue-line. If the Penguins defense has injuries like it did early last year they will be in trouble, as their division is full of speedy scorers.

Goaltending should be quite solid for the Penguins, Marc-Andre Fleury can be streaky at times, but he usually gets on good hot streaks when it counts the most. The Penguins also have Brent Johnson, who was a solid back-up on the Capitals for many years. He has also proven he can start for an extended period in his past, and should provide a nice compliment to Fleury.

The Philadelphia Flyers will finish second in the division, in my opinion. They too have excellent offense with the likes of Mike Richards, Jeff Carter and Simon Gagne. The Flyers will sport a solid four line attack, with a nice amount of grit. Players like Dan Carcillo and Riley Cote will put fear in the opponents, who try to lay a hit on any of the Flyers' play-makers.

The Flyers defense will be quite good, as veterans Kimmo Timonen and Chris Pronger headline their blue-line. Braydon Coburn has also proved to be a great defenseman in the making, to think the Flyers only traded Alexie Zhitnik, to acquire this stud. Matt Carle and Ole-Kristian Toleffson will also be solid players on the back end.

The defense will have its work cut out for them, as they have to face the likes of Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Marian Gaborik and Zach Parise quite a bit.

Goaltending may prove to be the biggest weakness, for the Flyers. Newly acquired goaltender Ray Emery has not played in the NHL, for a few years, and has proved to be a cancer in the locker-room with Ottawa.

I would not be surprised if back-up Brian Boucher starts the bulk of the games this season, as he was solid for the San Jose Sharks last year, and was a very good goaltender in his first stint with the Flyers.

The New York Rangers come in third in the Atlantic, and will join the Penguins and Flyers in the playoffs. The Rangers made some big moves this off-season, trading Scott Gomez for Chris Higgins, and signing sniper Marian Gaborik. Higgins and Gaborik had injury troubles last season, but if both can stay healthy they will add punch to an above average offensive line-up.

The Rangers also bolstered their offense, with the acquisitions of Ales Kotalik, Vinny Prospal and Tyler Arnason.

Defense at the moment appears average, but the Rangers have a bright future at the blue-line. Michael Del Zotto, Matt Gilroy, and Bobby Sanguinetti should give the Rangers a solid blue-line, a few years down the road. At the moment Michael Roszival, Dan Girardi, Marc Staal and Wade Redden will be relied on to protect the back end.

Goaltender Henrik Lunqvist will be relied on heavily this season, as he is every year for the Rangers. He has continually proven he is one of the best in the NHL, by at times carrying the Rangers on his back to a playoff run. Back-up Steve Valiquette will be relied on to give Lunqvist much needed rest, throughout the season.

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