I know it may come as a surprise to everyone, but ESPN does indeed care about hockey—or at least, they're pretending to this summer.
Scott Burnside released his NHL Summer Power Rankings on Friday, and the Pittsburgh Penguins sat atop the list of Eastern Conference teams.
Burnside calls the Penguins' lineup for next season the "most formidable lineup down the middle of any team in the NHL."
While this seems like a bold statement, I'd be hard-pressed to find another team in the league with two more offensively talented centermen than Crosby and Malkin. Throw the defensive-minded, big-bodied, penalty-killing specialist Jordan Staal into the mix, and you have a very solid corps of centermen.
I'd even go as far as saying that Maxime Talbot is among the top three fourth-line centers in the NHL heading into next season.
The Penguins have replaced the players they lost to free agency this summer rather well—Satan and Fedotenko for Malone and Roberts, Cooke for Ruutu, and Godard for Laraque.
It will be these role players, along with the continued development of youngsters such as Tyler Kennedy, Kris Letang, and Marc-Andre Fleury that will determine if the Penguins can repeat as Atlantic Division Champs in 2008-09.
Looking solely at the Atlantic Division, Burnside has the Flyers ranked third, followed in fourth by the Rangers, and the New Jersey Devils sitting in the sixth slot in the East. There is another team, based out of Long Island, that also competes in the Atlantic Division—but we just won't go there, for the sake of common courtesy.
According to Burnside, the Atlantic Division will once again fill four out of the available eight playoff seeds in the Eastern Conference.
By now you all know I'm not one to make predictions, but this seems like a pretty logical wager.
With the loss of Jagr, Straka, and possibly Shanahan, the Rangers will have a much more youthful look to their lineup next season—but not necessarily a better one.
They have bolstered their defensive corps by adding Zherdev and Kalinin, and overpaying for Redden. Henrik Lundqvist is still, in my opinion, the best goalie in the Eastern Conference. If the Rangers can ride King Henry's coattails all season long, I don't see why they will finish below the top five.
The New Jersey Devils have Martin Brodeur—therefore, they will make the playoffs. The Devils are one of those teams that is always better than you think they will be. They play their defensive system extremely well—and with the addition of Rolston, they should pack a little more offensive punch next year.
Burnside has the Flyers sitting in third place in the East. While I would like to say that the Flyers will finish dead last in the NHL standings, that simply isn't going to happen. It took a true team effort to earn the Flyers a place in the Eastern Conference Finals last season, but I don't look for them to repeat as the second-best team in the East next year.
Martin Biron still seems too inconsistent—especially competing with such talent as Brodeur, Lundqvist, and Fleury within the division—to allow the Flyers to finish any higher than fifth place.
The Penguins' hopes to repeat as Atlantic Division Champions and regain the title of Eastern Conference Champions next season will depend on two major factors:
39 comments Last one added 11 months ago — Leave a Comment
Greg Caggiano 11 months ago
What's an "ESPN"?
In all seriousness, good article.
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Eric K 11 months ago
Haha, exactly, ESPN and NHL in the same sentence just sounds wrong...
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Greg Caggiano 11 months ago
Got a college level analogy for you:
ESPN is to NHL as Intelligent is to Bettman
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Ryan McNealy 11 months ago
How about Datsyuk Zetterburg Fillpula Draper and Franzen? All natural centers and more dependable defensively
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Nicholas Case 11 months ago
Oh, so you didn't really watch the Finals?
Sid is reliable defensively and better offensively than Datsyuk or Zetterberg. Face it, he is. His all around offensive talents (speed, passing, vision) is superior to either. Maybe not FAR superior, but superior either way.
Malkin is better than Franzen on the offensive end even if Franzen is better defensively. Franzen isn't even all that amazing as a forward. Malkin scored more as a rookie than Franzen has scored in his career!
Not only is Staal younger than Filpula, but better defensively and his point totals weren't too far off from Valterri. For their careers, Staal has 16 more points that VF and is four years younger.
Talbot is faster and has more offensive capability than Draper.
"The Middle" also consists of goaltending and Jimmy Eat World. Fleury is better than Osgood. The Wings and Pens can split JEW 50/50.
So yes, the Pens have the best players down the middle. And they are better than what the Wings boast.
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InTheBleachers.net 11 months ago
"Sid is reliable defensively and better offensively than Datsyuk or Zetterberg. Face it, he is. His all around offensive talents (speed, passing, vision) is superior to either. Maybe not FAR superior, but superior either way."
You lost all creditability with a statement like that. Datsyuk AND Zetterberg were finalists as the best defensive forward.
With the way Nicholas was talking I think that he is under the dillusion that the Pens beat Detroit instead of vice versa.
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Nathan McDonald 11 months ago
Nicholas is a dumbass!!!! Pens aren't even close to the Wings!!! Pav and Z are better than Cindy Crosby and Malkin (nice choke in the finals) and you need to face it! The other factor is salary! With Z signing next year at the Lidstrom enforced salary cap 7.45 mil We have the two best centers at 14 mil and the Pens have roughly 18 mil tied up in the two cry babies!!!! Who's better now dumbass! He got Hossa and you got Satan... good counter move!!! Pens suck!!! Back to back cups baby...GO WINGS!!!
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Zack Lipot 11 months ago
Thank you ryan you get it!
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Ryan McNealy 11 months ago
Thank you. Agreed.
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PJ Edelman 11 months ago
Nice article. Boo ESPN. I think Philly will be tough to stop. I like Carter, I think he's sneaky good. Pens lost a lot of grit, and filled it with slightly over-the-hill forwards. I do think that Fleury is freaking sweet though.
Also: Sad to see Melrose go?
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Alan Bass 11 months ago
i agree with you about the flyers. it was absolutely a fluke. and the pens should absolutely be either first or second. i think second is more realistic because they lost a few guys but the wings didn't really lose any big players. pens are still great though (dammit)
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Ryan McNealy 11 months ago
Hossa? Conklin? Ruutu?
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InTheBleachers.net 11 months ago
People seem to forget that it took an extremely out of character effort by Ty Conklin to keep the Pens afloat while MAF was hurt. Also, once Sid came back, Malkin slipped back into the shadows.
I'm not ready to hand anything to the Pens right now and honestly, I think Montreal is better.
As far as the Flyers, I don't think you are giving them the credit they deserved last season. They were a broken stick away from sweeping Montreal and if not for losing their top two defenseman before the Pens series, they would've made it much more competitive. Note: I didn't say they would win. Their forward depth is as good or better than any team and their defense got a bit faster with the departure of Smith and Hatcher being on LTIR.
Biron looked shaky when the defense broke down in front of them. As the year went on and the team got comfortable with Stevens' system, they got better defensively. Look for rookie Claude Girouix to make an immediate impact. I think 3rd or 4th in the East is a realistic expectation for the Flyers this season.
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Nicholas Case 11 months ago
Okay, so a full season of healthy Fleury wont be better than the effort Conklin put forth?
And if you watched the playoffs, you could see that Malkin tired from having to carry the team.
The Flyers will be second in the division, but they wont touch the Pens. The Pens have the better offense, defense, and goaltending. The Penguins can now reach the depth of the Flyers with the additions of Cooke and the potential someone like Pesonen provides. If he's not able to contribute, a third line of Cooke-Staal-Kennedy will still see each player near 30 points. Perhaps more.
The Flyers are no danger of unseating the Penguins.
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InTheBleachers.net 11 months ago
MAF had a good second half of the season...but did you forget about the first half where he was shaky? I disagree that the Pens will have a better offense, yes the Pens have better front line players like Sid and Malkin but overall depth goes to the Flyers. They had 6 players that scored over 20 goals last season and that doesn't include Simon Gagne who missed most of the season with a concussion.
Did you also forget that Orpik spent part of the season playing 4th line winger because he lacked defensively? Same with Ryan Whitney?
Malkin was tired from carrying the team? That's just an excuse, during the season he'd disappear the same way. When Sid came back, he did the same thing. Malkin is a great player, when he wants to be.
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Greg Caggiano 11 months ago
Rangers are still going to win the division but Pens will probably go farther in the playoffs...
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Chris Bouthillier 11 months ago
Forgive me, but who's the last guy in the picture? lol
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John LoGiudice 11 months ago
I agree, very well written. But I have two points. ESPN is what I call a "basketball network", they know hockey like I know NASCAR. Which means, they know that people play on ice and hit a rubber disc, that's about it. ESPN's Canadian cousin, TSN, is a FAR BETTER measure of hockey, they pick Detroit. I agree with them. the Penguins got out of the summer break with more of last year's team than I thought they would, but they still lost Malone and Hossa. Syd and Malken both proved their worth last season, but is that enough to brin gthem back to the big dance? What about Montreal and an increasingly scary Bruins squad?
Also, your statement about the Devils. I argue that they might not even make the playoffs this year. They are still respectable and still have Marty, but Brodeur and the Devils are getting older. Granted, Detroit wasn't the youngest team in the circuit, but they also have the "Swedish Academy of Excellence". The Devils have nothing like that. The Devils also play in a brutal division with Pittsburgh, the Rangers and an underestimated Flyers team. This season will also bring about a schedule that will have everyone play everyone else. How will the Devils fare against the likes of Vancouver and Calgary (newly loaded with Bertuzzi and other larger, and scarier players)?
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Evan Weiss 11 months ago
I sadly agree the Red Wings are better. ESPN has the Pens ranked #1 in the EAST in the article. Wings are #1 in the west. I hate to give credit to ESPN hockey coverage though haha
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Spencer Callaghan 11 months ago
ESPN knows as much about hockey as Barry Melrose knows about modern hairstyles.
They have the Sens in 10th, I know I'm just a Sens apologist but that is simply ridiculous.
If the Sens don't make the playoffs I'll go down to my local Don Cherry's restaurant wearing a Leafs jersey and have the Doug Gilmour special.
I don't have an issue with the Pens being ranked first though I don't necessarily see them repeating last year's performance.
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Chris Bouthillier 11 months ago
Amen
I think Ottawa can do at least a LITTLE better than 10th.
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Chris Hoeler 11 months ago
By the way...Zherdev is a forward, not a defenseman.
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Chris Bouthillier 11 months ago
That Burnside fellow must be ill, because anyone who knows anything about the NHL knows that the 2nd and 3rd seeds cannot come from the same division. Wake up!
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Spencer Callaghan 11 months ago
To be fair, power rankings usually refer strictly to overall ranking and generally do not take seeding formats into account.
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Reed Kaufman 11 months ago
Nice article. ESPN's rankings are interesting at best. They have the oilers as 5th in the West Power Rankings- that's got to be a little high, with no proven scoring depth. Also they have Colorado at 13th, I don't think they'll make the playoffs, but I think they'll be in the hunt, somehow they always are.
FYI, the guy on the right in the picture is Ryan Whitney.
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Chris Bouthillier 11 months ago
Ahh, thanks! lol
It was bugging me, thought they would have put Letang but Whitney is a big part of their future as well.
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NYI Fan Central 11 months ago
For the sake of common courtesy New York played Pittsburgh even last year (outside of a bounce off Brendan Witt late in one game) with the Pens needing fifty saves to win another game that ran over Pittsburgh 4-1 late in the season.
And that was a club that lost 400 man games to injury and still were in contention most of the season and even won six straight going into the trade deadline.
New York even won the season series with the Rangers and Devils.
Satan and Fedotenko even wanted to stay before the Isles let them walk.
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Daniel Bigras 11 months ago
Maybe right now things look like that.
But this ranking will change after the remaining players will sign.
If Ottawa gets Khabibulin, they are back amongst the top teams.
If Montreal signs you know who.. Forget about it, the Eastern Conference belongs to the Canadiens. Why? Because Montreal has a weaker division than Penguins, therefore it means more points for the Canadiens.
Speaking of you know who, I'm starting to feel like in Harry Potter, when we are not allowed to speak Voldemort's name. Doh.
There are many players still available, that can have an impact, such as Shanahan, Selanne, Sakic, and a few other good 2nd/3rd liners. It's just too early to tell.
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Chris Bouthillier 11 months ago
That's true, it is still early to say who's gonna finish where next season.
But for Joe Sakic, I can't see him anywhere else than in Colorado. It's Denver, or the rocking chair haha. Seriously I hope Joe comes back, the Avs need him desperately.
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David Heere 11 months ago
I have huge problem with the "most formidable lineup down the middle of any team in the NHL." comment... they may put up some good numbers, but they are not the best at what centers are suppose to do... win face offs... Malkin's 39.3 FO% and Staal's 42.2 FO% agree with me... Crosby was 38th in the league with 51.4% ...
So if you want to call them the highest scoring centers in the league go ahead... but they are not the best centers
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Eric K 11 months ago
David... good point about the faceoff stats. That has been the Pens' centers weakest point by far over the past three seasons. Sid has improved some since his rookie campaign and Staal should continue to get better with more experience, but Malkin just looks sick in the faceoff circle.
Although faceoffs don't win games, you can't score when you don't have the puck, so either way you look at it, faceoffs aren't all that important, but they are important nonetheless.
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Tigershark 11 months ago
I would agree that the Pens are at the top of the Eastern Conference rankings.
However, overall, they are probably no better than 5th behind Detroit, San Jose, Dallas, and Anaheim.
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Eric K 11 months ago
no offense to Armer on this one... but the Ducks, Stars and Sharks ahead of the Pens? Good luck selling that one..
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Ryan McNealy 11 months ago
After the Wings, the Stars and Sharks will definitley be tougher teams to beat than the Pens. Let New York, Pitts. and New Jersey battle it out for best in the East.
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Tigershark 11 months ago
I cant say whats going to happen this year but, the last two years, whoever won the far superior Western Conference was a lock to win the Stanley Cup.
Getting out of the West was the hard part.
Beating up on hapless Ottawa and scrappy Pittsburgh on the way to the Cup party was a formality.
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Zack Lipot 11 months ago
and who replaced hossa???
Nicholas your an idiot. I guess it was crosby's defensive skills that led the pens to back to back shutout losses right? and the only thing that fleury can do better then osgood is score! didnt he score the cup winning goal on himself?
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Nawar Talos 11 months ago
Johnan Franzen sucks. he only started doing well once the playoffs started. Compare his numbetrs to malkin and the numbers speak for themselves. Datysuk and Zetterberg are good, but lets not forget those guys are like 24, 25 and Malkin & Crosby are like what 21, 22. haha Wings have talented players but no where near the potential that the Penguins have. Sidney Crosby changes the game, Datsyuk and Zetterberg just play it.
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Ryan McNealy 11 months ago
You must be the dumbest man alive. First of all, Franzen is extremely talented and I don't think anyone was comparing him to Malkin. He had 6 game winning goals in the month of March, 13 goals in the post season (which was only the best in the league) and he scored 9 goals in the sweep of Colorado-thats only four games, Nawar. Secondly, Datsyuks plus/minus was +41, Zetterburgs was +30. Malkin, even with all 106 points he scored, could only post a +16. If you need clearification on what plus/minus is feel free to ask, Im sure one of these educated gentlemen would be happy to explain. Go watch basketball, moron.
"Crosby changes the game, Datsyuk and Zetterburg just play it" HA!
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John J. Slovinec, Sr. 11 months ago
I think Penguins have great players in their roster, maybe even better than Wings do, but the key issue here is about blending together as a team, and that's the difference.
Wings proved over the years to be one of the best teams ever and their record shows how powerful they've become under The Best Conductor ever, Mr. Scott Bowman, who started it all, and Coach Babcock had learned a lot from him and was able to transfer this great knowledge into life even in the beginning wasn't as easy. It wasn't as easy as a walk in the park, but somehow he was able to mastermind the best plan ever to keep his team in the winning mode a whole year around, and Pens at a bay, not letting them to explore the possibilities of winning almost everything, The Cup!!!
It will be a new season and new hopes, so I can't wait for the great hockey to start in October.
We'll see how everybody was able to make corrections and adjustments...
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