I'm continuing my six-part series of division previews. Today I will give my predictions for the Southeast Division.
The Southeast will be one of the more wide open divisions in the NHL, as most of the teams in this division have a chance at first place and/or a playoff berth. Here are my predicted standings for the Southeast:
Washington Capitals: 97 points
Tampa Bay Lightning: 92 points
Florida Panthers: 90 points
Carolina Hurricanes: 88 points
Atlanta Thrashers: 74 points
It will be another exciting year for the Capitals and their fans. Washington has a multitude of young players.
The Capitals have a good amount of veterans who can chip in offensively and provide leadership. Players like Sergei Federov, Viktor Kozlov, Chris Clark, and Michael Nylander give the Capitals an abundance of experience and supporting offense. These supporting players help the superstars like Alexander Ovechkin, Alexander Semin, and Nicklas Backstrom shine, and ensure the Capitals have plenty of offensive firepower.
Defense seemed to be a problem for the Capitals in the past, but the surprising emergence of defenseman Mike Green helped to boost the Capitals' defensive corps. Defenseman Tom Poti and Jeff Schultz bring solid defense to the Caps, along with some offensive production.
Goaltending may be a problem for the Capitals. The loss of goaltender Cristobal Huet definitely hurt Washington between the pipes. Veterans Brent Johnson and Jose Theodore will be heavily relied on to bring the Capitals to the playoffs.
It was an offseason of change for the Lightning—but it may have been for the better, as it seems Tampa could make a playoff run.
The Tampa Bay Lightning made huge changes to their offense. Tampa Bay revamped their offense with key acquisitions. The Lightning drafted superstar Steve Stamkos and signed Vaclav Prospal, Ryan Malone, Mark Recchi, Gary Roberts, among others. These moves will definitely ensure they have one of the best offenses in the Southeast division.
Defense will be a problem for the Lightning. Tampa traded veteran defenseman Filip Kuba and Andre Picard for Ottawa defenseman Andrej Mezsaros. The Lightning also traded number-one defenseman Dan Boyle to the Sharks for defenseman Matt Carle. The Lightning are extremely thin on experience at the blue line. This lack of experience could keep Tampa from achieving a playoff berth.
The Lightning's goaltending is the main reason people don't think they can make the playoffs. Goaltender Olaf Kolzig is good, but too old to carry the load. Goaltender Mike Smith will be relied on to share the load with Kolzig, but Kerri Ramo also will have to chip in a bit. The Lightning's goaltending is their biggest weakness, and could really hurt their high-powered offense as well.
The Florida Panthers will once again stay in the playoff hunt until the end of the season, but, once again, will falter.
The Panthers offense will be their biggest question. If young players like Nathan Horton, Stephen Weiss, Kamil Kreps, and Rostislav Olesz reach their potential, the Panthers' offense will become much stronger. The addition of Cory Stillman will also provide the Panthers with experience and offensive production.
18 comments Last one added 9 months ago — Leave a Comment
Alan Bass 10 months ago
You're right with this one, I think. The Caps will easily win the division, and Tampa will sort of challenge for the lead. Great job.
Edit Comment Cancel
Aaron Brenker 10 months ago
Thanks a lot man.
Edit Comment Cancel
bo slava 10 months ago
Sorry I think you are off on the Capitals, they barely made the playoffs last year and only got there on Cristobal Huet's brilliant play. Jose Theodore will not carry this team. I do agree, "as most of the teams in this division have a chance at first place and/or a playoff berth." That said there is no way anyone can make a serious prediction based on anything but guessing. Tampa had a bad defense last year and this year it is even worse and if Olaf Kolzig wasn't good enough for the Capitals why would he be good enough for the Lightning? Ryan Malone won't be playing with Crosby, no disrespect to Stamkos but Malone won't get nearly the points he had last season. Florida has a much improved defense and questionable offense. Carolina has a questionable defense and a fair offence. This division is wide open.
Edit Comment Cancel
Aaron Brenker 10 months ago
It really is. This prediction is a guess, a lot of these spots could be interchangeable during the season. I think every team has a chance besides Atlanta.
Edit Comment Cancel
Pat Ferguson 10 months ago
huet's brilliant play????
the guy is like osgood, he will look good behind great teams, but he will not steal you any games. Any effort to say that the reason the caps made the playoffs last year wasn't solely because of Ovechkin and Boudreau is just insane.
huet???
I thought that passing on huet and going with theodore was a FANTASTIC move by washington, what an upgrade on athletecism and potential.
Huet stinks and I feel bad that chicago would have had a really good chance at finishing top 6 in the west before they signed him.
Edit Comment Cancel
philip bottfeld 10 months ago
Dude... I know you're a panthers' fan but the Lightning are gonna get Tavares next year. They are going to be the first team to score 300 goals and not make the playoffs.... They won't stop a thing next year from entering the zone.
Edit Comment Cancel
Bernie Horowitz 10 months ago
I agree with your predictions except I think the Capitals will do even better than you've predicted.
I suppose the one point I'd like to contribute has to do with the public reaction to Tampa Bay. Everybody has made a big deal about all of Tampa's acquisitions this off-season. It would be great to have Barry Melrose lead an offense-first team to success, but for me what comes to mind is the lockout: the teams that kept the most players did best, and the teams that completely revamped their rosters fell apart, such as the Boston Bruins, who kept 4 players as I recall.
I just don't think Tampa will have the team chemistry to accomplish anything.
Edit Comment Cancel
Chris Plouffe 10 months ago
I dunno man, Mike Smith is a legit goalie and will make that team significantly better than last year, Stamkos or no Stamkos.
Edit Comment Cancel
Naveed Kanji 10 months ago
Mike Smith is not a very good goalie. He only did well in dallas because of the D infront of him. I remember him coming in from Dallas and playing his first game for Lightning. He was brutal. I don't expect him to be starting goalie for TB this season. if anyone else thinks otherwise then give your heads a shake. Dallas won that trade at the deadline hands down!
Edit Comment Cancel
Nelson Santos 10 months ago
Aaron, solid and bol dpredictions for the SouthLEAST division. Very surprised you have FLA finishing 2 points AHEAD of Carolina....you realize McCabe joined the Panthers right? LOL
Edit Comment Cancel
Jeff Badger 10 months ago
Why do people still think Tampa is better this year than last? Their blue line has been decimated, and they have essentially swapped Brad Richards for Steve Stamkos. That, friends, is a downgrade. Stamkos will be a player but his rookie year he's going to be the #2 center on a team with no D and below average goaltending. That's just scary.
Still, this team has done nothing but solidify their goaltending (sort of), but they are far from elite at that position. The top line couldn't carry them last year, and they won't this year either. Prospal and Recchi are now role players, and Roberts is there to continue his mentoring of Ryan Malone into Gary Roberts Jr. Malone is the only real imrovement on this team, but that certainly does not make up for what they've given up on Defense (which wasn't really that good to begin with).
Caps will win the division easily - those doubting this need to be reminded that their 2nd half rush last year was without Michael Nylander - this is an 80-90 pt playmaking center that they didn't have when they reeled off one of the best records in the league from Decmeber to April.
Carolina is on the cusp for 8th, and unless Stamkos proves to be the 2nd coming of Lemieux (which he is not) the Lightening will be lucky to be nipping at their heals.
Edit Comment Cancel
Pat Ferguson 10 months ago
tampa's defence was at a point where it couldn't get any worse, anyone saying that this year their d will be worse doesn't udnerstand what they're saying. You can't be worse than their d last year
perhaps tampa won't make the playoffs this year (probably not, though carolina definitely will not) but building a defence corps around meszaros and carle... I've heard a lot of worse ideas, this seems to be a solid young building block back there.
With their explosive offence, all they need is one high end free agent defenceman to bring their defence up to a level where they can contend for the playoffs. What if they picked up mathieu schneider, or roszival or something at the trade deadline or before? Their defence isn't that bad top 2, the rest blow for sure but it's a solid building block.
lecavalier, st louis, stamkos, prospal will all score at least 30 goals
Malone - 20 goals
roberts, recchi - at least 10-15 goals
even carle should have 10 goals and meszaros around 10 as well
anyone who thinks carolina will beat tampa this season is wrong, and washington is too good to lose to any of these other SE teams.
Edit Comment Cancel
bo slava 10 months ago
"This prediction is a guess," fair enough.
Pat losing Kuba will hurt. Mezsaros may be good in the long term same for Carle but in the short term like this upcoming season Tampa's defense will be brutal to watch. They had Vinny, St Louis and Richards last season then traded Richards. Did they get better? No. Old man Roberts will be out most of the year with some injury. Old man Recchi is taking ice time and is a waste. Malone and Vrbota are suppose to be the difference makers? This team will play mainly in their own end. I don't care how good your forwards are if your defense stinks you lose. Period. Especially if you are relying on another old man Kolzig in net. Then add the fact you have a coach who hasn't coached in a decade. I would be surprised if Tampa isn't last in the league. They will be good the following year when they get a good pick in the next draft and they get rid of the geezers.
Edit Comment Cancel
Jeff Badger 10 months ago
Nice to see somebody else can see past the hype. Dan Boyle and Filip Kuba out, and the top pairing is now Mezsaros and Carle. These guys are NOT top 2 D-men on any team in the league except Tampa. Both have potential to be elite D-men in a couple years, but they aren't ready to be the anchors yet. Agree with Pat that it appeared to be a difficult task for Tampa to get worse on D than they were last year, but I'm pretty sure they pulled it off.
The rest of this is for Pat - Prospal will score 30?? Pretty big Maybe even if he's on the top line - you are aware last year was the first time in his career he has EVER scored over 25, and he's only scored more than 20 goals four times in his 11 years in the league.
And while I'm at it - Last season: Theodore - 21st in SV% .910, 17th in GAA 2.44. Huet - 6th in SV% .920, 10th in GA 2.32
Career: Theodore SV% .909, GAA 2.65
Huet SV% .918, GAA 2.43
After trade to Washington Huet played 13 Games 11-2 with 2 Shutouts, 1.63 GAA, .936 SV% - best goalie in the league during that stretch - without him playing like that, Washington misses the playoffs by 6 points, no matter how many goals Ovechkin scored.
Theodore had one glorious season, and since then has done nothing but prove he is way over-rated. Anyone who thinks otherwise listens to hype rather than actually watching the man play.
Edit Comment Cancel
marc 10 months ago
another excellent artcile arron..... i TOTAllY AGREE with you that the panthers will falter this year... please tell mr. howie that the panthers will not make the playoffs..... i check everyday to see if there is a new article from you..... KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK!!!!!!
LETS GO RANGERS!!!!!
Edit Comment Cancel
Aaron Brenker 10 months ago
Ha ha , thanks marc. Looking forward to seeing Panthers Rangers games with you.
Edit Comment Cancel
philip bottfeld 9 months ago
For those saying the caps barely made the playoffs... that team was probably a top 10 team in the entire NHL the last 55 games of the season.... they were totally different with the new coach and would have gotten well over 100 points had they changed coaches in the preseason. Caps will probably win it all this year.... Tampa is a big question mark. Offense is sexy but defense and goaltending wins. We'll see how Tampa does.
Edit Comment Cancel
bo slava 9 months ago
I really liked the Caps chances this year until they signed Theodore. The guy was awful for most of his time in Colorado. He always plays better in the last year of his contract. They will be the surprise flop team of the year and only because of their goaltending.
Tampa is not a big question mark. They have the weakest defense in the league and a goalie that Caps sat. They will score a lot of goals and get into a lot of fights which will be entertaining but they won't win many games.
Edit Comment Cancel
Leave a Comment
You must register to post a comment.