Expectations

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I see the following:

BOSTON- added scoring in Horton - 25 goals will help. If Sequin has the same impact as Duschene in Colorado, that will also help. If they move Thomas or Savard, they should be able to get even stronger. should be a 3-4-5 place team.

PHILLY - Even stronger on Defence, loaded up front that they can still make a move to get a goalie. With their Defence and offence, they won't be as dependent on goaltending as team like the habs. Should be 1-2-3

OTTAWA - they got a quarterback for their PP, which should make some of the floaters stronger. I see them as 5-6-7 place team.

PITTSBURGH - The two defencemen they added are an upgrade from Gonchar. I'd take Martin over Gonchar (at this stage in his career), without blinking. You must not know much about Zbynek - highly underrated. 1-2-3-4 place team.

WASHINGTON - really haven't made any changes, but then they were loaded. They will also have learned a lot from their upset loss to the habs, which shold make them stronger. should be a 1-2-3 place team.

TAMPA BAY - Biggest move was change in Mgmt- went from a cirucs to Stevie Y and stealing Boucher will help. Picking up Ellis, Kubina and shedding some bad contracts will help. Stamkos and Hedman have another year of experieince. Vinny should be better - maybe not be a 95 point guy, but should be better - particularly under Boucher. Should be good for 5-6-7-8

NEW JERSEY - lost some key d-men, but gained a couple as well, but when was the last time they didn't make the playoffs??? should be good for 5-6-7-8.

Those are the 7 teams I think should make the playoffs. IMO, the weakest is Ottawa, because, like the habs, they have a couple of guys that you don't know what to expect (Kovy and Spezza).

IMO, opinion at best the habs are a 6-7-8 place team - more likely battling for 7-8 position.

Losing Savard will make a team thats goal starved better? That's a little bit of a reaching.

I think you're over estimating the need for goaltending this coming season, this season was the exception, not the norm, you do need better than what the flyers have for a goaltender.

If Gonchar on the PP for Ottawa instantly makes them a 6-7-8 team, why doesn't 2 QB in Markov and Subban give the same for the habs? The habs have a lot more firepower IMO than the Sens.

Pittsburg, I actually agree with you is a going to win their division, unless Fluery has another bad season.

Washington, they either learn from their mistakes, or teams learn how to play against them. I think they've lost some of the 'fear' when playing against them.

TB, will be a good team in the future, but they have crap all for D men. Ellis/Smith is a big as questionmark as Price/Auld.

NJ, Broduer is another year older, likely not to have Kovulchuk this season. New coach, new style?

You can pick apart any of those teams and thats my point. EVERY team has questionmarks. The bruins were expected to contend for the east title last year, same with Philly. When you add pieces to a team, you also remove them. There's no reason the habs should not be expected to content for the NE title next season. The salary cap makes it hard to build teams for long periods of time, look at the Hawks and their recent dismantling. You could say the Hawks were really playing with $70m worth of players anyway.

[JacksonJ]

Last year if I remember correctly our habs had one of the lowest scoring ratios in the league. Our power play was also the lowest or near there and as for shots against it was a nightmare. No one can argue the fact that if it wasn't for the outstanding performance of Halak we wouldn't have made the series and neither would we win the playoff series against the caps and the penguins. If I also remember it was Gomez who stated that Halak was the reason why they were where they were it was all Halak. I wish I can be optimistic regarding the 2010-2011 season but my prediction is that every time the caps and penguins play us it will spell revenge. Let me also add that because of our size each time the leafs, devils or sabres plays us they will make us pay physically and will result with lots of injuries. Pierre Gautier believes that Lars Eller along with Boyd fills the holes but I don't share the same faith. As for Price I'm a firm believer that he will be great someday but I don't believe it to be with montreal. P.K Subban will be a pleasant welcome and by the way he reminds me off Bobby Orr. My greatest concern is our aging and slow defence, if we are to have any chance we need a defence that can clear the puck and block shots for our young goalie. I can say more and more but I'll laeve that to someone else.

You mean our PP that was second in the league? That power play?

You also need to stop the broken record with Halak, it was a great story when it happened but it was never as amazing as it seemed. He was only ever amazing against wsh, and thats because the caps were used to instant success and as soon as the met a difficult situation they all tried to force the play. Solid team D kept all the shots to the perimeter and Halaks stats were padded like hell. You also say he is the only reason we made the playoffs, do you forget all the loses to bad teams at the end of the season that forced us too back in? Surely Saint Jaro wouldn't lose to the leafs on the last game of the season with the playoffs on the line.

There is also no guarantee Halak will ever play to that level again. By the end of the playoffs teams realized Halak was swiss cheese high glove and they exposed him. Also now that pads have to proportional he will take up much less room.

What holes don't you think Eller and Boyd will fill? As 3rd and 4th centres they are light years ahead of Moore and Metro, and Eller could also play top-6 on the wing if necessary.