Puck Doctors NHL Season Preview: Central Division

Can the Red Wings keep up their division dominance despite being able to qualify for Social Security? Maybe the Predators can repeat their fantastic playoff performance or the Blackhawks can rebound from their Stanley Cup Hangover. Here’s our NHL Preview of the Central Division.

NHL Preview Central Division

5. Columbus Blue Jackets

Last season: 5th in Division, Missed Playoffs

This Season: James Wisniewski, Radek Martinek, Jeff Carter, and Vaclav Prospal join the Blue Jackets to help speed along the rebuilding process. Rich Nash carries the team and Carter’s help will take a load off. The Jackets overpaid for defender James Wisniewski who is already serving a suspension but his additional toughness only helps.

It’s not totally out of the question that the Blue Jackets could get a huge offensive push with Nash, Carter and Umberger on the same line. Also, if rookie Ryan Johansen is as good as he’s touted this team might get hot. Hot enough for a Cup run? Most likely not but maybe a push to the middle of pack.

4. St. Louis Blues

Last season: 4th in Division, Missed Playoffs

This Season: The Blues are on the verge of having a solid team. I know we’ve heard that before but the young talent in St. Louis is starting to come together. Injuries always seem to sneak up on this team but the unproven talent is their biggest problem.

Chris Stewart was traded from Colorado near the trade deadline and notched 23 points in 26 games for the Blues. Very impressive. And he’s just 23 years old which makes him a huge asset right now. Phil McRae, the son of legendary tough guy Basil, is a top prospect with the team and it will be interesting to see if he can make an impact.

Like so many young, rebuilding teams around the league if the Blues can stay healthy and get hot they can start to move up. However, with the tough division they are in it will be a tall order.

3. Nashville Predators

Last season: 2nd in Division, Lost in Semi-Finals

This Season: The Predators finally had their playoff moment last year. This franchise has never won a playoff series and surprised everyone with a win. Then they lost in the Semi-Finals in a hard-fought match against the Canucks. It was a great series and many expect the team to pick up again this season where they left off.

Unfortunately, the team was picked of a lot of its talent. Stars like Joel Ward came through in the playoffs are now gone and the team looks back to some younger guys to pick up the slack.

And the fact is the team relied the most on Pekka Rinne in goal to get as far as they did. The stellar performance by Rinne was inspirational and the addition of Shea Weber, one of the best blue-liners around, helps secure the defensive end.

But the problem with the Predators, and has been for years, is the lack of offensive firepower. Steve Sullivan is gone and Weber remains one of their biggest scoring threats. Rinne and Weber can only do so much. Someone is going to have to step up and put up some offensive numbers for this team to consider the playoffs again.

2. Detroit Red Wings

Last season: 1st in Division, Lost in 2nd Round

This Season: The Red Wings are old. There you go. It’s been said and it’s true. Four solid players retired last year with Mike Modano, Chris Osgood, Kris Draper and Brian Rafalski all stepping aside. Despite that this team still has the best set of veterans around.

Mike Commodore was brought in to deepen the blue line along with Ian White but the front side of the puck looks much the same. Pavel Datsyuk is still one of the best centers in the game. Zetterberg and Lidstrom are fantastic, as expected, but they lost some depth with the players that retired.

Daniel Cleary notched 26 goals last year and he’s expected to pick those numbers up right where he left them, He can do some bigger numbers on the Datsyuk line. But overall it’s the age issues that stand out. With Datsyuk, Zetterberg and Lidstrom on the same team you can expect a playoff experience. However, this team hasn’t gotten past the second round the last two years. I expect that trend to continue.

1. Chicago Blackhawks

Last season: 3rd in Division, Lost First Round

This Season: The Blackhawks almost, I mean almost, stunned the Canucks in the first round of the playoffs last year. They figured out Roberto Luongo late in the series and an OT game decided their fate. The biggest problem with last year’s season was, like the playoffs, they didn’t get into gear until it was too late. Call it Cup Hangover, I guess.

It’s almost like they didn’t take the first half of the year seriously. Add in some injuries and at times they just look confused. Eventually, they woke up and made a playoff run that almost ousted the Canucks in one of the best series of the playoffs. Maturity and confidence can help them get past an older Red Wings team and a Predators team plucked of most of its talent.

Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane are still threats to be death with but Kane needs to stay healthy to be of any use. And if Corey Crawford can play during the season with the style and finesse he showed against the Canucks the Blackhawks are good to go.

Puck Doctors NHL Season Preview: Southeast Division

Two of the best teams in the Eastern Conference last year came from the Southeast Division as Tampa and Washington dominated opponents during the season. Can they repeat last year’s success or will they stumble out of the gate? Here’s our NHL Preview of the Southeast Division.

5. Florida Panthers

Last season: 5th in Division, Missed Playoffs

This Season: This poor team turned over a ton of players with the addition of Tomas Fleischmann, Jose Theodore, Ed Jovanovski, Brian Campbell, Scottie Upshall, Kris Versteeg, Sean Bergenheim, Tomas Kopecky, Marcel Goc, and Matt Bradley. That’s like half the roster for a team that’s rebuilding.

The loss of Tomas Vokoun is a tough one and the addition of lesser talented Jose Theodore puts the goalie situation in the spotlight. The team got better but only because they revamped almost their entire team. What happens next is a tough call but anything more than a 5th place for this rebuilding team is unexpected.

4. Carolina Hurricanes

Last season: 3rd in Division, Missed Playoffs

This Season: The Canes lost forward Erik Cole and defenseman Joe Corvo which hurts a team that struggled to make the playoffs last year. They missed out after a solid last minute effort to qualify for one of the remaining spots. Tomas Kaberle comes in on defense after his short stint in Boston that earned him a Stanley Cup.

This team missed the playoffs for the 2nd straight year but didn’t make much noise in the offseason to change things. Captain Eric Stahl and last year’s rookie sensation Jeff Skinner will have to work a little harder this year without Cole to keep them in the playoff hunt.

3. Winnipeg Jets

Last season: 4th in Division, Missed Playoffs

This Season: The Atlanta Thrashers soap opera is over. Hockey finally returns to Winnipeg!

The Jets return to a revved up Winnipeg area that will help this team, no matter how bad they are, win more games. The home-ice advantage of the Jets is going to be crazy the first half of the season. Those fans up North are insane and loud. That should win them a few games alone.

The Jets are on the verge of being a playoff team. Maybe not this year but the boost of being in a new home will lift them up the first half of the season. The distractions of Byfuglien’s off-ice issues and the suicide of Rick Rypien are problems that might take some steam out of the team.

Bad management and constant shifting of talent in Atlanta prevented this team from achieving much down South. The stability of a new home will help the young talents of Byfuglien, Andrew Ladd, Jimmy Slater and Alex Burmistrov gel into a great team.

The biggest problem this year might be the travel. Winnipeg is anything but in the Southeast and long travel periods might start to take its toll near the final weeks of the season.

2. Tampa Bay Lightning

Last season: 2nd in Division, Lost in Conference Finals against Boston

This Season: The oh-so-close Lightning showed a lot of heart last year. Thanks to the wise addition of goalie Dwayne Roloson this team was able to rekindle their playoff spirit. Rolo carried the team into the playoffs and then a beautiful thing happened and the offense kicked it into a new gear.

The team led the Eastern Conference for a lot of the year but suffered from their own goalie letting in way too many points. Rolo solved that and this team surprised a lot of people. They came within a game of the Cup Finals. But can they do it again?

Steven Stamkos remains one of the best players in the league. His health and performance will carry this team and he’s only 21 years old. Wow. Vincent Lecavalier and Martin St. Louis are aging but can still play the game on a playoff level. Overall, this team is more stable and experienced than last year’s squad. Look for them to go deep again into the postseason.

1. Washington Capitals

Last season: First in Division, First in Conference, Lost in 2nd Round

This Season: The best team in the Eastern Conference got past the Rangers and then flopped against the rival Lightning. Ouch. Much was expected by the Caps and fans were enthusiastic that they would finally get past that pesky semi-final series. Sadly, they could not.

One of the best players in hockey, Alex Ovechkin, resides in D.C. and that’s good enough to make any team a playoff contender. He can still produce some great point totals despite his ‘down’ year last year. The Caps started winning close games last years which made a difference. A huge year from Ovi could be enough to fuel them deep into the playoffs.

Can underrated yet aging goaltender Tomas Vokoun help out in net? Jeff Halpern (Montreal), Roman Hamrlik (Montreal), and Joel Ward (Nashville) all join him in D.C. to help add depth to the team. Ward is a solid addition with his playoff appearance last year for Nashville. If he can score and cause trouble like he did in the spring look for him to see lots of playing time on a team that specializes in scoring and causing trouble.

The Caps are retooled and for the better. They may not be the best team in the East this year during the regular season but if they can overcome the playoff monkey like Vancouver in the spring look for this team to go deep.