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Hotstove: Thinking Metropolitan |
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Welcome to the Hotstove! As always, I'm your host, Travis Yost.
Now that roster moves have mostly been finalized and teams are starting to take shape for the 2014-2015 season, I think a lot of hockey fans are taking stabs at regular season projections for the divisions.
I don't know if there's any division where there's more noise than the Metropolitan -- other than Pittsburgh probably being at the top after a blinding array of smart moves this summer, I'm not particularly sure how the rest of the group shakes out.
I'd think that Carolina will probably anchor the group for one more season. The Hurricanes never strike me as a bad team, but there's not a whole lot to love on the roster right now, to say nothing of the fact that I think their 'back up' goaltender in Anton Khudobin is probably better than 'starting' goaltender Cam Ward right now.
In between, it's a mess. New York (R) was impressive last year, but their depth took quite the beating -- losing Anton Stralman is particularly painful -- and giving Tanner Glass a three-year deal is basically indefensible. On the other hand, I still like most of everything Columbus is doing, and I'm very suspicious of their in-state rival having narrowed the gap to zero after this summer. Buying cheap on Jaroslav Halak was super-smart, and this roster wasn't nearly as bad as they exhibited through stretches last year. And, again, a lot of that was just OK play sunk by woeful goaltending.
The Capitals are in a bit of disarray right now. This is a team that's impressively downgraded every year over the last seven or so, though that downgrade has been from 'elite hockey team' to 'incredibly average against the rest of the league's average teams'. Signing Matt Niskanen was the right play -- he was expensive, but first-pairing guys (even fringe first-pairing guys) really don't come cheap anymore. Of course, they neutralized that by giving third-pairing defenseman Brooks Orpik first-pairing money.
New Jersey and Philadelphia are probably the two biggest question marks with regards to where they could potentially finish. I like the Devils more so than the Flyers here, especially since the former has finally purged a replacement level goaltender from their roster. Even if this is a poor shooting team, they should be able to balance that by (again) posting one of the league's best goals against totals.
If I had to take an absolute stab at the division, I'd say something like:
Pittsburgh
Columbus
New York (I)/New York (R)
New Jersey
Philadelphia
Washington
Carolina
And of course, I reserve the right to amend that run of teams when we revisit this in September or so..
Just a couple of months away from hockey, how do you see the Metropolitan shaking out?
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