The San Jose Sharks have been one of the best teams in the NHL over the past five seasons but there was some element that prevented the team from having success in the postseason.
The Carolina Hurricanes are among the toughest teams to forecast year-to-year in NHL betting. What’s their identity? They’re a young rebuilding team but they also have a few stars in their primes. They miss the playoffs one year and they make a deep run the next. I can never figure out what these guys are.
Behold, the magic touch of Steve Yzerman! He took over a non-playoff Tampa Bay Lightning team last summer and was expected to gradually improve it with his unique hockey knowledge. But there was nothing gradual about what Tampa Bay did last season.
OK, Washington. I’m finally ready to take you seriously. For years under coach Bruce Boudreau, you’ve had the league’s most exciting offense. But, for years, you’ve failed to address glaring needs at goaltender and defense.
If youth and promise were the only measuring stick used when determining the teams that make the playoffs then the Edmonton Oilers would certainly be at or near the top of the list.
The Minnesota Wild recognized a need for change and General Manager Chuck Fletcher accomplished just that this offseason with the acquisition of players that should help cure Minnesota’s Achilles heel, the offense.
For the first time in what seems like an eternity, the Calgary Flame will enter the season not having to answer questions about the ridiculous roster moves that they made in the offseason.
He Colorado Avalanche recognized a need to make some wholesale changes in the offseason.
It seems an eternity ago that the Ottawa Senators were one of the NHL’s best teams, year-in, year-out. Now, wallowing in at the bottom of the Northeast Division, they look more like the laughing stock they were as an expansion team in the mid 1990s.
The Vancouver Canucks will hope to learn from adversity and ice an even better team that was at or near the top of nearly every defensive and offensive statistical category last season. Obviously wholesale change was not necessary for the Canucks.
Has there been a luckier sports city on Earth than Boston, Massachusetts over the last decade? World Series titles for the Red Sox in 2004 and 2007. Super Bowls for the Patriots in 2001, 2003 and 2004. An NBA Championship for Boston in 2008. The Bruins were supposed to be the tagalong kid brother but they joined the party with a Stanley Cup victory in 2011.
The major question surrounding the New Jersey Devils entering the 2011-12 season: which version of last year’s team was the “real” one? Was it the pitiful group that went 9-22-2 before coach John MacLean got the axe?
Say hello to your boom/bust Stanley Cup betting pick of 2011-12. Last season, the Penguins lost superstars Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin to season-ending injuries at the halfway mark. They still finished with their second-highest point total in franchise history.
The New York Rangers want to believe they’ve drastically improved entering the 2011-12 season. Already a gritty, defensively sound team, they knew they needed offensive help, so they went out and bagged the top free agent available: Brad Richards.
Some bettors and Flyer fans will lament that they couldn’t possibly improve after losing Carter and Richards.
Maybe the New York Islanders’ switch back to their totally badass, retro jerseys the last couple of seasons was an omen. The beautiful sweaters hearken back to a better time, an era when the Islanders churned out Hall-of-Famers. They were relevant then.
