Thank god it’s back. It’s like your girlfriend returned from a little three-month vacation. There’s a little rust, so it takes a second to get used to the sight of her again. But when she’s back, it’s just like old times.
Welcome back hockey. Every fan has missed you.
And, to celebrate, here are the 30 NHL teams, which have been ranked, 30-1. So, let’s start with the bottom 10, the Pretenders
30) Florida
If there was any reason to discuss what the Panthers were going to do this season, it would be brought up. But since they have exactly one good player on the entire team in goaltender Tomas Vokoun, a single top-four defenseman in Bryan McCabe, and just enough top-tier forwards in David Booth, Stephen Weiss, and Chris Higgins, they don’t really need to be discussed. Even the farm system is bad, with only youngsters Keaton Ellerby, Dmitry Kulikov and Erik Gudbrandson This is far-and-away the worst team in the league, and it’s not going to get much better.
29) New York Islanders
With talents like John Tavares, Kyle Okposo, Josh Bailey, and new rookie Nino Niederreiter on the offensive side of the puck, the Islanders could turn any game into a shootout…in two years. For now, they all need to mature quickly under NHL veteran Doug Weight, especially with Mark Streit out for at least six months. Other than that, look for Matt Moulson to be top level trade fodder, a shaky defense, and the countdown to see when Rick Dipietro will get hurt.
28) Edmonton Oilers
Edmonton fans are pining for the mid-80’s, when players like Gretzky, Messier, Fuhr, and Coffey dominated, winning four straight Stanley Cups. Heck, they’d probably even want another ’06 run, when bruising players like Ryan Smyth, Chris Pronger and Jason Smith bullied their way to a Finals birth.
Now, they have to talk themselves into Dustin Penner, Ales Hemsky, and Ryan Whitney.
(Defense? What Defense?)
But fear not, because the best two rookies, Taylor Hall and Jordan Eberle, will be battling it out for the Calder Trophy. Take Eberle for the award, but Hall for the better career.
27) Anaheim Ducks-The only true remnants from the team that won the Stanely Cup are Teemu Selanne, Todd Marchant, Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry. Since Selanne and Marchant will be gone in a couple of years, expect Getzlaf and Perry to team with rising sensation Bobby Ryan to try and keep scores level.
Because when the best defensive player on the team is Lubomir Visnovsky, the offense needs to score as much as is possible.
26) Dallas Stars
It’s hard to believe that the Stars were once contenders every year. Now, the best they can hope is that Brad Richards dominates from center position, while Loui Eriksson, James Neal and Jamie Benn all morph into 30-and-40 goal scorers. Though the defensive situation is better with Stephane Robidas and Karlis Skrastins, it’s not much of an improvement to have Kari Lehtonen and Andrew Raycroft playing goalie.
25) Columbus Blue Jackets
Poor, poor Rick Nash. He might be the best winger in the NHL sans Ovechkin. But since he’s never had anyone who could bring up his level of play, no one will know how good his skill set is.
(All three pray that their kids don't go on Youtube)
Granted, he does have talents now in R.J Umberger and Nikita Filatov, along with defenseman Mike Commodore and Anton Stralman. But even if goaltender Steve Mason comes back to his rookie form(he should), there’s just not enough depth to do anything.
24)Atlanta Thrashers
So they lost superstar Ilya Kovalchuk. They merely replaced him with Dustin Byfuglien, the most unstoppable forward during the playoffs. Though the team is switching him to defense, it could use another offensive spark to help Nik Antropov. But with Byfuglien added to a defense that already features offensive juggernauts Tobias Enstrom and Zach Bogosian, look for Atlanta to finally stop becoming the pushover game on opponents schedules.
23) Ottawa Senators.
This should help describe the Senators off-season. The three biggest events were losing shot-blocking defenseman Anton Volchenkov, gaining offensive-minded traffic cone Sergei Gonchar, and Mike Fisher’s wedding.
(He's a lucky man. We'll leave it at that)
For a team that needs more of pretty much everything to support stars Daniel Alfredsson and Jason Spezza, that’s definitely not enough. Look for goaltending to be the real issue that holds this team back, as neither Brian Elliot, nor Pascal Leclaire is a true starter.
22) Carolina Hurricanes-
Yes, there’s no one on defense after Tim Gleason. Yes, the only true forward is Eric Staal. Yes, the prospects are still developing. But they still have this.
(Cam Ward. The soup nazi of goaltenders)
Cam Ward. And after carrying the defensive load for so long, he’s actually getting pretty good at it. He could potentially care this team until February…but it won’t matter since they won’t get any better in that time frame.
21) Minnesota Wild
Probably the toughest team to judge, especially after the loss of Josh Harding before the season started. But behind solid goaltending from Nicklas Backstrom, and steady offensive play from Martin Havlat and Mikko Koivu, the team could have some success. With so many role players though, it comes down to the contributions of everyone else.
The team could get the 6th spot in the playoffs. Or it could have the 5th overall selection. The toughest team to predict.
Come back tomorrow when the Contenders are ranked, as we head towards Game #1 here at EP Sports.
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