Ethel and I had an enjoyable time in New Jersey, we lost a few bucks on the roulette wheel and the Mrs. had a run-in with a showgirl that took a fancy to me – yet all in all it was a nice trip…
We have visited eleven cities so far and now we are off to Carolina and Atlanta – then back to Ottawa and finally home to Montreal.There were a few surprises along the way…boy can that Claude Julien talk and Malkin is a real funny guy – he kept tellin us how Pittsburgh would have won the Cup if the referees in the Montreal series were not against them…
So here we go, our plane just landed…what’s happening with the…
Atlanta Thrashers
It will be ineteresting to see how the Thrashers deal without Kovalchuk for an entire season…
In the words of Foghorn Leghorn…”Two and a half nuttins’is a whole nuttin'”.
G. M. Rick Dudley hopes that the opposite is true and that two and a half plus two and a half makes four as he has brought in a foursome of ‘nuttins’ from the Stanley Cup Champion Black Hawks.
The Thrashers also brought in goaltender and Red Deer, Alberta native Chris Mason from the Blues to replace Hedberg. Mason brings a career average of 2.54 along with a save pct. of .914 to an Atlanta team whose weaknesses may be on defence. Their eighth pick overall, Alex Burmistrov is a talented playmaking center from Russia but may not be ready to crack the line-up and Donald Brashear adds toughness up front but his days are definitely behind him.
The Thrashers will finish in 10th position.
The Ottawa Kovalevs
Poor Ottawa fans…they have seen their team go from being one of the best teams in hockey to one that has become a dog that chases it’s tail…
They put up with Heatley, they didn’t put up with Ray Emery and now they must figure out what to do with Alexei Kovalev. The management, coaches and fans are discovering what Pittsburgh, the Rangers and the Habs all found out. “If you have hair – it will be gone after a few months watching Kovalev play’.
The most talented player in the league remains an enigma as he enters another season to collect his pay cheque and fuel his passion for flying airplanes. It’s obvious that hockey is not his true passion or else he would be getting 100 pts a season as he skates circles around the opposition. Instead his passion is as frequent as an appearance by Paris Hilton in church. There are others on the team – talk about them you say…? I am in a way because Kovalev is a canceron any team he plays for. Veterans watch him and think they don’t have to play as hard, rookies watch him and think they don’t have to play as hard and worse – kids at home believe this is the way that NHL star players behave. Add one Gonchar, add two Gonchars…no team with Kovalev on the roster will win anything more than a handful of games. Period.
Senators will finish 11th over-all.
Carolina Hurricanes
I must put aside my feelings here and judge the Hurricanes for what they are and not what I ‘think they are…’.
The Hurricanes lost Ray Whitney and Rod Brind’Amour in the off-season, the latter to retirement after an pretty good run of twenty-one seasons in the league.The’Canes will retire his sweater during the season. This leaves Eric Staal, his brother Jared,Erik Cole and Sergei Samsonov as the main ‘veterans’ to carry this squad on their shoulders. Samsonov has already been told that he may start the season as an extra forward so where does that leave a team that missed the play-offs last season?
Cam ward is quite capable of winning games on his own but showed ‘cracks’ last year and probably for the first time in his career – he let his team down on a few occasions. They picked up former Hurricane defenceman Joe Corvo in the off-season from Washington and they hope that he can regain his 2007-08 form where he netted 14 goals and 38 points in 81 games.
Unless Samsonov can regain his Calder Trophy winning form and Ward plays the way he did when Carolina won the Cup – this former team from Hartford will finiish out of the play-offs once again.
Carolina will finish 12th overall but first in the cheer leading department.
So – my final predictions for the East are…
1. Washington Capitals
2.Montreal Canadiens
3.New Jersey Devils
4.Boston Bruins
5.Pittsburgh Penguins
6.Tampa Bay Lightning
7.Buffalo Sabres
8.Philadelphia Flyers
9.N.Y Rangers
10.Atlanta Thrashers
11.Ottawa Senators
12.Carolina Hurricanes
13.N.Y. Islanders
14.Florida Panthers
15.Toronto Maple Leafs
I have chosen the Montreal Canadiens in 2nd and in the next two weeks leading to the regular season – I’ll explain why as I give a player by player and team preview.
