Atlantic Division

With the official ending of Gary Bettman's lockout, now is a good time to put the last few months of pain behind us and start focusing on the season ahead, well what is left of it anyway. Starting with the Atlantic Division I am going to focus on each team within each division, looking at how I think their season will unfold. To re-cap from one of my post back in September:

I am not sure why I chose the Pens exactly, maybe its the fact they play in Black and White, which is similar to Newcastle United, my favorite soccer team, or maybe its the fact Penguins are my favorite animal and the logo just looked good. One thing for sure was that I knew exactly how good Mario Lemieux and Jaromir Jagr were and so when the UK eventually started to get Hockey TV coverage there was only ever going to be one team I was going to follow. Sadly by now Super Mario retired but Pittsburgh still had an awesome team with the likes of Jagr, Alexei Kovalov, Martin Straka and Darius Kaspiritius all combining to form a great team.

With Pittsburgh clearly my favorite team it meant I was always going to hate the flyers and New Jersey, with the rivalries that developed over the following seasons. The Pens versus the flyers is one fo the most fierce rivalries in hockey, with the pride of Pennsylvania at stake. New Jersey were one of the best teams in the Eastern Conference during that golden era of hockey between 1995-2004. If New Jersey were a good side they were never a pretty side to watch. I always found them a very boring side who relied on lock-down defense to win games rather than play more exciting expansive hockey, like Detroit or Colorado played at the time.

New York Rangers were like a collection of expensive players rather than a team. I suppose I never minded the Rangers as Wayne Gretzky played there in the twilight of his career, so they would get second spot in the division. The Islanders would get third spot simply for being a nothing team, I cant say I like them but do not hate them like I do the flyers or New Jersey, even though they shocked everyone when they eliminated my Pens in the 1993 play-offs. So here is how I would rank the teams in the Atlantic Division. Look out for my team by team previews in the coming days, with hockey to look forward to again it may make more sense now?

Order of my personal preference
1 - Pittsburgh Penguins
2 - NY Rangers
3 - NY Islanders
4 - Philadelphia Flyers
5 - New Jersey

Order I believe teams will finish
1 - NY Rangers
2 - Philadelphia Flyers
3 - Pittsburgh Penguins
4 - New Jersey
5 - NY Islanders