Handicapping the Central Division
The Central Division has been one of the weaker divisions over the past couple seasons. That will hopefully start to change beginning this season as all of those high draft picks should start to pay dividends for the Blues and Hawks. Unfortunately I don’t think the BJs have done quite as well restocking through the draft so I think they are going to be in for another long season. With that being said here is my guess on how the division standings will look at the end of the regular season.
1. Detroit Red Wings - Everyone is picking Detroit to win the Central and it’s understandable. The Wings have won six straight division titles and are coming off a run to the Western Conference Finals where they were very competitive. Mike Babcock has gotten the team to buy into playing the type of hockey that results in playoff success.
2. St. Louis Blues - The Notes should rebound after hitting rock bottom in the 2005-06 season following the lockout. But they’ve steadily improved, gaining 24 points last season. They’ve made some great draft picks, including Erik Johnson, Barret Jackman, and Lee Stempniak, who will all play big minutes for the team this year. They’ve also made some nice acquisitions, including goaltender Hannu Toivonen, Eric Brewer and Paul Kariya. They’ve also sent Doug Weight and Keith Tkachuk off in trades as rentals during the lean years to help replenish their depth chart. They’ve been run very well over the past couple years and this could be the year they return to the fray of teams scrapping it out for a playoff spot.
3. Nashville Predators - David Poile has gone a great job building this franchise on a thrift-store budget. It looks like the margin for error has been completely eliminated with the losses of key players such as Tomas Vokoun, Kimmo Timonen, Scott Hartnell and Paul Kariya. I think the Blues catch the Preds and even if they don’t they should make the race for second place much more competitive than it has been in years past. This will be the race to follow as at least two teams will make it into the playoffs. Depending on how the race goes a third team might sneak into the playoff although I think the odds of that happening are long.
4. Chicago Blackhawks - Speaking of thrift-store budgets, the Blackhawks enter a new era with the passing of team owner Bill Wirtz. The timing is uncanny as the Blackhawks should put an entertaining product on the ice after spending the past two seasons acquiring Martin Havlat, Robert Lang, Jason Williams, Yanic Perreault, Sergei Samsonov and Brent Sopel. Nikolai Khabibulin has gotten off to a good start for the Blackhawks and if their younger players like Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane can have seasons that put them in the running for the Calder trophy the Hawks could draw closer to playoff contention than they have in the past three NHL seasons. The difference with finishing fourth this season would be that the Hawks seem to have a core of players that could finally turn the corner and make the Hawks competitive once again.
5. Columbus Blue Jackets - I think the hiring of Ken Hitchcock was a great move for the fledgling Columbus franchise, but when I look at how much the Flyers struggled last season and also look at the players Hitchock had when he was coaching the Stars, it becomes clear that he’s not a miracle worker. Those Stars teams were loaded with top shelf talent. Last year’s Philly team had lots of grit but not much in the way of elite talent outside of Peter Forsberg [injured], Simon Gagne, and maybe Mike Knuble.
The BJs are in a similar boat. Rick Nash hasn’t quite lived up to what was expected from him, the Zherdev experiment at center doesn’t seem to have lasted very long, and their just aren’t any really top-end defensemen on a team that should have some coming up through the ranks given the fact Columbus has selected in the top 8 of the draft every single year of their existence. Where is the Brent Seabrook, the Erik Johnson, the Barret Jackman?
This season is going to be another step in the long and arduous rebuilding project in Columbus. I think Hitchcock is the guy for the job, it’s just going to take some time to get the players who are going to make Columbus competitive. But as much as I despise all things Ohio, I am pulling for the Tribe in the ALCS. So please do us all a favor and end Boston’s season tomorrow night, okay?
This doesn’t really tie into the standings theme I’ve got going on here, but NHL.com has a nice article on the relationship the Red Wings organization has with their AHL team in Grand Rapids. I guess it has some relation to the preview as developing players is going to be integral to a team’s success with the salary cap.
It sounds like Igor Grigorenko is going to get a callup after the Wings return from their West Coast road trip but I don’t expect much from Grigorenko this year. I think the prediction that he has a Jiri Hudler-like season is starting to look like wishful thinking. The guy hasn’t done anything since coming over from Russia. My adopt-a-Griffin remains Jonathan Ericsson, particularly with how much Andreas Lilja has struggled in the top 4. Maybe Quincey gets the callup once he makes it off the IR but the Red Wings need to develop some competition for that 4th d-man slot.
Central Division Preview Igor Grigorenko Jonathan Ericsson Red Wings4 Comments
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