Training camps opened across The usa the 2009 week and hope is abound. The Tampa Bay Lightning, California Rangers will probably be leaving shortly towards the Czech Republic and the Pittsburgh Penguins and Ottawa Senators could be heading for Sweden to open up their seasons. All teams are contenders in September but by February after their mettle is tested, most resign themselves in order to making the playoffs. Here's how the Eastern Conference Standings look heading into your season. The Division Winners: 1. Montreal Canadiens - The Habs will celebrate their 100th season by winning its northern border East division and finishing atop the East conference for your second consecutive year. Montrealers suffered via a long rebuild and then a cocky swagger, Montreal is presents itself the league again. Montreal will seek its 25th cup and end its longest drought ever in the back of sophomore goalie Carey Price. Pricing is a sure bet to fill his mantle with Vezina trophies within his career. Newcomer Alex Tanguay brings extra scoring punch within the Habs top 6. The loss of significance was power play point-man Mark Streit. 2. Washington Capitals - The Capitals will again show up number one on the increasingly competitive east division. The goaltending combined Huet and Kolzig that ended the season is actually replaced by former league MVP Jose Theodore, who bounced back together with the Avalanche right after down years. Rookie defensemen Karl Alzner is definitely a strong bet to generate the c's this season as a 19 years old. Find the steady be home more blue liner to get paired with future Norris Trophy winner Mike Green plus for Green to get the green light to jump in to the offensive rush with greater regularity. Oh, along with the Capitals have this kid named Ovechkin who seems to be better than General Electric at lighting the lamp. 3. Philadelphia Flyers - The Broad Street Bullies era happens to be revived in Philadelphia. The Flyers are led by courageous captain Mike Richards. The team guts out wins consequently they are backed through competent goaltending of Martin Biron. The c's is 4 lines deep with players which could score, hit, and defend. Braydon Coburn is seeming to be a superb two way defensemen, a lot like Dion Phaneuf. A couple of years ago the Flyers were last within the NHL but after shrewd moves by GM Paul Holmgren made an exceptional turnaround. The most important loss in the off season was Captain Jason Smith, clearly to the downside of his career. You can find quite a lot of youth in order to make up for his departure. Playoff Teams: 4. Pittsburgh Penguins - It absolutely was a tumultuous off season for the Stanley Cup finalists. The c's lost many key free agents, including playoff rental Marian Hossa, local kid Ryan Malone, grizzled veteran Gary Roberts, Pest Jarkko Ruutu, enforcer, Georges Laraque, and save goalie Ty Conklin. Luckily for GM Ray Shero he was able to retain the services of steady be home more defensemen Brooks Orpik to avoid summer time from being complete loss. Pittsburgh under adequately replaced these players with aging Miroslav Satan coming off a down year when using the Islanders and solid 3rd liner Ruslan Fedotenko that can obtain a shot with Crosby. Crosby, Staal, and Malkin will lead the Pens in the beginning, while veteran Sergei Gonchar, the always improving Ryan Whitney, and blue chip prospect Kris Letang will shore inside the blue line.
5. Ottawa Senators 鈥?Last season the Sens emerge from the gate together the very best come to an NHL season ever before the wheels fell off. Troubled goalie Ray Emery got into fights at practice when he came punctually. Injuries hurt the Sens and Coach John Paddock was fired to try to shake the c's out from its funk. Ottawa was too relying on Dany Heatley, Daniel Alfredsson, and Jason Spezza for goals last season not much has changed. Young players like Antoine Vermette, Chris Kelly and Mike Fisher is going to be accompanied by Nick Foligno as forwards being relied on for secondary scoring. The most significant change for Ottawa might be on your blue line where many years Senator Wade Redden left via free agency after 2 disastrous seasons. Ottawa also traded Andrej Meszaros after his contract demands were too steep for GM Bryan Murray. New at all to the Sens blue line shall be Filip Kuba and promising youngster Alexandre Picard acquired inside a do business with Tampa Bay together with former Oilers and Flyers Captain Jason Smith. Alex Auld replaces Ray Emery as back up to Martin Gerber the unquestionable (for better or worse) main goalie this season. Expectations are as reduced in Ottawa as they simply had been since 1995.
6. Los angeles Rangers 鈥?The Rangers were very active in remaking their roster come early july, in addition to their big move continues to likely to come. It will be considered that sometime before November the Rangers will add former Maple Leafs captain Mats Sundin. If/when Sundin if inked seek Scott Gomez to remain dealt to get a defensemen to shore within the blue line. The Rangers may also welcome Nikolai Zherdev, Markus Naslund, and Dan Fritsche up front and Wade Redden and Dmitri Kalinin therefore to their blue line. Gone from Los angeles are former captain Jaromir Jagr, Veteran leader Brendan Shanahan, super pest Sean Avery and Fedor Tyutin. Despite many of the re-jigging, the Blue shirts ought to go as much as goalie Henrik Lundquist will carry them.
7. Carolina Hurricanes 鈥?Injuries have prevented the Hurricanes from making the playoffs prior times two seasons and already the Hurricanes are experiencing medical problems. Winger Justin Williams was injured during the team鈥檚 first work out and definately will miss 4-6 months. Lots of the roster is intact from last season with Joni Pitkanen being the only real newcomer of consequence. Pitkanen was acquired with a trade for Erik Cole. Defensemen Bret Hedican and Glen Wesley retired inside the off season. The Hurricanes will again be led by Eric Staal and also by goalie Cam Ward. Carolina have to win their divisional games to own a shot along the playoffs as Florida and Tampa is going to be breathing down their necks.
8. Boston Bruins 鈥?The Bean towners returned in to the playoffs last season by playing a powerful defensive game under new coach Claude Julien. They was without its best player, Patrice Bergeron for most the season after a hit from behind ended in a terrible concussion. Michael Ryder would be the only acquisition of consequence while very long time Bruin Glen Murray was bought out. Improvement always happen from inside with Bergeron returning and kids like Milan Lucic, Phil Kessel, and Chuck Kobasew being relied on for greater contributions. Goalie Manny Fernandez will return from problems for challenge Tim Thomas for ones #1 role, with both watching over their shoulder as Tuukka Rask is predicted to challenge for the roster spot.
On the exterior looking in:
9. New Jersey Devils 鈥?Lou Lamoriello has kept the Devils in contention over the past 25 years despite losing players to free agency and attrition. This will finally end up being the year where Lou鈥檚 magic wears off. The c's lost no players of consequence and repatriated former Devils Brian Rolston and Bobby Holik, but that may hardly keep these things develop the powers in the Atlantic division. Requiring you to participate in the young upstarts from Pennsylvania (Flyers and Penguins) 12 times along with 6 games on the Rangers could very well be enough and keep the Devils of post season action. Also working about the Devils is Martin Brodeur is aging and doesn鈥檛 seem as able to play 75 games a season anymore. He looked ordinary up against the Rangers and let Sean Avery rattle his cage. If Brodeur shows any signs and symptoms of failing the bleak shot at the playoff spot will dissipate.
10. Tampa Bay Lightning 鈥?No team made more changes compared to Lightning come early july. The c's has new owners, new GM, new Coach, and almost an entirely different roster in comparison to the a bed that opened the 2007-08 season. Program sales should reach an all time great for St. Pete. One star player was removed from the roster that finished last overall in 2007-08 and that's exactly Dan Boyle. He was traded at a package that landed young defensemen Matt Carle. The team also traded Alex Picard and Filip Kuba for Andrej Meszaros giving the Lightning two lessons for your blue line to go with the young talent before rendering their services. Superstars Vincent Lecavalier and Martin St. Louis will likely be accompanied by 1st overall choice Steven Stamkos. The Lightning was active in free agency adding Ryan Malone, Gary Roberts, Mark Recchi, Radim Vrbata, and Vaclav Prospal. Despite all these acquisitions, the Lightning鈥檚 fortunes hinge for the play of goalie Mike Smith. Smith was acquired in the trade deadline from Dallas nevertheless is required to prove that he's equipped to handle main duties. He will be duplicated by aging veteran Olaf Kolzig, acquired via free agency from a lengthy career in Washington.
11. Buffalo Sabres 鈥?What's promising for Sabres fans is that the team locked up Ryan Miller who have been a cost-free agent after the upcoming season and almost assuredly can have left the Sabres. Unhealthy news is always that the team remains to be reeling belonging to the departures of Chris Drury and Daniel Briere in the summer of 2007 and will eventually again miss the playoffs. The depth for the minor league system kept the Sabres competitive not too long ago and tend to again this holiday season. Derek Roy and Jason Pominville changed over, but a thin blue line confirmed to be an excessive amount of for ones Sabres to conquer. No losses or acquisitions of consequence were created by GM Darcy Regier whose future together with the Sabres was only solidified this week when he signed a contract extension. No major changes will lead to precisely the same result as in '09.
12. Florida Panthers鈥?/strong> Two big changes this year for those Panthers. People are that leader Olli Jokinen was traded to your Coyotes on draft day for defensemen Keith Ballard and Nick Boynton. The second is new coach Peter DeBoer replaces Jacques Martin who served as Coach and GM last season and was informed by ownership to buy one job. Veteran Cory Stillman was signed and Bryan McCabe was acquired in a very trade from the Toronto Maple Leafs for Mike Van Ryn. Any improvement out of the Panthers can lead to strong interdivisional play and continued growth of their young players: Jay Bouwmeester, Steve Weiss, and Nathan Horton. If Florida is nowhere near a playoff spot in February expect Bouwmeester, who is growing fed up with losing, to be moved inside of a trade while he will likely be eligible to free agency next summer and will be lost for free.
The Tavares Sweepstakes:
13. NY Islanders 鈥?It's another interesting off season for that Islanders. Ted Nolan lost his power have trouible with GM Garth Snow and was abruptly replaced as coach. The bone of contention was the direction for the team. Nolan would definitely continue utilizing veteran players and working to make the playoffs whereas Snow decided arrived for one full fledged youth movement. The c's was a student in the hunt until an exciting star game injury sidelined starting goalie Rick Dipietro and not having the team鈥檚 franchise player their playoff aspirations were dashed. Ruslan Fedotenko and Miroslav Satan were two veterans which were let go, while the team signed power play spark plug Mark Streit faraway from Montreal and added Doug Weight from Anaheim via free agency at a two of curious moves. Blake Comeau, Kyle Okposo, Jeff Tambellini, and Sean Bergenheim are youngsters who'll see their role increased when using the team. An excellent blend of vets and young players for the blue line will match Dipietro to help keep the Islanders in a few games but not enough fire power will end up being the Achilles heel.
14. Toronto Maple Leafs 鈥?The Leafs has a solid run from 1998-2004 contending on a playoff spot and making some noise. They haven鈥檛 made the playoffs ever since the lock out and often will enter 2008-09 in whole rebuild mode. Gone are reasonable length of time Leafs Mats Sundin, leading scorer in franchise history, Bryan McCabe, and Darcy Tucker. Joining them in your march away were chronic underachiever Kyle Wellwood and flash around the pan Andrew Raycroft. The Leafs introduced veterans Jeff Finger and Nicklas Hagman to give you veteran stability at extremely high pay rates. Additionally they coaxed Curtis Jospeh outside retirement using a post playing job with the team. The Leafs were pushovers last season and added Ryan Hollweg and Jamal Mayers in trades to deliver some grit and toughness. A solution to Leafs鈥?fans is years away nonetheless first steps tend to be taken as Nikolai Kulemin joins the team from Russia and 鈥淭he Human Eraser鈥?Luke Schenn was drafted 5th overall. They could be younger, tougher, and solid defensively but will battle to score during the first season under Ron Wilson as coach. The team delays for Brian Burke to reach you from Anaheim to consider over as President and GM during 2009. The prevailing hope is usually that the moves lead they towards the league鈥檚 basement and the possibility to draft local phenom John Tavares.
15. Atlanta Thrashers 鈥?New coach John Anderson inherits a team with superstar Ilya Kovlachuk but not much else. Some depth was acquired when Marian Hossa was traded however team lacks top 6 forward talents and contains an extremely thin blue line. Ron Hainsey and Jason Williams is 3rd tier free agents included the summertime while aging players Bobby Holik and Alexei Zhitnik were shown the entranceway. Frequently injured and try to inconsistent Kari Lehtonen enters 12 months being the starting goalie but can be challenged by Ondrej Pavelec. Bryan Little this also year鈥檚 3rd overall pick Zach Bogosian will challenge for roles on this talent deficient squad. It can be a protracted year for the rookie coach in the long overdue first opportunity with the NHL level
