A few months ago, the standings were a lot different. The Red Wings weren’t in the top eight of the Western Conference, the Avalanche were competing against Vancouver for the division lead, and the Flyers still had their goalies.

All of that has changed. The Red Wings have risen from ninth in the Western Conference, all the way up to fifth. The Avalanche stopped fighting for the division, and started fighting for a playoff spot in general. And the Flyers, suffered injuries to both Michael Leighton and Ray Emery. They are now going to rely on Brian Boucher in the playoffs when they play the Washington Capitals.

For the last month, we have been looking at predictions of who will be in the playoffs. Now, we are going to start looking at predictions of the playoffs themselves. As always, that will be much more entertaining.

#1. Washington Capitals vs. #8. Montreal Canadiens

Washington is a very offensive team. They have a lot of good players, and they use these players to run up the score. The biggest star is Alex Ovechkin, but the Caps also have Alexander Semin who scored 40 goals this season, and Nicklas Backstrom who scored 33 goals and tallied a team leading 68 assists.

The good thing for Montreal is that they have a great goalie in Jaroslav Halak. Halak tied with Detroit’s Jimmy Howard for the fourth best save percentage in the NHL (92.4%).

However, that doesn’t change the fact that the Candadiens are only 13th in the NHL in defense (2.66 goals against per game). The bigger statistic is going to be offense. Montreal is tied with Toronto for the fifth worst offense in the NHL (2.56 goals per game). This offense has scored 101 less goals than the Capitals’ offense this season.

Montreal is going to have a tough time beating the Caps. They don’t play at the same level, and I’d be pretty surprised if the Caps didn’t win this series.

#2. New Jersey Devils vs. #7. Philadelphia Flyers

Philadelphia has one big problem. They are being forced to play a third string goalie with very little playoff experience because Ray Emery and Michael Leighton are out with injuries.

New Jersey, on the other hand, has the best defense in the NHL. They have only averaged 2.28 goals against per game this season and are the only team in the NHL to allow less than 200 goals.

There really isn’t much of a comparison to be made between Martin Brodeur and Brian Boucher. Brodeur is a world class goalie that many look at as the greatest goalie of all time. Boucher is a third string goalie that is going to be facing Ilya Kovalchuk, Zach Parise, and Travis Zajac. The difference is that Brodeur is better able to handle the skilled players Philadelphia throws at him because he’s a more talented goaltender.

#3. Buffalo Sabres vs. #6. Boston Bruins

Both Buffalo and Boston are very defensive. In the six games that these two teams have played against each other this season, the winner has only score more than three goals one time. That was when the Bruins defeated the Sabres 4-2 on November 7th in Boston

I’m going to make this my first upset of the article. Before you start leaving a bunch of comments talking about how I don’t know what I’m doing, bear with me for a second.

Like I said, both teams are very defensive. The Bruins have slightly better numbers. They’re second in the NHL in defense and the Sabres are fourth.

Both teams are also missing some of their scorers. The Bruins are still missing Savard after his hit from Matt Cooke about a month ago, and the Sabres are missing Tim Connolly, who scored 17 goals and tallied 48 assists this season. According to CBS Sports, Savard is questionable for this series and Connolly is out until at least mid-April.

The biggest challenge for the Bruins to overcome is Buffalo’s superior offense. The Sabres are eighth in the NHL in offensive production and the Bruins are dead last.

However, that hasn’t been true when the two teams play each other. During the season, Boston has won four of the six games they’ve played against each other. In the past, the Bruins have been able to contain Buffalo’s better offense, and, in fact, the Sabres have only scored more than two goals against the Bruins twice this season. If this continues into the playoffs, Boston will have a great chance of upsetting the Sabres.

#4. Pittsburgh Penguins vs. #5. Ottawa Senators

Pittsburgh has a couple of problems. The first is that Marc-Andre Fleury has been below average this year. His save percentage is tied with four other goalies for 33rd in the NHL at 90.5%. However, that isn’t much lower than what it was last year when the Penguins won the Stanley Cup.

Defensively, the Penguins have had a little bit of trouble. They are actually tied with the Ottawa Senators for 18th in defense.

The difference comes in the offense. Pittsburgh is fifth in the NHL in offense and has one of the best goal scorers in the NHL in Sidney Crosby. Over the course of the season, the Penguins averaged three goals per game and constantly proved that they can shred apart some of the best defenses in the NHL.

Ottawa is going to have an even bigger problem because they are missing Alexei Kovalev. Kovalev has been a big part of the offense this year with 18 goals and 31 assists.

Pittsburgh’s offense is going to be too much for Ottawa to handle, and the Penguins will win the series.

#1. San Jose Sharks vs. Colorado Avalanche

San Jose is looking to redeem themselves for last year’s embarrassing first round exit to the Anaheim Ducks. This year, they are once again the number one seed in the Western Conference, and will be facing another number eight seed.

Last year, the Sharks faced a number eight seed that really didn’t play like a number eight seed. Last year, the Ducks rose into eighth place. This year, the Avalanche sank into eighth place.

At the beginning of the season, Colorado was the team to beat. They were at the top of the Western Conference. It was very difficult to beat them. As the season wore on, they started to sink. They gave up the division lead to Vancouver, and saw themselves go from fourth, to fifth, to six, and all the way down to eighth.

Finally, at the end of the season, they are fighting with Calgary for the final playoff spot in the Western Conference. And although they beat Calgary, they haven’t been playing their best hockey recently. They have only won three of their last ten games. Compare that to San Jose who’s won eight of their last ten.

San Jose is a better team, that’s been playing much better recently. They shouldn’t have much trouble defeating the Colordado Avalanche.

#2. Chicago Blackhawks vs. #7. Nashville Predators

Nashville has been playing some great hockey over the last month. Since the beginning of March, they have gone 14-6-1. And although I think that Chicago will win the series, I think that Nashville is going to be tough to beat.

Chicago has two things going for them. The first is that they have a great offense. They have a ton of talented players, including Jonathon Toews, Patrick Sharp, Marian Hossa and Patrick Kane. Each one of these players has scored a ton of goals for the team. In fact, Chicago has six players that have scored 20 goals or more this season.

Defensively, Chicago is just as solid. With their goaltending trouble, it may be surprising that they have the sixth best defense in the NHL. However, they are able to rely on the players in front of the goalie to stop the puck from getting to the goalie. This has worked very well for them for the entire season.

Nashville does not have the talented offense needed to get around Chicago’s defenders, and they don’t have the talented defense to stop Chicago’s forwards. They do have a lot of heart. They have played very well recently and will come after the Blackhawks with some great plays. But I don’t think that it will be enough to win the series.

#3. Vancouver Canucks vs. #6. LA Kings

LA and Vancouver have both had up and down seasons. The beginning of the season did not start out well for Vancouver. Roberto Luongo started the season in a slump, and Daniel Sedin was sidelined with an injury. Both of these factored into a tough start for the Canucks.

LA had one of their best runs at the end of January and into February. At that point, they set a new franchise record with 9 consecutive wins, and propelled themselves up the standings.

The difference in this series is going to be Vancouver’s offense. The Canucks finished second in the NHL in offense behind the Washington Capitals. A lot of that has to do with the fact that they have the best line in the NHL in Henrik Sedin, Daniel Sedin, and Alex Burrows. Together, these three players have scored over a third of the team’s goals.

However, they also get you with some great depth players as well. Mikael Samuelsson and Ryan Kesler are the two that come to mind.

Together, this has created the second best offense in the NHL. Vancouver is a chemistry based team, and it’s going to be very difficult for any team to defend them. You can expect to see them overrun the Kings’ defense with some great plays, and a lot of passing.

#4. Phoenix Coyotes vs. Detroit Red Wings

I can’t think of any team entering the playoffs hotter than the Detroit Red Wings. Over the last month and a half, they have really come together and played great hockey.

The problem for them was injuries. At one point, they had nine of their 18 starting players out with injuries. This forced them to call up a ton of rookies from Grand Rapids. Not only did these rookies perform well, but they played a huge role in keeping Detroit in playoff contention long enough for the injured players to come back and make a difference

With all respect to Phoenix, they are not getting a good break during the first round. With all of the distractions that they have faced, this season has been a minor miracle.

A lot of the success this season has been due to Ilya Bryzgalov. As always, he’s been a solid goalie and a huge reason that this team placed as high as they did.

However, I don’t think that they’re going to be able to overcome the Red Wings. Obviously, the Wings have won a lot of championships. In fact, in the last three years, they have never been eliminated before the third round.

Many of the players that accomplished those feats are on this team as well. More importantly, they have Jimmy Howard who has been phenomenal in goal. In fact, his numbers are actually better than Bryzgalov’s. Granted, only slightly. His GAA is .03 lower and his save percentage is .4% higher.

The difference is Detroit’s offense. With Pavel Datsyuk, Henrik Zetterburg and Johan Franzen, the Wings have a ton of players that Phoenix will need to cover. Not only that, but this team has a bunch of younger players that can make plays as well. Darren Helm is the one that sticks out in my mind.

However, it should be an entertaining series, because both teams should win some games. Eventually though, I think that the Wings are going to come out on top.

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These predictions were made to predict the final standings of the Western Conference. If you would like to see my first round playoff predictions, check out my other article. See first round playoff predictions here. If you enjoy my articles, consider subscribing to my newsletter in the right hand corner for future updates.

Before I do anything else, I would like to apologize for having to rewrite this post. My last predictions were absolutely terrible. I was completely wrong about everything I said. In fact, I really don’t want to go into more detail than that, it’s pretty embarrassing.

Over 500 people viewed my previous Western Conference predictions and I’m sure that every single one of them left this website wondering just how much I knew about hockey. Personally, I can’t blame them. I still get about 30 people every day from Google and other websites reading this article. You deserve better predictions with more accurate facts.

Because of that (and partially because I wanted to redeem myself) I decided to rewrite this post and make better predictions based on what’s going on now. And, with that said, here they are.

1. San Jose Sharks
2. Chicago Blackhawks
3. Vancouver Canucks
4. Phoenix Coyotes
5. Detroit Red Wings
6. Nashville Predators
7. Colorado Avalanche
8. LA Kings

#1: San Jose Sharks

After last year’s embarrassing loss to the Anaheim Ducks in the first round of the playoffs, the San Jose Sharks are looking to redeem themselves. And with their roster, they should have no trouble doing that.

March was not exactly kind to the Sharks. They found themselves on the wrong end of a five game losing streak and for a while they were the coldest team in the NHL. Nabokov wasn’t playing his best, and the offense wasn’t scoring their usual amount of goals. Everybody knew that the Sharks needed to turn that around before the playoffs started.

And that’s exactly what they’ve started to do. Although March itself was not kind to San Jose, the end of March was pretty solid. They are going into April on a positive note, which is exactly what they needed to do. The other fortunate thing for the Sharks is that the Blackhawks have been struggling too. The only difference is that Chicago is still struggling.

#2. Chicago Blackhawks

Chicago is another team that many consider to be a Stanley Cup favorite. With some of their off season moves, they showed that they were making a not so subtle run for the cup. They vastly improved their offense, and kept the focus on great defense. However, they didn’t do such a good job with goaltending.

They are paying Cristobal Huet $5.625M to be a starting goalie (Cap Geek), and a lot of the time, he hasn’t played well enough to earn the start. He has been benched a lot this season. In fact, his save percentage is 42nd in the NHL at 89.5%. The Blackhawks have had to start relying on Antti Niemi, who was supposed to be a backup goalie. He’s been doing a lot better, but he’s still not the goalie that you want leading you to the Stanley Cup.

Fortunately for Chicago, their defense has been pretty solid. Despite the weaknesses in goal, they were still able to have the best defense in the NHL for a while (they don’t anymore, I’ll get to that in a second). I’ve always said that a goalie is the most important thing you need to build a championship team, but Chicago was the exception to this rule. Their defense was so good that it didn’t really matter who was in net, they would still win.

However, Chicago had to face a couple of crucial injuries to defenders. One was Brian Campbell who will be out for the rest of the season. If you remember, he was the one injured in the controversial hit by Alex Ovechkin.

The problem is that the defense itself hasn’t been great recently, and losing a great defender in Campbell only made things worst. Since the defense hasn’t been playing well, the goalies have been facing a lot more shots. Since neither goalie is the ideal one, the Blackhawks have been getting more goals scored against them and have been losing more games. They are currently 3-5-2 in their last ten, and are on a two game losing streak (March 30th).

More importantly, over the month of March, they have allowed an average of 3.38 goals per game, compared to an average of 2.4 goals against on the season.

#3. Vancouver Canucks

There’s a great chance that the Vancouver Canucks will win the division, but there’s no chance that they’ll beat the Blackhawks or the Sharks for the conference. Since the division winners are guaranteed a top three spot, the Canucks will have a great setup in the playoffs.

Right now, they are five points ahead of Colorado and each team has seven games left to play. Colorado has seven games to make up five points. That’s pretty unlikely at this point.

#4. Phoenix Coyotes

If you would have told me at the beginning of the season that the Phoenix Coyotes would challenge the Sharks for the division, I wouldn’t have believed you. In fact, almost nobody would have. The fact that the Coyotes have over 100 points during a season with many off ice distractions is a minor miracle.

Over the course of the season, the Coyotes have had to rely on defense. As a whole, their offense isn’t that great. Right now their offense is ranked 20th in the NHL while their defense is ranked 3rd.

Phoenix has been especially great lately. Their streak in March propelled them up the standings and guaranteed at least a top four finish. For a while, they were even beating the Sharks. At this point, both teams have six games left to play and Phoenix needs to make up four points. They basically have to win two more games than the Sharks and with the way that Sharks have played lately, it’s unlikely that Phoenix will be able to pull ahead.

Even if San Jose wins four games, Phoenix would have to win all of theirs. And that’s assuming there aren’t any OT losses or anything like that. Either way, Phoenix gave it a great run, and they were able to prove that “Hockey in the Desert” can survive.

#5. Detroit Red Wings

There are no teams hotter than the Detroit Red Wings. They are now on a six game winning streak and have risen from tenth place to sixth place. Not only are they on a six game winning streak, but they have also gotten at least one point in each of their last ten games.

The problem for the Wings this season was injuries. At one point, they had nine of their 18 starters on injured reserve. They were forced into calling up a bunch of players from Grand Rapids.

The biggest injury was Johan Franzen who was projected to have a 30 goal season. He ended up missing most of the season with a serious knee injury, and the Wings suffered from it. However, he’s back now and producing for Detroit.

But you can’t look past Jimmy Howard in goal. Compared to the beginning of the season, he’s a lot better. Many people even think that he’s going to win the rookie of the year award, and he would deserve it. As a rookie, he’s fourth in the NHL in save percentage (92.5%). That’s better than Martin Brodeur (91.4%), Mikka Kiprusoff (92.1%), and many more. Howard is now a much more confident goalie. That has shown in the way he plays on the ice, and you can also see it in some of his interviews.

The Red Wings are getting everything together at the right time. This is the most solid Howard has been all season, and it’s also the first time that the Red Wings have been able to throw all of their talent at opponents. Even as a five seed, they are not a team you want to see in the first round.

#6. Nashville Predators

Nashville is an interesting team. Right now they are one of the hottest teams in the NHL. But, many people didn’t think that they would have a great year. With their roster, I didn’t either. There is nothing on their roster that really sticks out.

Nashville does have some great players. But, then again, so does every team in the NHL. The truth is that the Predators are right in the middle of everything. They are 14th in the NHL in defense (2.69 goals against per game) and 18th in the NHL in offense (2.65 goals for per game). They are right in the middle of the NHL in everything. Their offensive and defensive ranking will fluctuate on a nightly basis because they are so close to every other team. One four goal game could move them from 18th to 14th.

However, the good thing about being average in every category is that you’re not bad in any category. Just like the Predators don’t have any glaring strengths, they don’t have any glaring weaknesses either. That’s why they can keep winning. They come at you with a very well rounded team.

But, with the way that the Wings have been playing recently, they’re going to be very tough to beat. Now that they have their players back from injury, the Wings have a better lineup. This could spell the difference between Detroit and Nashville.

#7. Colorado Avalanche

At the beginning of the season, Colorado was doing very well. They started off as one of the hottest teams in the NHL. In fact, they were one of only a couple of teams over 20 points at the end of October.

A lot of this has to do with Craig Anderson. At the beginning of the season, Anderson was solid. It seemed like he was able to stop everything.

However, that wasn’t the only thing that started off well for the Avalanche. The offense started off hot too. In October, they averaged 3.21 goals per game. Over the entire season, they have averaged 2.92. That number is solid, and still puts them at sixth in the league. But even with these solid numbers, they have still sunk in the standings.

Now, the question is whether or not they can beat the LA Kings for seventh in the Western Conference. LA’s season has been similar to the Avs because they have also sunk in the standings. Right now, both teams are 4-5-1 in their last ten.

Truthfully, either team could come in seventh. My belief is that it will come down to the last game of the season. Coincidentally, the last game of their seasons is against each other. That’s right, LA and Colorado will play against each other in the last game of their seasons and probably decide who takes seventh.

There are a lot of ifs in this prediction. The biggest reason that I’m going Colorado over LA is because of goaltending. Craig Anderson is ninth in the NHL in save percentage (91.9%) and Jonathon Quick is 28th (90.8%). Other than that, these two teams are very similar in most aspects and have an equal chance of getting seventh place.

#8. LA Kings

Like I said earlier in the snippet of Colorado, the Kings and Avalanche are very similar. They both have a lot of players that can score goals, and they have similar numbers in offense and defense. Seventh place is going to be a toss up between these two teams.

The thing about LA is that they haven’t won a consistent amount of games since their nine game winning streak in late January and early February.

However, I also said that both teams have an equal chance of getting seventh place. Personally, I think that this will come down to the last game of the season where Colorado and LA play against each other. That game could easily determine who finishes in seventh.

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With all of the hype surrounding the opening ceremony and the many different competitions that are going to be in the Olympics, many people are making predictions on who they think will win. I’ve decided that it’s time to throw my own predictions into the mix regarding the men’s hockey tournament.

GOLD MEDAL: Team Canada

Right now,there are two teams that are being seriously looked at as gold medal contenders, one is Team Canada, and the other is Team Russia. Both have loaded their roster with a ton of talent. A match between these two teams would be a toss up.

In 2006, Team Canada had it’s most embarrassing showing in history. They finished seventh in the world despite having some of the world’s best players on their team. The 2006 team suffered from a lack of chemistry and wasn’t able to produce the amount that they should have.

This is a mistake that they made sure to avoid when they picked the 2010 team. Steve Yzerman has said that he is not looking for the players with the best stats, he’s looking for players that will work well together. In fact, some of the players that were on the team in 2006 are not on the team in 2010. Most notably, Marty St. Louis and Shane Doan both missed the cut.

Although they have made changes offensively, their goaltending isn’t going to change at all. They will be able to throw Martin Brodeur or Roberto Luongo in goal. Both would be able to handle the Olympic level of play.

With that said, these Olympics are going to be about redemption for the Canadians. They will be looking to prove that 2006 was a fluke, and when better to do that than in front of their own crowd? The determination that this team is unmatched by any team in the NHL.

SILVER MEDAL: Team Russia

The Russians have not won a gold medal since they were known as the Unified Team in 1992. That ended decades of domination. This year, they will be looking to reestablish their previous glory by taking the gold medal. Russia has established an intimidating roster that no team wants to face.

They’ve done that by getting some of the NHL’s elite talent to lead the team into Vancouver. Alex Ovechkin, Ilya Kovalchuk, Pavel Datsyuk, and most importantly, goalie Evengini Nabokov will all be crucial players for Russia. Ovechkin, Kovalchuk, and Datsyuk have the ability to overwhelm any offense they face and Nabokov has the ability to play well against any team.

However, the Russians have not made chemistry the focus. Instead, they took the players with the best stats. They also have KHL talent at the bottom lines, which doesn’t match the NHL talent that the Canadians will be putting on their lower lines.

Russia is going to be forced into relying on its top line to score most of its goals. That shouldn’t be a big problem until they play Canada. The Canadians are the only team that have the talent on the first line that matches the Russians, and the defenders will be less likely to fall for the moves that the Russian forwards will try to pull. This is going to make it very difficult for the Russians to score the necessary goals.

If the Russians want to win, they have to figure out a way to beat the Canadians on the first line and contend with them on the bottom lines. If they can’t do that, then they have no chance.

BRONZE MEDAL: Team Sweden

Team Sweden is the defending gold medalist and has a lot of players returning from 2006. There really haven’t been a lot of changes to this team. They are looking to get a similar result with a similar lineup. Unfortunately for Sweden, they didn’t have to face the quality of talent that Russia or Canada is going to be throwing at them in the last Olympics.

This is going to be the first time that they face the skill that Russia will be throwing at them as well as the chemistry that Canada have. These differences are going to make it a lot more difficult for the Swedes to win the gold.

With that said, they also have a lot of talent on their team. It’s never a bad thing when you pull the majority of your talent from the Western Conference Champions and then add the Sedin twins and a solid goalie. To me, they’re much better than Finland or the United States. However, I don’t think that they will match the Canadians or the Russians.

They also don’t look as good defensively. On defense, they have a lot of players that play really well for their NHL teams. However, they don’t have a lot of players that will be able to consistently handle the talent that Russia and Canada will throw at them. Eventually, that will be the undoing for the team.

And Team USA Finishes In….

One of the things that I get asked a lot is where Team USA will finish up. In 2006, they finished in a distant eighth place and this year is only going to be a little better. I’m predicting that they finish in fifth place behind Finland.

The reason is simple. Back in 2002, Team USA won the silver medal with a bunch of veterans on their team. However, they did not do a good job developing young talent to replace the veterans when they left. The US really suffered from that back in 2006, but they are not out of the water yet.

Their defense won’t be able to handle the scoring threats Russia or Canada will throw at them, and their offense isn’t going to be strong enough to penetrate the defense. With that said, Team USA does have a bright future. Their junior team actually defeated the Canadians to win the Junior tournament. Although this year doesn’t look good, Team USA’s future looks bright.

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If you had told me at the beginning of the season that the Phoenix Coyotes would be in a good position to make the playoffs, I would have laughed at you. A lot of people, including myself at one point, considered this season a minor miracle for the Coyotes.

With only 31 games left in the season, they are inching closer and closer to locking a playoff spot. With their solid defense not being broken, and the offense coming in with the necessary goals, they are able to win close and crucial games.

The reason a lot of people underestimated the Coyotes is because nobody payed attention to the off-season moves they were making. Instead, fans were bogged down with headlines about the bankruptcy issues or the fact that the franchise could have moved to Canada. While all of this was going on, the front office was building a solid roster to compete in the upcoming season.

They made two crucial trades for defensemen, dramatically improving the talent in their own end. They weren’t looking for the one all star defender, instead, they were looking for a couple of above average defenders that could make a big difference together. Lepisto and Vandermeer have both helped this team immensely. Add that to Aucoin and you have three solid defenders that have really helped this team.

More importantly, they had these strong defenders backed up by a solid goalie in Ilya Bryzgalov. To me, Bryzgalov is the most underrated goalie in the NHL, mainly because he hasn’t been playing for a great team. But, that doesn’t mean his role on the team is less important. His consistently strong play on a night-to-night basis has helped the team more than just about anything else.

When you put all of those things together; the trades, the goalie and the defense, you can understand why the Coyotes can have the seventh best defense in the NHL. These moves changed the entire setup for Phoenix.

Instead of having the 24th best defense like they did last year, they now have the 7th. Now, they have a strong part of their game that they can rely on, even when the offense isn’t all there, which rarely happens.

Offensively, the team was helped by Radim Vrbata who was also acquired during the off-season. He has played in every game, scoring 16 goals and posting 14 assists. Granted, one player can’t raise the offense from 26th in the NHL to 8th in the NHL which means that there has to be something else.

If you were to ask me, I would call that “something else” the development of chemistry. They are playing a lot better together than they were last year. Phoenix has a lot of great forwards on their team, mainly Doan, Lombardi, Vrbata, Upshall, and Jovanovski. Together these players have made a huge difference in the team.

Recently the offense has been picking up the defense’s slack. This offensive style is a lot different than the defensive style they relied on in October through December.

They were able to score four goals on the Predators, four against the Devils (second best defense), four against the Oilers, and six against the Wild. It’s interesting because they haven’t been scoring like this for the entire season. All of a sudden, they’re lighting up the net with goals.

The Coyotes are definitely still a strong defensive team, despite a few recent hiccups, but they are asserting themselves more offensively. But, everything has improved since last year. So, why did the front office start building a team that could compete, and why did they do it so aggressively?

Part of me says that the distractions Phoenix faced actually helped them win, just because they were forced to put a team together immediately. If they weren’t able to win games, the fans wouldn’t pay to come to  games. They recognized that they needed to give the fans a reason to come to the stadium, other than promotions.

They have started the long and painful process of building a better fan base in Phoenix, which has been the biggest reason for the team’s financial issues. All of these promotions, deals, and packages that are getting fans to the games are helping the teams create a loyal fan base that will want to come to future games. Again, that would be much harder if they couldn’t put a good team on the ice and win games.

If you don’t believe me on this, take a look at other clubs. The Detroit Red Wings do this better than anybody. Granted, it’s probably easier to establish a hockey team in Michigan than it is Arizona. But, that doesn’t mean that you’ll see the results that the Wings have seen. Their stadium holds 20,000 people and they have a sell out, or come close to a sell out every single night.

They have also made the playoffs every year for over two decades, and have always been a fun team to watch. Because of that, they have been able to create a loyal fan base that will come to every single game. That’s the power of a good reputation.

It looks like the Coyotes are trying to do the same thing. They’re bringing better players to the team to give fans a reason to come to games. I would imagine that their goal is to keep fans coming back for years to come and never have to deal with another financial situation like they just faced.

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At this point, the Carolina Hurricanes are going nowhere this season. Their play has been terrible, their lineup has been taken out by injuries, and their depth has been questioned. What this team needs more than anything is a new era, and that’s exactly what they’ve started this week.

They are beginning a new era with a new captain. Rod Brind’Amour has been demoted from Captain, to Alternate Captain, and Eric Staal has taken his place. Brind’Amour hasn’t been having a great year. He only has four goals and seven assists.

However, that’s not the reason this change was made. According to Carolina’s President and General Manager, Jim Rutherford, the move was to give Eric Staal experience as a captain that he can use in the future. To them, this is another crucial step in the rebuilding process.

Eventually, they are going to try to create a solid team with an experienced captain that can lead them to another Stanley Cup. They obviously feel that Staal is going to be the leader of that team.

Unfortunately, this team needs more than an experienced captain to be successful. Captains do a lot more off the ice than they do on the ice, and “on the ice” is where the ‘Canes need the most help.

Offensively, defensively, between the pipes, and on special teams, they need help everywhere. Although naming a new captain is a step in the right direction, it’s clear that more has to be done.

One of the biggest things that the ‘Canes fans have debated this season, is how effective the rookies are. Although I don’t think the rookies that have been called up from Albany have played terribly, I don’t think that they’re the players that the ‘Canes need in the future.

If this team wants to be competitive, they’re going to have to make some big moves during the off-season. They simply need to get more talent on their team. That really isn’t as true for offense as it is for defense. They have to get better defenders that can do a better job of keeping the puck away from the net.

Cam Ward also needs to improve. He’s currently 22nd in save percentage, and pretty close to last in GAA. However, he’s still a very young goalie and I have no concerns about his future.

They’ll also have to make smarter off-season moves. Allowing Babchuck to go to the KHL (again), and giving Seidenburg to Florida were both mistakes, although they didn’t look like bad decisions at the time they were made.

If you ask me, I would say that the front office has done a terrible job managing this team this year. I put the blame completely on them for the ‘Canes playing this badly.

They have to do a better job of keeping crucial players in Carolina, and a better job of getting other good players to Carolina. However, they have made a positive step in getting an experienced captain. Although it isn’t the biggest concern they have, it’s still a necessity. If anything, this move should show you how serious the front office is about changing the team’s fortune in the future.

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The Detroit Red Wings have made the playoffs every season for over two decades. That’s the longest running streak in the NHL. This year, is the first time in a long time that they have faced the possibility of not making the playoffs.

At the beginning of the season, goaltending was an issue for the team. At the time, Chris Osgood was the starting goalie and had the third worst save percentage in the league. Jimmy Howard was the backup and had the worst save percentage in the league. Both had save percentages well below .900.

Osgood would end up getting an injury that would sideline him for a few games. At the time, this was thought to be devastating for the team. The Wings were forced to put a struggling Howard, who had very little confidence, in goal. This turned out to be exactly what the young goalie needed.

I was watching the Fox Sports Detroit one day, and they were talking about Jimmy Howard. They were talking about a conversation that Howard had with one of his close friends. He told his friend that he “just needed one game to show that he belonged in the NHL”. At the time, he had no confidence in his ability, and was starting to doubt whether or not he should be the next starting goalie.

The media was not helping either. They were constantly raising questions about Howard’s playing ability, questions that I’m sure the young net-minder was asking himself.

However, there was one group of people that supported Howard, and it was the most influential group on Howard’s future success. That group was the Red Wings organization. They told the fans to be patient and give the goalie time to adjust. The Wings have always been great at developing goalies, as well as acquiring goalies to create championship teams.

I don’t know which game would be called the “turning point”, but it doesn’t matter. Howard’s confidence has increased more than anyone thought possible. He just came off his best game of the season against the LA Kings, where he faced 51 shots, and only allowed 1 goal and has started to make difficult saves look routine.

I said before in an article I wrote on Bleacher Report, that as “Howard started to see success, his confidence increased, and as his confidence increased, he started seeing more success”. That continues to be true today. After having the worst save percentage in the NHL at the beginning of the season, he has turned it around, he now has the third best save percentage in the NHL (.928).

To me, he really has the second best. Tuukka Rask has only played in 19 games and is currently the backup goalie in Boston to Tim Thomas.

Howard’s season has obviously been one of the best in the NHL. However, here are some stats that will put it in perspective for you. Like I said before, Howard’s save percentage is at .928. That’s better than Martin Brodeur (.923), Thomas Vokoun (.924), Evengini Nabokov (.925), Miikka Kiprusoff (.926), and Henrik Lundqvist (.926).

That’s also including the start he had at the beginning of the season. Right now, there is no goalie that’s playing better. During his hot streak, he has had a save percentage of almost .950, which puts him higher than every other goalie in the NHL. The question is, whether or not he can keep this up.

In Detroit, playoff performances are more important than regular season stats. That’s something that Howard has not had experience with yet. Hopefully, the Wings will make the playoffs and we’ll be able to see how well Howard plays in them.

However, that doesn’t change the fact that everything is changing for Jimmy Howard. That includes the stats, the confidence, and the fan perception. Fan perception is something that has changed more than anything else. I actually saw my first Howard souvenir jersey being worn a few days ago.

But, what does the rest of the season hold for the young goalie? Could he really become the rookie of the year? Right now, he’s a leading candidate.

At the beginning of the season, the biggest rookie of the year candidate was Craig Anderson. He was leading the Colorado Avalanche to a ton of wins during October. However, his season has started to turn south, he’s gone from the top five, to 14th.

If you were to tell most Red Wing fans that Jimmy Howard would be a rookie of the year candidate back in October, most would have thought you were insane. Now, it doesn’t seem so far fetched. He has done the most important thing he can do for Wings fans. He has given them a goalie that they can trust on a nightly basis to work hard and make great saves.

As the Wings front office knows, a great goalie is the first step to winning a Stanley Cup, and there should be a few in the future for Jimmy Howard, as long as he stays with the Wings.

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Anybody watching hockey for the last few years remembers the lockout, the new rules, and of course, the new style of play that were introduced a few years ago. The idea was to eliminate obstruction and allow players to show off their skills. This was going to create a game that is more enjoyable for the fans to watch.

The NHL made a policy that put a ton of players in the penalty box. That season it seemed like you received a penalty every time you got your stick caught on another player.

However, penalties would eventually come down to the level that the NHL wanted, and the other parts of the game have started shining through.

The biggest rule change that they made was the shootout at the end of overtime. They did away with ties and gave fans the “full value of their ticket”.

Again, the idea was to create higher scoring games that would be more exciting for the fans. They also wanted to open up the game and allow good players to show off their skills, and force goalies to make even bigger saves. We began to see more dekes, better passing, more speed, and more outstanding saves from the goalies.

However, the biggest strategic mistake that you can make in the new NHL is to confuse “emphasis on scoring” with “emphasis on offense”. In fact, the opposite is true. To me, “emphasis on scoring” means “emphasis on defense” because you are being forced to play a tighter style of defense.

The NHL got rid of obstruction plays, so you can’t make up for mistakes the way that you used to. In fact, you can’t make a mistake at all. However, they did nothing to stop you from playing good fundamental defense. All they did was make the punishment for not playing solid defense more severe.

There are a lot of coaches out there (not just in the NHL) who play an aggressive forcheck. They try to leverage their offensive advantage as much as possible. They have confused “more scoring” with “more offense”.

Take a look at the teams that are playing well right now. Chicago and New Jersey are both leading their conferences. They also have the two best defenses in the NHL. Now, take a look at the Thrashers. They have the fifth best offense in the NHL, but their defense is terrible. They are 11th in the Eastern Conference and aren’t winning the games they need to put themselves in the playoffs.

However, the most important thing a team can have is a solid goalie. I really believe that a solid goalie will win championships for your team. That’s one thing that every top team in the NHL has in common. They all have an all star caliber goalie.

The idea is that you play solid defense, limit the scoring opportunities, and use your all star goalie to bail you out. He’s not a player that should be relied on, but a safety net.

The team that has figured this out the best is the Buffalo Sabres. Their strategy is very simple. Play three defensemen down low and use Ryan Miller (currently best in the league) to stop the easy shots. Offensively, they only make an attack when they see that an attack is possible. They rely on playing solid fundamental defense and keeping the puck to the outside. They wait for the other team to make a mistake and then capitalize on it offensively.

A lot of times, they’ll run three defensemen. Whether it’s in the offensive or defensive zone. Watch them, most of the time when they’re in the offensive zone, they’ll have three players on or close to the point. It’s very difficult to burn this team.

The defensive zone is the same way. They force you to play the puck to the outside and use their all star goalie to block the easy shots that come by the net.

Every team needs to learn something from this. The Sabres have figured something out. Like I said before, the NHL did not stop you from playing defense. They only made the punishment for making a mistake worst. The Buffalo Sabres have figured out that they can play solid defense, and wait for the other team to make a mistake. This gives them the opportunities that they need to have to score goals and win the game.

There are a ton of examples of teams this season that are losing because they lack defense. The Toronto Maple Leafs are another example. They have actually scored more goals than the Buffalo Sabres, but have half as many wins. It’s because they keep getting burned defensively, and the offense can’t keep up.

It’s just the way that modern hockey needs to be played. This system can be adopted at any level of play (except very young kids).

Feel free to leave a comment and let me know what your thoughts are. I’m sure there are going to be different opinions on this, so please, let me know what you’re thinking.

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