Toddyd77
Member
Pens Prob finish top in Metro and 3rd overall in East with Boston and Tampa prob having more points overall.(i'm buying into the lightning as a legit contender)
Why? Well the Metro and East in general is soft. No team in the Division is markedly better than they were last year. The Rangers lost a ton of key players as well in Boyle, Pouliot and Stralman. I don't buy into the Pens being worse off than they were last year and although Doob keeps pointing out to how they played after the olympic break, that pretty much has no relevance now as the team and coach are different.
Getting Erhoff is a upgrade over Niskanen. Losing Orpik and Engelland is an upgrade IMO as it gives talented faster youth a chance to play. Neal as good as he was was Malkin dependent, an attitude problem and a lazy skater. Hornqvist scores without world class talent and is a far more complete player than Neal. We have bette forward depth. As far as questions in goal Fleury had a good regular season and the playoff flame out was not his doing at all. Greiss is more than capable of filling in if Fleury does struggle.
A coaching change was desperately needed. Bylsma squandered the talent this team had far too long.
1. Pittsburgh
2. NY Rangers
3. Columbus
4. Philly
5. New Jersey
6. Washington
7. NY Islanders
8. Carolina
Why? Well the Metro and East in general is soft. No team in the Division is markedly better than they were last year. The Rangers lost a ton of key players as well in Boyle, Pouliot and Stralman. I don't buy into the Pens being worse off than they were last year and although Doob keeps pointing out to how they played after the olympic break, that pretty much has no relevance now as the team and coach are different.
Getting Erhoff is a upgrade over Niskanen. Losing Orpik and Engelland is an upgrade IMO as it gives talented faster youth a chance to play. Neal as good as he was was Malkin dependent, an attitude problem and a lazy skater. Hornqvist scores without world class talent and is a far more complete player than Neal. We have bette forward depth. As far as questions in goal Fleury had a good regular season and the playoff flame out was not his doing at all. Greiss is more than capable of filling in if Fleury does struggle.
A coaching change was desperately needed. Bylsma squandered the talent this team had far too long.
1. Pittsburgh
2. NY Rangers
3. Columbus
4. Philly
5. New Jersey
6. Washington
7. NY Islanders
8. Carolina