2008-2009 Eastern Conference Preview

With training camps underway, I go ahead and make my snap decisions on who will finish where in the NHL Eastern Conference.



1.) Montreal Canadiens- Too much for them to not be too good. Deep with talented forwards and good defense, the only real question mark is Carey Price. Even then, his play in the playoffs was due to a bad hand. The only question mark is age. Some of their vets aren't getting younger and they traded for a declining Robert Lang. Will this hurt them?



2.) Pittsburgh Penguins- Too much talent in two players alone. Two scoring wingers for each, a few talented players in the line up as supporting cast, and an above average plus defense. Also a goaltender who may or may not be coming into his own. Satan and Crosby, Malkin and Sykora will be point monsters. They'll also be getting back one of the better young defensemen in Ryan Whitney around the deadline.



3.) Washington Capitals- Someone has to win this division and it will be the Caps. Ovechkin alone gives them the edge. While they will miss what Huet brought them in net during the playoffs, a decently able defense and offensive talents like Mike Green, AO, Semin, Niklas Backstrom, Viktor Kozlov, Sergei Federov they'll be able to score their way through the weak South Eastern division.



4.) Philadelphia Flyers- A team with depth that made a great bounce last season from worst to Eastern Conference Finals. Off season moves and injuries has made them lose some of the offensive punch they had, but they remain steady in the top six. The "loss" of Darian Hatcher will only help the team become more mobile. Biggest question lies in the health of Simon Gagné.



5.) New York Rangers- Henrik Lundqvist. Prepare to hear a lot about him this season. He will be the main catalyst for this teams success. A large roster turn over with the loss of Jaromir Jagr and Martin Straka, the additions made in off season result in a lot of question marks. Will Nik Zherdev finally produce as expected? Will Markus Naslund regain his old form? Will Wade Redden produce?



6.) New Jersey Devils- Marty Brodeur's decline continues, but his talent alone and a boost in offense is still enough to see them sneak in to the playoffs. Their thin defensive core continues to be masked by the teams overall defensive play, especially with the return of former stars Brian Rolston and Bobby Unibrow.



7.) Boston Bruins- Clause Julien surprised everyone last season, taking an offensively starved team to the playoffs and then leading them to the brink of upsetting the team with the best record in the East in the first round. This season starts with the return of Patrice Bergeron. Early reviews have him back in fine form, providing a huge boost to the meager offense that accompanies a superb defense headed by My Giant Zdeno Chara.



8.) Buffalo Sabers- A team torn apart by free agency in the last few years still finds a way to squeak in. Super Coach Lindy Ruff pieces together a roster with youth but talent. Ryan Miller, a high quality goalie, will be the back bone of their run towards the playoffs while Derek Roy looks to be the go-to star along with long time Saber Maxime Afinogenov.




9.) Tampa Bay Lightning- They're a more talented version of the post lockout Pens. Enough young players with establish chemistry to not make them in the basement, but too many questions on the back end, in net, and in scoring depth. In the end their thin blue line and lack of true role players and solid goal tending will do them in.



10.) Carolina Hurricanes- Early season injuries and lack of goal tending will sink the team. They will miss Eric Cole more than they realize, especially with the loss of Justin Williams to a ruptured Achilles Tendon. Joni Pitkanen is not an upgrade on the blue line and they made little other moves. Tuomo Ruutu and Sergei Samsonov are question marks and injury prone but could have a huge years if healthy. Another "almost" year harmed by injuries.



11.) Ottawa Senators- The mighty continue to fall. Not much done in the off season to right a quickly falling ship and the loss of Wade Redden on the blue line. The big three will still produce but not much beyond that will fill the net. The blue line takes a big hit and while Ray Emery is gone, look for goal tending to continue to be an issue.



12.) Florida Panthers- Another year of almost. They'll be in the race until the trade deadline when someone will wow them and pry away Jay Bouwmeester who is riding his one year contract. While the return may be something decent, don't count on it being enough to get the Panthers to the top eight. Poor Nathan Horton.





13.) Atlanta Thrashers- Ilya Kovalchuk. Kari Lethonen. Who else? True talent is hard to find on this team. They have nothing in the cupboard. Kovalchuk is in the final year of his contract, has been the face of the franchise from the start. For a team talking about having Angelo Esposito and this years No. 3 pick Zach Bogosian in the line up, it doesn't look pretty.



14.) Toronto Maple Leafs- They finally come to their senses and decide to actually play poorly for a high pick. They're anxious to get in the Tavares lottery to really draw them in and upper management finally decides that they need to rebuild. Or they'll just suck that badly. The latter is more likely.



15.) New York Islanders- Garth Snow continues his reign of terror as the Islanders once again toil is mediocrity. The only thing keeping this team relevant is a Rick DiPietro coming off of hip surgery. That's bound to not last. And for the sake of any Isles fan, hopefully neither will Snow.

What Should the Penguins do with Jordan Staal?

In 2006-2007, everyone expected Evgeni Malkin to come to Pittsburgh and have a stellar rookie campaign. No one expected to see the rapid emergence of Jordan Staal onto the hockey scene.

Kept up with Kris Letang for 10 games from his junior team; the Peterborough Petes, he was going to be given a look-see to grade his NHL readiness. By the end of those 10 games, he'd scored five goals, including three shorthanded (two in one game).

His uncanny defensive prowess for an 18-year-old combined with his long reach, assured him a spot on the permanent roster. While Kris Letang went back to juniors, Jordan Staal was there to stay. Partnered throughout the season with Malkin, he amassed 29 goals and 13 assists and was runner-up for Rookie of the Year to his linemate.

Heading into 2007-2008, big things were expected of Staal. He was placed on Crosby's wing after the acquisition of Petr Sykora filled the need for a scoring winger on Malkin's line. Some fans were thinking of 40 goals for the season playing alongside the previous year's MVP and Art Ross winner.

Things didn't go as planned. After 24 games, at the start of December, he had scored a total of two goals and netted three assists. The dreaded "sophomore jinx" was hung around his shoulders as he was dropped back to third line duty.

He would go on to thrive on the third line, playing a defensively responsible game alongside rotating wingers and his time on the penalty kill continued to remain steadily high. While his offensive game wasn't there through December, his defense continued to become stronger.

By the end of the season, he anchored his own line extremely effectively. A third line that would eventually pot 31 goals for the year between four or five different players. Many GMs would love to have a third line contribute as much.





Even through his bad start, Staal finished up the season scoring 12 goals and helping on 16 others. A total of 23 points in 58 games is not bad for a 19-year-old, nor for a third-line center on a team infected with injuries throughout the year.

As a result, there's talk of what to do with Staal coming into the 2008-2009 season.

Due to free agency and signings, there would seem to be a lack of top-six wingers. Right now, the top five are filled out by Crosby, Miroslav Satan, Malkin, Ruslan Fedotenko, and Sykora. The departure of Ryan Malone leaves a lack of physical presence that made the "Steel City Line" of Malone-Malkin-Sykora (who carried the team when Crosby went down) so effective.

You have Jordan Staal. What do you do?

There are two camps with this thinking:

1. Put Fedotenko on Sid's left and move Staal to the left of Malkin

Malkin's game is much more suited for Staal than Crosby. The reason Staal wasn't effective on Sid's line is Sid's speed. While Staal is deceptively fast, he's by no means swift of foot. Malkin's Lemieux-like ability to slow the game down suits Staal, which is why he had such success in his rookie season.

2. Keep Staal centering his own line

This serves two distinct purposes, one short term and one long term.

The short term: It gives the Penguins depth down the middle that is hard to be matched by any other team in the NHL. Crosby, Malkin, Staal is group of centers most teams would love to have on their payroll. Staal's defensive prowess makes him the perfect shutdown line center. This allows the third line to be able to go against any first line in the NHL and shut them down with relative ease.

The long term: It forces Staal to focus on his abilities as a center that need addressing, most importantly his playmaking abilities. His assist totals have been very unimpressive, as has been his passing in general.

While he can go to the front of the net to tap a puck in, it's hard to count on him to make the pass to set up a winger. Putting him as center of his own line so he doesn't rely on Malkin to create the plays will benefit him and the Pens.

He slightly improved from year one to year two with assists (13 to 16), and in the playoffs had some hot streaks where he was able to put everything together. If kept on his own line to grow with the same linemates, his abilities will fall into place.



While, in the end, it's entirely up to the coaching staff as to what will happen to Staal, perhaps the best interest of the team in the long and short term is keeping him on the ice centering his own line. Once his playmaking improves to where he can notch around 25 assists or so with third line talent—if Malkin needs a winger, I say make it so.

They would be even more dangerous as a duo (or trio if the chemistry with Sykora sticks). A one-two punch of anyone, Crosby, anyone and Staal, Malkin, Sykora could push the record books for goals scored.

At 19 years old, he's already got a bright future ahead of him. His development this year is crucial to how bright it is. Here's hoping that what ever is done is the correct decision when all is finished.