The NHL’s realignment has created the newly named Metropolitan Division, and it’s filled with teams that have serious pedigree and also has three of the top five goaltenders from the 2013 season. Below is a snapshot of this division’s eight teams as we get started on the long road back to the playoffs. Each team’s odds to win the Eastern Conference and make the Stanley Cup Finals are noted in parentheses.
The NHL season begins this afternoon, starting with an NBC telecast of Pittsburgh-Philadelphia at 3 PM ET. Here at TheSportsNotebook we ran through every team in the league in Friday’s NHL preview, placing each team in a general tier based on their Stanley Cup odds in Las Vegas. Now it’s time to make some final NHL predictions on the eight teams in each conference will make the playoffs and who will ultimately hoist the Cup. Here’s how I’ve got the playoff seedings shaking out…
“It’s about damn time.” The words LeBron James spoke after winning his first NBA title last June apply to the beginning of the 2013 NHL season. After a lockout cost the league 3 ½ months and what will amount to 32 regular season games, we’ll begin a shortened season on Saturday night and TheSportsNotebook will seek to lay out the landscape of the coming pursuit of the Stanley Cup in our NHL preview.