The Flyers have over an 11 percent chance winning it all. The Vancouver Canucks led the NHL with 54 wins and unlike their fellow number one seed, Washington, they actually competed in the 1, simulations. The brothers Sedin and Robert Luongo in net will need to be at their best for the Canucks to live up to the The Boston Bruins defense will be the reason they win the Cup. Our simulation engine must be love with their 2. Out of the 1, simulations, the Bruins won the Stanley Cup Remember with so many players pending for the playoffs, like Sidney Crosby for Pittsburgh, these results could vary.
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Join WhatIfSports. While the prospects should have fans giddy with excitement, the fact is Edmonton is buried in a deep conference full of Stanley Cup contenders, so expectations have to be tempered. Once their prospects earn some experience, the Oilers will be off and running. Why : The Panthers are an entirely different team this season, starting with Kevin Dineen behind the bench and including a gaggle of free agent signings.
Among the most interesting acquisitions is Tomas Fleischmann, whose season was cut short due to a blood clot - can he re-gain his goal-scoring touch?
Brian Campbell and Ed Jovanovski were cast off from their former teams and bulk up the Panthers core a little, but Jose Theodore is expected to carry the load and that will hurt over 82 games. There are too many "ifs" in Florida. Why : The Coyotes played over their heads the past two seasons and a large part of why they were able to do that in the regular season was goalie Ilya Bryzgalov.
But with the Vezina candidate now in Philadelphia, Mike Smith represents a sharp downgrade. Scottie Upshall and Ed Jovanovski are a couple other noteworthy losses. What the Coyotes still have going for them is the coaching of Dave Tippett, who is consistently one of the better bench bosses in the league.
If he can get this team to the post-season it'll be a Jack Adams-worthy season. Why : It's a whole new era in Winnipeg, but that doesn't mean the team will start out as an immediate powerhouse. Though the Jets have a significant buzz surrounding them, it has much more to do with a return to Canada than the on-ice product.
Don't get us wrong, the Jets have a promising future with the likes of Zach Bogosian and Evander Kane and some intriguing pieces such as Dustin Byfuglien and Andrew Ladd, but they lack veterans and a winning pedigree. Ondrej Pavelec has some proving to do in net as well. Why : Once a Western Conference powerhouse, the Stars have financial and ownership concerns, which has negatively impacted the team.
The team lost Brad Richards to free agency and didn't replace him the best pick up they had was Michael Ryder. If Kari Lehtonen can stay healthy for another season it will only help the Stars, but that's hardly a scenario to count on. Loui Eriksson should continue his rise to stardom, but Dallas needs Jamie Benn to step up offensively if they hope to exceed expectations.
The defense is a little suspect and the acquisition of Sheldon Souray only bolsters that point. Why : The patience of this team has to begin paying off this season. After years of embarrassment and struggling, the Islanders should start showing some progress. There are a lot of pieces to like on this team and as long as the injury bug doesn't hit like it did last year in knocking Mark Streit off the defense corps, it should all start coming together.
As usual, goaltending is an area of concern on the island. Will Al Montoya be able to keep up his surprising play from the end of last season? And we have to ask yet again: will Rick DiPietro ever live up to his long-term contract? At least the Isles don't have to deal with a conference as difficult as the West's 12th seed and have a little more room for error.
Why : There's no doubt GM Scott Howson was swinging for the fences this off-season trying to get his team back to the playoffs. Ranking in the bottom one-third of the league in goals for and against last season, Howson's acquisitions of Jeff Carter and James Wisniewski certainly added an offensive tinge to the roster. Still, this club will live and die with its goalie Steve Mason who, after winning the Calder Trophy in , has had back-to-back seasons with a GAA over 3.
The Jackets were last in the Central in and despite a couple of upgrades there's no guarantee they'll be able to climb out from that spot in a tough division. Why : Which Devils team will start the season? Will it be the one that broke out of the gate at a snail's pace last season and ultimately forced the team short of a playoff spot for the first time since ? Or will it be the one that caught fire down the stretch and played as the NHL's best second-half team?
The Devils defense isn't what it was in their championship days and Martin Brodeur is only a year older. The offense has to find a way to click and new coach Peter DeBoer, who didn't win anything in Florida, has a difficult task ahead. In the end, the Devils are somewhere in between a basement-dweller and a playoff team. Why : Few teams had an overhaul like the Wild and it will be interesting to see how it all comes together. Brent Burns and Martin Havlat were the two biggest pieces moved, replaced by Dany Heatley and Devin Setoguchi, an uncharacteristic upgrade on offense.
With new coach Mike Yeo in charge, perhaps the Wild really will shift from a defense-first mindset to an all-in offense for the first time. With Niklas Backstrom still between the pipes anything is possible on any night, but the defense corps needs some work and they lack much depth at center, a crucial position in the NHL. The Western Conference is full of stronger lineups, so the Wild have an uphill battle ahead, but at least the summer moves were lauded as a positive.
Why : The Maple Leafs are showing progress and are at least moving in the right direction after making a few noteworthy acquisitions in the summer. Liles is younger than Kaberle and is coming off his best points-per-game season of his career so his continued production is crucial.
But perhaps the most crucial player on the roster is goaltender James Reimer, who showed flashes of brilliance last season and has Maple Leafs fans giddy they have finally found another goalie.
Toronto is still lacking a forceful, big-bodied center and that is an area that will hold them back. Why : The ageing Flames missed the post-season last year so after a summer of little change it's hard to anticipate much improvement. If the Flames get off to a rocky start and are out of the playoff picture shortly after mid-season, will Jarome Iginla be traded for futures?
How often do you see a team score at a better clip in the playoffs than it does in the regular season? Edge: Boston. DEFENSE The Canucks are, for the most part, getting some outstanding defensive play from the back end, but the big edge for Vancouver is their defensemen are getting heavily involved in the offensive aspect of the game. Like the regular season, the Bruins are giving up a ton of shots per game and putting an unhealthy reliance on their goaltending. Tim Thomas has alternated between brilliant and brutal, sometimes within the space of a couple of minutes and there is no doubt he has not been near as good or consistent in the playoffs as he was in the regular season.
But the thing the Bruins like most about Thomas is that when they really, really need a save, he has been there to give it to them.
Vigneault has not been afraid to lean heavily on his top players and let his fourth-liners watch from the bench if he feels that will give his team an edge. Edge: Even. But the Canucks have had a much harder road, facing much more difficult teams, on their way to the Stanley Cup final and have persevered, which will serve them well in the last round.
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