With opening night nearly upon us, we reveal which teams will make the Cup Final, the clubs poised to make the playoffs and who'll be on the outside looking in.
As is tradition, I reached out to the general manager of my Stanley Cup champion-in-waiting to let him know what's coming.Ken Holland, general manager of the Edmonton Oilers:"Oh boy."are generational talents on the same team, and that eventually that kind of partnership leads to a Stanley Cup win. Like it did for Gretzky and Messier, for Mario and Jagr, for Sakic and Forsberg and for Crosby and Malkin.
"Yeah, I mean, you can stomp your feet and say all the things you want," he said."It doesn't really matter unless, you know, there are some things that need to go your way when it matters most."Who will they defeat for the franchise's first Stanley Cup since 1990?Alas, this does mean that the Cup will return to Canada for the first time since 1993. It's been a good run, my fellow Americans.
Auston Matthews and the Leafs are a supremely talented team that has yet to make a serious run at the Cup. in the first round. It felt apocalyptic for the franchise. Squandering the best regular season in NHL history was a gut punch. Losingand David Krejci -- as well as some other key veterans due to the salary cap -- was a right hook that sent Boston crashing to the mat.
But what makes that speed really scary, and led to their 49-point improvement in the standings year over year, was how they used it defensively. Coach Lindy Ruff helped get players like Jack Hughes to buy into using pressure defense and smartly getting back off the rush to protect their own zone. Their offense was already trending up in 2021-22. But their expected goals against per 60 at 5-on-5 basically jumped across the Grand Canyon in a motorcycle from 14th to fifth.
But the genius of the Karlsson trade for GM Kyle Dubas wasn't just adding the superior Swede. It was tossing so much baggage overboard to lighten the load for Pittsburgh. That helped enable them to afford former Golden Knights glue guyThe average age of the 2023-24 Pittsburgh Penguins carbon dates back to the Mesozoic Era, so the caveat is, as always, health.
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