Eastern Conference

The Eastern conference will be much tighter next season. All last season playoff qualifiers have improved their squad except Tampa Bay Lightning and Pittsburgh Penguins. Pittsburgh will be getting their three best centers Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Jordan Staal back for a full season after an injury plagued one. Out of those three Sidney Crosby played 41 games, Jordan Staal 42 and Evgeni Malkin 43 and only Jordan Staal appeared in the playoffs.

Philadelphia Flyers is an interesting team too. They did lose two all star centers, but they did bring in quality goaltendig which the team previously lacked. Also the departures of Ville Leino and Daniel Carcillo are notable but i believe that they are covered with Jakub Voracek and Waynne Simmonds, though they are right wingers not left... It is hard to say if they lost or gained during the offseason and i will let time show that.
Although they got Brayden Schenn and Sean Couturier who are tipped to be quite good in the future so maybe i should let the next season to show if they gained or not, because in long, term they did.

Tampa Bay Lightning lost Simone Gagne who had a quiet season with only 40 points, but who did contribute five goals and 7 assists in his 15 playoff games. Also the loss of another left winger Sean Bergenheim, who also had a nice playoff spring, might be hard to cope with, but they still have low factors on betting sites so they seem to believe that they will do well. Just so that it is not unclear to anyone i disagree.

All three just playoff qualified teams Montreal, Buffalo and Rangers improved their squad and should finish above the playoff line again next year. Washington, Boston, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia should also go through so the two left fighting for the last spot are Tampa and Toronto. Just to make a difference for last year, i say Toronto.

The Eastern Conference table as i predict it to be:

1. Washington Capitals
2. Pittsburgh Penguins
3. Philadelphia Flyers
4. Boston Bruins
5. New York Rangers
6. Montreal Canadiens
7. Buffalo Sabres
8. Toronto Maple Leafs
9. Tampa Bay Lightning
10. Carolina Hurricanes
11. Winnipeg Jets
12. New Jersey Devils
13. Florida Panthers
14. New York Islanders
15. Ottawa Senators

The Eastern conference is tougher than last year with more quality and competition. Out of the seven smallest factor teams to win the Stanley Cup five are from the Eastern Conference. (At least with Expekt that i use, if you use some other company the factors might be different.) Then again out of the five biggest factor teams four are from the Eastern Conference, but that only makes sense if the better teams play in that conference.