The 2006-07 NHL season is now finished. After dropping an adjective from their name, the mighty Anaheim Ducks took the NHL by storm and went on to win their first ever Stanley Cup.

This inaugural edition of The Aftermath is a six-part series which will consist of brief summaries of every team’s performance this season. Part 3 will be covering the Southeast Division.

Atlanta Thrashers

Final standings: 43W, 28L, 11OTL, 97 points, 1^st Southeast, 3^rd Eastern Conference, 12^th NHL

The Atlanta Thrashers had a very good 7^th season, this one being the most successful in franchise history. With the help of off-season acquisitions of veterans such as Steve Rucchin, Niko Kapanen and Jon Sim, the Thrashers took the top spot in the Southeast division, after fighting over it with division rivals the Tampa Bay Lightning, and made the playoffs for the first time. However, their first playoff series was an unsuccessful one, in which they were swept by Rucchin’s former team the New York Rangers in 4 games, making them the only team in the 2007 playoffs to be swept in a series.

Carolina Hurricanes

Final standings: 40W, 34L, 8OTL, 88 points, 3^rd Southeast, 11^th Eeastern Conference, 20^th NHL

The Hurricanes entered the 2006-07 NHL season as the defending champions of the Stanley Cup. Not many changes were made to the roster from last season, as they hoped for a repeat of their Cup Championship: big mistake. The Carolina Hurricanes had a very difficult season, due to injuries, bad performance from younger players, and teams knowing how to beat them, and they ended up missing the playoffs completely. The Edmonton Oilers, last season’s Western Conference Champions, also missed the playoffs, making the 2007 season the first time in NHL history that both of the previous Stanley Cup finalists missed the playoffs.

Florida Panthers

Final standings: 35W, 31L, 16OTL, 86 points, 4^th Southeast, 12^th Eastern Conference, 21^st NHL

For the Florida Panthers, this season was not much different to their 2005-06 campaign. They finished in the exact same place on the standings, and only earned 1 point higher than they did last year. At the start of the season, the Panthers acquired three veteran players: Todd Bertuzzi (later traded to Detroit), Alex Auld and Bryan Allen from Vancouver. Bertuzzi and Allen would aid the Panthers in some high scoring games, but Auld was only on the ice for 27 games in favour of Florida’s number one goaltender Ed Belfour, who played 57. These changes didn’t help the Panthers too much, as their record was again not much different from last season’s, and they finished in 4^th place in the Southeast Division for the fifth straight season.

Tampa Bay Lightning

Final standings: 44W, 33L, 5OTL, 93 points, 2^nd Southeast, 7^th Eastern Conference, 16^th NHL

For the Tampa Bay Lightning, the earlier parts of the season were very bumpy, as they alternated from winning and losing far too often. March was spent fighting against division rivals the Atlanta Thrashers for the top spot in the Southeast Division, switching places with them very often; however the Bolts eventually lost that spot to Atlanta by just 4 points, and had to live with being in 7^th. Come playoff time, the Lightning hoped to get past the first round after a disappointingly quick exit in 2005-06, however they lost to the New Jersey Devils, 4 games to 2.

Washington Capitals

Final standings: 28W, 40L, 14OTL, 70 points, 5^th Southeast, 14^th Eastern Conference, 27^th NHL

The Washington Capitals had a very disappointing season, sitting at the bottom of the Southeast division all year. The Caps’ star player, Alexander Ovechkin, led the team in scoring (46), assists (46) and points (92), and was their lone representative at the All-Star game in January. At the end, the Caps missed the playoffs for the third straight season (not counting the lockout), finished at the bottom of their division for the third straight season, and finished with the exact same points total as in 2005-06. Another downside for the Caps is that their attendance was low for most of the season, with their lowest being 10,125 people.

That’s it for the East, and coming up in Part 4 will be the Western Conference, starting with the Central Division.