PowerPlayGoal.com – Hockey From A Different Angle

Here is part 2 of the Aftermath series, in which the Northeast Division will be covered.

Boston Bruins

Final standings: 41W, 29L, 12OTL, 94 points, 3^rd Northeast, 8^th Eastern Conference, 15^th NHL

Before this season started, the Boston Bruins were one of the first teams to unveil their brand new RBK EDGE jerseys and logo, which despite initial fears (as in before the jerseys were revealed) turned out to be an immense improvement over their previous design. The team’s performance also improved, as the Bruins moved up from fifth place last season to third this year. Boston had an overall OK season, and made the playoffs for the first time since 2004, the year before the lockout. Unfortunately for them, their playoff run wouldn’t last very long as they lost in the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals against the Montreal Canadiens in 7 games (which ironically also happened in 2004).

Buffalo Sabres

Final standings: 39W, 31L, 12OTL, 90 points, 4^thNortheast, 10^th Eastern Conference, 18^th NHL

After being a favourite pick by many to win the Stanley Cup, as well as being the overall best team in the league last season, the Buffalo Sabres instead put an a much more disappointing performance for their 2007-08 campaign. They didn’t completely suck however, and the better moment this year included a six game winning streak in December, and a streak of ten games from January 24^th to February 13^thin which they got at least a point in each of those games: the streak included 8 wins and 2 shootout losses. Despite accumulating a fairly large 90 points by the end of the season, the Sabres just missed the playoffs by 4 points: had they won at least two more games, they would have had Boston’s 8^th place spot in the Eastern Conference standings.

Montreal Canadiens

Final standings: 47W, 25L, 10OTL, 104 points, 1^st Northeast, 1^st Eastern Conference, 3^rd NHL

After just missing the playoffs in 2007, this year’s Canadiens were a force to be reckoned with. They pretty much ruled the Eastern Conference standings all season long, and in the end finished with a massive 104 points, and the only bad moment Montreal ever really had during the regular season was an odd slump in November in which they went through a streak of win-loss-win-loss games. During the playoffs, they defeated old-time rivals the Boston Bruins in 7 games in the Eastern Quaerterfinals (which for whatever reason resulted in Montreal fans rioting…); however they lost in the next round to the Philadelphia Flyers in 5… And yet, the fans didn’t riot. Weird.

Ottawa Senators

Final standings: 43W, 31L, 8OTL, 94 points, 2^nd Northeast, 7^th Eastern Conference, 13^th NHL

After losing in last year’s Stanley Cup Final against Anaheim, the Senators were able to get over it as they had a fairly good season: they were pretty much unstoppable throughout October and early November, and a six game winning streak in December also helped them. The Senators didn’t have it so easy during the final four months of the season, partly due to a mixture of change in coaching staff and injuries to key players such as Dany Heatley, with more players like Chris Kelly, Daniel Alfredsson and Mike Fisher being injured during the final week of the season, making them unable to play during the playoffs, in which the Senators were swept by the Pittsburgh Penguins in the first round, making them the only team to be swept in the quarterfinals.

Toronto Maple Leafs

Final standings: 36W, 35L, 11OTL, 83 points, 5^th Northeast, 12^th Eastern Conference, 24^th NHL

Let’s just say that this season probably isn’t worth remembering for Toronto. The Leafs consistently played poorly for the majority of the season, with only a small number of winning streaks lasting no longer than 3-4 games, and due to this performance they inevitably ended up missing the playoffs for the third straight season. Because of the team’s lacklustre play in recent years, General Manager John Ferguson Jr. was fired and replaced by Cliff Fetcher in January. For all we know, there’s a chance that the Leafs may get off to a fresh new start next season under their new GM.

Part 3 of this series will be up soon, and it will cover the Southeast Division.

The 2007-08 NHL season is now finished. The Detroit Red Wings stormed through the playoffs and won this year’s Stanley Cup. The NHL draft is coming up soon, and as ever, we will probably also expect some blockbuster trades during the summer.

This six part series will consist of brief summaries of every team’s performance this season, starting with the Atlantic Division.

New Jersey Devils

Final standings: 46W, 29L, 7OTL, 99 points, 2^nd Atlantic, 4^th Eastern Conference, 6^th NHL

This season saw the Devils move into a new arena, the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey, and the team also had a new head coach, Brent Sutter, who signed with the team on July 13^th, 2007. The Devils were notable for playing their first 9 games on the road, until finally playing their home opener on October 27^th VS the Ottawa Senators. New Jersey also had a fairly bumpy start to the season, earning only 16 points in their first 19 games, though they quickly made up for this by winning the next 9 games in a row. The Devils were fairly consistent this year, despite the occasional losing streaks, and attendance also saw a 14% increase from last year. Unfortunately for the Devils, they didn’t last very long in the postseason despite having home-ice advantage over division rivals the New York Rangers, who easily beat them 4 games to 1 in the first round.

New York Islanders

Final standings: 35W, 38L, 9OTL, 79 points, 5^th Atlantic, 13^th Eastern Conference, 26^th NHL

This year marked the 35^th anniversary of the New York Islanders, although their ‘celebration’ probably wasn’t worth remembering. Firstly, the Isles introduced a new jersey to go with the league’s switch to the RBK EDGE uniform system, which didn’t go down quite as well with some fans of the team (even though it’s still a million times better than that fisherman jersey… don’t get me started on that again). The team also performed much worse than last season, suffering from a 6 game losing streak which killed all hopes of them making the playoffs, which instead made the Islanders the only team from the Atlantic Division to miss the playoffs this year. However, the Islanders saw an increase in attendance this year, although this didn’t stop them from having the worst attendance record in the league.

New York Rangers

Final standings: 42W, 27L, 13OTL, 97 points, 3^rd Atlantic, 5^th EC, 9^th NHL

This year’s Blueshirts had a difficult start to their season in October, although their performance was far better in November. December then saw the Rangers putting on a slightly sloppy performance which carried on through January. However, after January they played with much more consistency, losing only 5 games in regulation during the last few months of the regular season. The first round of the playoffs saw the Rangers facing off against division rivals the New Jersey Devils, who had previously beat them 4 games to 1 in the 2006-07 playoffs. This time however, The Rangers returned the favour, beating the Devils in 5 games and advancing to the second round, which was as far as they would get as they were defeated by the Pittsburgh Penguins in 5.

Philadelphia Flyers

Final standings: 42W, 29L, 11OTL, 95 points, 4^th Atlantic 6^th EC, 11^th NHL

Remember last year’s Philadelphia Flyers? The team that finished last place in league standings, and posted the worst season in franchise history? Thankfully, the Flyers were able to put all that behind them, as this time around they improved greatly, playing good hockey for the majority of the season, with their only bad times being a slight slump in December, and a 10 game winless streak in February. The Broad Street Bullies made the playoffs, and in the first round they beat the Washington Capitals in a nail-biting seven game series. They then surprised everyone by defeating the Eastern Conference best Montreal Canadiens in 5 games, and then they made it to the Conference Finals, the furthest they would get, as cross-state rivals the Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Flyers in 5 games.

Pittsburgh Penguins

Final standings: 47W, 24L, 11OTL, 105 points, 1^st Atlantic, 2^nd EC, 4^th NHL

The Pittsburgh Penguins had a brilliant season, after finishing near the very bottom in 2006, and announcing that they were not relocating anywhere in 2007. The perfect thing to top all of this off for them would have been a Stanley Cup championship: sadly for them, the Finals were as close as they got this year, so they’ll have to settle with the Prince of Wales trophy. During the regular season, the Penguins got off to a fairly good start in October, and then lost the majority of their games played in November. Afterwards, Pittsburgh pretty much played solid hockey for the rest of the season. During the playoffs, the Pens swept the Ottawa Senators, and then went on to win against the New York Rangers in 5, and the Philadelphia Flyers in 5 afterwards. In the Finals however, they lost to Detroit in 6 games. Another memorable moment for the Penguins this year was when they played against the Buffalo Sabres in the inaugural Winter Classic, an outdoor game played in Buffalo, in which the Penguins won 2-1 in a shootout.

Part 2 of this series will be coming up shortly, and the Northeast Division will be covered then.

I hate that track by Freddie Le Grand, but it seems to be fitting for this article.

I guess a congratulations are in order to Detroit, who once again have destroyed pretty much any team that dared step in their path on the road to victory.

For the last season, this team had ruled the division, striking fear into any rival teams fan base, who would always have to look on the brighter side, at statistics, data to make them feel confident in their team winning. For a team that lost just 21 games last season however, supporting the Red Wings was most likely just a usual, yup – we can do it.

The Penguins worked hard, but obviously their power was no match for the cannons of Detroit, losing epically in the first game of the final series and pulling themselves up from the rubble and conquering them in the third. An intense set of OT periods in the fifth game gave a final glimmer of hope to the Pens, but it was not to happen, and after a great attempt, they fell like the 10 other teams did before them.

All in all, its been an interesting series, with the previous champions, Anaheim falling early on, the underdogs of Dallas finally going beyond series one and the collapse of Colorado to Detroit. We will be writing a more detailed report on the ups, the downs and what went on this year in another article, so be sure to stay set for that.

And lastly, for the second time in this century, and millennium the cup will be headed to the crumbling Motor City – I suppose if its any solace for the people of Detroit, their city can defiantly be regarded as one of the great hockey cities of America.

Im KevKev, and if your a Detroit fan, and the hangover is finally lifting, thank you for joining us.