PowerPlayGoal.com – Hockey From A Different Angle

The 2008-09 NHL season is now finished. The Detroit Red Wings stormed through the playoffs only to meet the Pittsburgh Penguins in the Stanley Cup Final again. This time however, Pittsburgh returned the favour by ending Detroit’s defence of the Championship in their own city.

This six part series will consist of brief, but informal summaries of every team’s performance this season. Part 3 will be covering the Southeast Division.

Atlanta Thrashers

Final standings: 35W, 41L, 6OTL, 76 points, 4th Southeast, 13th Eastern Conference, 27th NHL

Not much can be said for the Thrashers this year as, in a similar fashion to the Buffalo Sabres and Toronto Maple Leafs, they ended up with a near identical overall record than last season. They played poorly all season long up until March when they started winning more games, earning a 9-4-0 record… but sadly it was already too late, as once again the Atlanta Thrashers finished right near the bottom of the League standings.

Carolina Hurricanes

Final standings: 45W, 30L, 7OTL, 97 points, 2nd Southeast, 6th Eastern Conference, 11th NHL

Prior to this season, fan favourite Glen Wesley, after playing for 20 seasons in the NHL and 10 for Carolina, retired from professional hockey. Despite this, the Canes marginally improved on their previous season, playing fairly consistently for the majority of the season and earning a playoff spot for the first time since 2006. Along the way, on November 7th head coach Peter Laviolette made American NHL history by recording the most wins by a US born head coach with his 240th victory, in which his Hurricanes beat Ottawa 2-1… but shortly afterwards on December 2nd, he was fired and replaced by Paul Maurice. Come playoff time, Carolina made it all the way to the Conference Finals, having defeated both New Jersey and Boston in 7 games in the first two rounds, but their season was brought to an end as they were swept by eventual Stanley Cup Champions Pittsburgh.

Florida Panthers

Final standings: 41W, 30L, 11OTL, 93 points, 3rd Southeast, 9th Eastern Conference, 14th NHL

During the offseason, former head coach Jacques Martin moved up and became the Cats’ general manager, while Peter DeBoer signed a multiyear contract to take his place as head coach. After a slow start during the first two months, the Florida Panthers quickly began to play better hockey, improving in all areas over their previous season record, earning eight more points and finishing higher up in the standings… but sadly, it wasn’t quite enough as the Montreal Canadiens, with an identical record but with more goals scored, prevented Florida from making the number 8 seed in the Conference standings, making this the eighth consecutive season in which they failed to qualify. Interestingly, despite missing the playoffs, the Panthers still managed to earn a better overall record than the bottom three seeded Western Conference playoff teams: St. Louis, Columbus and Anaheim, in that order.

Tampa Bay Lightning

Final standings: 24W, 40L, 18OTL, 66 points, 5th Southeast, 14th Eastern Conference, 29th NHL

Prior to their 2008-09 campaign, the Bolts made a load of offseason changes such as introducing a new third jersey with… well, “BOLTS” across the front. The team was also bought by film and TV producer Oren Koules, Barry Melrose was signed as head coach despite having not coached since 1995, trades were made, and fan favourite Vincent Lecavalier was named team captain once again, after he was stripped of the honour at the start of the 2001-02 season. After returning from Prague in two games against the Rangers, the Lightning played abysmal hockey for the first two months, resulting in Melrose being fired and replaced by interim head coach Rick Tocchet (who would eventually sign a 2 year contract with the Lightning), after which Tampa Bay continued to play horribly, finishing with a worse record than last season and as the NHL’s second worst team. If there was one interesting thing to point out about this team, that would be the fact that they finished with the most overtime losses by any NHL club, with the next highest team being Toronto, who had 13.

Washington Capitals

Final standings: 50W, 24L, 8OTL, 108 points, 1st Southeast, 2nd Eastern Conference, 4th NHL

After making the playoffs for the first time in five years and being eliminated in the first round last season, it became evident afterwards that the Washington Capitals wanted more. As if just making the playoffs last year wasn’t good enough, this year’s Caps greatly improved on their previous record, winning more games, shooting further up in the standings and earning 14 more points, finishing as one of the best teams in the league. The 108 points earned by the Capitals this season set a new franchise record, beating the previous record of 107 set by the 1985/86 Caps. Come playoff time, Washington beat the New York Rangers in 7 games in the first round, and in the second round they were faced off against the Pittsburgh Penguins, in a clash of the NHL’s favourite two players Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin, who’s Capitals were able to stretch the series to game 7, before being defeated by Pittsburgh who went on to win the Cup.

That’s it for the Eastern Conference, and Part 4 will begin covering the West, starting with the Central Division.

The 2008-09 NHL season is now finished. The Detroit Red Wings stormed through the playoffs only to meet the Pittsburgh Penguins in the Stanley Cup Final again. This time however, Pittsburgh returned the favour by ending Detroit’s defence of the Championship in their own city.

This six part series will consist of brief, but informal summaries of every team’s performance this season. Part 2 will cover the Northeast Division.

Boston Bruins

Final standings: 53W, 19L, 10OTL, 116 points, 1^st Northeast, 1^st Eastern Conference, 2^nd NHL

After signing players such as Michael Ryder and Stephane Yelle, high expectations were raised for Boston. The B’s lived up to said expectations, as they looked to improve on their previous season in which they made the playoffs for the first time since 2004. The team’s best months this season were November (11-1-1) and December (12-1-0), and during this time period, Phil Kessel managed to equal Ed Olczyk’s record for the longest point streak by a US born player in NHL history, with an 18 point game streak. The Bruins finished the season atop the Eastern Conference, and in the first round of the playoffs met the eighth seeded Montreal Canadiens, sweeping them for the third time in history and making the second round for the first time since 1998-99. In the second round, their opponents were the Carolina Hurricanes. The Bruins were down 3-1 after the first four games, and then made a valiant attempt to prolong the series to game 7, in which they were eventually defeated.

Buffalo Sabres

Final standings: 41W, 32L, 9OTL, 91 points, 3^rdNortheast, 10^th Eastern Conference, 18^th NHL

The Buffalo Sabres unveiled a freakin’ sweet third jersey prior to this season: an updated version of their original blue jersey in the team’s current colours. Not much else can be said for the Sabres this year, as they did very little to improve on their previous season, finishing with a near identical record, even finishing in the exact same position in the conference and league standings, although they did earn one more point. Once again, just like last year, they only just missed the playoffs, and had they won at least one more game, they would have had Montreal’s eighth place seed in the standings, having scored just one more goal than the Habs this year.

Montreal Canadiens

Final standings: 41W, 30L, 11OTL, 93 points, 2^nd Northeast, 8^th Eastern Conference, 13^th NHL

Much of this organisation’s season was spent celebrating the franchise’s 100^th anniversary, and as part of the celebrations, they were allowed to host both the 2009 All Star game and the Entry Draft. The celebrations may have affected the Canadiens’ performance this season, as they did significantly worse than last year, when they were the number one seeded team in the East. This time around, they only just beat the Florida Panthers to the number eight spot: both teams had an identical overall record, although Montreal scored more goals than the Panthers, thus making the playoffs. Much like last year, they met division rivals the Boston Bruins, only to be swept. Happy Centennial indeed, Montreal…

Ottawa Senators

Final standings: 36W, 35L, 11OTL, 83 points, 4^th Northeast, 11^th Eastern Conference, 22^nd NHL

The Sens started their campaign with numerous personnel changes, hiring new head coach Craig Hartsburg, letting go of players such as goalie Ray Emery, signing three returning forwards and many free agents. For the first two games the Senators flew over to Sweden to play against the Pittsburgh Penguins, and the two teams split both games. Going back to North America, Ottawa would play very mediocre hockey until Hartsburg was fired in February, and replaced by the AHL Binghamton Senators’ previous coach Cory Clouston, under who the NHL Sens played much better hockey for the rest of the season. Sadly, it wasn’t enough for them to make the playoffs, but look for them to be better next year.

Toronto Maple Leafs

Final standings: 34W, 35L, 13OTL, 83 points, 5^th Northeast, 12^th Eastern Conference, 24^th NHL

Much like division rivals the Buffalo Sabres; the Leafs posted a near identical record to last season, finishing with exactly the same amount of points, and the exact same places in the standings. Expectations weren’t high for Toronto, because of their young roster, and said expectations proved to be correct. Partway into the season, interim general manager Cliff Fletcher moved aside to let former Anaheim GM Brian Burke take his place, and is now a senior advisor to the team. The Maple Leafs played a little better near the end of the season; however they failed to qualify for the playoffs for the fourth consecutive season. Brian Burke will be rebuilding the Leafs, so expect the team to be very defence heavy. Perhaps expect him to shorten the team’s name to the Toronto Leafs and change the logo to a boring wordmark as well.

Coming up next in Part 3 will be the Southeast Division.

The 2008-09 NHL season is now finished. The Detroit Red Wings stormed through the playoffs only to meet the Pittsburgh Penguins in the Stanley Cup Final again. This time however, Pittsburgh returned the favour by ending Detroit’s defence of the Championship in their own city.

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

New Jersey Devils

Final standings: 51W, 27L, 4OTL, 106 points, 1^st Atlantic, 4^th Eastern Conference, 5^th NHL

This year’s Devils squad overall did slightly better than last year’s, beating the previous points tally by 7 points, with a particularly good part of the season being an eight game winning streak during January, although a seven game slump near the end prevented them from gaining a higher playoff spot. For the second straight postseason, the Devils couldn’t get any further than the first round, losing in game 7 of an evenly matched series with eventual Conference finalists the Carolina Hurricanes.

New York Islanders

Final standings: 26W, 47L, 9OTL, 61 points, 5^th Atlantic, 15^th EC, 30^th NHL

Prior to this season, the Isles brought back an old jersey from their early years in the 70s as a rather nice third uniform. Unfortunately, not much more good would come for this team as the piss-poor managed Islanders finished with the worst record in the league, also suffering from the misery of being the only team from the Atlantic Division to miss the playoffs. Anyone remember their embarrassing 22 game 2-17-3 record through December and January? I certainly wouldn’t want to if I were a fan of this team. On an upside, the Isles won the 2009 draft lottery, choosing Jon Tavares of the OHL’s London Knights as the Number 1 overall draft pick in Montreal.

New York Rangers

Final standings: 43W, 30L, 9OTL, 95 points, 4^th Atlantic, 7^th EC, 12^th NHL

After a disappointing preseason tournament, the Blueshirts spent some time in Europe, winning 8-1 in an exhibition game against SC Bern of Switzerland, and then defeating Metallurg Magnitogorsk 4-3 to win the inaugural Victoria Cup (Yay?), soon going to Prague, Czech Rebublic for two regular season games against Tampa Bay, winning both games 2-1. After these two games and going back to North America, the Rangers began with their best start in franchise history, going 10-2-1 over the first 13 games, and had a pretty good season except for a 14 game 2-8-4 slump through the end of January and into February. During the first round of the playoffs, the Rangers met up with the Washington Capitals and appeared to have the upper hand after game 4 with a 3-1 series lead. Unfortunately for them, the Caps bounced right back and won the next 3 games, taking the series away from them in game 7, no thanks to head coach John Tortorella’s suspension after a quarrel with a fan during game 5.

Philadelphia Flyers

Final standings: 44W, 27L, 11OTL, 99 points, 3^rd Atlantic, 5^th EC, 9^th NHL

The Philadelphia Flyers this year got off to a good start during the early months of the season, with an 8 game points streak (7-0-1) in November and a 7 game point streak (6-0-1) in December. For most of the season, they held onto the number 4 spot in the playoffs, but the inconsistent hockey they played for the rest of the year eventually cost them their home ice advantage in the playoffs. Much like two of their division rivals, the Flyers weren’t able to make it past the first round as they lost in 6 games to state rivals Pittsburgh. During the offseason, the Flyers were able to boost their defence by acquiring Chris Pronger from the Anaheim Ducks, so look for the Flyers to have a much tougher presence on the ice, as well as… well, more Pronger hate by other teams’ fans being directed onto them.

Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins

Final standings: 45W, 28L, 9OTL, 99 points, 2^nd Atlantic, 4^th EC, 8^th NHL

After going back to North America after two games in Sweden with the Ottawa Senators, the Pens started off fairly good, until December and January when they suddenly started playing inconsistently, posting a 10-16-2 record over the two months. During February, head coach Michel Therrien was fired and replaced by Dan Bylsma, previously the coach of the AHL Penguins, and for the rest of the season the Penguins played far more consistently, and under their new head coach posted a record of 18-3-4, losing only one home game. Their sudden rise in the standings allowed them to gain home ice advantage over Philadelphia, beating them 4-2 in the first round, and then moving on to the second round to defeat the Washington Capitals in 7, sweeping the Carolina Hurricanes in the Conference Finals and then, like last year, met Detroit in the Stanley Cup Final, making this the first time in 25 years that two teams met in back to back Cup Finals. Detroit held the home ice advantage for this series, and for the first 6 games the home team came out as the victor. However, Pittsburgh won 2-1 in a very tight game 7 in Detroit, winning their third Stanley Cup in franchise history.

Stay tuned for Part 2 as the Northeast Division will be covered.