The 2010-11 NHL season is now finished. After a 39 year drought, the Boston Bruins came out of nowhere and beat the Vancouver Canucks to win their sixth Stanley Cup.

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

Boston Bruins

Final standings: 46W, 25L, 11OTL, 103 points, 1^st Northeast, 3^rd Eastern Conference, 7^th NHL

The Bruins were one of a few teams starting the season in Europe, but they first made history by playing in an exhibition game against the UK based Belfast Giants of the EIHL, who for this game were known as the Belfast Giants Selects as they were made up of stars from around the Elite League. The Giants Selects were clearly still no match for Boston, who beat them by a lopsided score of 5-1. Following this the Bruins flew over to the Czech Republic for another exhibition game against HC Bili Tygri Liberic, beating them 7-1 before the NHL Premiere against the Coyotes in Prague. Going home with a win and a loss against Phoenix, the Bruins went on to have a strong season all around, consistently winning games and having very short losing skids. Before the trade deadline the Bruins clearly wanted to make themselves into a real Cup contender, acquiring a number of players including Chris Kelly from Ottawa and Tomas Kaberle from Toronto: these acquisitions would pay off the for Bruions and make them a force to be reckoned with. In the quarterfinals the Bruins were against playoff foes Montreal, and beat them in a close seven game series which also saw the Bruins become the first NHL team to ever win a seven game series without scoring a power play goal (.com?). Round matched the Bruins up with the very team which eliminated them last season, the Flyers, and returned the favour by sweeping them. In the Conference Finals Boston were up against the Tampa Bay Lightning, and took them to seven games, winning by a score of just 1-0 in game seven, and giving them a ticket to the Stanley Cup Final for the first time since 1990. The Bruins were the apparent underdogs in this series as they lost the first two games in a row before winning the next two, and then losing game 5. However, they then won the next two games and even managed to shut the Canucks out by a lopsided 4-0 in game seven, giving the Bruins their first Stanley Cup win since 1972 and their sixth overall. Bruins goaltender was given the Conn Smythe trophy for his arguably fantastic performance throughout the playoffs.

Buffalo Sabres

Final standings: 43W, 29L, 10OTL, 96 points, 3^rd Northeast, 7^th Eastern Conference, 15^th NHL

The Buffalo Sabres turned 40 this year (technically it was last year, but whatever) and to celebrate the occasion, the team got rid of its widely despised “Buffaslug” logo in favour of promoting the third jersey to full-time home uniform, and wearing a set vaguely reminiscent of their early years in the league, also bringing out a new third uniform for this season in their classic colours, with a wordmark paying tribute to the former Buffalo Bisons. The midway point of this season would also mark the beginning of a new era for the Sabres as they were official sold to Terrance Pegula, who purchased the team from its former ownership group led for $189 million. Mostly positive things for the Sabres, however their regular season got off to a lacklustre start as they posted a 3-7-2 record in October before picking up more wins in the months that followed. Like other teams competing for the lower end playoff spots, the Sabres had an overall better second half and eventually managed to clinch the 7^th overall spot to make the postseason, and in the quarterfinals were matched up against frequent postseason foes the Flyers, who beat them in seven games.

Montreal Canadiens

Final standings: 44W, 30L, 8OTL, 96 points, 2^nd Northeast, 6^th Eastern Conference, 14^th NHL

This year for the Canadiens saw the team quietly ending its two-year centennial celebration. Nothing significant happened with this team before the season began aside from forward Brian Gionta being named team captain, however the Canadiens did play an exhibition game against the Islanders in Quebec City, in which the crowd showed their hunger for a possible future NHL team. The Habs got off to a pretty decent start over the first two months of the season (15-8-1) although they had a nasty ten game slump in December, in which they won only two games. They managed to pick up the pace again in January, but after the All Star break came a three game win streak followed by a slump of nine games (2-5-2), including the Heritage Classic in Calgary in which the Canadiens lost 4-0 to the Flames, currently the most lopsided defeat in an outdoors NHL game. March for the Habs would prove to be just as bumpy as February but with no OT losses, and they clinched a playoff berth with just two games left to play with a 2-1 OT win against Chicago. The Habs wouldn’t get far in the playoffs, although they managed to take their quarterfinal series against the eventual Champion Bruins to seven games.

Ottawa Senators

Final standings: 32W, 40L, 10OTL, 74 points, 5^th Northeast, 13^th Eastern Conference, 26^th NHL

Following their first round exit in the playoffs last year, the Senators were one of the busiest teams during the offseason, signing several players and a new goaltending coach (and former goalie) Rick Wamsley. All four of Ottawa’s RFAs were re-signed while none of their six UFAs stayed with the team. There was also a lot of buzz regarding rumours of the Senators possibly trading away star forward Jason Spezza, but that did not happen. Despite the large number of changes made, Ottawa got off to a very slow start which became a mediocre 11-18-5 record by the end of December. Having then won just a single game and fallen to last place in the East at the end of January (1-7-3), the team accepted that they had no chance of making the postseason, and the Senators decided to start a rebuilding process, trading away long-time players and fan favourites such as Mike Fisher and Chris Kelly to other teams in order to acquire younger players and draft picks. The team managed to improve its overall record slightly in March (9-6-1) but by this point it was too late, and the Senators were only able to bump up to 13^th in the East. Following the final game of the season, GM Bryan Murray fired the team’s coaching staff.

Toronto Maple Leafs

Final standings: 37W, 34L, 11OTL, 85 points, 4^th Northeast, 10^th Eastern Conference, 22^nd NHL

Prior to the season, the Maple Leafs unveiled new jerseys, which feature the team’s classic hemstripes returning to the uniform for the first time since they were removed for the introduction of the Edge system in 2007. Dion Phanuef, acquired from the Flames in January 2010, was named the team’s 18^th captain. The Leafs appeared to be off to a good start in the first four games of the season with a winning streak to open the season, doing this for only the first time since the 1993-94 season in which they opened with 10 wins. This however was immediately followed by a twelve game slump (1-8-3) which carried on into November, and the Leafs were up to their usual disappointing ways right up until the end of 2010. Toronto began to improve in February, losing only two games in regulation for the entire month, and went from having 45 points at the beginning of the month to 63 at the end, and it looked almost as if the Leafs would get a shot at the playoffs; however, a 4-2 win by Buffalo against Tampa Bay on April 5^th eliminated Toronto from playoff contention for the sixth year in a row.

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