Thoughts From My Couch

For my money, the Central Division is the toughest division to call this season. There is one team (Chicago) destined to finish in last, and the rest could easily finish anywhere from #1 to #7. It's arguably the best division in the league. Of course, the preseason hype could turn into a runaway train for one team, while others fail to impress. Just ask the Nashville Predators what that is like.  As promised, here are my predictions for the division last season that turned out to be a "little" off. Honestly, I felt I did an okay job predicting the Central last season, but there were two big exceptions: Nashville makes the playoffs over Minnesota and St. Louis (the Predators finished 7th and were easily the most disappointing team, while the Wild and the Blues finished 4th and 5th, respectively) Winnipeg is a Wild Card team (the Jets won the President's Trophy) 8. Chicago Blackhawks This is the only prediction I'm fairly confident in for the division this season. F...

There has been a lot of news coming out of the Atlantic Division in the last few days, especially for the defending champions. The league has witnessed complete dominance by the Atlantic over the last eight years, more specifically, the state of Florida. The division has represented the Eastern Conference in the Stanley Cup Final in each of the last eight seasons, with the 2021 Final featuring both Tampa and Montreal because of the realignment. The Lightning and the Panthers have combined for six straight appearances, winning a pair each. Can they make it nine in a row over the Metropolitan Division, or is their run set to end? Keeping to my word, here are my predictions regarding the Atlantic Division from last season that aged very poorly once April and May rolled around. This one was a mess, if I'm being honest: Florida wins the division (they finished 3rd, but I doubt picking the defending champions to win the division was hardly a hot take) Ottawa and Montreal finishes 7th and...