It’s my Parting Shot for the, as promised, first of a two-part, maybe three-part, maybe two-and-a-half-part preview of the 2023-24 N-H-L season – because I don’t want to talk about the Saskatchewan Roughriders and lose my cool in doing so!…..
We’ll start with the Eastern Conference today and make many of you lose your appetite as I buy into the over-hyped Toronto Maple Leafs as the Atlantic Division AND Eastern Conference first place finishers! Remember, this is regular-season that we are talking about and the Buds will out-score any potential goaltending or defence issues most games.
While Toronto will be far and away the Atlantic Division pennant-winner, the race for the Metropolitan Division title will be close between Carolina and New Jersey. I’ve got the Hurricanes over the Devils because of a superior team game guided by the coaching of Rod Brind’amour, who should be a Coach-of-the-Year favourite this season!
The other playoff teams will be Buffalo and Boston, second and third – in that order – after Toronto, in the Atlantic while the Rangers will finish third behind Carolina and New Jersey in the Metropolitan group. The wild-card teams will both come from the Atlantic Division – Florida and Tampa Bay. Ottawa will just miss the post-season, rallying under a new head coach as D-J Smith will be one of the first coaching casualties of the season as the Senators get out of the gate slowly again!
The 10th through 16th place finishers, in order, will be Pittsburgh, Washington, the Islanders, Columbus, Detroit, Montreal and Philadelphia. Yes, Erik Karlsson won’t be able to push Sid the Kid and Geno Malkin into the post-season, Ovi and the Capitals aren’t a threat anymore while the Habs and Flyers are no where near what they were in the 70s!
I’ll look at the Western Conference tomorrow and give you a Stanley Cup winner on Thursday as this will be a three-part preview!
That’s my Parting Shot. I’m Les Lazaruk…and it turned out nice again!…..