If you get a chance, check out Brian Compton's article on Eastern Conference predictions and players to watch. However, I disagree with the players he thought would be more important to watch for Boston and Pittsburgh.
Compton highlighted Phil Kessel and Jordan Staal, respectively. While I'll stipulate that their sophomore seasons will probably feature more production than their rookie campaign, these aren't the players who I would focus on.
For Boston, the spotlight shines on defenseman Zdeno Chara. Practically, the only shut-down defenseman in the Eastern Conference, the 6-9, 250-pound goliath is practically a brick wall on the blue line. Chara had a dismal 2006-07 season with a career low, minus-21 rating. While Boston's offense is lacking, their defensive corp needs to keep a few more pucks out of the net to give the 219 goals scored last year a chance to win a few more games.
While Jordan Staal lead the league in short-handed goals in his rookie season, the attention should be focused on Evgeni Malkin. Sure, Jordan Staal will always be a nice attention to the power play and penalty kill, but if Malkin can register more points than his 85 (33,52), it will make an incredibly lethal Penguins offense. This would force the opposition to choose who to defend against. Sidney? or Evgeni?
Either way, stopping these two dymanic players will be a challenge (even for Anaheim's defense).
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3 comments:
Interesting takes for sure.
I think the guy to watch this year in Boston has to be Bergeron. He has even been tried on the same line as Savard this year as an experiment and one would have to think that if he can make that transition smoothly that he could have a killer year.
I think you're bang on in Pittsburgh though and I wouldn't be surprised to see Malkin be second in league scoring by the end of the year.
I agree to an extent that Chara has to be viewed as a force on Boston but I think that Kessel will have a breakout season. After having a rough rookie season I think hes gonna be a huge part of Bostons Success or lack there of.
My prediction of the Penguins could be wayy off as I think the player that could have the most improvement from 06-07 will be Sykora. A great finisher for the dominant play-makers Malkin or Crosby could be a vital part of the success of the Pittsburgh Penguins this season !!
I think that for the Bruins to have chance this season, it all comes down to Tim Thomas playing above his skill level. The offense has potential, but only two players about 45 points? Even if Kessel has a break out year and they can get one more good year out of Murray, they're still along way from being an offensive juggernaut. They're about the same on defense, with their top +/- being 5. Lots of improvement. I think you can single out any of a number of people and say that they are the most important factor in the Bruins success this year, but ultimately that means that there are just too many holes.
Having said that, I think Thomas will have to be the stopper when things aren't going well, and he'll have to win some games by himself. Whether or not he is capable of doing that we'll see. His numbers weren't half bad last year, a 3.13 GAA and .905 save percent are certainly respectable. Being respectable isn't going to get the Bruins that far, as evidenced by Thomas' 30-29 record.
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