The Thursday Coffee Shop is a partner for today’s Daily Cup of Joe which offers an early assessment of the Metropolitan Division.
As many predicted before the start of the 2017-18 season, the Metropolitan Division is shaping up to be the NHL’s best. As of right now, both Eastern Conference wild cards would come from the Metropolitan and as of right now seven teams are clearly in the playoff mix.
Today’s polls and discussion will focus on the division competition.
Carolina Hurricanes polls
Please remember to click ‘vote’ after each individual poll response.
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Discussion questions
Simple, open-ended questions on the Metropolitan Division today…
1) Who is legitimately good and will prove it over the full course of the long NHL season?
2) Who is not good and likely to miss the playoffs?
3) Assuming five teams will make the playoffs from the Metropolitan Division, which three (or maybe four) teams do you think the Hurricanes need to beat out?
Go Canes!
1. Define “good”? – The Metro is a quality division. I think the Flyers are the only weak team – expected given they went with a youth movement this year. The shine is off the Caps and Pens – I think because of moves they during the offseason this would be expected. I think the Devils are real this year. And CBJ is the best of group.
2. Not making the playoffs? – PHI is the only one I am saying for sure. It’s going to be a dogfight. But as dmilleravid reminds us – and I am glad he does – we haven’t found our way yet and we are still in the middle of things. So I view it as CBJ in and PHI out, and the other 6 vying for the remaining 4 spots.
I don’t know if anybody else has been catching this, but outside of Buffalo and Arizona, there is a ridiculous amount of parity this season. Besides those two, every single team in the NHL is within 14 points of each other. So I think raleightj makes an excellent point: ‘Define good’
Tampa Bay and St. Louis look to be in great shape to pull away at some point, but the rest of it is kind of like throwing spaghetti at the wall as far as who is good and who isn’t. Every team seems to be flawed this year.
As far as the Metro, I think the best staying power will be Pittsburgh and the Blue Jackets. The Devils….what a start and they’re showing little sign of slipping, but can Taylor Hall continue his career-best performance throughout the year? Washington will once again go as far as Holtby and Grubauer will take them, which is probably still further than the Canes.
Philly doesn’t have the goaltending but does have the offense for a run, the Islanders likely don’t have the defense and then you have to wonder whether they’re going to trade Tavares before free agency or not, and the Rangers could die of natural causes at any time.
Those would appear to be the three most vulnerable, but the opportunity is there if the Canes can find a level of consistency.
This is going to be one heck of an NHL season, full of drama. Disclaimer: Watching the rest of the 2017-18 Hurricanes will probably not be conducive to those with heart problems. But it will be real exciting.