News on what seems to be an impending sale of the Carolina Hurricanes continues to drip out slowly. If you missed the Monday Coffee Shop, we encourage you to stop by and see what readers had to say in polls and discussion about the potential sale.
The Thursday Coffee Shop steps out of the executive suites and lawyer’s offices and heads back down to the ice. Here at Canes and Coffee we have primarily been focused on the building of the 2017-18 Carolina Hurricanes roster, but today we will take an early look at the rest of the competition in the Metropolitan Division.
See also the Daily Cup of Joe for today which is a companion article that also takes an early look at the Metropolitan Division competition.
Carolina Hurricanes polls
Please remember to click ‘vote’ after each individual poll response.
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Discussion questions
1) If you were to rank the Metropolitan Division without bias, where would the Hurricanes reasonably rank going into the 2017-18 season?
2) What does it take for the Hurricanes to emerge from what will likely be the toughest division in the NHL and claim a playoff spot?
3) Which team(s) stands out as most improved based on off-season moves?
Go Canes!
1. I’d rank us 4th. Pitt and Wsh still have the firepower and goaltending to get in the playoffs, even if the gap will be closer this year. Cbj got Panarin.
2. Win road games, get at least league average goaltending, Aho and Skinner scoring 25+ goals, and Williams getting at least 20. It would hel if at least one of the prspects(Roy, Saarela, Zykov, etc) could make an impact.
3. Devils and Canes. Devils got Johansson, and drafted Hischier. We got Darling, Kruger ,and Williams.
1/ 4th/5th … I put PIT and WAS as Tier 1 teams, CAR, COL, NYR, and NYI as Tier 2 teams, and PHI and NJD in Tier 3. In our Tier, I think our toughest competition is COL but we have a very hard time with NYR head-to-head.
2/ We’re going to need to figure out how to win more games against our division. We’ll have to take care of business against NJ and PHI, and then do much better against COL, NYR, PIT, and WAS. And Scott Darling is going to have to earn his contract.
3/ Actually, NJD is the only team that looks materially better to me. I agree that NYR are a huge wild-card and could be better or much worse. PIT and WAS lost a lot of depth which narrows the margin in case of injury. COL lost offensive depth which was a big part of their success. I have no idea what either NYI or PHI is doing.
I think the only question I will address is (2).
A. We need to win more on the road.
B. We need to do better against our own division.
C. We need to avoid losing streaks.
Sounds easy! 😀
1) I would put the Hurricanes at #4.
2) We need to play much better on the road and need to win more within our division.
3) I would say the Hurricanes by far are the most improved. The other teams either stayed the same or got weaker. NJ may have gotten a little stronger with Johansson and Hischier. Washington got seriously weaker. I kind of wonder if they struggle to make the playoffs? They still have some very strong players, OV, Oshie, backstrom, etc. but they lost a bunch. The outliers to me is if NJ and Philly could do better due to their #1 and #2 draft picks. That could make them more improved if the new guys contribute (not a guarantee, it may take a year or two). It really sucks that the two teams in our division get top draft picks, as if the division was not tough enough already.
1. I see the division in this order: CBJ, PIT, WAS, CAR, PHI, NYR, NYI, NJ. I think this is the year the NY metro teams slide down (NYR = aging and not as deep, NJ is still rebuilding and NYI is a dumpster fire in tow). I see the ‘Canes being a notch better than those teams because our D is better. A close heat with PHI as they may give us a run for our money for that #4 slot.
2. Better goaltending and better depth with added veterans will win us more games.
3. I don’t really see the division as being “much improved”. I think the division was strong last year and thus will be this year.
In my opinion, this is the year you will see changing of the guard. CBJ is young, tough and has awesome goaltending… CAR is probably the most improved in the division, and PHI is also young and capable of taking the last spot.
I think Justin Williams said this the other day, divisions don’t mean much anymore. I think what has more to do with anything is how well the Atlantic division plays. Beyond TOR, MTL and TB, I see OTT sliding a bit, FLA lacking offense and some serious slides with BOS (BUF is just not there yet). Which means 5 playoff spots could come from the Metro and give CAR a better shot.
1. Rank as 4th in the division after Pittsburgh, Rangers, and Capitals.
2. The team must:
a) Win a majority of their games they play against division and conference opponents and win more on the road. Team must be fortunate to avoid long term injuries to critical players.
3. New Jersey and Columbus.
I think I land roughly in the same place as dmilleravid.
Who knows what happens in the playoffs, but barring massive injury problems, I think Pens and Caps have enough goaltending and high-end talent to be near-certain playoff teams.
My second tier is everyone except New Jersey. The Blue Jackets and Rangers have legitimate claims to being in a second tier based on their 2016-17 seasons, but I do not think either are sure things to be there.
Until they prove better, I just do not see New Jersey as doing enough to climb into the playoff mix, but I guess Schneider is their potential X-factor.
Matt. I actually think NJ might be the one team with a chance of over performing. As you say Schneider gives them a chance in almost any game and he had a below-average season in 16-17, so if he has his usual season the Devils are already better. The offense is likely to see uptick from Johansson and Hischier. My guess is a few teams will finish around 88-90 points.
I think the Canes get 95-97, so they should be fine. What they need to do is get improvement from 2 or 3 of the youngsters (Lindholm, Teravainen, Hanifin, Rask) and solid play from Staal, Williams, Ryan, and Kruger (defense not scoring). Carolina might actually be in the best shape to overcome an injury as long as it is not Skinner, Aho, Staal, or Faulk.
The Canes would be most improved with Darling and Williams. Kruger and TVR put them that much farther ahed of the other division teams from an improvement standpoint.
Dogbutler got it exactly right! I agree with live-free-or-die on the order! …and I think 3-5 is nearly a tossup!
CBS may be the most improved team, but IF our team-defense is as strong as some think (unlikely)…the CANES SHOULD BE IN THE HUNT!!
I’m going to pass on this. Ask again 10 games into the season. Our biggest challenge will be starting the season on opening night, not December 1st or so. Historically, under Peters this team takes a lot of time to gel. Should that be the case playoffs are not in our future for 2017-2018.