I am not typically in the business of making predictions when it comes to the NHL. Hockey tends to be too fluid an organism for that and I like it that way. That said, since I have joined the vast terrain of the hockey blogoverse I felt it was time to take a stab at it.
As the opening day of the 2013-14 season slowly crawls into view, it just seems appropriate to decide how the teams will stack up against each other. Below is Two Minutes for Typing's Official Divisional Standings Predictions. As with most predictions, these will most likely be laughably wrong come April 13th but it'll be fun to take a look back at that point now won't it?
First, for the unacquainted, here is how playoff seeding will work this year as per a March 14th article by Dan Rosen on NHL.com:
"The Stanley Cup Playoffs will still consist of 16 teams, eight in each conference, but it will be division-based and a wild-card system has been added.
"The top three teams in each division will make up the first 12 teams in the playoffs. The remaining four spots will be filled by the next two highest-placed finishers in each conference, based on regular-season points and regardless of division. It will be possible, then, for one division to send five teams to the postseason while the other sends three.
"The seeding of the wild-card teams within each divisional playoff will be determined on the basis of regular-season points. The division winner with the most points in the conference will be matched against the wild-card team with the fewest points; the division winner with the second-most points in the conference will play the wild-card team with the second fewest points.
"The teams finishing second and third in each division will play in the first round of the playoffs. The winners of each series will play for berths in the conference championship series.
"The winners of the conference championships advance to the Stanley Cup Final."With that, here are the rankings as decided by the 2-4-T staff. Since the "Preseason Prognosis" series elaborated on our views of the teams, links to those eight articles are provided as well. Playoff teams are noted in bold font.
Atlantic
1. Detroit
2. Boston
3. Ottawa
4. Montreal
5. Florida
6. Toronto
7. Tampa Bay
8. Buffalo
Metropolitan
1. Pittsburgh
2. Washington
3. NY Islanders
4. NY Rangers
5. Columbus
6. Philadelphia
7. New Jersey
8. Carolina
Central
1. Chicago
2. St. Louis
3. Dallas
4. Winnipeg
5. Nashville
6. Minnesota
7. Colorado
Pacific
1. Anaheim
2. San Jose
3. Los Angeles
4. Edmonton
5. Vancouver
6. Phoenix
7. Calgary
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