So, we have now completed one quarter of the 2016-17 season. You know what that means? It’s time for the blogosphere (what an awful word) to offer their own musings on the state of their own particular franchise.
How’s that going, eh?
First, the division as a whole.
The Metro is looking by far like the best division in the league this year. A power shift between conferences from the west to the east has been in the making since before the Pens secured their 4th Cup last summer. It highlights the need for a balanced team split. There’s only one team in the entire Eastern Conference currently sitting below .500 (guess who?)
The Rangers continue to sit at the head of the division, 2 points ahead of Pittsburgh. This despite what hasn’t exactly been stunning play, of late.
Everyone reading this and their livers are well aware of the performance and relative inconsistencies surrounding this 2016-17 Penguins team so far. Josh Yohe wrote his prerequisite quarter-season review, but it’s behind a paywall, so unless you want to subscribe to Dejan Nation, you can read like 9 words.
Wow, this Blue Jackets team is settling back into the role of tenacious underdog after starting off looking like they would fade back into the land of smoldering trash receptacles. They’re 7-1-2 in the last 10 games. That finds Columbus currently sitting just one point back of the Pens.
The Flyers have been another mixed bag, thus far, stumbling somewhat to 4th in the Metropolitan. But they’ll need to find some consistency if they don’t want their spot as an 8th seed bubble team to burst.
The fact that both wild card teams would currently come out of the Metro certainly highlights the claim of supremacy for the division right now. The Caps sat at the top early in the season, but they’ve slipped a bit and now find themselves behind the Flyers. Some underachieving stars and a lack of identity continue to dog this team like James Franco’s stardom plagues the rest of us.
New Jersey is a team that can make a big dent in the Wild Card standings in the next… 3/4ths of the season. Despite only 3 wins in their last 10 games, the Devils continue to plug along to a better than average pace. If they can continue to find consistent goaltending and get healthy, Jersey could be looking like a playoff team.
The Canes find themselves 10-10-5, good enough for 7th in the division. But they’ve played better than many expected in their best start since 2012. This is a team that needs a few things go to right for them these days, but with strong play from their young stars and good enough goaltending, they might be able to hang around.
And then there’s the Islanders. The aforementioned only Eastern Conference team below .500 are only 9-10-5, but let’s call it like it is. This team has more problems right now than U.S.-Pan-Asian relations. They currently play in an arena that everyone hates, on an island that isn’t the one on the front of their sweater, with a front office in a near constant state of shit-showedness and a coach on the hot seat.
We’re still in for a long ride.
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Family Owned Farm Teams
There’s a full rundown of player grades for the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton squad that can be found here. Including that of Jake Guentzel, a guy who looks wholly comfortable in a Pittsburgh Penguins jersey right now.
A guy who looked absolutely horrendous in a Pittsburgh Penguins uniform had a welcoming night at Mohegan Sun Arena the other night.
Wheeling has won 2 in a row, despite a recent run of some shaky goaltending, which has been a staple for them thus far. Their 11-6-2 record is good for 4th in their division and 6th in the conference. Winger Cody Wydo has 3 goals in the last 3 games for the Nailers.
If Sidney Crosby was able to keep up his proficient goal scoring pace, he’d become the first player since 92-93 to hit 70 goals. And he would do it in 76 games.
The biggest league news, of course, was that the NHLPA (unsurprisingly) shot down a proposal to extend the current CBA in exchange for the NHL agreeing to player participation in the Pyongyang Winter Olympics in 2018. The agreement would have extended the CBA to 2025 and eliminated a potential opt-out clause for 2019. There really wasn’t any reason for the players to accept this initial offering from the league, as these negotiations are in their infancy. But it’s cool. We’ll just get our lockout bunkers ready now. Just in case.
Also, obviously this needs to happen.
Did you know you can vote for Phil Kessel to be the captain of the Metropolitan Division in the All-Star Game? https://t.co/WbJOhsVKL8 pic.twitter.com/M2UUiENeTa
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) December 4, 2016
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