Atlantic
Boston. Losing a 30-goal scorer (Jarome Iginla) and one of your top defensemen (Johnny Boychuk) without getting any immediate return certainly makes them a worse team than last year, but I still think the Bruins have the most complete team in the Eastern Conference when healthy. Aside from the core group of Zdeno Chara, Patrice Bergeron, David Krejci, and Tuukka Rask, I’m expecting increased contributions from the secondary offensive tier (Brad Marchand, Loui Eriksson, Reilly Smith, Milan Lucic, Carl Soderberg) which should help make up for the loss of Jarome Arthur-Leigh Adekunle Tig Junior Elvis.
With that being said, there are a whole lot of concerns surrounding this year’s defensive group. Chara will most likely be forced to log a huge amount of minutes, which may eventually take a toll on the 37-year old captain in the latter half of the season. Dennis Seidenberg, who has been regressing over the past few years, is coming off a serious knee injury. Losing Boychuk means guys who have been liabilities in the past (Torey Krug, Kevan Miller, Matt Bartkowski, Adam McQuaid) are going to see increased roles. If the top three guys (Chara, Dougie Hamilton, Seidenberg) can stay healthy, I think they’ll manage to get by, but that’s a big ‘if.’ Tampa Bay and Montreal should be right on their heels.
