Silver Nuggets: Eastern Canadian rivalries
I know its been a while since we watched any NHL hockey, but once upon a time we had some pretty serious rivalries with nearby Montreal and Toronto. Both teams had lottery picks last year, which will certainly motivate them to bounce back this season.
In keeping with our new Nuggets format, today I will pose another question. Much like the summer, I will start including a poll and the best comment from the day before. Yesterday we talked about who benefits most from the lack of inter-conference games. User bacraswell does some cool research that could give Senators fans a little bit of hope!
You know who it benefits the most? The Senators.
They only had 16 points in their 16 games against the Western Conference last season. That was tied (with Florida) for worst in the East.
Really cool stuff!
Anyways, today again we look at teams around us. The Montreal Canadiens and Toronto Maple Leafs both had abysmal seasons last year, finishing in the bottom five of the league. Which team will finish higher in the standings this year?
Montreal: There is no way this team can be as bad as they were last year, right? There is no doubt they are an extremely mediocre club, but Andrei Markov and Brian Gionta being back and another season of growth from power forward Max Pacioretty, they should improv. Add in potential rookie Alex Galchenyuk and of course Carey Price, you'd think they would finish out of the lottery this year.
Toronto: Has been a GONG SHOW to start the year in Toronto with the firing of Brian Burke and all this talk of Roberto Luongo. This team started strong last season and then fell off a cliff. If the defence and goaltending is able to improve even slightly, the team should improve substantially because scoring is not an issue.
Now I must go take a shower after writing nice things about those teams and its time to hear your thoughts. And by hear I mean read.
Sens Links
- BOOK CLUB! Peter is practically Oprah. But seriously this is a cool review of a new book about Gary Bettman. A little bit of a painful time to read about him when I want to forget his face entirely. [SSS]
- New Sterling Predictions post, looking at the awkward goalie threesome. Even if you don't want to read our predictions, LOOK AT THE PICTURE FOR THIS POST. [SSS]
- Speaking of the threesome, here is another article on it! [Warren]
- Speaking of photos, the Ottawa Citizen's Senators Extra section is having a photo contest for a chance at 100 level seats. Check it out! [SensExtra]
- Ken Warren's training camp notebook features some excellent news about the Erik Karlsson and Marc Methot pairing. [Warren]
League News
- Soooo Lubomir Visnovsky really doesn't seem to understand this whole "You have to play for the Islanders" thing. [PD]
- Mid-term rankings are out, Seth Jones is now the #1 after the World Juniors. [NHL]
Which team will finish ahead of the other?
| Montreal | 69 |
| Toronto | 40 |
