Wednesday, June 1, 2011

What Thrashers leaving means to Avs; SCF predictions

So unless you're living under a rock, you should've heard that the Atlanta Thrashers are relocating to Winnipeg next season giving Jets fans a team to cheer for again. According to Gary Bettman, the new Winnipeg team (which is yet to be named) will play next season in the Southeast division before moving to the Northwest division in the 2012-13 season.

The Northwest makes the most sense for the team to play in as they would be grouped with the other western Canadian teams. Obviously some western conference team would be forced to move east. There have been rumblings that Nashville would be moved to the east and play in the SE. I have also heard come people say that Columbus or Detroit could be moved east. That would also mean that one of the Wild or Avs would be booted out of the NW. Here's how I think the divisions should be realigned (teams in bold are the changes):

NW - Cgy, Col, Edm, Van, Wpg
Pacific - Ana, Dal, LA, Pho, SJ
Central - Chi, Clb, Det, Min, Stl
SE - Car, Fla, Nsh, TB, Wsh
NE - Bos, Buf, Mtl, Ott, Tor
Atlantic - NJ, NYI, NYR, Phi, Pit

---

Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals is tonight and if there is one team I'd hate to see win the Cup, it is Vancouver. I do believe that Vancouver has the edge in offense, defense and special teams however, I think the most even category in this series is between the pipes. This is probably the best goalie matchup that the Finals has produced since Roy and Brodeur went head to head in 01. This season's Vezina favorite, Tim Thomas, is very capable of stealing games and even series.

I would love to see Thomas, Chara and the B's hoist Lord Stanley's Cup, however, I believe that it will be Vancover in 7.

Should be a great series.

1 comment:

Tapeleg said...

I'm going to be doing a post on this soon, so in lieu of a comment, I will do that. But it's an interesting issue, isn't it.