Lucic Injured, Lefebvre Called Up

Tonight, the Phoenix Coyotes will host the Boston Bruins at the Jobing.com Arena in Glendale, Arizona, but a key cog in the Bruins roster will not be active for tonight’s game.

Milan Lucic, who’s coming off a five-hit performance less than 24 hours ago, will be sidelined for tonight’s game and possibly more with a currently undisclosed injury.

In typical Boston Bruins fashion, the injury remains undisclosed, leading me to believe that they’d give us GM Peter Chiarelli’s personal cell phone number before telling us above a top six forward’s injury. Regardless of the info, or lack of, the question remains; Just how did Milan Lucic suffer this injury we know little to nothing about?

It’s very possible that Lucic’s physical play last night could’ve banged him up, as he seemed to have an extra giddy-up (they were playing in Texas, so that’s acceptable for this post) in his physicality. Whatever the injury may be, the Bruins have called up forward Guillaume Lefebvre up from the Providence Bruins on an emergency basis.

Essentially when examining the call-up of the 28-year-old forward from Quebec, the Bruins are replacing one menacing force with another.

Lefebvre, who spent all of the 2008-09 season with the Springfield Falcons of the American Hockey League, tallying 206 penalty minutes along with 13 points in 70 games, has already made his mark in the Providence penalty box. Just four games into the AHL season, Lefebvre’s totaled 25 minutes in the sin bin and is expected to be in the line-up tonight for the Boston Bruins.

This likely means that Byron Bitz is getting moved up to the third line while Recchi moves up one, or that Lefebvre will be a direct substitution for Lucic on the second line. However, the latter of these plans seems unlikely as in short, Lefebvre’s there for his physical play, not his offensive skills.

Tonight will mark Guillaume’s first game in the National Hockey League since February 4th, 2006 when he was with the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Word from John Bishop via the Bruins official Twitter acount is that Lefebvre will wear number 92 tonight for the black and gold.

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Ty

Desert Bound B's: Bruins vs. Coyotes Preview

Last night in the Hub of Hockey, the riot squads were called off and the Bruins were able to shut down the Dallas Stars en route to a 3-0 rout that’s settled down the masses of B’s fans, at least for now.

While the Bruins earned a “that’s how you do it” from most B’s fans for their efforts, Claude Julien’s squad was able to do all the things that made them such a successful team last season. For starters, they were able to kill of an early penalty to Patrice Bergeron 18 seconds into the game, avoiding the loss of any sort of momentum. The Bruins also capitalized on their up-ice rushes, putting three goals by Marty Turco on 29 shots.

In the eyes of Bruins Nation, three players stood out in particular. Michael Ryder, who moved up to the top line, playing with Marc Savard and Marco Sturm had arguably his best game of the season. Although he was held to just one point, Ryder had some great opportunities.

Tim Thomas, who stoned all 27 of Dallas’ shots showed some great poise when under fire and was bailed out numerous times by great defensive efforts from his blue-liners.

The Bruins first star of the game has to go to Marc Savard, who had a phenomenal night offensively as he was constantly creating offensive chances for his linemates and took advantage of his own chances as he banged home two goals by Marty Turco, the second being an absolute bullet that I’m convinced Turco simply didn’t see.

Charging into Arizona, the Bruins will look to continue to ride their momentum from last night as they’re hosted by Dave Tippett’s Phoenix Coyotes.

Coming into tonight’s game, the Boston Bruins will be without forward Milan Lucic, who injured himself during last night’s tilt in the Lone Star State and have called up bruising forward Guillaume Lefebvre from Providence to stand in for Lucic tonight. Lefebvre has one assist and 25 penalty minutes in four games with the Providence Bruins so far this season.

The game plan tonight for Boston will be much of the same, put the pressure on the young Coyotes early and often. Although Ilya Bryzgalov is in the midst of a spectacular start to the season, posting a 4-1-0 record with a 1.17 goals against average, including two shutouts, the Bruins will undoubtedly up the pressure on the 29-year-old Russian netminder as they did on Turco last night.

For the Coyotes, the focus will be on Shane Doan, who’s off to a seemingly typical slow start, scoring just three points in six games so far in 2009-10.

Players To Watch

For Boston, keep your eyes out for defensemen Johnny Boychuk, currently filling in for injured blue-liner Dennis Wideman. The AHL’s 2008-09 Eddie Shore Award winning defensemen, Boychuk is coming off two very strong games where he showed a strong awareness of his space and where the play was going while continuing to throw his body around very well. At this rate, Boychuk will make fans forget all about the loss of Shane Hnidy as the team’s seventh defensemen.

Two more players to take note of are Marc Savard and Mark Recchi. Savard is currently sitting at 199 career goals, one shy of 200 while Recchi is just an assist away from 900 in his career.

Currently, as it stands, the Phoenix Coyotes are the Pacific Division leaders (crazy season, huh). A player who’s seemingly thriving under the system put into place by Dave Tippett is forward Radim Vrbata. Three goals and an assist in six games is making a lot of us forget that Vrbata was the same player who jetted back home to Czechoslovakia after being upset with the Tampa Bay Lightning just 18 games into a lucrative three year contract last season.

Scottie Upshall is another player to keep tabs on tonight if you’re a Boston player. Upshall has absolutely killed Tim Thomas, well actually any Boston goaltender, throughout his career and has eight points in as many games against Boston throughout his NHL tenure. While Upshall’s currently sitting with just two goals so far this season, it’s very possible that he could be the one to make the difference between a Boston win and Boston loss.

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Ty

Fight Night Round II: Bruins vs. Stars Preview

“He’s a knee seeking missile, he’s a SCUD.” – Bruins’ play-by-play announcer Jack Edwards on Steve Ott’s questionable hit on Stephane Yelle last season at the TD Garden.

Tonight, the Boston Bruins start their first road trip of the season in Dallas to face off against the 2-0-3 Stars. Fortunately for number 29 and Bruins favorite (wink, wink), Steve Ott, will be witnessing this one from the press box of the American Airlines Center nursing a strained oblique that’s landed him on the injured reserve.

In a rematch of perhaps the most talked about regular season game last year for Boston, the Bruins will seek to get their first win against a Western Conference club this season while the Stars are looking to continue their streak of earning a point in every game of this newborn NHL season.

For Boston, the goal is to get sixty minutes of strong play, something they’ve shown a troubling inability to do five games into the season.

Some changes for the B’s will come up front, as Milan Lucic has dropped down to the second line with Michael Ryder moving up to the top line where he’ll be playing with Marco Sturm and Marc Savard for tonight’s match-up.

The Bruins will also have 2009 Vezina Trophy winner Tim Thomas back in the crease tonight after a two-game Tuukka weekend in the Hub of Hockey.

Good news for the anemicBoston powerplay, which comes into tonight’s game as the sixth worst in the National Hockey League, converting just four of their 29 opportunities, is that defensive forward and penalty killer Jere Lehtinen will be out for tonight’s game along with two-way forward Mike Modano.

For the Stars, the focus should and will be on goaltender Marty Turco, who’s coming off a shutout of the Nashville Predators. Along with Turco, the Stars will rely on their top line featuring Loui Eriksson, alternate captain Brad Richards and James Neal who have combined for 21 out of 56 points this season by Stars’ players.

Honestly B’s fans, don’t expect a repeat of last year’s fight-filled night of antics in Boston. The reasons?

For one, Sean Avery, the man arguably responsible for ruining any team chemistry in the Stars’ locker room is back in New York with the Rangers while Ott is out for tonight’s game. Secondly, the Bruins just need to head into tonight’s game with a level head, there should be no “revenge for a guy who’s now with the Hurricanes” sort of motive on their mind, “just win” is the idea on the B’s mind tonight.

As nice as it would be to see a Bruins’ blue-liner rearrange Matty Niskanen’s kisser as Jack Edwards so proudly put it last year, I wouldn’t hold my breath for a line-brawl tonight.

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Ty

Oh Captain, Our Captain: Why Is There A Nude Zdeno Chara In My ESPN The Magazine?

No, that's not Bigfoot from the Patterson footage, that's just the captain of the Boston Bruins, Zdeno Chara.

It's guaranteed that most of the sports fans out there weren't too thrilled to open their ESPN: The Magazine this morning and see a nude 6'9" Big Z starting at them provocatively wearing nothing but his birthday suit.

Just why did ESPN pick Chara for their inaugural "Body Issue"? Or better yet, why did Chara accept the offer put forth by the television station that loves to act as if hockey is less important than NASCAR?

I'm no 6'9" Slovak, but here are just a few ideas as to why Zdeno Chara agreed to do this photoshoot.

• Chara saw last season's NHL "Is this the year?" poster that said the only thing more terrifying than Zdeno Chara was Zdeno Chara with a playoff beard and he disagreed vehemently. In fact, Chara believes that the image of his nude stare will in fact burn in the heads of NHL forwards as they make their way up the ice.
• He heard that there was a naked painting of Bobby Orr, he felt that he could one-up number four.
• Chara realizes that when you're captain of the Boston Bruins, nearly seven feet tall on skates and known for tossing players around like ragdolls you probably won't hear too much about it from the opposition.
• After registering the NHL record for hardest slapshot at 105.4 mph, a myth began to grow about how human Zdeno Chara actually was compared to how much of a machine he was. He felt he needed to do this to set the record straight.
• Chara felt extreme jealously towards the modeling shots of Andrew Ference and knew that someone had to show up that Earth-friendly blue-liner. After all, while Ference is preserving the mountains, Chara is conquering them.

Regardless that the magazine also contains players such as Sheldon Souray, Bill Guerin and Mike Komisarek, Chara was the only NHL player to pose nude for the magazine. In the process, Captain Zdeno became the first player to ever appear nude in a magazine, sorry Jiri Tlusty.

Powerplay Outage: Hiller, Ducks Beat Bruins 6-1

Is it too late to change the Boston Bruins motto from “Big and Bad are Back” to “Ten Minutes of Offensive Pressure, Fifty Minutes of Mistakes”?

While it’s still extremely early in the season, there’s no doubting that after a 6-1 demolition of the hometown boys thanks to the at-the-time winless Anaheim Ducks following the steam-rolling of Carolina last Saturday, the fans in the Hub are beginning to wonder what they’re in for this season.

My best advice? Don’t jump off the bridge when there’s still 79 games of hockey left.

Heading into tonight’s showdown at the TD Garden, the Bruins were seemingly back to their offensive-juggernaut ways after lighting up the ‘Canes for 7 goals during a Saturday night physical affair in Boston. Tonight however, Jonas Hiller and the rest of the Anaheim (no longer mighty) Ducks were more than ready. After getting peppered by 19 shots by Boston in the first period of play and only letting one Marco Sturm slapshot get by him, the feeling that this was going to be a difficult night for the Boston offense was beginning to reverberate throughout the minds of the Garden Faithful.

From there on out, it was all Anaheim.

Following an interference call on Matt Hunwick for his rather bizarre knock-down to 6′4″ Evgeny Artyukhin and questionable hooking call against Marco Sturm, the Ducks, who boasted the fourth best powerplay in 2008-09, were set up with one minute and 53 seconds of a five-on-three advantage. Turns out they’d only need a minute and thirty seconds of it to jump ahead.

It was a Teemu Selanne bullet that went by Tim Thomas, who was being screened by Corey Perry uncontested that tied that game and wouldn’t you know it, it was Teemu again who put the puck by a sprawled out Tim Thomas a minute later to give Anaheim a lead they would never relinquish.

After Corey Perry’s goal midway through the second period put the Ducks up 3-1, the Bruins seemed simply unmotivated to win, a sight similar to last week’s home opening against the Washington Capitals. Anaheim, who adopted the idealogy of quality over quantity finished the period with three goals on just six shots whereas the Bruins were held to just one goal on 30 shots through 40 minutes of play.

In similar fashion to the aforementioned game last week, Bruins netminder Tim Thomas gave up three more soft goals in the third period, including a very bizarre shorthanded goal by Corey Perry with under a minute to play and the Bruins were done.

When it comes to tonight’s loss, the Krejci line can simply not feel good about the way they played tonight. Frequently offsides and defensively irresponsible is no way to go through a game, boys. All three members of the Bruins’ second line, Blake Wheeler, Michael Ryder and David Krejci finished the night with an upsetting -3.

Kudos to Boston’s fourth line tonight, which was creating offensive chances and throwing the body around all at the same time. Shawn Thornton, who has a knack for scoring highlight-reel goals was kept off the scoresheet but had a very impressive night when it came to moving the puck around and skating.

All and all, the story of tonight’s loss rests on the unsuccessful powerplay put forth by Boston. The Bruins were 0-6 on the advantage, falling to 4-19 on the season.

Dumb Quote of the Night

“*Sarcastic cheers*” – As Thomas stopped the puck after giving up the sixth goal in the closing minute of tonight’s loss.

Yes, Thomas did get shelled tonight, yes he was looking foolish at times, but why are you booing the Vezina Trophy winner from last season after a rough game? For one, the Bruins defense was not giving Thomas any help whatsoever and secondly, wouldn’t you prefer Thomas to work out the kinks from the off-season in October as opposed to in April?

Jersey-Spotting of the Night

A man walking throughout the balcony tonight in Section 314 was sporting a lovely Boston Red Sox away jersey, bearing the last name “Yankees Suck”, featuring the number 24:7. Interesting to say the least as this last name was so long that it makes Magnus Paajarvi-Svensson look like a nameplate belonging to Steve Ott.

What’s Next?

The Bruins will take to the ice in Boston on Saturday night as John Tavares makes his TD Garden debut when the New York Islanders come to town. The Isles are 0-0-2 on the season following an overtime loss to the Ottawa Senators in Canada’s capital tonight. I’m about 95% sure that following tonight’s frustrating effort put forth by Tim Thomas, who stopped 24 of 30 shots, that the Bruins will give the nod to Finnish phenom Tuukka Rask.

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Three More Years Of Milan: The Lucic Craze In Boston Continues

At just 21 years old, Lucic has arguably become the face of the Bruins franchise to the casual fan in just his third season in the National Hockey League. Just what makes this hulking left winger so popular in the Hub of Hockey?

For one, he reminds Bruins fans of a certain number hanging in the rafters of the Garden, Cam Neely. While Lucic has yet to develop the offensive skills that Neely possessed, Lucic has the frame of a power forward with a dangerously high level of tenacity and aggression when on the ice.

While Neely still receives booming ovations when shown on the Garden jumbo-tron, be it in classic clips, opening videos or live shots from the ninth level of the TD Garden there’s no louder chants heard than when Lucic is on the ice. As the Boston faithful chant their overpoweringly loud chorus of “Loo”, you know the 6′4 forward is stalking an impending victim for a devastating body check and about to create some offensive chances for his linemates in the process.

To say Lucic is more than a just another fight wouldn’t be doing the Vancouver native any justice, as HockeyFights.com has Lucic boasting a 18-4-2 record in the regular season when it comes to dropping the mittens.

In just the past month alone, Milan Lucic has single-handedly bloodied two guys in fights. Lucic’s first victim was Senators enforcer and known tough-guy Chris Neil, who was essentially asking for it after leveling Boston star forward Marc Savard during a preseason tilt. However, the newest face to get pummeled by number 17 is that of Jay Harrison, a defensemen for the Carolina Hurricanes who was getting under the skin of every Boston player throughout the night until his exchange (or lack thereof on his part) of blows with Lucic.

Already achieving of cult status in the city of Boston, the popularity of Lucic is growing relentlessly. “Lucic Crew” shirts with the number 17 on the back along with the phrase “Ass-Kicker” on the nameplate have quickly become a staple in the balcony of every Bruins home game.

While Lucic may have golden-glove-like qualities, primarily from his days as a teenage boxer in British Columbia, it’s becoming more evident that he has more than mediocre skills on the offensive spectrum of things. Playing on Boston’s top line last season, Lucic put together a 42 point season, including 17 goals, including three game winners. Even more impressive for Lucic enthusiasts in 2008-09 was the fact that his penalty minutes actually increased by 47 minutes from the previous season

Outside of the hockey bubble in Boston, the bruising forward is primarily known for his hate-fueled rivalry with defensemen Mike Komisarek. The two, who have been going at it since Lucic’s rookie season, have not only exchanged words, shoves and checks; but fists, twice, with Lucic winning both decisions handily.

In Montreal, there’s no debating that Lucic has become enemy number one for his refusal to drop the gloves with Georges Laraque on numerous occasions as he prefers to instead beat the Canadiens on the scoreboard rather than toil in the penalty box for five with an old fashioned “goon” by NHL standards.

Without question Boston fans love the physical presence provided by their second round choice from the 2006 NHL Draft, as their near 20 foot tall banner featuring Zdeno Chara and Milan Lucic proclaiming that “Big & Bad Are Back” featured on the outside wall of the TD Garden tells us, it’s becoming clear that Lucic has matured immensely through the lessons and mentoring by both head coach Claude Julien and Bruins VP Cam Neely. In just two seasons with the Bruins, Lucic has driven home the point that he’s at his best when the team needs him most. For Lucic, his time to shine has been throughout the Stanley Cup Playoffs where in just 17 career games he’s put up 11 points and a +11.

With the Boston Bruins quickly on the rise within their own city and the National Hockey League as a whole, the spotlight on the Bruins prized winger is certainly going to grow larger with the team’s rising success.

Looked upon as a game-changer for the B’s, at the age of 21 mind you, Lucic has shown a willingness to destroy anything and anyone in the Bruins way for a victory and after Saturday night’s display on the Garden ice, we shouldn’t expect him to stop anytime soon as Lucic became a very rich man when he agreed to a three year contract extension through the 2012-13 season worth 12.25 million dollars.

The Chronicles From The Garden's 2009-10 Eastern Conference Predictions

Can't you feel it? The NHL season is officially upon us. Here's my predictions for the regular season this year in the NHL.

Eastern Conference

1) Boston Bruins - Call me a homer, but what's not to like about this team? You have the Vezina in net with Tim Thomas, the Norris on your blue-line in 6'9 Zdeno Chara and Jack Adams winning coach in Claude Julien behind the bench. Although the leading goal scorer from last season is now a Maple Leaf, the return of Marco Sturm, a full season out of Mark Recchi and continued development from the youth should fill in the void. Expected to help on the powerplay is the addition of Derek Morris, a puck-moving defensemen who finished with a disappointing 20 points last season between New York and Phoenix. What's not to like? The lack of depth on the blue-line due to the departure of Shane Hnidy, Steve Montador (perhaps a blessing) and Aaron Ward.

2) Washington Capitals - Alexander Ovechkin is continuing to build on what's looking to be a career full of record breaking in the Nation's capital. Over the offseason, while Sergei Federov and Viktor Kozlov left for their homeland in Russia, the Capitals were able to add former Bruin and Flyer Mike Knuble to their club. Knuble will be a huge contribution to the Washington offense as he has the ability to bang home many of Ovechkin's rebounds. What's not to like? Given the rather unsettling play of Jose Theodore last season, the Caps may turn to Semyon Varlamov to lead the team. Varlamov, who was run out of Game 7 in the second period against Pittsburgh last season has under 25 games of total NHL experience to his name and could be unprepared to take the full load.

3) Philadelphia Flyers - Following two disappointing Stanley Cup Playoff exits in a row, Flyers GM Paul Holmgren was in the market for making a big move during the offseason. There was perhaps no bigger move made than the Flyers acquistion of 6'6 Chris Pronger from the Anaheim Ducks in exchange for a first round draft pick and expendable forward Joffrey Lupul. Pronger gives the Flyers another valuable weapon on the blue-line and in my opinion, is the one that puts them over the top in their division. What's not to like? The goaltending duo of Ray Emery and Brian Boucher is a stretch for a division winner, if both falter as starter's, then the Flyers may be in the market for a goaltender at the trade deadline.

4) Pittsburgh Penguins - The Pittsburgh Penguins did what many hockey fans, myself included, didn't think they could do, beat the Red Wings without Marian Hossa. Pivotal in the Pens road to the Stanley Cup were veteran Bill Guerin and agile winger Chris Kunitz. Good news for fans in the 'Burgh is that these players have returned to the club for another year. What's not to like? The departure of secondary scorers Miroslav Satan and Petr Sykora along with gritty defensemen Rob Scuderi could hurt the Penguins in the dog days of the NHL season.

5) Carolina Hurricanes - As Boston fans felt the sting of on May 14th, 2009, you should never doubt the 'Canes. In net for Carolina is clutch goaltender Cam Ward, who stymied the opposition until hitting the Eastern Conference Finals and became 36+ million dollars richer over the off-season with a six year extension. The Carolina Hurricanes added a bevy of grit this offseason with the additions of Tom Kostopoulos, Andrew Alberts and members of last season's Bruins in Aaron Ward and Stephane Yelle. What's not to like? In the event of an injury to either Eric Staal or Cam Ward, the Carolina Hurricanes could fall from division contenders to on the outside looking in. The fact that they also will feast off a poor division is a knock on them for many people.

6) New Jersey Devils - Given the absence of Martin Brodeur for 50 games last season, it's a marvel that the New Jersey Devils continued to go on and win the Atlantic Division. While the Devils have a familiar face back behind the bench with the return of Jacques Lemaire as bench-boss of New Jersey, the team is already battling injury woes with Patrik Elias' absence from the line-up while recovering from groin surgery. What's not to like? Over the offseason, the Devils lost their two back-up's, Scott Clemmensen and Kevin Weekes. While 'Clem' went to Florida to back-up Tomas Vokoun, Weekes took a job in the booth for the NHL Network and backing up Marty is now Yann Danis.

7) Montreal Canadiens - It's very safe to say that 2008-09 wasn't quite the centennial celebration that the Habs had hoped for. At the start of the season, the Canadiens seemed poised to win the Stanley Cup with the additions of Robert Lang, Alex Tanguay and tough-guy Georges Laraque. However, a severe rash of injuries and inconsistent play by their top six amidst drug-trafficking allegations against the Kostityn's by the Montreal media and the Habs finished with the 8th seed in the East. Over the off-season, the Canadiens went through a major overhaul, adding Scott Gomez, Brian Gionta, Michael Cammalleri, Hal Gill, Paul Mara, Jaroslav Spacek while parting ways with Saku Koivu, Alex Kovalev, Alex Tanguay, Mike Komisarek and Chris Higgins. What's not to like? The million-dollar question in Montreal remains "Will Carey Price return to his rookie season form?". If not, the Jacques Martin system could falter in it's first year in Montreal.

8) Buffalo Sabres - While it doesn't feel as if the the Buffalo Sabres were two points away from making the Stanley Cup Playoffs last season, they were. While the Buffalo blueline lost veterans Jaroslav Spacek along with Teppo Numminen, they added what they hope will be a rebounding Steve Montador. The Sabres were also able to add gritty forward Mike Grier and once-seemingly-NHL-banished defensemen Joe DiPenta. What's not to like? The health of Ryan Miller and Tim Connolly (what else is new?) will be the Sabres biggest concerns in their attempt to return to the playoffs after a two year hiatus.

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9) Toronto Maple Leafs - The Maple Leafs are set to begin year one of the official Brian Burke reconstruction. Burke and the Leafs had a busy off-season to say the least, adding Mike Komisarek, Francois Beauchemin, Colton Orr, Garnet Exelby, Jonas Gustavsson and Boston's leading goal scorer from last season, Phil Kessel. While Kessel won't be ready to play until around mid-November, the addition of number 81 gives Toronto a top-line forward they desperately need for the future. What's not to like? If Jonas Gustavsson struggles at the top level, the Leafs will be forced to rely upon Vesa Toskala, who has never quite provided the numbers expected of him when initially acquired from the San Jose Sharks.

10) New York Rangers - In typical Glen Sather fashion, the Rangers had an expensive offseason. The biggest addition for the blue-shirts is that of Marian Gaborik, the Minnesota Wild's franchise leading point man, to a five year deal worth over 37 million dollars. The right winger, who's experienced considerable injury woes as of late, has been productive when in the line-up. The Rangers were also able to add toughguy Donald Brashear, Boston University standout defensemen Matt Gilroy and secondary scorers Enver Lisin, Vinny Prospal and Chris Higgins. What's not to like? The lack of NHL-ready defensemen on the New York blueline will be a concern as they're in perhaps the best division in the Eastern Conference when it comes to scoring goals.

11) Atlanta Thrashers - While the big question in Atlanta continues to surround Ilya Kovalchuk and whether or not the captain of the Thrashers will remain that by this year's trading deadline, the Thrashers did go out and get some additions to complement their Russian superstar. The biggest names arriving in Atlanta are none other than Nik Antropov and Pavel Kubina, two former Toronto Maple Leafs. The presence of Antropov will without question give the Thrashers another weapon on the powerplay for Ilya and the same goes for Kubina. What's not to like? While Kari Lehtonen is recovering from back surgery, the Thrashers will look to Johan Hedberg and Ondrej Pavelec to stop the pucks. The problem arises even more so when Lehtonen does return because injuries to the back are just so unpredictable when it comes to goaltenders.

12) Ottawa Senators - The problem in Ottawa, for seemingly ever, has been the lack of a true number one goaltender. That problem will continue in 2009-10 as the Sens are expected to role with a platoon of Brian Elliot and the surgery-recovering Pascal Leclaire. Without question the biggest news involving the Ottawa Senators came with the trading of Dany Heatley to San Jose in exchange for Milan Michalek and Jonathan Cheechoo. They, along with the addition of Alexei Kovalev from the Montreal Canadiens will also bolster the Senators anemic secondary scoring situation. What's not to like? The blueline. While players such as Anton Volchenkov and Chris Phillips are good for a depth chart, they should not be relied upon as a top defensive pairing.

13) Florida Panthers - I almost fell for this club last season, their play, including a shutout of the Boston Bruins made me a believer. I was convinced that the Florida Panthers were going to the eighth seed in the Eastern Conference and that Jay Bouwmeester would fall in love with the Panthers and re-sign. Boy, was I was wrong. Due in large part to Bouwmeester's struggles following the trade deadline, the Florida Panthers finished 10th in the Eastern Conference. Although disappointment resonated (well, sort of) in Florida, the Panthers were able to see young stars such as David Booth develop and shine brightly in the Sunshine State. With the loss of Jay-Bo, the Panthers were able to add forwards Steve Reinprecht, Dominic Moore, blue-liners Dennis Seidenberg, Jordan Leopold, and goaltender Scott Clemmensen. What's not to like? The puck-moving ability from the blue-line certainly dropped with the departure of Bouwmeester, but the Panthers top six forwards are simply disappointing and not enough to compete in this year's Eastern Conference.

14) Tampa Bay Lightning - Oh the Barry Melrose era in Tampa, what an illustrious 16 games for all involved, especially Steven Stamkos, who flourished with his near no-ice time, right? After a 5-7-4 start, the Lightning fired the famed coach turned ESPN-analyst and following a voodoo-like hex put on the Lightning by Melrose after his departure, the team began to experience limited success under Rick Tocchet. Amid rumors of Vinny leaving for Montreal, the captain of the Lightning remained in black and blue after the trading deadline, investing some sign of faith towards the future for Bolts fans. The Lightning's biggest additions are on the blueline, with the drafting of Sweedish defensemen Victor Hedman and signing of Mattias Ohlund to a contract. The Bolts were also able to add back-up goaltender Antero Niittymaki through free agency and left winger Alex Tanguay on the cheap in September with a one year deal. What's not to like? Even with the addition of Tanguay, the Lightning become the Norfolk Admirals of the American Hockey League after their second line, up front and on defense.

15) New York Islanders - I suppose there should be no surprise here. This team has a lot of woes, perhaps not as many as the Phoenix Coyotes, but still, the concerns are there. While the Jonathan Tavares era is beginning on the Isle, the question is for how long? Following continuing refusals of the "Lighthouse Plan" proposed by Islanders owner Charles Wang, the frustrated owner is beginning to explore other options that involve relocating the team. On the ice however, the Islanders were able to add Rob Schremp from Edmonton through waivers and two fringe-starting goaltenders in Dwayne Roloson and Marty Biron. What's not to like? There's a question that requires an answer almost too big to comprehend. For the Islanders, the fact that their best defensemen behind Mark Streit is Brendan Witt is an obvious cause for concern.

Eastern Conference Finals Prediction: Boston Bruins vs. Philadelphia Flyers.