NHL Mid-Season Grades, Surprises, Letdowns, Future Outlook: Complete Atlantic Division Breakdown by Team and Position, Including Predictions for the Remainder of 2016-17
Wrapping things up with our NHL mid-season grades, we turn our focus to the Atlantic Division in the Eastern Conference, which includes the following teams: Montreal Canadiens, Toronto Maple Leafs, Ottawa Senators, Boston Bruins, Florida Panthers, Tampa Bay Lightning, Detroit Red Wings, and the Buffalo Sabres.
While not one of the strongest divisions in the league, there are still four teams in the top 15 of the overall standings with Montreal leading the pack at 62 points. Ottawa and Boston are both tied for second in the division with 52 points each while Toronto sits fourth with 50 points. Toronto also holds the final wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference.
Florida (49 points), Tampa Bay (47 points), and Detroit (47 points) hold the fifth, sixth, and seventh positions in the division while Buffalo (45 points) sit in last.
*Standings heading into Saturday night
MONTREAL CANADIENS
Current Record: 27-13-6 (60 points)
Montreal started the year with a blistering hot record of 8-0-1 in the opening month of the season. After trading star defenseman P.K. Subban to Nashville for Shea Weber, a lot of Montreal fans thought the team made a bad choice, well Weber currently sits third in team scoring with 28 points and 10 goals. While Subban, on the other hand, sits ninth in team scoring with only 17 points and seven goals for Nashville. So Montreal didn’t just get the better of the offense, they also got someone who is a pure workhorse on the d-line.
FORWARDS: A+
Montreal leads the entire division with 138 goals for averaging 3.00 goals-for-per-game. And it’s a full team effort since three of the top ten scorers are the defenseman.
Max Pacioretty and Alexander Radulov are the only Canadiens that have surpassed the thirty point mark so far this year.
Paul Byron, Alex Galchenyuk, Phillip Danault, and Tomas Plekanec all sit in the middle with 20 points or more, giving the team some well-balanced scoring up front.
First-year NHL player, Artturi Lehkonen has put up a decent 15 points in 37 games, not bad for a guy who spent his entire career in Finland.
Once Andrew Shaw who is also spending his first year in Montreal after a lot of success in Chicago gets comfortable with his new team as the year continues, expect more scoring and a lot more grinding.
DEFENSE: B+
Montreal’s defense is almost as good as their offense since they have three defensemen in the top ten for team scoring, and they also have helped the team hold second place in lowest goals-against-per-game.
Shea Weber has been absolutely fantastic since coming over from Nashville. He currently sits third in team scoring and logs in a load of minutes per-game.
Veterans Jeff Petry and Andrei Markov have also been quite solid as well, while they are both responsible in their own end, they have also put up more than 20 points so far this year.
GOALIES: B+
The Canadien’s goaltending is amongst the best in the league, with Carey Price once again leading this team to victory.
Al Montoya, on the other hand, has had to step into a few more games since Price has experience quite the cold streak the last few weeks. And in doing so, Montoya hasn’t been able to handle the full-time play that well.
If Montreal wants to stay atop the division and in the playoff race, Price will need to return to form since you can’t always rely on scoring and defense.
BIGGEST SURPRISE: SHEA WEBER
The biggest surprise has to be Shea Weber, everyone literally thought Montreal got smoked in the deal when the moved Subban. But Weber has been on fire for the team playing on the power-play, the penalty-kill, and logging a massive amount of minutes every single game. He’s definitely worthy of leading the team to long-term success, and who knows, maybe pulling the “C” from forward Max Pacioretty.
BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENT: INJURIES
The teams biggest disappointment has to be the injuries suffered to outstanding forwards Alex Galchenyuk, and David Desharnais. Because they were leading this team and helped them reach that amazing start at the beginning of the season.
OUTLOOK:
Once Price returns to his hot form after getting out of this unknown cold funk, and Galchenyuk and Desharnais return from injury and can continue where they left off, this team is pegged for a very deep playoff run.