Defending champion Panthers head stacked Atlantic Division dominated by Bruins, Lightning and Leafs
Spending the summer celebrating a Stanley Cup championship wasn’t enough to distract Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov from paying attention to what Florida’s Atlantic Division rivals were up to this offseason.
Three teams — Buffalo ( Lindy Ruff ), Ottawa ( Travis Green ) and Toronto ( Craig Berube ) — changed coaches.
And while free agency led to Steven Stamkos’ departure in Tampa Bay, the Lightning landed Jake Guentzel. Others made moves leading to the likes of Vladimir Tarasenko (Detroit), Nikita Zadorov (Boston), Elias Lindholm (Boston), Patrick Laine (Montreal), David Perron (Ottawa) and Ryan McLeod (Buffalo) joining the division.
“I feel like every team in our division got a little better if not a lot better,” Barkov said. “I guess it’s a really good challenge for us. We like playing those hard games where you can test yourself.”
The Cup is back in the Atlantic, only a little further south in Florida, after the Lightning won it in 2020 and ’21.
The familiar question entering this season remains whether Buffalo, Detroit, Montreal and Ottawa can crack the stranglehold Boston, Florida, Tampa Bay and Toronto have held atop the division since 2019-20. The Bruins, Lightning and Maple Leafs have each qualified for the playoffs since 2017-18.
The disparity has made measuring the Red Wings' progress a difficult one for general manager Steve Yzerman. Though Detroit has taken gradual steps in improvement, jumping from 32 wins and 74 points three seasons ago to 41 wins and 91 points last year, the Red Wings haven’t made a dent in what, at eight years, now stands as the franchise’s longest playoff drought.
“As long as we’re moving in the right direction, I think it’s a positive,” Yzerman said. “Obviously, making the playoffs would be another positive step. So I’ll worry about that as the season goes along.”
Though Montreal qualified for playoffs in both the COVID-19 pandemic-altered formats in 2020 and ’21, they and the Senators’ last appearance in a traditional format was in 2017. The Red Wings haven’t made it since 2016, and Buffalo is in the midst of an NHL-record 13-season playoff drought, dating to when they were members of the Northeast Division.
“I don’t spend a ton of time in terms of thinking about other teams,” Sabres GM Kevyn Adams said. “I look at where we are and the opportunity and some of the talent and now identity that we’re starting to have ... and I believe we can be right there with that group.”
On the rise
There’s optimism in Montreal, where GM Kent Hughes expects his team to be competitive enough to be in the playoff race.
“I can’t predict whether that means until the last game. I can’t predict whether we’ll make the playoffs,” Hughes said. “At the end of the day, for us to progress, the players need to gain experience as a team in games that matter.”
The Canadiens’ trajectory is pointed up with a young core emerging around Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield and Juraj Slafkovsky, but it’s too early to expect the Habs to contend.
In Toronto, where advancing in the playoffs — rather than qualifying — has been the issue, the Maple Leafs changed coaches by firing Sheldon Keefe and hiring Berube, who led the St. Louis Blues to win the Cup in 2019.
“That stuff’s in the past,” Berube said of a team that won one of six playoff series under Keefe. “There’s great opportunity to build a team that can move forward and become something, not better, but get over the hump.”
On the decline
Lightning defenseman Erik Cernak placed faith in GM Julien BriesBois as Tampa Bay continues to transition from the core of its Cup-winning teams. Aside from Stamkos’ departure, the Lightning traded defenseman Mikhail Sergachev to Utah in a move that landed defenseman J.J. Moser and prospect Conor Geekie.
“He’s never done anything bad, so obviously everybody’s just one person and everybody can make a mistake,” Cernak said. “But so far if something went wrong he kind of covers it with a different thing. He’s amazing at his job.”
On the hot seat
Adams in Buffalo is running out of time in a lengthy rebuilding plan, and after he declared the window of being competitive open a year ago. There’s pressure on Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis to continue developing the team’s youngsters.
Predicted order of finish
Toronto, Florida, Boston, Detroit, Buffalo, Tampa Bay, Ottawa, Montreal.
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AP Hockey Writers Stephen Whyno and Larry Lage and AP Sports Writers Tim Reynolds and Mark Anderson, AP freelance writer W.G. Ramirez, and The Canadian Press contributed to this report.
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