Much like a few other teams in this new division, making the playoffs is simply isn't enough for the Washington Capitals as they go into every year with Stanley Cup aspirations. They have been to the playoffs every year since 2007, winning their division in five of those six years, but have still yet to get past the second round of the playoffs. Everyone seems to have their own theory on the Capitals post-season struggles but as far as last season goes, you can say that they were lucky to get as far as they did.

At the beginning of March, this was a team that was sitting near the bottom of the Eastern Conference standings and heading towards a possible lottery pick. Then a light suddenly went off and the Caps became the hottest team in the NHL down the stretch. They went 20-7-2 in March and April and easily ascended their way through the Southeast Division standings, eventually winning their fifth title in six years. Given how strong they finished the year, the Caps look like a club that is on the rise and one that can contend in this new division. However, there were a lot of things that went in their favor which contributed to their playoff push.

Washington's incredible run to end the season was powered by their star player, Alex Ovechkin, catching fire and scoring 24 goals in his final 29 games of the season and goaltender Braden Holtby posting a .930 save percentage in March & April. Some argued that the players needed time to adjust to Adam Oates' system in a lockout shortened year with no training camp and while that might be true, it is still doubtful that either of these will happen in a full 82-game season. Ovechkin is still a fantastic player and one of the best goal-scorers in the league but the days of him scoring at a 67-goal pace are over and the odds of Holtby posting a .930+ save percentage in a full year seem low.

Given these points and that 11 of their last 20 wins came against the Southeast Division, it seems doubtful that Washington can go on this kind of run while playing in a tougher division. That doesn't mean that they can't be competitive, though. The Caps have enough pieces in place so that they can be in a "win now" mode every year and they always seem to make a few tweaks every off-season to improve their roster. This year was no different, but is it enough for them to stay a playoff team in a tougher division?

Projected by many to win the Cup last year, the Pittsburgh Penguins ended up falling just short, losing to the Boston Bruins in the Eastern Conference finals. Some expected this to be the end of the line for head coach Dan Bylsma because the team had a "Cup or bust" mentality going into the post-season but their front office kept a cool head and didn't make any major changes this summer. The Penguins may have come up short of expectations the last few years, but they've had the highest winning percentage in the NHL since Bylsma took over and are usually one of the best teams in the NHL under his control. Sticking with him for the next couple of years was probably the right call for GM Ray Shero.

Regular season success doesn't mean a whole lot to Pittsburgh, though because they've been there before and are more concerned with trying to win another Stanley Cup. They appeared to be on the right track to do that last season, having the top seed in the Eastern Conference basically clinched a month before the season was over. If going undefeated in the month of March wasn't enough to make them Cup favorites, Shero tried to beef up the roster by adding Jarome Iginla, Douglas Murray, Jussi Jokinen and Brendan Morrow at the deadline, all of whom had playoff experience. 

Most of these acquisitions didn't have the impact Pittsburgh hoped they would, at least not in the playoffs. Iginla struggled at times, Morrow looked like he barely had anything left in the tank and was scratched, Murray was kept to a third pairing role and Jokinen played on the fourth line after Crosby returned to the lineup. Jokinen was the only one returning this year and that is probably a good thing because the Penguins were a great team before acquiring these veterans and should remain one of the top clubs in their division this next year.

Do they have what it takes to get over the hump and win another Cup, though? It's hard to say that now but after the jump, we'll review their off-season and look at how they shape up for next season.

As long as Paul Holmgren is running things, the Flyers off-season will always be some sort of wild adventure and this summer was no different. He didn't do anything absurd like trade Claude Giroux or try to get Alex Pietrangelo to sign an offer-sheet, but the Flyers were still very active this off-season and were the laughing stock of Twitter for a couple of days. Things started off early when the team elected to use both of their amnesty buyouts on Danny Briere & Ilya Bryzgalov, which was followed up by them trading for Mark Streit and signing him to a long-term deal. They then signed Vincent Lecavalier to a five-year deal with a cap hit of $4.5 mil. goaltender Ray Emery to a one-year contract.

So how do the Flyers look after these moves? Honestly, not too bad. Some laughed at Holmgren for handing out long-term deals to declining players because they feel the team needs to rebuild after how bad they were last season. The Streit & Lecavalier contracts will look bad in a couple years and I'm not sure how the Flyers can justify throwing away so much money on Bryzgalov, but it's hard to say that Holmgren didn't improve the roster and I think the Flyers should be a pretty good team this year.

Like Carolina, the Flyers experienced some awful luck with injuries and had only nine skaters who appeared in 40 or more games. They also cycled through 13 different defensemen throughout the season and were relying on fringe NHL players like Bruno Gervais and Oliver Lauridsen to play regular minutes by the end of the season. The Flyers defense still has plenty of concerns, but I find it hard to believe that their injury problems will stay this bad. A healthy roster could be what they need to get back to the playoffs. 

The Flyers are also a team that has regularly gives the Hurricanes fits ever since the the Whalers franchise moved to North Carolina. The Hurricanes are 30-64-14-10 all-time against the Flyers and have the lowest point-percentage against them than any other team in the Eastern Conference. The Canes were also swept by Philly over three games last season and took only one of four from them the previous year. Just goes to show that it doesn't matter where each team is in the standings because the Flyers have always had the Canes number and this is something that will need to change with the two becoming division rivals now.

I've already gave an overview of the Flyers off-season and after the jump, we'll take a closer look at their roster and see how the Canes match up with them this year.

Expectations for the New York Rangers were higher than they've been in years. Many had them as a lock for the playoffs and a possible Cup favorite and it was pretty easy to see the reasons behind it. They were the top seed in the Eastern Conference the previous season and made a big splash in the off-season by trading for Rick Nash of the Columbus Blue Jackets to help them get over the hump. Perhaps this is why many saw last year as a disappointment for them.

For most teams, making the playoffs for the fourth time in five years would be enough to keep your fanbase happy, but more was expected out of the Rangers last year. Most thought that they would at least make it out of the second round given the talent on their roster and how good they were the previous season. The Rangers came up short of those lofty expectations, finishing sixth in the Eastern Conference and losing in the second round in five games to the Boston Bruins. The general consensus was that the Rangers underperformed all of last year and head coach John Tortorella was the one who took the fall in the head, as he was relieved of his duties and replaced with Alain Vigneault. 

It's tough to say how much of the Rangers problems were related to Tortorella because if you look beyond their results, they were a pretty great team at even strength and could have finished higher in the standings in an 82-game season. They also had a few things go in their favor the previous year which resulted in them tallying more points in the standings (top 10 5v5 shooting percentage, 21-5-7 in one-goal-games etc.) and it was going to be tough for them to replicate that no matter what. This isn't even going into their questionable depth both up front and on defense, which was going to be tested in a shortened year. 

The Rangers may have gone into the year with Cup aspirations, but they had their share of questions and I thought Tortorella did a decent job when taking those into consideration. After all, this was a mediocre team at even strength the previous year and they really improved in that department last year, even if they weren't getting rewarded for it as much. However, I do tend to agree that there were some key guys on the Rangers who underperformed and while I'm not sure how much of that is on Tortorella, there seemed to be some tension between him and the players. I usually don't buy into the "coach lost the team" narrative, but there have been some current and former players who have talked about what it is like to play under Torts and they didn't have much positive to say. So maybe a fresh start under a new coach will help the Rangers?

Can Vigneault make that much of a difference, though? He has guided the Vancouver Canucks to six Northwest Division titles and two President's Trophies but succeeding in the playoffs has been where his teams have come up short. His coaching strategy is pretty similar to Tortorella's, so I think he is a great fit for the Rangers because there won't be as much of an adjustment period. He could also get through to some of the younger players better than Tortorella did, which could definitely help guys like Mats Zuccarello, JT Miller and Chris Kreider.

The Rangers enter this season with almost the same roster and core pieces as they had the previous season, so it will be interesting to see how much of a difference the coaching change makes. I don't think Tortorella was all of the Rangers problems, but they replaced him with a great coach and have a solid foundation in place so they should have a good season. Will it be good enough to live up to their usual high expectations, though? After the jump, we'll explore that issue and take a closer look at the Rangers roster.

The Islanders shocked a lot of people last season by making their first playoff appearance in six years and continued to do so by giving the top-seeded Pittsburgh Penguins a run for their money in the first round. They ended up being eliminated in six games but many who watched that series were impressed with how the Islanders played and considered the better team for a few games. It may have come as a surprise to some since the Islanders are considered one of the perennial losers of the NHL, but they have quietly been building a solid foundation there for years and we are starting to see it pay off. 

Most would relate the Islanders success to them stocking up on high draft picks for years, the most notable one being 2009's first overall selection, John Tavares. While Tavares & other high draft picks played a major role in the Islanders return to relevancy, GM Garth Snow has done a very good job of acquiring talent in other rounds (Nielsen, Hamonic, MacDonald) and sprinkling them in with good low-risk acquisitions through trades (Visnovsky), free agency (Moulson, Boyes) and waivers (Grabner, Hickey). You generally need a solid mix of these to build a competitive team and the Isles have done a nice job of this over the last couple of years. Now the question is can they return to the playoffs and continue building off what they did last year. 

The Isles have a good young nucleus, so the belief is that they should get better this year with players like Tavares, Bailey & Okposo entering their primes. They also have a lot of young talent in juniors and the minors who should be ready to make an impact relatively soon and when you take that into account, it's fair to speculate that the Islanders could be a contending team for years to come. However, the new playoff format could make it tough for them to be contenders every year unless they can add more elite talent to their rankings. This is a good team, but how well do they stack up against the rest of the Metropolitan Division?

This season brings a new challenge for the Hurricanes as they will move from the friendly confides of the Southeast Division to the much tougher "Metropolitan Division" as part of the NHL's realignment. Joining them in this division will be the Washington Capitals, the Columbus Blue Jackets and all five teams from the old Atlantic Division. Carolina will have their work cut out for them in this new division, as it features four teams that made the playoffs last year and at least five teams who are considered perennial contenders.

Seeing how the Hurricanes have spent the last half decade playing in what was probably the weakest division in the NHL, most hockey minds see them struggling in the Metropolitan Division and not being a playoff team for a long, long time. The Canes also finished in the bottom-ten of the NHL last season while playing a good chunk of their games against divisional opponents, so how can they possibly expect to contend in a tougher division?

The next year could be tough on the Hurricanes, but what gets lost is that all teams go through good and bad periods and not all of these teams will stay contenders perennially. If this realignment occurred after the 2004-05 lockout, then the Metropolitan Division would have four of the five worst teams in the Eastern Conference and the Blue Jackets, who were the second worst team in the West at the time. This obviously isn't the case now, but it's entirely possible that this division won't be nearly as tough a few years down the road. 

As for next season, most seem to think that the Hurricanes are destined for a last place finish because of how tough this division appears to be, but I think each of these teams have their share of problems and Carolina may not be as outmatched as some of the experts think they will be. Over the next week, we'll take a closer look at these teams and talk about how the Hurricanes match up with them. Today, we'll start off with the team migrating from out "West," The Columbus Blue Jackets.

The Jackets are no strangers to playing in tough divisions, as they have spent the majority of their existence in the same division as the Chicago Blackhawks and Detroit Red Wings. They have only made the playoffs once in 13 seasons and are usually in the middle of the pack or lower part of the Western Conference standings. There are signs of them being on the upswing, though. They were the hottest team in the NHL from March onward and appear to be under good management with John Davidson and Jarmo Kekalainen running the ship now.

Carolina doesn't have much history with the Blue Jackets, but many see Columbus as a "sleeper" team in this new division and one that could challenge for a playoff spot. Are the Jackets for real or was the run they went on last year all smoke & mirrors? We'll discuss that after the jump and look at how the Hurricanes match up with them.

For the past two years, Justin Faulk has been a huge bright spot on what is mostly a bad defense corps. He made a huge impression on the Hurricanes fanbase last season after making the team out of training camp and won even more people over around late-November when he was permanent called up to the team. It's rare for a defenseman to become a full-time NHL-er before his 20th birthday, so Faulk being able to stick with the Hurricanes for 66 games last year was impressive enough, but this is just scratching the surface.

Not only was Faulk on the big club full-time, he also led all Carolina defensemen in time on ice per game, played on both special teams units and was often matched up against some of the opposition's better forwards. The national eye may have not given him a lot of attention, but Carolina fans knew they had something special in Faulk. After such a fantastic rookie season, the thought on everyone's minds was what will Faulk do next and will he improve or fall victim to the dreaded "sophomore slump?"

To some people, Faulk can do no wrong, but there were some areas he struggled in last season. As with any young defenseman, he was prone to mistakes and was giving up more chances than he was producing. He also had some issues with his two-way game, particularly with defending in transition and it resulted in him being on the ice for a lot of scoring chances against. Faulk impressed in a lot of ways, but there were plenty of things for him to improve on and playing for Team USA in the World Championships after the season and for the Charlotte Checkers during the lockout could help him fine tune his game before the NHL got back into action.

Even with those flaws, Faulk showed a lot of poise in his rookie season and did not look overwhelmed despite being a teenager playing a role that veterans are often assigned to. This along with Faulk's terrific special teams play showed that the Hurricanes had themselves a very good defensemen who was only in the beginning stages of his NHL career. The question was how good could Faulk be in his career and how long would it take for him to get to that level? His performance this year helped answered both of those questions.

If there is such a thing as a "sophomore slump," the Hurricanes didn't see it from Faulk this year because he improved on his rookie season in just about every way imaginable and emerged as a top-pairing defenseman. All before his 21st birthday too.

Well, after a very long wait the big day is finally here and the NHL season is ready to get underway starting at 3 p.m. Saturday. Today was the last day of training camp and teams had until 5 p.m. to finalize their rosters for opening night. We've spent the last week or so going over which players might make the roster and the final 23 are now set in stone.

After the jump, we'll look at which players made the team, go over the lines being used in camp and how the coaching staff could utilize each unit.

Winnipeg Jets Season Preview

Record Last Year: 37-35-10
Goal Differential: -21
Team 5v5 Fenwick: 51.05% (11th in NHL)
5v5 Sh%: 8.1%
5v5 Sv%:  .912
PP SF/60: 45.6 (21st in NHL)
PK SA/60: 51.4 (11th in NHL)

If you have looked at Bovoda's betting odds for who will win the Southeast, you will see that the team with the worst "chance" at winning the division is the Winnipeg Jets at +700. Those aren't terrible odds by any means but most people have the Jets as the "underdogs" in the Southeast and the least likely to make the playoffs. To me, this is surprising because Winnipeg wasn't that bad of a team last year. They weren't exactly a "good" team either, but compared to the rest of the Southeast, the Jets were pretty much in the thick of things until the latter part of the season. They had only one fewer win than the Southeast champion Florida Panthers, two more points than Carolina and the same amount of points as Tampa Bay. It's just kind of hard to believe that the odds of them winning the division are so much lower than them.

A possible reason why Winnipeg hasn't been receiving much love from the writers and oddsmakers is because Carolina and Tampa Bay both had very active off-seasons while the Jets didn't make much noise that caught the national media's eye. The Jets may have not broke any headlines but GM Kevin Chevyldayoff made a few good signings and it could help Winnipeg surprise a few people this season.

Florida Panthers Season Preview

Record Last Year: 38-26-18
Goal Differential: -24
Team 5v5 Fenwick: 50.35% (13th in NHL)
5v5 Sh%: 7.2%
5v5 Sv%:  .925
PP SF/60: 48.8 (13th in NHL)
PK SA/60: 54.3 (26th in NHL)

Aside from the Phoenix Coyotes and maybe the Ottawa Senators, no team exceeded their expectations more than the Florida Panthers did last season. Pegged by most to be a bottom-feeder in the Eastern Conference, the Panthers ended up winning the Southeast Division and making the playoffs for the first time in over a decade. They went onto give the New Jersey Devils a hard run for their money in the first round before being eliminated in seven games, ending what was one of the best seasons this franchise has ever had. Despite this, there haven't been many people picking Florida to repeat their title and there are many reasons for that.

For starters, they still had a terrible goal differential of -24 and had the same amount or fewer wins than non-playoff clubs such as Tampa Bay, Dallas, Colorado and Buffalo. One of the reasons why they got into the playoffs was due to their 18 points gained from shootout and overtime losses. It should also be mentioned that Florida was involved in 40 one goal games and they gained points in all but five of them. When your place in the standings is decided that much by one-goal gains, it's usually a sign that good fortune played a role in it. 

In addition to Florida's own flaws, the rest of the teams in the Southeast each made their own improvements and appear to be more dangerous than they were a year ago. Florida isn't as bad of a team as some would lead you to believe, but they are going to need a few things to go right if they want to have a chance at repeating.