Monday debate: the division

Help has to come in the way of a trade or the Canes won't make the conference finals. I'm thinking they can avoid seeing Boston in the first round at least for now. If they can just close on the Caps a little in Jan / Feb, then a good trade could result in the division title. It all depends on the Caps playing like mere mortals.
Tripp is excellent in his role. He gives accurate assessments and play diagrams that are hard to see on TV but are obvious at the arena, so watching is more like being there. He gets a lot out of interviews, which is a real art, if you watch crews on Center Ice around the league try to get anything from a player between periods etc.
As for Versus etc. I think the NHL is moving in the wrong direction with nationally telivised games like the winter classic. Who needs to know about skate sharpening while the teams are skating? Their chatter decreases the tension from watching the contest, it slows the rhythm down to the level of watching golf. I want to be on the edge of my seat if the play is good and fast. Compare Versus to a Hockey Night in Canada broadcast, Versus needs to change.

The first time the Canes went to the cup finals, no one would have said during the season that they were a Stanley Cup contender. Right now we can't say the Canes are SC contenders, but who knows what will happen, especially with the same (smart) coach in charge?

This year is just like so many years past when Mo was coach, the players aren't as good as some other teams' players, as a group, and the Canes will scratch and claw to make (or not make) the playoffs. In the end it may depend on Cam Ward.

I think the broadcasters are fine. Tripp is amusing rather than grating. The two fit together well.

I stand by my feeling that we are 1 high-level forward away from icing a cup-contending team. We have the goaltending, we have what has turned out to be a much more solid group defensively that we ever thought possible (considering their past performances), and most of our forwards are starting to score at a pretty good pace. Not one player has a huge long scoring streak, because they all score pretty evenly. You see how Pitkanen and Corvo weren't scoring for a few games, but who was? Babchuck. Staal and Samsonov dont score for a game or 2, but who does? Whitney, Cullen, LaRose.....see my point? If we were to be able to use maybe Eaves, Brookbank, maybe some prospects (we have many high-level prospects right now that could play RIGHT NOW on other NHL teams, but we are too deep to think about them being here less than 2 years or so out) and/or some draft pics, we could land ourselves a good, even just 2nd tier forward, the likes of Rolston, Cammaleri, Zajac....just throwing names out there, I dont know their contract situations, or not sure if they would even fit here. But we need to find that one more piece, and I think we will be right there with the teams hunting for the Cup, and not those just trying to make the playoffs.

... is that the Caps are a legit Cup contender. We are a playoff contender. Yes, I think the division is out of reach, but it really doesn't make a difference in what the Canes need to do. They're not competing with the Caps, they're competing with the entire Eastern Conference. They have to get points. If they end up somehow catching Washington, that would be a bonus, but I don't think anyone should necessarily be thinking about it that way.

I was going to mention Forsland's assessment as well... and I agree. Washington has opened up a sizeable lead in the division, despite missing a lot of key man-games (more that the Canes thus far, I would guess). Semin's missed two stretches, Ovechkin went home for over a week, Green/Federov/etc. have been in and out as well. Barring any disastrous injuries, I don't see them giving up much of the lead.

So the discussion is the Conference, not the Division.

If the Canes keep improving their overall game and defensive responsibility, I see them moving from a fight on the bubble (7-9th) to fighting for 4-7th.

1/2 - Bruins/Caps - it will come down to who can put together the most hot streaks over the next 3 months.

3 - Atlantic champ - I like Philly. NJ will continue to lose pace until & even after Brodeur returns, Pitt is missing their offensive D despite Crosby/Malkin's output and the Rangers are coming back to the pack after getting an advantage of more games played early on).

4-7 - Pens/Canes/Habs/Rangers - Pens & Habs are too good to fall out of the playoff hunt altogether. We'll see about the Canes & Rangers. The Canes have one advantage in that they'll be playing the SE more, instead of the Atlantic, which will hurt NJ/NYR/PITT.

8-9 - Devils/Sabres will be fighting it out for the last spot. Florida might be in there if they can get their offense going.

Toronto has been overachieving to even stay close to the bubble, and the rest have fallen too far behind in the first half to have anything but a miracle chance of squeaking in.

Like John Forslund said in an interview last week, this is is a team that will be fighting for a playoff spot and that's it. They should have won the division last year because the Caps were poised to take over the Southeast with all of the talent they have. I am more concerned with securing a playoff spot than with what the Caps are doing.

We have three four point swings left against them. If we can win out in those games, we certainly stand a chance.

 Regardless of the division, my concern is getting into the post season again to justify all this money that is being spent to ice a roster as talented as the one we have.

7th, 8th.... no matter. Just get into the game. Anything can happen from there.