between philly, nyr, detroit, washington and the jackets, it's going to be a photo finish. hopefully some of these ass monkeys fall off in the near future.
I think the NYR lost their leader and unless St. Louis or Nash step up into the role, they might be a ship without a captain.
Detroit has leadership out their ass with Z, Dats, Alfie and now Legwand, the problem is only 2 of those players are on the ice right now and Alfie is old and showing it. Weiss is not the player they thought they were signing either.
Philly looks to have righted the ship. They'll be in the playoffs.
Washington is a mess. Ovechkin wants to win so badly he makes it into the Ovie show, and the rest of the team suffers for it.
Watch for Tampa to backslide a bit - Callahan is a leader, but this team won because St. Louis was scoring goals and getting assists, not because they are exceptional anywhere.
And I think Toronto is in range too - they don't look nearly like the same team they were pre-Olympics.
The Blue Jackets have a brutal stretch ahead of them, but the teams ahead and around them all have serious issues. The only truly elite teams in the East are Pittsburgh and Boston and Montreal is a tier below them. Everyone else from Toronto down to Ottawa are mostly on the same level.
