NHL Division Preview!

Good afternoon everyone, welcome to my NHL preview! Now I won't be going through each division, I will look at each one and preview the top projected team for each! The stats and projection percentages will be coming from moneypuck.com and hockey-reference.com. Each division looks wildly different this year and they have new names and with 10 less games, it should be an incredible season! Also a side note, if you hate the named divisions, relax this year. Leagues lost a shit ton of money last year due to covid so they need to make up some cash somewhere. Thanks. Without further ado, let's check out these top four teams!

Scotia North Division

Highlighted by the Toronto Maple Leafs, this division contains all the Canadian teams. The Leafs are projected by MoneyPuck.com to have a 21.6% chance to win this division and a 69.8% (nice) chance to make the playoffs this upcoming season. Last year, they did not even make the first round of the playoffs as they lost in the qualifying round that was set up by the league to give teams a shot to make the playoffs coming off the canceled season and bubble playoff system. One thing I noticed from last year is their Save % was below league average and that or their D must improve for them to make it far. They averaged 2.57 Expected Goals per game and gave up 2.47 XG last season, indicating some form of defensive break on this squad. Strong offensively, they will need to retool the D to make a run in 2021.

Honda West Division

This division is interesting to me because taking a look at these teams, you some really nice teams with good young talent (Avs) and some experienced teams who have deep playoff experience (Knights and Blues). But in the moneypuck.com playoff predictor, only the Knights stand out. They are projected right now with a 19.4% chance to win this division and a 68.2% They keys for them are to utilize the experience they have and win expected games against what may be a weaker division vs. a normal schedule. Last season they scored 2.84 XG and gave up 2.26 XG, so maintaining that defensive level in a covid year will also be huge for them.

Discover Central Division

These final two divisions should provide us with the most entertainment as they appear on paper to be STACKED. In the Central, we have the defending Cup champs in the Tampa Bay Lightning who are once again locked and loaded for this season. Projected with a 26% chance to win their division and a 72.7% chance to make the playoffs, they are the highest in both categories. Scoring 2.61 XG last year, they have a high powered offense and only giving up 2.22 XG is a good start. But with the covid year, this could all change even though I would still expect to see Tampa at or damn close to the top this season.

MassMutal East Division

The fourth and final division of the coco year is the East, highlighted by my Washington Capitals. Champs in 2018, they have been bounced in the first round the last two season and coming into this year they projected at 23.9% to win the division and a 69.4% (nice) chance to make the playoffs. The Caps have all of the fire power you could want with Ovi and Co, but the defense last year was particular poor. Averaging 2.48 XG is good, giving up 2.44 XG per game is bad. Holtby struggled all season and Samsonov tailed off towards the backend of the year. The Save % was under .900 and that is unacceptable for a cup level team. Bringing in Laviolette should help bring this team together and make them accountable. Goalie and D play needs to show improvement to truly have a shot of winning it all in 2021.