They deserved to beat Washington, they were the better team in that series and not because they got hot. Carolina was a top 5 team at 5v5 and Washington was below average, it was the perfect 1st round matchup for Carolina. Once the Islanders beat the Pens, the 2nd round wasn't going to be overly difficult either. It was a weird playoffs and further shows why the current playoff format is garbage. It'll be the same this season likely.

I see the Metro being hotly contested again with many teams battling right up to the finish line to either win the division or miss the playoffs entirely. I think the top 3 teams in the East will be Tampa, Toronto and Boston and Florida and Montreal could earn the wild card spots. I'm predicting that Florida will finish 4th in the Atlantic but be ahead of the top team in the Metro. Its an even playing field in the metro and a lot of people see the parity and think it means its a strong division while I see it being very even without any powerhouses. You'll see a lot of teams in the Metro finish 3-3 against other divisional foes. In the Atlantic, the top 3 will have winning records against the mid level teams and then go undefeated against the less teams.

For example as to what I mean.

Boston could be 3-3 against Tampa and TO but then finish with records of 6-0 against Detroit and Ottawa, I don't see anyone that far ahead of anyone else in the Metro and that will result in a group of teams all being close but not really taking off points wise.

This is pretty much spot on. I dont agree that Florida and Montreal will have more points than 1st in the Metro, but I like this^

Thanks man, Carolina winning the division by the way would not really surprise me. Although at the same time, them missing the playoffs entirely also wouldn't surprise me. The metro can go so many ways and even by Christmas I think it'll be hard to point out which teams are the top ones.