Since Pittsburgh, Columbus, Washington, New York Rangers, Montreal, Tampa Bay, and Toronto are almost certainly locks for the playoffs, who will the last team be?

Philadelphia

Lock is an extremely strong word, so there's no way it goes to seven teams. I'd say the locks are Tampa, Pittsburgh, Washington.

Barring any major injuries I'd say the rest are at least close to locks.

Might wanna check the definition of lock

A love the lack of respect Boston gets around here lol....

2017 - Made the playoffs
2016 - Missed the playoffs due to ROW vs DET
2015 - Missed the playoffs by 2 points

So Boston has either made the playoffs or barley missed the playoffs the last 3 years, didn't lose a key piece from last year (n fact we added McAvoy) and nothing....CBJ goes from bottom 5 team in the NHL (2015-2016) to 3rd in the Metro and suddenly their a lock lol. I can't wait to revisit these threads next years when the playoffs start.

Boston might be my pick actually, though they are shallow at forward. Big drop off after Bergeron Marchand Pastrnak, then another after Krejci Backed and Spooner.

So Columbus is not a lock in your opinion? IMO Columbus is in the top 4 in the east with WAS, PIT, and TBL.

Lock : complete and unchallenged control; an unbreakable hold (http://www.dictionary.com/browse/lock)

That definition brings me to this conclusion: Pittsburgh and Washington are the only "locks" in the East. There is no reasonable way that they fall into the WC.

It's not a lack of respect, like you wrote, Boston have missed 2 times in the past 3 years, and have made no major improvements over those years, they are putting a HUGE amount of trust/pressure in their unproven young guns, especially on Defence (which is not necessarily a bad thing, but a huge gamble)

It's not out of the ordinary for people to predict that they will not make the playoffs. That being said, I would put Boston as a fringe playoff team fighting for the last wild card with Carolina. I give an edge to Carolina as I think their young guys have proven to be stable NHL players (look at all the nice big contracts they are getting!)and that I'm biased as a Habs fan and seeing Boston out of the playoffs makes me happy

In my opinion Pittsburgh is really the only lock in the East. All the other teams could lose one player and easily not make the playoffs.

Columbus could easily make the playoffs if Bobrovsky gets injured.

Washington lost a lot of key pieces and I think their cup window is already closed.

I think the Rangers window to win the cup has also already closed, if neither Zibanejad or Miller prove that they can be a #1 C or Lundqvist doesn't improve from last season they could easily not make the playoffs.

If Price gets injured I think it's extremely unlikely that Montreal make the playoffs, even with him I really don't like their defense and they could definitely miss the playoffs.

I would have said the Tampa was a lock to make the playoffs last year, but the didn't so I wouldn't say they are a lock this year.

Toronto's defence is still very questionable and an injury to Rielly or Andersen would make it very hard for them to make the playoffs.


My predictions for the Eastern standings would be:

1. Pittsburgh
2. Toronto
3. Tampa Bay
4. Columbus
5. Washington
6. Florida
7. Rangers
8. Philadelphia
9. Ottawa
10. Montreal
11. Boston
12. Carolina
13. Buffalo
14. Islanders
15. New Jersey
16. Detroit

I agree with a lot of this

Mine:

1. Pittsburgh
2. Tampa Bay
3. Washington
4. Toronto
5. Columbus
6. Montreal
7. NY Rangers
8. Ottawa
9. Buffalo
10. Carolina
11. Boston
12. NY Islanders
13. Philadelphia
14. Florida
15. New Jersey
16. Detroit

Injuries and goalie inconsistency in the first half hurt the Lightning this year. Season long injuries to Callahan and Stamkos hurt the locker room. There were also lengthy injuries to Point, Palat, Johnson, Kucherov and Namestnikov.

CBJ missed the playoffs 2 of 3 years (bottom 5 team before making the playoffs), but people have them as a lock because they were 3rd in the Metro last year. We're returning 95% of our roster for last year and adding McAvoy who looked like a stud in the playoffs. We could see a few other rookies push for spots, but its not like we're relying on them to be major contributors.

I recall reading last year, that if you didn't include their crazy 16 game run, their points pace wasn't a playoff team?

I guess so. Same with Minnesota too. I just think that on paper at least, this team is really good.

Ya, I mean if you take that out and run the avg, then recalculate it based on 82 games they would have been 42-30-10 and would have missed the playoffs by 1-5 points roughly.

I actually have the Caps as my second wild card seed on my way-to-early predictions for the season. I have Atlantic being TB, TOR, OTT, BOS (WC1) and the Metro being PIT, CBJ, NYR, WSH (WC2)

Sorry but even if MTL makes it, they aren't 'locks' for the playoffs. i think NYI gets the 2nd wc

Columbus have made improvements, and there defense have solidified themselves as a well-rounded defense with 5 guys that can play Top 4 minutes and arguably top pairing (Jones, Werenski, Johnson, Savard, and Murray)
You will have a hard time comparing CBJ defense with Bostons, who I think only have 1 proven top pairing defensemen, Krug, and even that is a stretch. Chara's minutes are going to be controlled so much this season that he'll mostly just play on special teams (PP and PK), McQuaid and Miller are good guys but in my opinion are #4-5 Dmen. so again you are putting all this pressure on Carlo and McAvoy who are, all things considered, unproven.