A little hockey talk

View from the cheap seats - I guess it's time to take a look at the impending National Hockey League regular season.

It actually started already with four games in Europe over the weekend, but the official North American debut doesn't take place until Oct. 9. This is a task that I've actually been dreading because I have a feeling that it's going to be a long painful season for me and the rest of the fans of the Toronto Maple Leafs.

The Buds decided, and rightfully so, to unload a lot of their high priced players in the off-season and go with a younger more inexperienced squad this year. They got rid of McCabe, Tucker, Gill and Raycroft and with the retirement of Captain Sundin I think they will struggle to find the win column this season. Now as I eluded to - this is a move that I'm in favour of.

It will mean a few lean years, not that different from the recent past many people will say, but it's time for this team to begin the rebuilding process in earnest. They started off on the right foot by drafted defenseman Luke Schenn this past June and my fervent hope is that they will continue building towards a winning product in this manner.

Okay, now that I have established that the Leafs aren't going to be very good this year, I guess I'll take a look at who I think will be. I'll do the Eastern Conference this week and then have a go at the West next week.

So here are who I think will be the three division winners in the East: Montreal in the Northeast, Pittsburgh in the Atlantic and Tampa Bay in the Southeast. The Habs were a real player in the Mats Sundin sweepstakes this summer, thank god he didn't end up going there, but when things didn't work out with him they did improve an already stellar lineup by adding veteran forwards Alex Tanguay and Robert Lang.

These guys will give them some pep up front and with a solid mix of young and old on the blueline they look to be a lock to win their division. They also made a long overdue move in the physicality department with the acquisition of tough guy George Laroque - nobody will push them around with him sitting on the bench.

Price will have to be solid between the pipes of course but I expect them to be very good this year. Pittsburgh may have lost a few big names, Hossa and Malone being the key two, but they did pick up Miroslav Satan and Ruslan Fedotenko and with Crosby and Malkin leading the way they will be one of the top regular season teams in the entire league, let alone their division.

I may be going out on a limb taking the Lightning to win the Southeast, but if the many moves they made in the off-season work out they will be a force to be reckoned with. Tampa did lose standout blueliner Dan Boyle but they replaced him with Brian McCabe and Andrej Meszaros and beefed up their front line with Ryan Malone, Vaclav Prospal and Gary Roberts.

I do think Washington will give them a run in that division - they made several improvements to win it last year and while I think they are probably going to get one of the eight playoff spots this year the division is going to Tampa. So with the three division leaders taken care of I think I'll pick the other four playoff teams. I've already picked the Caps of course and along with them I'm taking the Flyers, Rangers, Devils and Senators.

Philadelphia didn't do much of anything in the off-season but they really didn't have to - they are solid from top to bottom and will probably take the number four spot come seasons end. New York lost Jager to the big money in Russia but added forwards Nikolai Zherdev and Marcus Naslund and defenseman Wade Redden. I look for Naslund to have a bounce back year with the Rangers and Redden will give them some needed strength on the blueline.

Despite losing Redden and Mezaros, they did pick up veteran Jason Smith, I still think that the Ottawa Senators are a playoff team - they may rely heavily on their top line of Spezza, Heatley and Alfredsson but as talented as those three are I think it will be enough.

As far New Jersey goes I give them the edge over teams like Boston, Carolina and Buffalo because of their goaltender. Brodeur is still one of the best in the league - he'll get his 46 or 47 wins this year and the Devils will ride him to a playoff spot. I'm obviously not giving us, the Thrashers, the Panthers or the Islanders a snowball's chance in you know what to make the postseason this year. See you next week with a look at the Western Conference. Go Leafs.