Goaltending will probably decide which of these teams makes the playoffs first. Look at Ottawa a couple years ago, Montreal a year ago, and Colorado this year... They dropped to the bottom of the league and then seemed to turn it around/are turning it around almost right away.
And it's because they have had insanely good goaltending. I chuckled this summer when some thought Ottawa was going to be a contender this year. Over the past 2 seasons, they have been out chanced and outshot in most of their games. They have just had Anderson and lehner putting up a .930 save percentage. And they won a lot of games by a single goal because of that. Now that their goaltending has come back down to earth, they are not as good as everyone thought. The same will likely happen with Colorado although I do think they have much more talent than Ottawa.
Whichever team finds a goalie that can consistently save games for them will be the first to get back to the playoffs but that won't make them a contender.
This years draft will probably be very big for buffalo. They could very well end up with 4 picks in the first round after the trade deadline including 2 in the top 10. I think last years draft was a big one for Calgary and this one will be important too just not as impactful cause I don't think they'll get Reinhart or ekblad. Who knows though? Maybe the hockey gods will reward the flames for their hard work this year and they'll win the draft lotto.
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