Sabres will be just fine!?

Drury, Briere, and Zubrus are gone but if Max, Vanek, and Connolly stay healthy they can carry the load. Then you add in their great young players like Kaleta, Pominville, and Roy with Miller between the pipes and on paper they still look like the top 5 in the East.


What are you thoughts? How will your team do this season?


Here are my East Predictions


1. Pitt


2. Ottawa


3. Atlanta


4. NYR


5. Sabres


6. Tampa Bay


7. New Jersey


8. Toronto|||I can relate to the Sabres fans and understand how some feel this is the end for them for having seen Drury, Briere, and Zubrus depart for greener ($$$) pastures.





Buffalo is DEEP in talent and like you, I believe this would be a great opportunity for the younger talent to get more ice time and show what they can do. While I'll stop short of saying that they are as sure a Stanley Cup contender as Anaheim or Ottawa I see them finishing no less than 6th in the conference.





I also expect to them to have a rough time in the early going as the team finds its new identity. Perhaps the 2008-09 season is the one to put greater expectations on them. Heck, there are probably 20 other teams that would like to be where the Sabres are right now.





As for my team, well, I've been around too long to be caught up in any hype from any team. Even new and used car dealers hate me. The Flyers aren't going to light the world on fire at first and there is no guarantee that they will do great by the end of the season.





You might have seen my previous answers since the free agent frenzy began that say that the Flyers - Paul Holmgren especially - has shown me that they are thinking outside the concrete box that Ed Snider has erected for them due to his insistence that the Broad Street Bully religion can still win championships, despite a 32 year drought.





They will definitely do better this season but I'm not getting my hopes up. The predictions that follow are my best case scenario. I'll stick to them through the entire season and will post a question asking folks to compare their predictions to the outcome.





1 Penguins


2 Thrashers


3 Ottawa


4 Flyers


5 Lightning


6 Sabres


7 Rangers


8 Bruins





ADDENDUM: My fellow Flyers fans that I see most of the time think I am a stick in the mud for saying that the Cup ain't coming to Philly as long as Snider has anything to do with running the team. As far as I'm concerned, he should of left Philly on the same plane as Eric Lindros. I do hope I'm wrong.|||1. Ottawa


2. New Jersey


3. Pitt


4. NYR


5. Tampa Bay


6. Atlanta


7. Carolina


8. Montreal|||Good picks, except New Jersey won't make the playoffs. And Tampa Bay will be 3rd, not Atlanta.|||I'd say your predictions are probably rather close.





I think most people are overrating the Washington Capitals even with their picking up some good names; but I do think they might sneak in for 7th or 8th place. They still have a weak defense even with Poti that is going to cause them problems.





I'm not sure why some are surprised that Pittsburgh might be expected for #1 placement, with Buffalo and New Jersey weakening this year, the only other team in their conference to beat them was Ottawa (tied for pts, with more Wins); then you add a much stronger defense this year to Pittsburgh and its a reasonable guess...|||You're way off.|||Sabres have no true centre. They have a joke for a second goalie and their d is a year older and one foot closer to the grave. Be optimistic but we'll see what you have to say at christmas when they are barely ahead of the last place Bruins.|||Sabres..? Playoffs... Yes...


Top five... no way..!





I predict the 7th to 12th seed will be an ultra tight fight... with 8 pts separating the 7th to 12th seeds...








Z Ottawa


Y Rangers


Y Tampa Bay


X Pittsburgh


X Atlanta


X Philadelphia


X Buffalo


X Toronto





Boston


New Jersey


Florida


Washington


Carolina


Montreal


Islanders|||What about the Rangers?|||Hmmm... The Rangers get Drury and Gomez but they still only finish one place in front of the Sabres who lost Briere, Drury, and Zubrus?|||If I was a Sabres fan I wouldn't settle for just fine. Anything less than the cup is not just fine.|||pit as #1...thats a joke and a half


snottawa finishing 2nd is a joke too


Boronto making the playoffs is the 3rd joke


is this your idea of a ............joke?