For arguments sake, we can take a look at the other "bubble teams" from the 2010 Eastern Conference playoff race:
6. Boston Bruins (91 points)
7. Philadelphia Flyers (88 points)
8. Montreal Canadiens (88 points)
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9. New York Rangers (87 points)
10. Atlanta Thrashers (83 points)
11. Carolina Hurricanes (80 points)
12. Tampa Bay Lightning (80 points)
13. New York Islanders (79 points)
It's worth noting that Florida finished last season with 77 points, but is likely a year or two from being a contender for a playoff spot. Toronto finished last in the conference with 74 points in 2010 and despite improving considerably is still a year or two away as well in all probability.
When looking at the teams that Atlanta competed with for a playoff spot last season, no team has made leaps and bounds on paper as far as improvements. There have, however, been key pieces added to each squad.
Boston has added Nathan Horton (pictured, Bruce Bennett/Getty Images), a 20+ goal scorer for the past five seasons. They have addressed a key concern, that being goal-scoring. Boston scored the fewest goals in the Eastern Conference last year, potting only 206.
On the flip side they only gave up 200, the 2nd best total in the East. Adding another 20-25 goals in Horton, plus having Marc Savard and Tyler Seguin for a full season could bode well for Boston offensively. The departure of Dennis Wideman, who had the second-worst +/- on the team (-14) in 2009-2010, could help the goal differential even further. The Bruins are undoubtedly poised for great improvements during the upcoming season.Philadelphia parted ways with oft-injured Simon Gagne this off-season, who has averaged just 54 games per year the past three seasons. While the Flyers added a hard-nosed defenseman in Matt Walker, they also lost a game-breaker in Gagne. Brought in to fill the void was Nikolai Zherdev, who played in the KHL last season and is as big of, if not more of, a question mark than Gagne. Perhaps most stunning is the fact that Philadelphia chose not to upgrade their goaltending, despite many viable options on the market. Philadelphia may have to make another move or two before the season begins to clear cap space this off-season, but as the dust begins to settle its hard to imagine Philadelphia being able to duplicate it's Eastern Conference championship success with mediocre goaltending and so many question marks offensively.
The New York Rangers, who were eliminated in the final day of the regular season in a shootout with Philadelphia last year, did little to help their cause this offseason. After giving out a puzzling long-term enforcer to Derek Boogaard, who has two more NHL goals than I do in 255 more games, the team then went out and dropped $3 million on Alex Frolov, who oozes with talent but lacks consistency and work ethic to accompany it, to add goal scoring punch. Adding Marty Biron will be key in easing the workload for Henrik Lundqvist and Steve Eminger is a nice addition on the blueline, but it could be another tough season in the Big Apple--and that's assuming Marian Gaborik stays healthy again.
That being said, it could be the teams who finished below Atlanta in the standings that could pose the biggest threats. Carolina quietly improved their defensive corps, adding Anton Babchuk from the KHL and Joe Corvo in a free agent signing from Washington. Losing Rod Brind'Amour's leadership could be key, but the team really turned a corner after naming Eric Staal captain, going 21-10-3 down the stretch after the captaincy change. A healthy Carolina team could pose serious problems to Atlanta's playoff chances, especially with six games against their division rivals and losing to Carolina all three times at home last season.
Antero Nittymaki has departed from San Jose, which is possibly the only good news for the Thrashers concerning the Lightning this off-season. After losing power play specialist Kurtis Foster to the Oilers, Tampa replaced his power play prowess with our own Pavel Kubina, who was good for 10 power play points last season. Gagne's production, provided he is healthy, will be a huge boost to an already offensively talented team and Victor Hedman will only get better with experience. Should Brett Connolly, the team's 6th overall pick in the 2010 Draft, make the team, he too could provide an offensive boost. Yesterday's addition of Dominic Moore will also give the team a nice two-way center to compliment the big guns up front. Couple this with Atlanta's one win in six games against Tampa last season and Tampa could be a thorn in the side of the Thrashers once again.
Finally, the New York Islanders have quietly improved an already much-improved team. The Isles added Zenon Konopka, a hard-nosed leader who lead the NHL in fights last season with 33 (the next closest was Ian Laperriere with 25) while playing in Tampa. This is a great move for the Islanders, adding toughness with a little bit of a scoring touch. Milan Jurcina adds more toughness on the blueline, and Mark Eaton is a servicable veteran. The team also added P.A. Parenteau, who quietly added a solid 8 points in 22 games (projects to 30 over an 82-game season) with the Rangers last year. Couple all this with the addition of Nino Niederreiter and the Islanders have a good, young core that will be tough to play against.
Stack all of this up with the Thrashers, who have added Dustin Byfuglien up front, Brent Sopel on the back end, and Chris Mason in goal. Byfuglien remains a question mark--will he produce as he did in the post-season or regular season? Sopel is a downgrade over Kubina but is a good penalty killer which will help the Thrashers with the loss of Marty Reasoner. Mason is an upgrade over Hedberg in goal who can tandem with Pavelec. Andrew Ladd is another big piece to the puzzle and less of a question mark than the others, bringing character and scoring to a team that may be offensively challenged at times. It all comes together in a new coach, Craig Ramsay, who will bring a whole new winning philosophy to an NHL team with as many playoff wins as the Hartford Whalers in the past 10 years.
It's tough to tell in July what team has improved the most, but when looking at specific team needs I'd be inclined to say Boston has done a great job upgrading. Atlanta isn't far behind, though. What do you think? Is Atlanta the most improved team in the NHL this season?
