The end of the year brings about the optimism of new beginnings for 2014. That gym membership, spending more time with family and friends and seriously working on lowering cholesterol levels are things that we forget within weeks, ok, possibly days after January 1st. It’s not that we want to forget about these things, but life gets in the way sometimes, and buffalo wings are delicious for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Unfortunately for NHL teams, the wins and losses aren’t reset with the advent of a new calendar year. It may require a monumental effort for some clubs to get back into the playoff picture, but as the ball drops on the year 2013, here are some New Year’s resolutions for Eastern Conference teams in 2014.
Boston Bruins-Be kinder to Penguins. Though bears and the flightless birds are sworn enemies, Boston’s aggressive behavior towards Pittsburgh both within and outside the boundaries of play has been brutal in 2013.
Buffalo Sabres-Make every night “Fan Appreciation Night”. Given the product that the Sabres have put out so far this season, the organization needs to let the Buffalo faithful know that their support is greatly appreciated.
Carolina Hurricanes-Play more offense. With the 25th ranked offense and 27th ranked power play, the Canes are one of the most goal-challenged teams in the NHL. They have the horses with Eric Staal, Jordan Staal, Alexander Semin and Jeff Skinner, but they have yet to light it up on the ice this year.
Columbus Blue Jackets-Daily affirmation from Stuart Smalley. Columbus, you are good enough, fast enough and doggone it, you can make the playoffs. They defied the odds last year missing the playoffs by a whisker. They look to be very much the same team again this season without the insanely good goaltending that they got from Sergei Bobrovsky last year. If the Bob-cat can play half as well when he returns from injury, the Blue Jackets could be a playoff team.
Detroit Red Wings: Win at the Joe. Once upon a time, the “Hockeytown” logo at center ice used to instill fear in the opposition. This season, the opposition has a 16-5-1 record against Detroit, in their house. As a lifelong Red Wings fan, that statistic astounds me. Maybe some of the awesomeness from the Red Wings’ alumni over the next few days will rub off on the 2013-14 edition.
Florida Panthers: Hire Peter Horacek as the full time coach. The young franchise needs stability at the top and it starts with the guy who has gotten more out of this team than anyone could have expected. The Panthers could easily have given up on the season and no one, even Panthers fans, would have cared. Then again, if they were winning, no one in Miami would care either. The point is that since Horacek’s appointment as bench boss, the Panthers have been tough to play against and are playing some inspired hockey. A 12-11-1 record since November 8 tells us that the team is responding to something.
Montreal Canadiens: See Hurricanes, Carolina. The main difference between the Habs and their New Year’s Eve opponents from Raleigh, North Carolina is that Montreal excels in almost every other area. Carey Price and a stingy defensive corps keep the pucks out, but they need some support from the offense if they expect to go anywhere this year.
New Jersey Devils: Bad Olympic juju for Ilya Kovalchuk. Even though that’s not very nice, the Devils resolution will be for good health for their own club. With 2013 free agency a colossal bust (except for Jaromir Jagr) the Devils are hoping that if they can keep their gray beards healthy and sneak into the playoffs.
New York Islanders: The Isles are certainly hoping for a Y2K type Armageddon to wipe their 2013-14 season from the records. Since that probably won’t happen, the franchise should resolve to have open auditions on defense and in goal. The playoffs might be too far from reach, but with nothing to play for it would behoove the Isles to have a valid assessment of the talent in their system.
New York Rangers: A healthy Ryan Callahan. An uneventful Olympics for Henrik Lundqvist. No club seems to feed off of their top two players more than the Rangers seem to. With Callahan battling injuries all year the blue shirts have looked out of sync. The big contract extension is out of the way for their franchise goalie, but now it seems he is struggling to live up to his paycheck. .
Ottawa Senators: There isn’t a team in the NHL that will welcome the New Year more than Ottawa. They have been average in an average conference this season, which has them on the fringe of the playoff picture. With all of their stars (relatively) healthy, the Senators have zero excuses for mediocrity. Coach Paul MacLean will need to get more from this club in a world that is all about "What have you done for me lately?"
Philadelphia Flyers: Keep the momentum going. The Flyers have taken points in six of their last seven games and finally seem to have Claude Giroux, Wayne Simmonds and Jakub Voracek going. With the goaltending looking solid early on, scoring has been the problem in Philadelphia. The team has been scoring in bunches lately which is a good sign as they turn the corner into 2014.
Pittsburgh Penguins: Stay under the radar and believe in your Baby Pens. GM Ray Shero made the biggest splash at the trade deadline by acquiring Jarome Iginla and Brenden Morrow. The Pens were a lock to win the Stanley Cup, or so it seemed. This season, the Pens were decidedly absent from the free agency bidding and have been forced to use their minor league club in Wilkes-Barre to support a team that has been beset with injuries all year. The results are obvious with Pittsburgh miles ahead of their closest Metropolitan Division rivals. Given last year’s failure, they will call again on the resources in northeast Pennsylvania to support another run at the Stanley Cup.
Tampa Bay Lightning: To not rush Steven Stamkos back too soon. If the Olympics were Stamkos’ goal, then the Lightning will have a good idea where he is at in his comeback. As the face of the Tampa franchise for many, many years to come, there is no reason to push their golden goose onto the ice after such a serious injury.
Toronto Maple Leafs: I would like to say that the Leafs need to live up to the hype, but I think that Toronto is almost too confident. The franchise spent a small fortune in David Clarkson this summer to pry him away from the New Jersey Devils. Clarkson embodies everything that the rest of the team needs to be. He is a grinder that has found a scorer’s touch. The taste of playoff hockey was brief but seems to have spread some sense of entitlement into the Toronto locker room. The HBO 24/7 series brought this to light with coach Randy Carlyle expressing the sentiments to the team in a locker room tirade. Toronto has a wealth of talent equal to anyone in the NHL, but they seem to expect the wins to come with a minimal amount of effort.