Southeast Preview: Defending champs lead division on upswing

Even if their summer vacation was far too short, chances are no NHL team is as excited about starting a new season as the Carolina Hurricanes.

Of course no one else gets to celebrate opening night by raising the Stanley Cup banner, an act that will put a final exclamation point on the Hurricanes' great season last year and a brand new bull's eye on their backs.

 

Center Brad Richards leads the big three in Tampa.

"We need to enjoy it, but at the same time, it's a new year, a new process, and we need to be focused," said Carolina's 22-year-old center and scoring leader Eric Staal. "Obviously, whenever you win the championship, you're going to be hunted after the next year."  

That's something other Southeast Division teams may have to get used to now that it's the home of the past two NHL champions. If nothing else, the division will no longer be derided as the "Southleast," because there's been enough improvement in all its locales to make this one of the more competitive groupings in the league.

With its great overall team speed and scoring power to burn, Carolina remains the class of the division, largely because it managed to bring back most of the core group that took it on its championship run. That's no small feat in the NHL's current economic environment, and something 2004 champion Tampa Bay wasn't able to claim last year.

"The key in this environment is being able to adapt," said Tampa Bay GM Jay Feaster.

That was a problem for the Lightning coming out of the lockout, and it cost them starting goalie Nikolai Khabibulin and their chance to repeat last season. The Bolts had to do more purging this summer, but big three forwards Brad Richards, Vincent Lecavalier and Martin St. Louis are still around, and the Lightning feel they've improved their goaltending enough to contend with the 'Canes and everyone else in the East.

"As we sit right now, we're as good as any team in the Eastern Conference," Feaster said. "I don't look at any team in the Eastern Conference and say, 'Boy, how are we going to compete?' It's just a matter of this team doing what it did in '04."

But while Tampa Bay is looking upward, it shouldn't be overlooking division rivals behind them.

Both the Atlanta Thrashers and Florida Panthers were within striking distance of postseason spots last season and probably would have made it had they not been undercut by unusual circumstances. In Atlanta's case, the problem was a series of minor-league goalies who had to be used excessively when starter Kari Lehtonen and his backups got hurt. In Florida, it was a month-long road trip forced by Hurricane Wilma that essentially ruined a solid season.

Now Lehtonen is back and healthy, and the Panthers have their building again. More important, both clubs have made some nice tweaks to their rosters and will contend not only for playoff spots, but possibly even for a division crown if they catch a few breaks for a change. The Washington Capitals aren't quite at that point yet, but they have added some decent support for the human highlight reel, super sophomore Alexander Ovechkin, and will be far more competitive than last season.

"Things can change quickly now in the NHL, and our personnel is stronger than last year," Capitals veteran center Dainius Zubrus said. "That's really all you need."