2011-2012 Bold NHL Predictions

First off, I apologize that I haven't been posting all too much this year. I've been quite busy and honestly, this lack of posting may continue throughout the year. But every now and then I'll try to write something good up. Which brings me to this idea.

The idea of these bold predictions were taken from Puck Daddy, the Yahoo! hockey blog. For the sake of giving them credit, here's this years predictions by Puck Daddy: http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/blog/puck_daddy/post/What-We-Learned-20-bold-predictions-for-the-NHL?urn=nhl-wp13920.

I copied the idea over and made my own list last year. I enjoyed doing it so I decided that I'll do it again this year.

So without further ado, here are my predictions:

1) Evgeni Malkin will have the best season of his career and he'll win the Rocket Richard Trophy (most goals in the league), the Ted Lindsay Trophy (most outstanding player), and the Hart Trophy (league MVP).

2) Rick Nash also will have a career season and he'll lead the Columbus Blue Jackets into the playoffs.

3) Just for the heck of it, I'll add the Minnesota Wild to the list of Western Conference Playoff teams.

4) For some reason, everyone forgot how good Ilya Kovalchuk and Zach Parise are. The Devils somehow "shock" everyone and make the playoffs with flying colours.

5) The Edmonton Oilers improve a little bit and only finish 3rd in the Northwest division.

6) The New York Islanders will finish the season just out of 8th place and will have to wait yet another year to make the playoffs.

7) The Toronto Maple Leafs will indeed make the playoffs and their bandwagon will be loaded, looking a little something like this:

8) Remember the Vancouver Canucks? Ya they'll win that Presidents Trophy thing again.

9) Corey Perry will take a step back and finish with less than 90 points this season.

10) Despite their active offseason, the Panthers will still be pretty bad.

11) The Lightning will struggle this year and JUST miss the playoffs while the Capitals will easily finish 1st in the East yet again.

12) The Nashville Predators will finish first in their division, second overall in the conference, with the next years Vezina winner leading them.

13) Phoenix and Anaheim will both miss the playoffs this year.

14) The Los Angeles Kings and the Buffalo Sabres, who both made big signings in the offseason, will finish in first place in their divisions.

15) There will be a moment where people will believe that 5 teams will make the playoffs at of the Central (Detroit, Chicago, Columbus, St. Louis, Nashville) but the Blues will fall apart at the end of the season and just miss the playoffs.

16) The Winnipeg Jets will be hot at the beginning of the season but cool off by the end and just finish outside of the playoff race but it will be a successful opening season nonetheless. 

17) Jaromir Jagr will be solid this year for the Flyers and will finish with 45-50 points.

18) Montreal will be very streaky this year and will make the playoffs in the last week of the season.

19) This year's Winter Classic on January 2nd in Citizens Bank Ball Park between the Rangers and Flyers will be not as good as it should be, thus making the NHL office come up with a new plan for the yearly game.

20) The Washington Capitals will win the Stanley Cup

Conference Standings:

Eastern Conference

1- Washington Capitals

2- Buffalo Sabres

3- Philadelphia Flyers

4- Boston Bruins

5- New Jersey Devils

6- Pittsburgh Penguins

7- Toronto Maple Leafs

8- Montreal Canadiens

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9- New York Rangers

10- Winnipeg Jets

11- New York Islanders

12- Tampa Bay Lightning

13- Carolina Hurricanes

14- Ottawa Senators

15- Florida Panthers

Western Conference

1- Vancouver Canucks

2- Los Angeles Kings

3- Nashville Predators

4- Chicago Blackhawks

5- Detroit Red Wings

6- San Jose' Sharks

7- Minnesota Wild

8- Columbus Blue Jackets

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9- St. Louis Blues

10- Phoenix Coyotes

11- Dallas Stars

12- Anaheim Ducks

13- Edmonton Oilers

14- Calgary Flames

15- Colorado Avalanche