Toronto, Carolina Teams to Beat in Eastern Conference

Good morning. The Carolina Hurricanes ran away with yesterday’s poll, capturing 40% of votes as your preseason favorite to top the Metropolitan Division this season.

Let’s hear who you like in the Central division while Kevin shares his Eastern Conference favorites as today’s top story.

Btw, just one week until the puck drops on the 2023-24 NHL regular season.

- Brandon Rubeo & Kevin Allen

Today’s Lineup:

• Carolina & Toronto are the teams to beat in the East

• Ducks finally extend Zegras

• Jesper Bratt’s hat trick leads the Devils

• And a lot more… 👇

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Toronto, Carolina Teams to Beat in Eastern Conference

Atlantic Division

Thanks to the presence of Auston Matthews, John Tavares, Mitch Marner and others, the Toronto Maple Leafs are known as a dynamic offensive team.

But the truth is the Maple Leafs were a strongly balanced team in 2022-23.

In fact, they ranked slightly better defensively than offensively last season. They ranked seventh in the NHL with a 2.68 goals-against average and ninth with a scoring average of 3.39 goals per game.

With the Boston Bruins, Tampa Bay Lightning and Florida Panthers all dealing with significant problems this season, the Maple Leafs’ strong overall game makes them the team to beat in the Atlantic Division in 2023-24.

Key additions: LW Tyler Bertuzzi, C Max Domi, D John Klingberg and G Martin Jones.

Question: Can goalie Iyla Samsonov replicate last season’s strong play. He is crucial to Toronto staying strong defensively.

Metropolitan Division

The road to the Metropolitan Division title goes through the Carolina Hurricanes defense. And that’s a challenging journey to make.

Carolina’s defense is one of the NHL’s best. The group, which includes Brent Burns, Jaccob Slavin, Brett Pesce and Brady Skjei, is hard to play against. The ‘Canes play a tight defensive system, offering no time and space for opposing scorers.

The young New Jersey Devils, one of the NHL’s best skating teams, will challenge Carolina for the top spot, but the consistency of Carolina’s defense and goaltending gives them the edge.

Key additions: D Dmitry Orlov, LW Michael Bunting, D Anthony DeAngelo, and LW Brendan Lemieux.

Question: Will the Hurricanes score enough goals? They were a middle of the pack offensive team last season and Andrei Svechnikov starts the season on the injured list.

POLL 🗳️

CAN’T MISS 🔥

🦆 The Anaheim Ducks finally extended their leading scorer, signing Trevor Zegras to a three-year contract extension worth $17.25 million, with an annual cap hit of $5.75 million. Zegras, 22, had a breakout season in 2022-23, recording 65 points (23 goals, 42 assists) in 81 games, after being a Calder Trophy finalist in 2021-22. Read more →

🎩 Jesper Bratt scored a hat trick and added an assist to lead the New Jersey Devils to a 6-5 preseason win over the New York Islanders last night. The Devils fell behind early by two, but scored four goals in the 2nd period to take control of the game and remain unbeaten this preseason (5-0-0). Bratt scored twice early in the 2nd period before sniping high glove just over 4 minutes into the 3rd to complete the hat trick. Read more →

TRIVIA QUESTION 📚

What Montreal Canadiens old-timer holds the NHL all-time record for longest goal streak to start the season with 14? And what modern era legend is tied for second all-time with a 12-game goal scoring streak to start the season?

Become a Better F1 Fan!

QUICK HITS 📈

• Bourgault, Campbell shine as Oilers earn pre-season win over Kraken

• Suzuki scores in OT as Canadiens rally to edge Maple Leafs

• Coronato continues strong pre-season as Flames rally to beat Jets 5-4

• Korpisalo shines as Senators beat Penguins in Halifax

• Ranking each Canadian team’s forward corps ahead of the 2023-24 NHL season

• Domi brings ‘heart and soul’ game to Leafs

• St. Louis Blues Expect Torey Krug Back For Regular Season

• How Terry, Forsberg, other NHL stars will level up in 2023-24

• Lind eager to prove he's worthy of full-time role with Kraken

• What to expect from the U.S. NTDP: Eiserman and Hagens lead the way

COACHES CORNER 🏒

• Jordan Eberle working on the details of his first explosive step

• Attacking the dots with speed and linear crossovers

TRIVIA ANSWER ✅

Joe Malone opened the 1917-18 season with a 14-game goal streak, an NHL record. Mario Lemieux opened the 1992-93 season with a 12-game goal streak, tying Cy Denneny (1917-18) for the second longest goal streak to start the season in NHL history.