THN.com/podcast. From THN On The 'A': AHL All-Star Teams, Ridly Greig and Hurricanes Image [https://thehockeynews.com/.image/c_fit,h_600,w_600/MTk1MTQyNjcyODU0Mjk2Mjkw/usatsi_19654697.jpg] With the NHL regular season nearing its halfway point, THN.com is checking in and assigning letter grades for what they’ve done so far. This is the second division-by-division file – we began the process yesterday with the Eastern Conference’s Metropolitan Division [https://thehockeynews.com/news/nhl-mid-season-grades-metropolitan-division]. On Saturday, we’ll examine the Central, and after our three stars of the week column [https://thehockeynews.com/tag/three-stars] Sunday, we’ll finish things off Monday with the Pacific Division. Onwards, ho, to the highly-competitive Atlantic: 1. BOSTON BRUINS (32-5-4, 68 POINTS) The Bruins are the NHL’s best team, and the next-best team is nine standings points behind them. Nine. Points. As you let that sink in, also consider that Boston hasn’t had a fully-healthy lineup for the whole year, with star forward Brad Marchand and key defenseman Charlie McAvoy missing significant time before returning to be active as they are today. Also, consider they’ve lost exactly one game in regulation time (19-1-3) on home ice all season, which only happened Thursday night against Seattle. Virtually everything has gone well for them this year, from the return to the NHL of veteran center David Krejci to the rejuvenated forward Nick Foligno, from the dominance of superstar winger David Pastrnak to the excellence of goalie Linus Ullmark, from the typical two-way brilliance of captain Patrice Bergeron to the smarts of blueliner Hampus Lindholm. Things may not go as smoothly the rest of the way, but the Bruins are the odds-on favorite right now to win a Stanley Cup this season because they’ve thoroughly earned it. Grade: A+ 2. TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS (26-10-7, 59 POINTS) Much was expected of the Maple Leafs this season, and for the most part, much has been delivered. Coach Sheldon Keefe doesn’t get nearly enough credit for steering his team through a rash of injuries, including injuries to key defensemen Morgan Rielly, Jake Muzzin and T.J. Brodie, and goalies Matt Murray and Ilya Samsonov. Keefe did the most of what he had to work with – including a solid group of depth players – and he’s guided Toronto to the NHL’s third-best points percentage (.686). Superstar winger Mitch Marner has found a new, even more remarkable level to his game, and co-superstar Auston Matthews – whom we believe has been playing through an injury for a long time and only recently sat out a couple of games – has still been a force. So have Murray and Samsonov, although their consistency lately has not been ideal. The Leafs are a dangerous team, and they’re going about the year in a workmanlike way to set themselves up to thrive when the playoffs arrive. Failure is not an option – well, it is, but it’s an option that will bring considerable change to the organization. Grade: A 3. TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING (26-13-1, 53 POINTS) The Lightning have been about as good as the Leafs – both teams have 26 wins, and the Bolts have three games in hand on Toronto – but the difference in their grades is largely Tampa’s road record of 9-9-0 [https://thehockeynews.com/news/screen-shots-juraj-slafkovsky-edmonton-florida-and-tampa-bay], and their overall number of regulation-time losses (13, to the Leafs’ 10 regulation-time losses). You can never count the Lightning out as long as they have peak-level performer Andrei Vasilevsky in net, but all the years of deep playoff runs may be catching up to them. This is not to suggest they don’t have elite young players. Rather, it’s the punishments of the salary cap – for example, the cap-related need to trade veteran D-man Ryan McDonagh to Nashville last summer and the departure of elite winger Ondrej Palat as an unrestricted free agent to New Jersey – that have whittled away Tampa Bay’s effectiveness. They remain a good team, but every dynasty eventually fades, and it could begin to happen to the Bolts this year. Grade: A 4. DETROIT RED WINGS (18-15-7, 43 POINTS) Detroit got off to a promising start to the season, going 7-3-2 in their first dozen games. Since then, they’ve been positively mediocre, posting an 11-12-5 mark to make them 18-15-7 through 40 games. Is that an improvement on their past seasons in the Steve Yzerman Era? Yes, yes it is. However, they’re still two teams and five standings points out of the second and final Eastern Conference wild-card berth, and they’re only two points ahead of 14th-place Philadelphia. That’s how competitive the Atlantic, and the East, really are. Overall, the Red Wings’ defense is the main problem, as they have the NHL’s 20th-ranked goals-against average (3.33) and penalty-kill (75.6 percent). And their goaltending has not been as good as Yzerman and the Wings’ brain trust had hoped: first-year Wing Ville Husso has a .904 save percentage and 2.95 GAA, and backup Alex Nedjelkovic posted a 4.09 GAA and .880 SP. The Wings need just as much offense and much better defense if they’re to capture a playoff berth. Improvement is great, but they need more of it. Grade: B 5. BUFFALO SABRES (20-18-2, 42 POINTS) Sabres fans have desperately sought signs of progress from the beleaguered franchise, and at long last, they’re getting it. Powered by the ascension of star center Tage Thompson, Buffalo has emerged as the NHL’s most offensively-potent team, averaging 3.83 goals-for per game. They’re in fifth place and not higher in the Atlantic because they’ve got the NHL’s ninth-worst defense (3.48 goals against per game). An eight-game losing streak in November damaged their playoff hopes, but they then won eight of nine games between mid-December and the beginning of January. The Sabres have more than $18.1 million in salary cap space [https://www.capfriendly.com/teams/sabres], and now is the time for GM Kevyn Adams to be a player in the trade market. This is still a young team in many ways, but with that much cap space, adding a veteran, high-impact player should not be out of the question at all. There’s a clear foundation for them now, and the current focus should be on augmenting their cornerstone players with experienced, accomplished two-way players. Grade: B 6. FLORIDA PANTHERS (19-20-4, 42 POINTS) Each time you look at Florida’s dismal season, you remember – this was the NHL’s best regular-season team last year, with a 58-18-6 record – and you shake your head at how it’s come to this. They’re 19-20-4 this season, and while they’re not out of the playoff race by any means, the Panthers have four teams ahead of them (and six points in the standings) in the race for the final wild-card slot, and they’re only five points ahead of 15th-place Montreal. That is just not acceptable for a lineup with this much skill. First-year Panthers coach Paul Maurice doesn’t have much landing strip left to try and turn around Florida’s effectiveness, and he needs better play out of his goalies. This is a capped-out, strapped-out group at present, and they’ll need a minor miracle. Grade: D 7. OTTAWA SENATORS (19-19-3, 41 POINTS) Along with the Panthers and Edmonton Oilers [https://thehockeynews.com/news/screen-shots-juraj-slafkovsky-edmonton-florida-and-tampa-bayhttps://thehockeynews.com/news/screen-shots-juraj-slafkovsky-edmonton-florida-and-tampa-bay], the Senators have been one of the league’s biggest disappointments this season because of how promising they were thought to be. Ottawa started the season 6-12-1, and although they’re 9-5-1 in their past 15 games, the hole the Sens dug for themselves keeps them as the second-worst team in the Atlantic, in 13th place in the East. They need much more production from their bottom two forward lines and help on defense. Otherwise, they’re probably going to finish a few slots higher yet still out of the playoffs. That’s not terrible for a team trying to exit a rebuild, but it's not good enough for a balanced collection of contributing forwards in the top six. More should’ve been seen from them, and now the playoff picture is relatively bleak. A dominant second half is the only way they can leapfrog the other post-season contenders, and that’s far from assured. Grade: C- 8. MONTREAL CANADIENS (17-22-3, 37 POINTS) The Canadiens get a slightly-better grade than Ottawa because the Senators are, on paper, a better team than the Habs. Montreal was expected to flounder, and while they haven’t exactly lit it up with a 17-22-3 mark, that’s nearly as much as they accomplished in 82 games last season (22-49-11). Coach Martin St-Louis has done well in building the confidence of youngsters such as forwards Cole Caufield, Nick Suzuki and Kirby Dach. But there’s clearly a steep drop-off in talent in their bottom nine forwards and their defense as a whole. There’s still much work to be done before the Canadiens can be realistic about making the playoffs, but with another elite player added in this summer’s draft, Montreal’s foundation for the future will have many pieces in place. Serenity now [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ow_9MglZrhs], Canadiens fans, serenity now. Grade: C Correction: Buffalo was not on a three-game winning streak at the time of publication.
