From THN's Archive: Division Domination

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Division Domination  - Oct. 12, 2009 – Vol. 63, Issue 06 - Ken Campbell

OR MANY OF THE 16 YEARS since the Central Division rose out of the ashes of the old ‘Chuck’ Norris Division, it has pretty much consisted of the Detroit Red Wings and a bunch of scorched earth.

But like Chuck Norris, the Central is now not only relevant, but seems able to perform implausible feats of strength. We don’t know if the Central Division can run around the world and punch itself in the head the way Chuck Norris apparently can, but it is quickly making the case for being the best division in the NHL.

The Nashville Predators finished three points out of the playoffs last year. Had they made it, all five teams from the Central would have qualified for the post-season. Unlike each of the other five divisions in the NHL, there is not a single soft touch in the bunch and all five teams are not only formidable in the present, but none of them look like they’ll be going away in the near future.

When Columbus Blue Jackets coach Ken Hitchcock was asked about his team’s goals this season, he said the following with a straight face: “I don’t want to just stay in the mix. I want to go and chase Detroit. I’m tired of watching Detroit in first place…I mean, somewhere along the line, somebody’s gotta make them bleed and it might as well be us.”

That kind of talk from anyone else in the Central five years ago would have been preposterous. The division was a mish-mash of poorly run and excruciatingly slowly developing expansion teams, and the Red Wings essentially had a free pass to first place and a top-three seed in the playoffs. They’ve punched that ticket each of the past eight seasons, but there will be no advance sales for the Red Wings in 2009-10. If they’re going to win the Central this season, they’re going to have to earn it like everyone else does.

THERE ISN’T A SINGLE SOFT TOUCH IN THE CENTRAL DIVISION

The Wings still managed to finish fairly comfortably ahead of the pack last season when they took the division by eight points, but consider that three years ago, they finished just three points ahead of the Preds. The other six seasons they’ve won the division, it has been by an average of 18 points.

But the thing about it is the gap is closing in the Central not because Detroit is faltering, but because the other teams in the division are getting better. The revival in Chicago continues and while there are very serious long-term concerns about the Blackhawks’ salary cap management, they look poised to continue their upward trajectory. St. Louis and Columbus are finally reaping the rewards of all those high draft picks and Nashville has the kind of defense corps and goaltending that bode well for the future.

No, there isn’t a better division in the NHL right now. Some divisions have more star power, some have better goaltending, some have far more stable franchises, but there isn’t a division in the league that is as strong and solid, top to bottom, as the Central.

And the league-wide numbers last season certainly bear that out. The combined record for the Central Division against the NHL’s other five divisions was 159-101-30 and their points percentage of .600 was by far the best in the NHL. And just to prove they weren’t feasting only on weak Western Conference teams, their record of 49-32-9 (also a .600 points percentage) against Eastern Conference teams was also best in the league for any division against the other conference.

By the way, the worst division in both of those categories, not surprisingly, was the Southeast, which was 135-116-39 (.533) against the other divisions and a paltry 38-44-8 (.467) against the Western Conference.

Not only that, but the Central looks poised to get better. The Wings have suffered some real body blows to their overall depth, but they never seem to run out of prospects and good young players. In THN’s Future Watch 2009, the Central Division had the No. 1 (Nikita Filatov, Columbus), No. 4 (Colin Wilson, Nashville) and No. 5 (Alex Pietrangelo, St. Louis) prospects outside the NHL. Overall, the Blue Jackets had the fourth-best group of prospects in the league, St. Louis ranked fifth and Chicago was eighth, with all five Central teams finishing in the top 13 in the NHL.

Perhaps this is the year the Central Division pulls off the near impossible and has all five teams playing in the playoffs. If not, it will probably only be because the parity in that division will prevent those teams from gaining the points they need.

Even if the Central Division doesn’t complete the all-five-clubs-in-the-playoffs quest, it’s pretty clear where the best hockey is being played these days and will be in the future.

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