The Contenders: Eastern Conference

The Favourites:

Ottawa Senators
The Senators scored the most goals in the NHL and allowed the fewest of any team in the East. What's not to like? Mostly the health of No. 1 goalie Dominik Hasek, who went down with an abductor muscle injury at the Olympics in February and missed the rest of the regular season. If the Dominator can't go, Ottawa will pin its playoff hopes on rookie backup Ray Emery, who was solid for a time in his fill-in role before going 1-4-1 in his final six games.

Carolina Hurricanes
In the Eastern Conference, only the Senators scored more goals than the Hurricanes, who can roll out four 30-goal scorers. Carolina struggled a bit down the stretch, though, and the loss of point-a-game forward Erik Cole to a neck injury in March didn't help. Big-name reinforcements Doug Weight and Mark Recchi, both acquired in-season, were mostly big flops, combining for just eight goals and a minus-14 rating in 43 games with Carolina.

Buffalo Sabres
Following four seasons spent in the playoff wilderness, the lean-budget Sabres fattened their win total considerably in 2005-06, posting 52 victories to tie Ottawa and Carolina for the most in the East. The fifth-highest scoring team in the NHL, the opportunistic Sabres boast a balanced attack, a deadly-efficient power play and a stifling penalty kill backstopped by one of the league's best young goalies in Ryan Miller.

The Dark Horse:

Montreal Canadiens
Like the Flames a season ago, the Canadiens treaded water with inconsistent goaltending before getting help from an unlikely source. After taking over for struggling starter Jose Theodore at mid-season, 30-year-old Frenchman Cristobal Huet shed his third-string status and finished with the top save percentage in the league to help Montreal climb back into the playoffs. Huet struggled some as the season drew to a close, but if he can regain his stellar mid-season form, the slow-starting Habs could be a more dangerous team than their 7th-place seeding suggests.

On a Slide:

Tampa Bay Lightning
A season removed from its Stanley Cup championship season, the Lightning's quick-strike offence has all but vanished. Tampa Bay, the league's third-highest scoring team in 2003-04, fell to 16th this season. Meanwhile, the Bolts slid from 11th in goals-against to 18th. Tampa, which had the best record in the East a season ago, was fortunate to scrape into the playoffs in eighth place this season. And the team's goal differential (-8) is worse even than the ninth-place Atlanta Thrashers.

On a Roll:

New Jersey Devils
After a New Year's Eve loss to Toronto that dropped New Jersey to 16-18-5, the Devils went 30-9-4 and won the Atlantic division. The key to Jersey's second-half turnaround? The January return of star centre Patrik Elias, who missed every game of 2005 while battling hepatitis-A. The 30-year-old made an immediate impact, recording 16 points in his first 10 appearances as New Jersey went 9-1 in those games. Since then, the Devils have continued their red-hot play and enter the playoffs riding an 11-game winning streak.

The Buzz:

"If Arnason doesn't turn it up a notch in the final two games of the regular season, he might start the playoffs as a spectator."
- Ottawa Sun columnist Bruce Garrioch on the tenuous status of Senators forward Tyler Arnason, who failed to score in 19 games after being acquired from the Chicago Blackhawks.

"If the Canes do end up meeting the Lightning in the playoffs, they may be glad they took care of home-ice advantage in the first round a long time ago. They're winless -- 0-2-2 -- at the St. Pete Times Forum this season."
- Luke DeCock of the (Raleigh, N.C.) News and Observer on Carolina's season-long struggles in Tampa Bay after the Lightning's overtime win over the Hurricanes on Mar. 15 in Tampa.

"A few months ago, simply making the playoffs seemed good enough. On Jan. 6, the Devils trailed the division-leading Philadelphia Flyers by 19 points."
- Rich Chere of the (Newark, N.J.) Star-Ledger on the Devils' improbable turnaround, which saw them become the first team to overcome a 19-point deficit to win their division since separate divisions were created in 1974-75.

"Miller is untested in the playoffs, but he's hardly alone. Dominik Hasek has 97 playoff victories, and his availability is questionable at best. Martin Brodeur has 84. Sean Burke is the only other goalie in the Eastern Conference who has more than 20 playoff appearances. Suddenly, Miller's status as a rookie doesn't seem like such an obstacle."
- Buffalo News columnist Bucky Gleason on Sabres rookie goalie Ryan Miller, who has never appeared in an NHL playoff game.

"Forsberg's absence raised serious doubts about his ability to be a force in the postseason. It also shattered the assumption that he was skipping games he could afford to miss in order to be at full go for the playoffs."
- Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Phil Sheridan on the status of Flyers forward Peter Forsberg, who missed the team's penultimate regular season contest due to a chronically sore groin and indicated afterward that he wouldn't have played even if it had been a playoff game.

"He'll be coming off a strain to a hip flexor muscle that is critical to his butterfly style of goaltending, and playing behind a team that has unraveled down the stretch and is looking to him to restore order and confidence."
- John Dellapina of the New York Daily News on the return of Rangers rookie goaltender Henrik Lundqvist for the team's final regular-season contest after a seven-game absence during which New York went 3-4.

"All things considered, this was Tortorella's finest coaching performance, even better than that surf-the-avalanche performance of 2004."
- St. Petersburg Times columnist Gary Shelton on the performance of Lightning coach John Tortorella in 2005-06, a season in which the defending Stanley Cup champions narrowly avoided missing the playoffs.