Sohel
You do really dislike the Leafs ! lol.. But, in all fairness, I don't think they are that far away this time. They have a great budding young forward line. Kessel is a proven scorer. The emergence of Grabovski and Kulemin ( ding ding..Russian ) is true. They also have McArthur, another budding winger. They are missing an elite Center, and it looks like they will go after Brad Richards big time. Reimer is an emerging good goalie. Their defense has some big names, but needs some cohesion and proper coaching. They just missed the playoffs this time. I really think they are on the verge next year, but I could be wrong. But, they do have a good young team. However, their GM, Burke is too obsessed with rock 'em sock 'em style. In post lock out, its not a good theme to build your team primarily on that. But, I do sense a change.
Some Russian players can play a good brand of physical game. I won't say all European can, but some Russians can. Anyway, that's not the biggest barometer of your worthiness.
Sharks pulled it off last night being down 4-0. That is a huge momentum swing for them. If they lost, I think they would have choked again quickly. Kings are missing Kopitar. None of these two will go far with their goaltending.
After watching some games in the West ( I rarely do ), it looks to me that Wings are the best team. Canucks are second best. We will see how they recover from the pasting they took last night.
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