Lots of dead weight should be gone next year. If they could get rid of Ericsson they'd really be talking. But Mantha, Athanasiou, Jurco, and Pulkkinen should all be in the lineup next year full-time, or at least the first two will be. I wonder if the latter two can be part of a trade for the defenseman we need.
I'm not worried about any team we could possibly play until the conference finals. I'm worried that the Wings haven't played consistently good hockey all year, really. It's been in small spurts, one game, one period. Very few 60 minute efforts.
There's no perfect solution to it. In the other format you had division winners with 90 points facing teams who finished with more points but didn't win their division in the first round. I like the new divisions but it's a bit awkward with the Florida teams in there and Montreal and Toronto sucking.
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>Doesn't even mention Tyler Seguin, their best player