Who's the Toughest Team in the Atlantic? Part 1

With the Devils and Penguins leading the Division withThe Rangers who started off the season hot at 7-1
28 points, the Flyers, Rangers and Islanders are all tiedhave cooled off as of late since. Even though the
with 23. With that being said the whole division is onlyRangers have been on the losing side of their games
separated by five points.of late they've been in all of them. Lead by M. Gaborik
All though we are only a quarter of the way throughwith 27 points he is currently in second place in the
the NHL season, if it would end today the wholeleague lead for points over all with 15 goals and 12
division would make the playoffs along with the Northassists. If the Rangers can get the rest of their guys
East Division leader Buffalo Sabers and the Southgoing and stay healthy they will be a threat as well.
East Divisions Washington Capitals.The surprise of the division has got the fans excited in
The Devils are on their game and proved to be a tuffLong Island again. Starting the season off they couldn't
road team with a record of 9-1 away from theirget a win but they managed to get points in a bunch
building being lead by Z. Parise with 24 points and theof games losing in over time. The Islanders started
legend M. Brodeur between the pipes holding down atheir season off at 1-4-5 getting their first win of the
12-5 record and a 2.21 Goals Against Average. Withseason against the Carolina Hurricanes in a shoot out
Parise and Brodeur on their game and their great roadthey finally got their first win on the season in regulation
record you can see why they are tied on top of theagainst the NY Rangers and have gone 7-2-2 since
Atlantic with the defending Stanley Cup Championthat win. The Islanders are getting the job done with
Pittsburgh Penguins.their youth explosion of John Tavares number one
The Stanley Cup champs picked up where they leftpick over all in the 2009 draft and with M. Moulson and
off by winning it all last season they started thisK. Okposo connecting. Goalie D. Roloson has been
season off at 9-1. They lost E. Malkin for a few gamesgetting the nod of late between the pipes and has a
and hit a skid but got back on the winning track with6-1 record in goal with a 2.77 G.A.A. Their captain D.
him back in the lineup winning their last two and holdWeight is out of the line up along with goalie R. DiPietro.
that top spot with Devils with a 14-7 record.This team will get some leadership back when those
The Philadelphia Flyers stand at 11-5-1 and were thetwo suit up again and the Islanders kids should only get
first team to hand the New Jersey Devils their firstbetter.
road loss of the season. The Flyers also have gamesIn a nutshell this division could be up for grabs, but at
in hand on every team in the division with two gamesthe moment the Penguins, Flyers and the Devils look to
in hand on the Devils they have four games in hand onbe the tuffest. With the Rangers and Islanders right
the Penguins, Rangers and Islanders. Flyers are lead bythere this will be an interesting race to watch as it
one of the best if not the best defensemen in theunfolds. It's very tuff to pick one but you really can't
league Chris Pronger. Jeff Carter leads the team indeny the debth of the defending champs team.
scoring with 19 points as Pronger and Mike RichardsStay tuned for Part 2 of this article as we hit the
both have 17.mid-way point of the season in early January 2010.