NHL: Atlantic Division Strongest in the League

Most of this year’s attention in the National Hockey League has been paid to the standout teams – e.g. the Detroit Red Wings, and the game’s superstars – e.g. the Sydney Crosbys et al, but few headlines or discussions have mentioned the best division in the league, and that would be the Atlantic Division.
The Atlantic Division is the only division that can boast that all of its teams are over .500, and that they all have at least 20 wins. The teams in the Northwest Division, which consists of Minnesota, Vancouver, Calgary, Colorado, and Edmonton, have all won a minimum of 20 games, but Edmonton is one game under .500.
Only three teams in the league have surrendered less than 100 goals, and one of them is the New Jersey Devils, with 99. The Red Wings have allowed 96 and the Sharks have given up 95.
As a division, they have allowed fewer goals than any other division in hockey, giving up 568. The Central Division, with Detroit’s 96, are the only other division to surrender less than 600, at 572.
Sydney Crosby of Pittsburgh leads the league in assists, with 41, and he is also fourth in the league with 59 points. Philadelphia’s Mike Knuble is tied for fifth with 10 power-play goals. Those are the only players in the division who rank highly on any major offensive stat sheet.
The Atlantic is doing it with a phrase that’s most associated with football: defense and special teams.
If you take a look at the numbers, most or all of the teams in the Atlantic rank in the top 50 percent in categories that are most associated with winning games (other than obviously goals scored).
Goaltending can win a championship, and the Atlantic has plenty of it.
In the category of goals against average, Martin Brodeur ranks sixth at 2.11. Henrik Lundqvist is 14th in the league at 2.41, and Rick DiPietro of the Islanders sits in the 16th position with a goals-against average of 2.56.
Looking at the wins list, Brodeur is ranked 2nd with 23, Lundqvist is tied for eighth with 18, and DiPietro is tied for 10th with 17.
The save-percentage stat is very strong in the Atlantic as well. Brodeur again leads the way in the division, tied for 7th in the NHL at .920. Matthew Biron of the Flyers is 9th with a percentage of .919, and DiPietro is 16th with a .911.
Moving on to shutouts, Lundqvist is tied for 2nd with six, Brodeur is 4th with four, DiPietro is tied for the 12th spot with two, and both Pittsburgh goalies have two shutouts apiece. One of them, Dany Sabourin, is tied for 2nd with four shootout wins.
Brodeur is seventh with three wins in the shootout, and DiPietro is tied for eighth as he has won two games for New York via the shootout.
With all of these rankings, keep in mind that there are 44 goalies ranked in these lists, so if a goalie is ranked even as low as 22nd, he’s in the top half of the goalies in the league.
Now let’s take a look at special teams, an intangible part of hockey that can turn a game around in a flash.
The teams in the Atlantic Division rank among the best in these departments, and there are at least three teams from the division that are in the top half of the league.
On the power play, Philadelphia is ranked 2nd, scoring at a clip of 23.5 percent. The Penguins are 8th at 18.9 percent, the Rangers rank 15th at 17.4, and the Islanders sit in the 22nd spot at 16.3. Not bad numbers for a division in a league of 30 teams.
The penalty-kill numbers are even better, with four clubs ranked in the top 14 spots.
The Islanders are the 4th-best team in the NHL at killing penalties, squashing 86.4 percent of their opponents’ opportunities. Three other teams from the Atlantic are bunched in right behind each other. The Rangers ranked 12th at 83.3, followed by the Devils at 83.1, and Philly at 82.7.
So, other teams may score more goals, have flashier players, or, except for the Rangers, spend more money, but as strong as the defense and special teams are for the teams in the Atlantic Division, I’ll take my chances with any of these clubs against any of the other high-octane teams in the league.