If you haven’t read my predictions for the Eastern conference this season, you should. And then you should realize that I am, thus far, doing alright with one pretty glaring exception.

The Atlantic Division seems to be throwing all of my preconceived ideas of this season out of the window as the Penguins, who I predicted to finish fourth in the division, have risen above the rest and now only trail the Devils by a single point with two games in hand. The Flyers, who I predicted would finish ahead of the Pens, have already lost to them twice by a combined score of 12-2, and sit in the basement of the league with a mere five points in 10 games. The Islanders, after a slow start, have picked it up and are now tied with the Rangers, each team with 10 points in 10 games.

While I did state that the Devils would finish in first, the rest of my thoughts on the subject are in disarray. Let’s go through each team and figure out why they are screwing up my predictions.

Penguins- First off, as a Pens fan, I am more than pleased with the way the team has been playing. And my reasons for happiness are the exact reasons that they are messing with my preseason picks. It all starts in goal with the Pens, as Marc-Andre Fleury has played amazingly well and is finally living up to his No. 1-pick status. Evgeni Malkin has proven to be the Jaromir Jagr to Sidney Crosby’s Mario Lemieux, and Jordan Staal, though he might be sent down, currently leads the league in short-handed goals. Couple all of this with the play of forwards Mark Recchi, Michel Ouellet, and defensemen Sergei Gonchar and Ryan Whitney, and you can easily see why the Pens have come out firing this year.

Rangers- New York hasn’t gotten off to the start it had predicted. While the Rangers are getting offensive production from their top two lines, everything below there is not producing up to par. Besides having only two contributing offensive lines, the Rangers have had many problems in goal. Henrik Lundqvist has a goals against average of 3.32 and Kevin Weekes’ is 7.01. So although the Rangers have scored 39 goals on the season, they have allowed 39 as well, thus contributing to their 5-5 record. If the Rangers can become more consistent in net and get some timely goals from unfamiliar sources, they can make be a serious player in this suddenly competitive Atlantic Division.

Islanders- Like the Rangers, the Islanders have been plagued with inconsistent goaltending from their 15-year man, Rick DiPietro. Unlike the Rangers, however, the Islanders have had problems scoring, with leading scorer Alexei Yashin only registering 12 points through his teams’ first 10 games. After Yashin and Jason Blake, there is a huge drop-off in offensive production. Add that up and you have an equation that spells losing, which is something the Isles have managed to not do on a regular basis. Their 4-4-2 record has them hanging around with the Rangers and Penguins, but unless they can figure how to bury the puck, this team will quickly fall by the wayside, or even worse, to the same level as the Flyers.

Flyers- What isn’t currently wrong with the Flyers? This is a team that was built for the “old” NHL, a league of low scoring and unexciting games (according to Gary Bettman). However, no one can argue that the brand of NHL being played today is based around speed, something the Flyers sorely lack. After jettisoning veterans Petr Nedved, Niko Dimitrakos, and Nolan Baumgartner, for younger, quicker players, they then proceeded to relieve Bob Clarke and Ken Hitchcock of their duties as General Manager and Head Coach, respectively. This team has very little chemistry among its veterans, and the young talent they do have is being relied upon too heavily to have much of an effect. Hopefully with new coach John Stevens, the Flyers can attempt to return themselves to respectability, or at least not be the worst team in hockey.