Pittsburgh Penguins Will Win the Metropolitan Division

The Pittsburgh Penguins were clearly the best team in the playoffs last year.

Despite not winning their division, the Pittsburgh Penguins triumphed through the playoffs and found themselves with their second straight Stanley Cup championship.

Pittsburgh Penguins

This year, things are looking up for the team. Maybe it’s because we just won back-to-back Cups, but everyone knows things are different. Are we a better team? Have other teams gotten worse? Is it both? Either way, I can boldly predict that the Penguins will win the Metropolitan division in this upcoming season. Why?

Dominance

There’s no point in denying it. The Pittsburgh Penguins are a better team than last year and our playoff play will only carry out into this season. I mean, yes we may have lost Nick Bonino as our third line centre and a few defenceman. But the return of Kris Letang and other additions make us better than our injury-ridden team from last season who was still able to capture a championship.

We dominated the playoffs, twice. We may have had some injury obstacles stopping us from doing better in the 2016-17 regular season, but this is a new season. Our dominance can now carry over.

The Division is Worse

Let’s take a quick look at the Metropolitan standings last season.

1) Washington
2) Pittsburgh
3) Columbus
4) NY Rangers
5) NY Islanders
6) Philadelphia
7) Carolina
8) New Jersey

Out of these teams, I feel like only Washington, Columbus and the New York Rangers can pose a real threat to us in capturing the division. But I don’t think there’s too much to worry about.

The Rangers may have significantly added Kevin Shattenkirk but we have Kris Letang back. That shouldn’t be too much of a worry, especially with an aging Henrik Lundqvist. The Blue Jackets didn’t change much and they weren’t much of an issue for us last season, especially in the playoffs.

This leaves the Capitals, and we know they have only gotten worse. An aging Alex Ovechkin plus a number of free agents leaving, including top defencemen Karl Alzner and Kevin Shattenkirk, leaves the Capitals in the worst state they’ve been in in a while. The Capitals are only on a downward spiral from here.

So it looks like this is the Penguins turn to take the division. We are the best team in the Metropolitan division and there is no doubt about that. Let’s get it!