Jason Brough

That is the singular reason why a lot of these teams in the East have an extra amount of pressure and I would say expedience to get this done right now because you've got to admit...

Looking ahead, everyone's going to say, well, Florida will be back next year and the years to come.

They had a down year this year.

They were besieged by injury, and they kind of punted at the last end of the season.

But caveats aside, everyone's expecting them to be back.

Back in the playoffs.

So you get a one-year reprieve from not having the big bad cats in the East there.

Carolina, Tampa Bay, a lot of these teams have to look at it and say, this is our year.

We have to try and break through.

That's why I put Boston and Ottawa two different categories just for that, though.

Who do you consider a better team?

Boston because of the goaltending.

I don't think you can count on Allmark to be reliable and consistent in a seven-game series.

He's been good in the last little while, though.

What a wild card, though, eh?

That was after a very, very tumultuous season.

Yeah, he got out of his system.

Now he's ready to go.

Yeah.

It's a pretty small sample size.