Dropping The Puck: The Calgary Flames

The Calgary Flames are definitely a team that many would consider to be a work in progress.  With the retirement of franchise goalie Miikka Kiprusoff and the decision to move on by faithful captain through thick and thin Jarome Iginla the cupboards of the organization for the most part are bare.  The organization has put a lot of faith in their ability to develop players during this time through guys like Mikael Backlund and Sven Baertschi only to have both projects completely fall through.  Backlund has been around the league for a considerable amount of time with his 6 years experience and has under preformed at every possible opportunity.  Baertschi whilst still being new, has not shown the kind of all around game that the organization was hoping for, newly appointed President of Hockey Operations Brian Burke has been quoted as saying on multiple occasions that he believes that Baertschi is "only capable of playing in one zone" as such I feel like the once strong faith that the organization had in him is slowly slipping.  The one shining star for the club currently however is most certainly newly drafted Sean Monahan, this kid has burst on to the NHL scene by helping lead the struggling club with 14 points in 8 games and definitely has the makings of Mr. Franchise given a few years to develop.  In all honesty however, as far as this season goes the Flames would be lucky to touch the playoff picture with a ten foot pole.

Dropping The Puck: The Montreal Canadians 

Nearing the halfway point of the season, the Montreal Canadians have in my opinion over preformed.  With a record of 13-9-2 they are currently sitting 4th in the Atlantic division, behind Tampa Bay, Toronto and the first place Bruins.  Now, when you look at those three teams in front of Montreal, all three have a trademark strength, Tampa Bay has offense, Toronto has a young up and coming team, and Boston has the iron curtain defense led by Chara.  Montreal does have Carey Price, however they don't have much else, P.K. Subban is under preforming and no one else on that defensive unit is worth talking about. The offense has been lack luster to say the least, mainly because you don't usually see a team have their point leader be a defense man, Subban has issues in his own end and getting him this involved in the offensive game plan sheds more light on an already glaring problem that not to mention inflating what I would consider to be an already large ego. Montreal has no forwards that are capable of carrying the load, so in all honesty I can't see any feasible scenario where Montreal beats out one of these other three teams in the division for a playoff spot this year.