It all seemed so clear back in October

Way back in late September or early October, when I only suspected that JFJ was making a few mistakes with the composition of the Leafs, I sent an email to a group of friends and colleagues asking for their predictions for the upcoming season.

To make it interesting, I included the picks from a group of experts.

Before I send the picks back out to my friends and mock so many of their choices - Parise as rookie of the year? Iginla the clear fav for the Art Ross and many many disappointed Canuck fans...let's see how the experts measured up (click on the table to get a bigger view):


Seven of the pros picked Vancouver to be the top team in the West, five went with San Jose (including yours truly) and five went with Calgary. Interesting that not one person picked Detroit to be so dominant.

Ottawa was clearly the pre-season choice as beast in the east - with over half of the experts (nine of 17) - while five chose the Flyers and three went with the Lightning. Again, nobody stepped up on Carolina.

Clearly nobody foresaw 38 wins (and counting) in Phoenix (I'd disallow Kypreos' prediction as it represents quite a spread).

Some other notable misses - Donald S. Cherry picked an AHL player who ended up getting traded to win the Calder Trophy and John Garett went way way out on a limb to pick Washington not making the playoffs (did anyone think the Caps had a shot of qualifying for the playoffs?).

A fresh round of playoff predictions from the experts and non-experts coming soon...

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