Here’s an excerpt from the Hockeybuzz.com article by Eklund who makes his Eastern conference picks for the upcoming season:

#2-Washington: The Caps will finish with more points than Montreal only due to the division in which they play. So note that although I put them here, I still feel the Canadiens are the better team…All that aside, the Caps are for real and they are oh so impressive to watch. OV is obvious, but Semin, Backstrom, and Green are going to be hard to keep off the All-Star team this year as well. I like Jose in goal as well because his style is custom made for this run and gun team. Much more so than Huet.

#3-Montreal Canadiens: The Habs are the fastest team in the East, maybe the NHL. I think Tanguay will be a real serious addition and I also think that we haven’t seen all we can see yet from the Canadiens. I do have some concerns about a sophomore slump from Price, but those concerns are minor at best. The Habs are just too strong in the transition game and it will make for one crazy fun Centennial celebration. I will say this however: If the Canadien’s power play goes south they could be caught in the division by a team that will return to greatness this year and took these same Habs to 7 games last we saw them.