Generally considered the more competitive of the NHL's two conferences, the West has several solid Stanley Cup contenders and should feature a heated battle for its final 3-4 playoff spots.
An overview of the West:
Best Division: The Pacific, home to Stanley Cup champion Anaheim, San Jose, Dallas - all three playoff teams, and the up-and-coming Kings.
Worst Division: The Central. After Detroit, it's tough to envision another team aside from Nashville or St. Louis possibly sneaking into the playoffs.
Most Balanced Division: The Northwest. Aside from Edmonton, any of the other four teams could win it, and it would not shock me if Calgary, Colorado, Minnesota and Vancouver all made the playoffs.
Cup Contenders: Anaheim, San Jose, Detroit, Minnesota and possibly Calgary.
The skinny: If D Scott Niedermayer and/or F Teemu Selanne return at some point, the Ducks' chances improve. Anaheim must not fall too far back as it deals with early season injuries. ... If the Sharks' young players continue trend upward, particularly on defense, they will be a force to be reckoned with. ... The Red Wings are putting a lot of faith in goalie Dominik Hasek, but they play in a bad division and will pile up points and get a high postseason seed. ... The Wild have the best goaltender you've never heard of - Nicklas Backstrom - solid systems and great team speed. As they develop complementary scoring and toughness to their top line, they will be very difficult to play against. ... Either the Mike Keenan experiement in Calgary will be a rousing success or cause the Flames to implode. I question their offseason personnel moves (smell like "Keenan guys"), but they have great on-ice leaders and one of the top goalies in Mikka Kiprusoff.
Have Holes: Colorado, Vancouver, Dallas, Nashville
The skinny: The Avalanche need improved goaltending and defense, though signing D Scott Hannan and getting D Jordan Leopold back from injury helps. Offense will not be a problem. ... The Canucks have the opposite problem - great goaltending and defense, but not nearly enough offense. ... Ditto the Stars, whose best offensive players are getting long in the tooth. Still, Dallas is hard to play again. ... The Predators need a lot of young players to step to offset massive losses in the offseason, but the cupboard is far from bare - particularly on defense. A playoff berth is not out of the question.
Not Yet: Los Angeles, St. Louis, Chicago, Columbus, Phoenix, Edmonton.
The Skinny: Of these five, Los Angeles and St. Louis are best-positioned to make the leap into the playoffs. ... The Kings added a lot of complementary players to their young offensive stars. If they get consistent goaltending, they'll be better than expected. ... The Blues' signing of Paul Kariya will help their offense. St. Louis' play picked up dramatically under Coach Andy Murray. I question if they have the horses to keep up in the West. ... Chicago has good young talent and an excellent goaltender in Nikolai Khabibulin, but the Hawks need more time and more consistent scoring. ... Columbus has some questions in net and lacks scoring depth, but F Rick Nash should grow into a dominant player under Coach Ken Hitchcock. ... The Coyotes will be the West's worst team by virtue of weak goaltending, suspect offense and playing in the toughest division. ... The Oilers are in rebuild mode, and it's tough to see where they will get their offense from. If goalie Dwayne Roloson goes down, it could get ugly again.
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