Blogosphere predictions for the 2011-2012 season

This year, we decided to get predictions from around the blogosphere to weigh in on their predictions for the 2011-2012 NHL season. Three female and three male bloggers (plus of course yours truly) voiced their opinions.

The 2011-2012 panel participants:

Adam - @Adam_KOL - Adam writes for the blog "Kings of Leonis" (Capitals) as well as also contributing to SB Nation DC, Raw Charge, and Mr. Irrelevant DC.

Ann - @annabelle151 - Ann writes the blog "You're My Boys, Blues" at Aerys Sports (Blues) and also writes for Aerys's Kitchen Sink

Carolyn - @HMof2 - Carolyn writes for CanesCountry.com and RLDhockey.net

Cheryl - @HockeyBroad - Hey, that's me! Covering the Blackhawks for TheCheckingLine and TheHockeyWriters in addition to HockeyBroad.com. Contributing photographer for The Goalie Guild and InGoal Magazine

Kelly - @KellyBHDL - Kelly is one of the main writers for Blackhawks Down Low

Matt - @DownGoesSpezza - Matt contributes for the Maple Leafs at TheCheckingLine and also writes DownGoesSpezza

Sarah - @Sarah_Connors - Sarah writes for Somethingsbruin.net

Let's start off by looking at more general predictions across the league - how will the divisions shake out?

Pretty near-unanimous across the board in all three Eastern divisions, with Pittsburgh and Washington expected to dominate and for Boston to strongly defend their Stanley Cup.

It gets more interesting in the Western conference, where our participants only share one strong opinion - that Vancouver will again dominate the Northwest. Predictions are pretty evenly split for the Pacific, with the San Jose Sharks and Los Angeles Kings again battling it out for the top slot in a heavily-contended division, and while Chicago is strongly favored in Central, Detroit and Nashville gets nods as well.

	ADAM	ANN	CAROLYN	CHERYL	KELLY	MATT	SARAH
Atlantic	PIT	PIT	PIT	PIT	PIT	PHL	PIT
2nd	PHL	PHL	PHL	NYR	PHL	PIT	PHL
3rd	NYR	NJD	NJD	PHL	NJD	NYR	NYR
4th	NYI	NYR	NYI	NYI	NYR	NJD	NJD
5th	NJD	NYI	NYR	NJD	NYI	NYI	NYI
Northeast	BOS	BOS	BOS	BOS	BOS	BUF	BOS
2nd	BUF	MTL	BUF	BUF	MTL	BOS	MTL
3rd	MTL	BUF	MTL	MTL	BUF	TOR	BUF
4th	TOR	TOR	TOR	TOR	TOR	MTL	OTT
5th	OTT	OTT	OTT	OTT	OTT	OTT	TOR
Southeast	WSH	TBL	TBL	WSH	WSH	WSH	WSH
2nd	TBL	WSH	WSH	TBL	TBL	WBL	TBL
3rd	CAR	CAR	CAR	CAR	CAR	CAR	CAR
4th	FLA	FLA	FLA	FLA	FLA	FLA	WPG
5th	WPG	WPG	WPG	WPG	WPG	WPG	FLA
Central	DET	NSH	CHI	CHI	CHI	CHI	DET
2nd	CHI	CHI	DET	DET	DET	DET	CHI
3rd	CBJ	STL	NSH	NSH	NSH	NSH	STL
4th	STL	DET	SBJ	CBJ	STL	CBJ	NSH
5th	NSH	CBJ	STL	STL	CBJ	STL	CBJ
Northwest	VAN	VAN	VAN	VAN	VAN	VAN	VAN
2nd	MN	CGY	MN	MN	COL	MN	MN
3rd	CGY	MN	CGY	CGY	CGY	CGY	COL
4th	COL	COL	EDM	EDM	MN	EDM	CGY
5th	EDM	EDM	COL	COL	EDM	COL	EDM
Pacific	LAK	SJS	LAK	SJS	LAK	LAK	SJS
2nd	SJS	ANA	SJS	LAK	SJS	SJS	LAK
3rd	ANA	LAK	ANA	ANA	ANA	ANA	PHX
4th	DAL	DAL	DAL	DAL	PHX	DAL	DAL
5th	PHX	PHX	PHX	PHX	DAL	PHX	ANA

When we started discussing point spreads, however, that's when things were a bit more interesting. Washington was expected to have a strong showing in the East, but our panelists were split between who would take home the President's Trophy next spring.

While three of the four eastern participants felt Boston would be there to defend their title again in the Final round, western bloggers were a bit more mixed, opting for Tampa Bay, Washington and Pittsburgh. For the western champs, nearly evenly split between San Jose, Los Angeles and Chicago. Based on those, it's not surprising to see the mix of predictions of who will take Lord Stanley home next June.

	ADAM	ANN	CAROLYN	CHERYL	KELLY	MATT	SARAH
Eastern	WSH	TBL	PIT	WSH	WSH	WSH	WSH
2nd	PIT	BOS	TBL	PIT	PIT	BUF	BOS
3rd	BOS	WSH	BOS	TBL	BOS	PHL	TBL
Western	VAN	SJS	LAK	SJS	VAN	VAN	SJS
2nd	LAK	VAN	CHI	CHI	LAK	LAK	VAN
3rd	DET	NSH	VAN	VAN	CHI	CHI	LAK
President's Trophy	VAN	TBL	PIT	WSH	VAN	VAN	WSH
Eastern finalist	WSH	TBL	BOS	WSH	PIT	BOS	BOS
Western finalist	LAK	SJS	LAK	CHI	CHI	SJS	SJS
Stanley Cup Champs	WSH	TBL	BOS	CHI	CHI	SJS	BOS

Who will take home some hardware next spring? There's not many sweeps across the board, but Geno Malkin's return - especially with Crosby still off the ice - is expected to help give him a boost in favor of the Hart. If Barry Trotz can take his team to the playoffs again - and no doubt he will, despite losing some top offensive players - then the Jack Adams might finally go his way. Shea Weber will likely take home his first Norris; Ovechkin will be back to form in the scoring department; Kesler is going to look to defend his Selke; and this just might be the year for Pekka Rinne.

	ADAM	ANN	CAROLYN	CHERYL	KELLY	MATT	SARAH
Art Ross	Malkin	Stamkos	Malkin	Ovechkin	Malkin	H Sedin	Malkin
Conn Smythe	Vokoun	Lecavalier	Chara	Sharp	Keith	Thornton	Bergeron
Calder	Scheifele (WPG)	Blum (NSH)	Johansen (CBJ)	Atkinson  (CBJ)	Dalpe (CAR)	Read (PHL)	De Costa (OTT)
Hart	Malkin	Stamkos	Malkin	Malkin	Malkin	D Sedin	Malkin
Jack Adams	Boucher	Trotz	Quenneville	Trotz	Trotz	Trotz	Trotz
Lady Byng	St Louis	Datsyuk	Parise	Lidstrom	Datsyuk	Lidstrom	St Louis
Norris	Weber	Weber	Lidstrom	Weber	Weber	Weber	Chara
Rocket Richard	Ovechkin	D Sedin	Stamkos	Ovechkin	Ovechkin	D Sedin	Stamkos
Selke	Kesler	Kesler	Kesler	Toews	Kesler	M Richards	Bergeron
Vezina	Lundqvist	Rinne	Rinne	Rinne	Rinne	Bryzgalov	Rinne

Finally, a little bit of fun -- taking a look at who'll impress, and who'll need a reality check. Coach Kevin Dineen, new head coach of the Florida Panthers, is expected to make the strongest immediate impact. Beyond Florida, however, it's anybody's guess as to who'll improve the most, who's going to be a stand out, and who might crash and burn along the way. We'll check back in when spring rolls around and see how our panelists did!

	ADAM	ANN	CAROLYN	CHERYL	KELLY	MATT	SARAH
Breakout player of year	Carter	Anthony Stewart	Hall	Burns	Frolik	Matt Carle	Seguin
Biggest disappointment	Brad Richards	Setoguchi	E Cole	Leino	Leino	Malkin	Winnipeg Jets
Team w/ biggest surprise	CBJ	STL	CBJ	MN	LAK	TOR	STL
Improved most on paper	WSH	FLA	BUF	FLA	FLA	TOR	BUF
New coach w/ biggest impact	Dineen (FLA)	DeBoer (NJ)	Dineen (FLA)	Dineen (FLA)	DeBoer (NJ)	Dineen (FLA)	Dineen (FLA)
Twitter MVP 2010-11	EhStew13	bryzgalov30	Brenter37	grabs40	ryanwhitney6	BizNasty2point0	EhStew13 & hallsy04
Predict new  player on Twitter	Dustin Byfuglien	Tim Thomas	Nicklas Backstrom	Tuukka Rask	Phil Kessel	Phil Kessel	Patrik Berglund

What's your thoughts? Who do you predict for the various categories?