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MEET THE ADAMS FAMILY
The 1981-82 season marks the beginning of the Hartford Whalers' membership in the Adams Division, where we will be for most of our existence. I believe this to be the toughest division in hockey, so we'll have our work cut out for us. Historically Hartford was a bit of a punching bag in this division, and was often the 5th team in the standings, and therefore missed out on the playoffs. But now that I'm managing the Whalers and contending, how will it all shake out?
Our division rivals...
MONTREAL CANADIENS
The powerhouse of the division and the winningest team in hockey history. The Canadiens have been one of the best teams in the league so far in my game. They're aging a little bit from their dynasty in the 70s, but still won the Cup in '86 and '93 in our timeframe on the back of Patrick Roy.
Right now they will be tough to score on, as they are led by elite defensemen and defensive forwards like Larry Robinson, Rod Langway, Chris Chelios, Bob Gainey, and the up-and-coming Mats Naslund and Guy Carbonneau. Guy Lafleur is entering his 30s but can still light the lamp. Just an all around great franchise... to have any playoff success in the Adams Division, teams will have to go through Montreal.
BOSTON BRUINS
We don't know how the future will shake out with playoffs and everything, but the Bruins have a leg up on being our biggest rival from the get-go. Sharing the New England territory, Boston is our rival from a geographic sense. They're a tough team and we'll have to go through them as well. Last season they made it to the Stanley Cup Finals but lost against yet another team in our division...
The Bruins are led by another elite defense pairing in the veteran Brad Park and the young stud Ray Bourque. They're pretty well-rounded and have some guys who can score like Rick Middleton, and notable grit from Terry O'Reilly. If they have a weakness it's in goal, where they don't have an elite netminder unless they trade for one or draft one. I can't recall if they had any good drafted goalies historically, I just remember they had Andy Moog and Reggie Lemelin who started on other teams.
BUFFALO SABRES
It's funny that the Sabres are only the 3rd team to come to mind as I'm listing the Adams Division, and they're the defending Stanley Cup champions! In truth I'm not as worried about them long-term as the Canadiens and Bruins, because a lot of their core is aging. Perhaps why they overachieved and why I should be more worried is that they're led by the legendary Scotty Bowman.
On offense, the Sabres have 2/3 of the French Connection in Gilbert Perreault and Rick Martin, both entering their 30s. Danny Gare was hot in the first couple of years but is on the decline. Craig Ramsay is also still good but aging, and Don Edwards has been one of the best goalies in the league thus far. To me it seems like they're due for a dropoff, but who knows? Scotty could get some more mileage from this team. The Sabres are a bit of a wildcard, we'll see what happens.
QUEBEC NORDIQUES
And last but not least, we have our fellow WHA import Quebec Nordiques. This team is actually sneaky good, and part of the reason why I don't think there's any pushovers in this division. Every year will be a battle for making the playoffs amongst all the 5 teams. And then the rivalries will only get deeper as we play for 2 rounds in the postseason.
The Nordiques are led by the Stastny brothers, the best of whom is of course Peter Stastny. Did you know he was 2nd in scoring for the 1980s decade behind only Wayne Gretzky? The Stastny brothers defected from Czechoslovakia and are some of the first great NHL players from behind the Iron Curtain. The Nordiques also have the excellent Michel Goulet, another top player of the 80s. They also have a young Dale Hunter and Real Cloutier, the latter of whom was super elite for Quebec in the WHA. All in all a solid team, and they'll pick up a couple of elite players later on in Joe Sakic and Eric Lindros.
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