Last time, I recorded a slice of my Northwest Divison prediction, and now I'm explaining why the other four teams won't reach any playoff spots.

I think Calgary has the biggest chance for the post-season, even tough its flabby roster. As the quote says "You can win the battle by forwards, but the war only by the defence". The Reds follow exactly the same. They have a self-confident and highly-motivated goalie tandem with tough D-pairs. Kipper is obviously a star goalie who can win matches day after day alone, and the almost homogenous Canadian blue line will cause headache for every coach. Stay-at-home defencemen like Sarich, Hannan and Butler with Babchuk, Jay-Bo and Giordano are able to force down their GA under 200 again. If yes,they will reach the playoff in a negative goals ratio, with the help of SOs which they had the most last season and so this year. If not, they'll play on the golf court during the whole spring. In the offence, Flames don't own a 30 goal scorer except Iggy-pop, maybe Bourque can break this mark out. I cross my fingers for them because of Mo.

The Avs won't be an object, they have a quite young and promising team with a slightly bright future with Duchene, Galiardi, Landeskog and Olver with the two suberb "A"s of them. But it's a shame what Sherman wants with this ridiculous defence. Varlamov is a good goalie but he won't stand a full sesaon with 0.960 saves percentage, we all know that only TT can do that. They are my top favourite for the first overall in 2012 even though their remarkable season start. A 4-game winning streak won't be enough to change my mind likewise last season when they had a good start and finished on the 29th-place.

The Wild is a dark horse for me, I cannot predict beforehand, if they have a good or awful sesaon. I think the Heatley and Seto trades were extraordinarily sensational for Minnesota, but they won't be able to step over their shadows. They have everything: leaders who are not vulnerable (Heater and Koivu), huge talents (Latendresse and Seto), power forward (Clutterbuck), league-leading blocker (Zanon) an acceptable D-line and two reliable goalies. However, I miss the unity and heat from this the team (the same as Ottawa in East). I would be so surprised, if they were close to the playoff.

And last but not least, the Oilers. This re-building they have been doing is awesome. It seems me the same like Pittsburgh and Chicago had done before, staying some years at the bottom and both have a Stanley now. Eberle, Hall, Linus, Paajarvi, Nugent-Hopkins are all expected future stars with countless talent. It won't be an Oils' year yet, and I'm not visioning a second Gretzky era but this team with a few new prospects and clever trades might be our biggest opponent in the divison. I don't mind it, I'd love to see live-or-die Canadian battles. Expected wins can only cause disappointment.

Mock Northwest Division:

1. Vancouver Canucks
2. Calgary Flames
3. Minnesota Wild
4. Edmonton Oilers
5. Colorado Avalanche

Ehrhoff? He is Chri$tian Ehrhoff. :) Buffalo plays very offensive hockey which fits Ehrhoff's style, so in my opinion he can bring the same numbers this year.