'Southleast' still fits Canes' division

This was the year, for sure. This was the year the Southeast Division emerged from the dark shadows at the bottom of the NHL standings.

The Carolina Hurricanes were reloading, the Washington Capitals and Florida Panthers were showing signs of positive momentum, the Atlanta Thrashers were coming off a division title. And who wanted to count out the Tampa Bay Lightning, what with Vincent Lecavalier, Martin St. Louis and Brad Richards still around?

Yet here we sit, in mid-January, and the Southeast Division looks unlikely to send anyone other than its champion to the playoffs, and that team might not be in the playoff picture otherwise.

The Southeast has long been perceived as the NHL's weakest division, right down to its own cliche: the Southleast.

Despite producing consecutive Stanley Cup champions -- the Hurricanes in 2006 and the Lightning in 2004 -- the Southeast is really living up to its nickname this winter.

That the Hurricanes were in first place on Jan. 14 with a 22-21-4 record that would have been good for third in the Northeast Division and fourth in the Atlantic Division is not exactly an endorsement of the level of competition in the Southeast.

In the previous five seasons, the Southeast has never sent more than two teams to the playoffs and has twice sent only one team. No other division has sent fewer than two over that span.

All those bad seasons resulted in a perpetual series of high draft picks, and the ensuing influx of talent -- players like Eric Staal and Alex Ovechkin and Ilya Kovalchuk and Jay Bouwmeester, to name just a few -- were supposed to turn the tide.

So far, it hasn't, not across the division, at least.

There's often good reason for optimism -- and no good reason why it never pans out.

Take, for example, the fall of 2002, when the Hurricanes were coming off a trip to the Stanley Cup finals, the Capitals had Jaromir Jagr and the Lightning were building the team that would eventually win the Cup. Surely, the Southeast had turned a corner.

Carolina finished dead last, the Panthers and Thrashers weren't far behind and the Capitals were soundly defeated by the Lightning in the playoffs, marking the end of the ill-fated Jaromir Jagr era.

This year was definitely supposed to be different. All five teams went into the season figuring that even if they couldn't win the division, they'd at least finish in the top eight, and they could make a pretty good case.

At most, three could. At best, probably two would. Now, it looks like only one will.

Still, it's hard to argue with back-to-back champions. No other division can say that. And it's possible to sit here now and believe, really believe, that all five teams in the division will be improved next season.

But then again, that's where the Southeast leads the NHL -- hope and optimism.