PHILADELPHIA — The Capitals have become a regular-season powerhouse the way the Rangers were last year, and Denis Potvin will tell you everyone should bow down in admiration to the Panthers, but the truth is the window is wide open in the East, where nobody else is particularly daunting.
Wide open for the Islanders if general manager Garth Snow will get off his assets and make the type of dramatic go-for-it deadline deal that never has been part of his DNA. Of course, to be fair (but why start now?), Snow’s teams generally have not been in position to go for much of anything at the deadline.