If you want any further proof of my long-held description of the NHL’s middle standings as a crushed beer can, look no further than the results from my poll of NHL head coaches this week.



I asked the 31 coaches (with 28 responding) to pick their surprise or dark horse team for the season. Of course, I stipulated, they could not pick their own team.



In the end, nine different teams were picked, underlining again how smart hockey people can see things differently. Or perhaps more to the point, it highlights just how many dark horse contenders there are due to the similarities between about a dozen teams expected to finish in the middle of the standings. A year ago, just 10 points separated seventh overall from 17th overall.



This year’s dark horse teams?



Florida, New Jersey and Dallas were the top three choices from the coaches’ poll, but there were also picks of Arizona, Vancouver, Buffalo, Edmonton, Ottawa, Detroit, Columbus and...