from Pierre LeBrun of ESPN,

After years of being the bastion of mostly mediocrity, the East has risen this season.

"Well I think you’re 100 percent right," Detroit Red Wings head coach Mike Babcock told ESPN.com on Monday.

Babcock has a unique vantage point to the conference’s transformation this season because the Red Wings left the tougher Western Conference via realignment two years ago for the East.

And while last season was proof that Detroit, with all its injuries, was happy to be in the East and squeak into the playoffs in the weaker conference, it appears that was a short-lived experience as far as the East being an easier existence. The Wings now find themselves in a conference where there’s little room to breathe, the quality of play and the top teams are very much on the rise.

Babcock points to the Washington Capitals and Boston Bruins, the two wild-card teams right now in the East.

"OK, so who wants to play them in the first round?" Babcock asked. "I don’t know if there’s any difference between the first-place team in the East and the eighth-place team in the East. I can’t tell you, for sure. Before you’re in the West and I remember thinking how tough the West was; now I’m in the East and I think the East is very, very tough. There are teams that are going to miss the playoffs that are real good teams. The eight teams that are in right now, at this point anyway, are deep, hard to play against, good skill set, the goaltending is unbelievable, so it’s going to be tough."

more which includes comments from other coaches in the East...