I'll be spending most of the morning in the dentist's chair and we're in a bit of a lull in terms of hockey news, so I'll keep this short today.
TSN1040 will be on location from 2-6 this afternoon at the Jake Milford Invitational Golf tournament, so they should have plenty of hockey content from the players and management types before training camp kicks off on Thursday.
If you missed it, I had a new Canucks Army piece go live yesterday, picking my winners and losers from the Young Stars tournament.
Click here to read and let us know if you saw things differently.
Next, with NHL 16 hitting store shelves, The Hockey News ran a full-season simulation to see how the algorithms thing the year will pan out:
Good news for Calgary Flames fans, who can apparently look forward to a trip to the Presidents' Trophy.
Not so good for the Canucks—who fall well short of Jim Benning's 100-point projection with just 83 points.
There are some other big surprises here as well. Vancouver's 83 points will supposedly tie them with Montreal, who are making noises about wanting to compete for the Stanley Cup this year. Nashville's also pegged for a huge regression, to 82 points, and who thinks Anaheim and Arizona will end the year in a dead heat?
A couple of things to keep in mind: the simulation doesn't account for rookies or other late-summer roster additions—and EA picked St. Louis to win the Stanley Cup last season. It's entertaining to see how the teams stack up, but I'll take these results with a big grain of salt.
The simulation pegs just five teams to crack that 100-point barrier that has been such a discussion point this week, even though 12 teams hit that mark last year. They're expecting a lot less three-point games?
What do you think? Is Jim Benning way off the mark to suggest that the Canucks can repeat in that 100-point range they hit last season, or will his team come together and surprise again thanks to the offseason changes?
I caught Stan Syml's interview during the Young Stars tournament—he seemed to suggest that the biggest reason for the team's success in 2014-15 was the new coaching staff. There's no doubt that the group fixed the mess that had been left behind by he who must not be named, but is there more upside available for them to tap into now that they have a year's experience as a group under their belts?
Last year, I often gave Willie Desjardins credit for his adjustments as he made his way around the NHL for the first time in a head coaching role. He lost some of that lustre with his stubborn unwillingness to adjust during the playoffs but I'm hoping that, too, was an important learning experience.
So...
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