I live in Ottawa and I'm sort of a closet Isles fan (because admitting outright over the last 30 year rebuild has been embarrassing)
You reference a few teams being good or VERY good at the end of the season. This is known in hockey parlance as "fools gold". The season has been lost. There is no pressure on the athletes other than earning a job for next year. For me personally I usually see amazing goalie streaks near the end of the season on teams who are already far FAR from making the playoffs. The double edge sword of this fools gold is that the team is hurting draft and draft lottery position by winning games that don't matter.
I'd be shocked if either the Isles or the Sens made the play offs this year. They'll be closer though.
That's a mighty bold statement putting Laine up with Mathews and Ovechkin. He hasn't earned that right at all.
Since 2016-2017 when Laine and Mathews came into the League, Mathews is #1 with 259 goals. Ovechkin is 2nd with 255 goals. Laine has 176 and is 14th, very good still, but not "best goal scorer in the league" conversation.
You can't even say it's due to missed games that he's low by comparison. #11, 12, and 13 on the list all have played fewer games than Laine with more goals scored. And Laine and Mathews have played the exact same 407 games.
Goals scorers between Mathews and Laine? Ovechkin, Draisaitl, McDavid, Pastrnak, Marchand, Tavares, MacKinnon, Aho, Kane, Crosby, Connor, Kucherov.
Other notables: Stamkos - 7 goals less with 54 less games played
Vegas won't miss this year. They've demonstrated that they will tinker in season and they wont be constrained by their players' opinions. They're going to run of of Pauls to rob to pay off Peter, but I don't think that will be this year.
I live in Ottawa and I'm sort of a closet Isles fan (because admitting outright over the last 30 year rebuild has been embarrassing)
You reference a few teams being good or VERY good at the end of the season. This is known in hockey parlance as "fools gold". The season has been lost. There is no pressure on the athletes other than earning a job for next year. For me personally I usually see amazing goalie streaks near the end of the season on teams who are already far FAR from making the playoffs. The double edge sword of this fools gold is that the team is hurting draft and draft lottery position by winning games that don't matter.
I'd be shocked if either the Isles or the Sens made the play offs this year. They'll be closer though. - Octavarium
Good post. I wouldn't be shocked* if either make it actually. I think a team like the Bruins, Pens, or Caps could be a major injury away from missing the playoffs (their due). With that said seeing one of those teams miss it would be more shocking just because of how good they are/have been and seeing them on the outside looking in. It did happen with Tampa in 2016-2017
Good post. I wouldn't be shocked* if either make it actually. I think a team like the Bruins, Pens, or Caps could be a major injury away from missing the playoffs (their due). With that said seeing one of those teams miss it would be more shocking just because of how good they are/have been and seeing them on the outside looking in. It did happen with Tampa in 2016-2017 - AlfieisKing
Ill pick Ottawa over the Islanders, because i have no idea what the new system is with an elite coach like Trotz out, Ottawa has a younger and faster team though
Ill pick Vancouver over Vegas any day, Vegas had to subtract on a team that just missed adding Kessel doesn’t entirely make up for paccioretty and the goaltending is a question mark with no legit back up behind Thompson, with Lehner out the whole year and Broisset out for a while too
Vegas in. Oilers/Nucks fight for wild card. One in one out.
Isles in. Shitsburgh out.
Dallas and Minny fight for one spot. - TurdFergeson
I always like calling them poopsburgh lol, Vegas goaltending this year is a big Question mark though, they look like they’re worse than last year on paper Eichel needs to really step up
I don't think the Jets will make it, maybe if a couple of the Central teams get ravaged by injuries they might make it but I doubt it.
The Jets just aren't good enough, they have a good top 6 but their bottom six sucks, their defense is okay but is amongst the bottom third of D cores and their top pair is one of the worst in the league, really don't think Bowness is a good fit for this group either.
Vegas in. Oilers/Nucks fight for wild card. One in one out.
Isles in. Shitsburgh out.
Dallas and Minny fight for one spot. - TurdFergeson
Do you even watch hockey? Vegas won’t finish ahead of ANY of the Western Canadian teams let alone the Oilers. Oil finish top 2 and Vegas misses because they are hot garbage. See Patches comments about playing there. Enjoy golfing early, again.
You too. No one cares about Vegas. Y’all won’t be competing for years after how bad you screwed everything up. Imagine trading what you did for Patches only to trade him for future considerations LOL.
Strange that when Lehner's injury was announced the immediate rumour was Vegas was asking about Carey Price. Readers explained this was an opportunity to let Logan Thompson run with it. Now suddenly its all about Logan Thompson...
Also, is excitement in Ottawa at an all-time high? I recall the Sens making a playoff run in 2007 all the way to the Cup Finals. I assume excitement was a bit higher then.
Finally, here is my real confusion...yesterday you predicted the Metro division and had NJ finishing 5th and Columbus 6th. A day later and that 6th place team is a candidate to make the playoffs, while the 5th place NJ Devils aren't even mentioned? Can anyone explain this?
