Thoughts at ten games in....

[yave1964]

  Most teams have hit or are near the ten game plateau, enough to take a look and get a good idea of who is who. Of course there are a few imposters and a few underachievers, here are a few thoughts so far

 

SAN JOSE SHARKS Man was I way off on this team, I thought they were gonna be a bottom dweller with little or no chance of being relevant but they are 6-3  and ran roughshod through the East on their first cross country trip while most other west coasters were getting drilled. Are they for real? I still think they are fools gold but who knows, Kane being off the team and out of the locker room may make them a better team.

 

  HAWKS AND CANADIENS I predicted the Hawks, I think everyone and their brother predicted the Habs downfall. With the side show in Chicago and the product on the ice it is a rough time to be  a Hawks fan, although they get zero sympathy from me. No Price, no Weber means the Canadiens are awful.

 

  SABRES. REALLY!!!?????? Cmon, Craig freakin Anderson, what is he, 50?? This is definitely smoke and mirrors, They have 5 wins so far, I would not be surprised if they dont equal that total by January first, lol. Still, they come to play every night. A well prepared team with a chip on their shoulder.

 

 COYOTES Another team that is well prepared, Coach Andre Tourigny has the team playing hard every night and they are in most games but they simply do not have enough real NHL players as their 0-9-1 record indicates. At least they have like a million picks in the next draft so by the time they move to Hamilton or somewhere in 2026 they should be respectable.

 

TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS Relax Leaf Nation, Matthews had two last night and when he warms up he usually starts putting them in bunches, the rest of the stars are doing the same. They will be very good the rest of the way, bordering on excellent. At least until April. Heh.

 

  Hurricanes are dominating the world, 8-0-0 outcoring opponents 33-12 for an insane plus 21 though 8 games! Just insaneiac. The Panthers are right there with them at 8-0-1 outscoring opponents 36-18. Edmonton is pummeling everyone out west even with Koskinen in goal.

 

  The leagues biggest surprise is probably the FLAMES who are killing it under Coach Sutter after buying into his system. 

 

  Lots of teams struggling, the AVALANCHE just lost Makar and Rantanen and are slogging along, Vegas has lost like four of their top six forwards and are just a shell right now. Pittsburgh is struggling, Boston is marking time,  at least one of these will miss the postseason.

 

 Oh and Eichel is still a Sabre and rumored to be going about everywhere.

[ruxpin]

56 minutes ago, yave1964 said:

 

  Hurricanes are dominating the world, 8-0-0 outcoring opponents 33-12 for an insane plus 21 though 8 games!

 

I really would have bet that they screwed up their chemistry and possibly their goaltending.    #Wrong

[ruxpin]

57 minutes ago, yave1964 said:

Kane being off the team and out of the locker room may make them a better team.

 

I'm willing to bet this is a very large part of it.    Competent goaltending helps, too.

[radoran]

59 minutes ago, yave1964 said:

SABRES. REALLY!!!?????? Cmon, Craig freakin Anderson, what is he, 50?? This is definitely smoke and mirrors, They have 5 wins so far, I would not be surprised if they dont equal that total by January first, lol. Still, they come to play every night. A well prepared team with a chip on their shoulder.

 

They were a tough out down the stretch last year (blew out the Flyers - twice).

 

A good example of a team not so much needing a "star".

 

Kinda like the Islanders without Tavares...

 

I do want to see a little more consistency before we start warming up the Lumina.

 

3 minutes ago, ruxpin said:

 

I really would have bet that they screwed up their chemistry and possibly their goaltending.    #Wrong

 

I thought they might regret the goaltending decision, but they're absolutely on fire. I, personally, would like to see a little more out of Aho and Teravanen

[radoran]

I will say that a team that was omitted from the original post is the FLYERS who look like a different team than the one we've seen for the past, oh, nine years...

[Math]

@yave1964

 

In agreement with almost everything. I think Buffalo will bust at some point: They already managed another season to win 10 in a row and failing to make the playoffs. A typical early-season surprise. One might predict the same for Detroit but I really think the Wings are on the good tracks. And with Steve as GM, failing is not an option.

 

Another disappointment is Vegas, but they are depleted with injuried. They are finally facing real adversity after four seasons in the world of unicorns. I'm less worried about Tampa, Colorado and Toronto, they will find their cruise control.

 

Other surprising teams: Calgary (one of the most underrated teams and their perfect record on their east trip went under the radar) and Carolina (thought their goalies change would hurt them).

 

[WordsOfWisdom]

On 11/4/2021 at 10:24 AM, Math said:

I'm less worried about Tampa, Colorado and Toronto, they will find their cruise control.

 

Toronto's cruise control always seems to land them in third place in the division.  They need to start cruising in a higher gear. 

 

With Eichel gone, that helps Toronto.

With Quenneville gone, that also helps Toronto. 

 

Two division rivals got weakened this past week and that's just fine by me.   

[flyercanuck]

8 hours ago, WordsOfWisdom said:

 

Toronto's cruise control always seems to land them in third place in the division.  They need to start cruising in a higher gear. 

 

With Eichel gone, that helps Toronto.

With Quenneville gone, that also helps Toronto. 

 

Two division rivals got weakened this past week and that's just fine by me.   

 

With Eichel gone, Buffalo is better. ( Ok, with Eichel and Ristolainen gone) How does that help Toronto?

[thegx.ca]

For me biggest surprise is Buffalo doing well with Eichel/Reinhardt/Ristoleinen, but I agree this won't continue.

 

Wasn't surprised Calgary and Florida doing well. With Calgary adding Sutter boys and everything pointing to Sutter getting everything he wants from ownership, this could only work in Sutter favour in every way - including players doing what they're told, resulting in significantly better results on ice. With Florida, just so many big names there, can't help but think they'll lead east all year.

 

For me I knew Edmonton would improve, simply because McJesus improves himself every year, but didn't guess how good Hyman would be for them.

 

Toronto/Tampa/Montreal all downgraded, and Carolina will finish 3rd in East.

[WordsOfWisdom]

5 hours ago, flyercanuck said:

 

With Eichel gone, Buffalo is better. ( Ok, with Eichel and Ristolainen gone) How does that help Toronto?

 

  Well if you subscribe to the theory that Buffalo lost the trade to rid themselves of a player who wanted out, then Buffalo got weaker (long term) by not having Eichel. 

 

[flyercanuck]

41 minutes ago, WordsOfWisdom said:

 

  Well if you subscribe to the theory that Buffalo lost the trade to rid themselves of a player who wanted out, then Buffalo got weaker (long term) by not having Eichel. 

 

 

But if you subscribe to the theory Buffalo won the trade by getting rid of a guy who wanted to be gm and coach and captain and who led his team to lottery picks every single season and got paid $10 million a season to do it, then they got stronger by not having Eichel.

[ruxpin]

53 minutes ago, flyercanuck said:

 

But if you subscribe to the theory Buffalo won the trade by getting rid of a guy who wanted to be gm and coach and captain and who led his team to lottery picks every single season and got paid $10 million a season to do it, then they got stronger by not having Eichel.

 

I bought that subscription awhile back.  

This was addition by subtraction with the added benefit of addition by addition plus more addition.   I thought it was a great move by Buffalo.   I mean, there's really nowhere to go but up, but this looks good.

 

I also understand WoW's subscription service, too, but I really believe Eichel was a very large part of the problem in Buffalo (hard to prove that, of course), so any door that gets him out is a plus for Buffalo both short and long term.   Vegas has a new problem, but with the crew there maybe he won't be THE guy or the captain and it may work out better.

 

Edited November 9, 2021 by ruxpin

[thegx.ca]

1 hour ago, ruxpin said:

 

I bought that subscription awhile back.  

This was addition by subtraction with the added benefit of addition by addition plus more addition.   I thought it was a great move by Buffalo.   I mean, there's really nowhere to go but up, but this looks good.

 

I also understand WoW's subscription service, too, but I really believe Eichel was a very large part of the problem in Buffalo (hard to prove that, of course), so any door that gets him out is a plus for Buffalo both short and long term.   Vegas has a new problem, but with the crew there maybe he won't be THE guy or the captain and it may work out better.

 

 

Good point, Buffalo had no where to go but up, also agree that Eichel won't be the captain in Vegas and that could help the situation with rumours of Eichel being a problem off the ice.