NHL Standings for 09/10 season heading into the playoffs

CCgotITcovered wrote:Wilson made it pretty clear that Kadri is an unlikely member of the team.

He has to beat out players for a top-6 spot on the team.

Thus far, though, many Leaf fans are saying he has been.

I'll be surprised to see Kadri stick around.

asq2 wrote:

CCgotITcovered wrote:Wilson made it pretty clear that Kadri is an unlikely member of the team.

He has to beat out players for a top-6 spot on the team.

Thus far, though, many Leaf fans are saying he has been.

And their coach has been saying he hasn't No offense to Leaf fans, but they're the least objective fans since habs fan. They want their 1st rounder to make it and be better than his ex-teammate Tavares. He's done some things right, but who is he supposed to push out of the top-6?

asq2 wrote:

N4L wrote:

CCgotITcovered wrote:

N4L wrote:I still dont see what people are seeing in Toronto. They literally might ice 5 or 6 rookies. How do they make it?

I was drinking your koolaid when I put the initial list down, but in all honesty, my first instinct was to put TO there from the outset. The Kessel trade and the fact that I agree with asq about Toskala having a rebound year meant I had to go with my first instinct and switch it up.

They have a lot more scoring depth (mid-level, albeit) than people are giving them credit for. I still don't like the Kessel trade in the long-term, but in the short-term, it will make them better.

I just dont see how a team with 5, 6 rookies makes the playoffs. Won't believe unless I see it.

Rookies on the Ottawa Senators during the 2005-2006 season:
Emery
Meszaros
Kelly
Eaves
Bochenski (briefly)
Schubert
McGrattan
Injury call-ups Tomas Malec, Denis Hamel, Filip Novak

...and that team was the highest scoring team in post-lock-out history, with a goals scored/goals against differential of 103 (only the Red Wings had fewer goals scored against, with 2). The team also finished with the second best record in the league at 52-21-3-6.

Now, the talent level on the Leafs isn't even on the same planet as the talent level on that Senators team, all I'm saying is that playing a number of rookies doesn't preclude the possibility of being successful.

I think the Leafs have it in them to challenge for a playoff spot, although I'm not sure they'll actually get one.

How many of those guys are top 6 forwards and top 4 Dmen? None

You're gonna have Bozak and Kadari as your number 1, 2 centers more than likely by the end of the year.

Again we'll see but I dont like that Leafs team at all and I still think they are going to get lit up all year long with less scoring then last year.

Anybody care to revise their predictions at this point?

not really, i stand by mine.

N4L wrote:

asq2 wrote:

N4L wrote:

CCgotITcovered wrote:

N4L wrote:I still dont see what people are seeing in Toronto. They literally might ice 5 or 6 rookies. How do they make it?

I was drinking your koolaid when I put the initial list down, but in all honesty, my first instinct was to put TO there from the outset. The Kessel trade and the fact that I agree with asq about Toskala having a rebound year meant I had to go with my first instinct and switch it up.

They have a lot more scoring depth (mid-level, albeit) than people are giving them credit for. I still don't like the Kessel trade in the long-term, but in the short-term, it will make them better.

I just dont see how a team with 5, 6 rookies makes the playoffs. Won't believe unless I see it.

Rookies on the Ottawa Senators during the 2005-2006 season:
Emery
Meszaros
Kelly
Eaves
Bochenski (briefly)
Schubert
McGrattan
Injury call-ups Tomas Malec, Denis Hamel, Filip Novak

...and that team was the highest scoring team in post-lock-out history, with a goals scored/goals against differential of 103 (only the Red Wings had fewer goals scored against, with 2). The team also finished with the second best record in the league at 52-21-3-6.

Now, the talent level on the Leafs isn't even on the same planet as the talent level on that Senators team, all I'm saying is that playing a number of rookies doesn't preclude the possibility of being successful.

I think the Leafs have it in them to challenge for a playoff spot, although I'm not sure they'll actually get one.

How many of those guys are top 6 forwards and top 4 Dmen? None

You're gonna have Bozak and Kadari as your number 1, 2 centers more than likely by the end of the year.

Again we'll see but I dont like that Leafs team at all and I still think they are going to get lit up all year long with less scoring then last year.

Well, Meszaros was debatably top-4, and Emery ended up being our starting goalie come playoff time. I see your point, though.

They're not solely reliant on rookies. They don't have any on their blue-line, and Toskala is the man in charge of the blue paint (for now, anyway).

Up front Bozak, Stalberg and potentially Kadri may be relied upon but they'll also have Kessel, Hagman, Grabovski, Kulemin, Ponikarovsky, and Blake have the numbers can comprise a top-6 (if not an outstanding one).

One of the 'wild cards' this year is the Olympics break.

It may benefit some teams, and work to the disadvantage of others.

Two reasons have been cited:

...it will allow some clubs to rest their players; and there is a compressed schedule after the Olympic break where teams are obliged to play a greater number of games in a short time.

This could have the effect of tightening divisional races..

This is really just a paper exercise at this point. And of course it's always just for fun. A lot of variables could change things quite a bit during the season. Rookies having softmore jinxs, unexpected surprises, break-out years, career years for certain players and so on.

I only did this to see how close I'll be by the end of the season. I suspect I'll have 3 or 4 teams in the playoffs on my list that end up on the outside.

capn clutch--good predictions--my habs won't make the playoffs with that junk lineup under gainey

the leafs i think will do better than what most people think

Looks like everyone stands by their predictions...

davetherave wrote:Looks like everyone stands by their predictions...

Do you care to predict DTR? Or do you have an article of someone else's predictions that you could share with us? j/k.

sidstu wrote:capn clutch--good predictions--my habs won't make the playoffs with that junk lineup under gainey

the leafs i think will do better than what most people think

They very well could I just had a hard time seeing them do better than the teams I have above them. I'm also being generous with the Sens as they could easily drop to 9th or even lower depending on how things play out.

Cap'n Clutch wrote:

davetherave wrote:Looks like everyone stands by their predictions...

Do you care to predict DTR? Or do you have an article of someone else's predictions that you could share with us? j/k.

Nope...I leave predictions to people who like to predict.

I just take things as they come.

SensChirp has put up their predictions for the season standings...

Source: http://www.senschirp.ca/2009/09/senschirp-20092010-predictions.html

Western Conference

1. SAN JOSE
2. CHICAGO
3. VANCOUVER
4. DETROIT
5. CALGARY
6. DALLAS
7. ANAHEIM
8. ST. LOUIS

9. EDMONTON
10. LOS ANGELES
11. MINNESOTA
12. COLUMBUS
13. PHOENIX
14. NASHVILLE
15. COLORADO

Eastern Conference

1. PITTSBURGH
2. WASHINGTON
3. BOSTON
4. OTTAWA
5. PHILADELPHIA
6. CAROLINA
7. NEW JERSEY
8. MONTREAL

9. NEW YORK
10. TORONTO
11. BUFFALO
12. TAMPA BAY
13. ATLANTA
14. FLORIDA
15. NEW YORK ISLANDERS

NHL AWARDS (Runner up in Brackets)

Hart- Sidney Crosby (Joe Thornton)
Vezina- Roberto Luongo (Tim Thomas)
Norris- Zdeno Chara (Dan Boyle)
Richard- Ilya Kovalchuk (Alex Ovechkin)
Calder- John Tavares (Viktor Hedman)
Selke- Mike Richards (Pavel Datsyuk)
Adams- Cory Clouston (Dan Bylsma)

I have to say... pretty optimistic having the Sens in 4th.

We shall see...

His predictions are awful. He switched NYR and Ottawa from last year, that's it. Apparently everyone is exactly the same. Florida is also 14th in the conferance... not likely.

shabbs wrote:SensChirp has put up their predictions for the season standings...

I have to say... pretty optimistic having the Sens in 4th.

We shall see...

Looking at the teams he has beneath Ottawa, I would say it's possible to realistically make 5th.

1. PITTSBURGH
2. WASHINGTON
3. BOSTON
4. OTTAWA
5. PHILADELPHIA
6. CAROLINA
7. NEW JERSEY
8. MONTREAL

Ottawa in 5th is a very real possibility.