THN regular season predictions

marakh wrote:I think it's stupid to make predictions like these when some teams don't even have a full roster.

Well said.

Well, today's picks (#10) are out. THN predicts that Tampa and Nashville finish #10 in the league. Assuming that at least one of Buffalo or Montreal are ranked below Ottawa, it would appear that they will predict the Sens to make it to the post-season.

Time for a quick celebration?

:^^:

I can't believe nobody has said this yet.

I will go on record saying that there is no way that Colorado finishes anything but LAST in the NHL this year.

The Avalanche will get the best chance at Taylor Hall. It is as close to a guarantee as you can get.

Does anyone in the SIM league want to wager their 1st round pick in 2010 for Colorado being any better than last place? I will let you take every other team in the league.

-If Colorado finishes last in the real NHL standings in 2010, I get your SIM league 1st round pick in 2010.
If any other team in the NHL finishes below Colorado in the standings, I give your SIM league team my (Buffalo's) 1st Round pick in 2010.

Any takers?

well if this shows anything positive, it seems that THN seems to believe that Ottawa will possible make the playoffs, or it could be really negative and we finish 9th, ugh, the worst place to finish in the standings, not good enough for playoff hockey and not bad enough for a decent pick.

wprager wrote:Well, today's picks (#10) are out. THN predicts that Tampa and Nashville finish #10 in the league. Assuming that at least one of Buffalo or Montreal are ranked below Ottawa, it would appear that they will predict the Sens to make it to the post-season.

Time for a quick celebration?

:^^:

Wow, I'm surprised to be honest. If they think we're that high, then certainly we're above Buffalo and Montreal.

Huh...

FireOnIce wrote:I can't believe nobody has said this yet.

I will go on record saying that there is no way that Colorado finishes anything but LAST in the NHL this year.

The Avalanche will get the best chance at Taylor Hall. It is as close to a guarantee as you can get.

Does anyone in the SIM league want to wager their 1st round pick in 2010 for Colorado being any better than last place? I will let you take every other team in the league.

-If Colorado finishes last in the real NHL standings in 2010, I get your SIM league 1st round pick in 2010.
If any other team in the NHL finishes below Colorado in the standings, I give your SIM league team my (Buffalo's) 1st Round pick in 2010.

Any takers?

Can you run the Sabers more seriously and not try to have wagers on your picks lol... Just saying. It loses the seriousness of the game

caissie_1 wrote:

FireOnIce wrote:I can't believe nobody has said this yet.

I will go on record saying that there is no way that Colorado finishes anything but LAST in the NHL this year.

The Avalanche will get the best chance at Taylor Hall. It is as close to a guarantee as you can get.

Does anyone in the SIM league want to wager their 1st round pick in 2010 for Colorado being any better than last place? I will let you take every other team in the league.

-If Colorado finishes last in the real NHL standings in 2010, I get your SIM league 1st round pick in 2010.
If any other team in the NHL finishes below Colorado in the standings, I give your SIM league team my (Buffalo's) 1st Round pick in 2010.

Any takers?

Can you run the Sabers more seriously and not try to have wagers on your picks lol... Just saying. It loses the seriousness of the game

I can't tell if you are serious .

But I am serious. Colorado sucks and I want another 1st round pick in the SIM league.

Im serious in a nice way.... I just think it's unrealistic that's all... But hey it's your team.

SpezDispenser wrote:

wprager wrote:Well, today's picks (#10) are out. THN predicts that Tampa and Nashville finish #10 in the league. Assuming that at least one of Buffalo or Montreal are ranked below Ottawa, it would appear that they will predict the Sens to make it to the post-season.

Time for a quick celebration?

:^^:

Wow, I'm surprised to be honest. If they think we're that high, then certainly we're above Buffalo and Montreal.

Huh...

The day of reckoning is upon us. We make the cut today, we're in the playoffs ... in a non-official, way-too-early-to-tell-really, pre-season-prediction kind of way.

9th place

Hopefully they have no clue what there talking about!

caissie_1 wrote:9th place

Hopefully they have no clue what there talking about!

Hopefully?

Worst case scenario, we're "stuck" with Heatley but we added Kovalev.

On the other hand, we may just end up with some new players that are just "good" but we added Kovalev!

In either case, Fartsburg is no longer the coach.

Grrr!

OK, I'm not happy. This means that there are people out there who think that Buffalo *and* Montreal are better than we are. I guess we'll see about these prediction in April, but this is pretty much the same team that went 19-11-4 to end the season (including a 2-3 game swoon when they got mathematically eliminated). The only thins that are different is we "replaced" Elliot with Leclaire, Auld with Elliott, Bell with (probably) Picard and Bass (or some other 4th liner) with Kovalev. Yeah, we lost Vermette and added Campoli somewhere in the middle of Clouston's run, but then just say we replaced Vermette with Kovalev and it's still a nice upgrade.

Plus our kids (Foligno, Shannon, Lee, Campoli) have one more year under their belt and all those players who had career low years are sure to rebound at least a little.

That 19-11-4 record, stretched over an 82 game schedule translates to about 46-27-9, or 101 points. Even if we lose Heatley, Kovalev plus whoever replaces Heatley's spot in the lineup, plus rebound years from the other 4 top-six forwards, plus career progression from the third line, plus better goaltending -- all of that should make up for most of the lost offense. Depending on who we get back (i.e. if we get a top-six) then our scoring depth would actually be better than before.

I just don't see how we could end up 9th.

Relax people, that article is a piece of sheet. Even if they ranked us top 3 in the league I wouldn't care.

Here's a little perspective:
When MTL was predicted to be 13th in the East, they went 1st
The year after they were predicted to be in top 3, they finished 8th

Who cares anyway, how about trying to predict horse races too, they could become millionaires.

marakh wrote:Relax people, that article is a piece of sheet. Even if they ranked us top 3 in the league I wouldn't care.

Here's a little perspective:
When MTL was predicted to be 13th in the East, they went 1st
The year after they were predicted to be in top 3, they finished 8th

Who cares anyway, how about trying to predict horse races too, they could become millionaires.

agreed.

at least when trying to predict race horses, you can make some money

well they said if new additions Leclaire and Kovalev step up big time we would be in 9th spot. But I honestly believe Kovalev will be on fire if put with Spezza and Alfie. And that's of course assuming Heatley gets traded. And I have no reason to think Leclaire won't do well for us, unless he gets injured which at this point I'd like to be more positive and hope for a healthy season from him

Sens19 wrote:well they said if new additions Leclaire and Kovalev step up big time we would be in 9th spot. But I honestly believe Kovalev will be on fire if put with Spezza and Alfie. And that's of course assuming Heatley gets traded. And I have no reason to think Leclaire won't do well for us, unless he gets injured which at this point I'd like to be more positive and hope for a healthy season from him

as much as i'm not the biggest fan of kovalev i have to admit that it will be pretty hard for kovalev not to produce next to a spezza trying to make the canadian team and, well, Alfredsson....

come to think of it, why isn't the season starting now!

my prediction..? 5th.

Sens19 wrote:well they said if new additions Leclaire and Kovalev step up big time we would be in 9th spot. But I honestly believe Kovalev will be on fire if put with Spezza and Alfie. And that's of course assuming Heatley gets traded. And I have no reason to think Leclaire won't do well for us, unless he gets injured which at this point I'd like to be more positive and hope for a healthy season from him

Forget about the addition of Leclaire and Kovalev for a moment.

Take the second half of the season, subtract Heatley's contribution (admittedly not a whole lot) but add in a replacement part who is motivated. Now extend that record to cover a whole season; remember that Gerber has been replaced by Elliott, and Auld by Brodeur (or whoever) in this scenario.

My estimate is a loss of a grand total of 10 goals and about 10 assists on the offensive side, but no significant change on the defensive side. If you put Kovalev in as the replacement player, even that difference disappears.

Now correct for the addition of Leclaire, and give the offense a normal season instead of a slump (and take away a coach that preaches defense above and beyond everything else, to the point of stifling the offense).

Now Ottawa ties or wins most of the 10 one-goal losses, probably ties and maybe wins a few of the two goal losses, and maybe squeaks out an OT loss in one of the thirteen three goal losses. It only takes an additional five wins to put them into eighth, assuming last year's numbers remain true to form.

I'd predict Ottawa finishing 7th or 8th.

As an aside - I can see justification for NYR wanting Heatley - they had 10 one-goal losses, and 16 two-goal losses, so at a goal every second game, he could be worth a whole lot in the standings.

Ottawa will be better in the Shootout with Kovalev in and Heatley out. That alone could translate into 4-5 points easy. We were one of the worst.

Kovalev/Spezza/Ruttu/Alfredsson choose 3 and let's get'er done!!!