The Official 2011 Tank Nation thread

rooneypoo wrote:

NEELY wrote:The only teams people should be worried about are The Panthers and MAYBE Colorado. NYI will probably stay ahead as they seem to be playign pretty good hockey and getting points when needed to stay ahead.

The Panthers are the biggest threat by far.

COL too, for sure. One win in their last 10.

As long as we stay in the bottom 4, I'm fine. But 5th would be a disaster.

The problem with finishing 4th is that we can be pushed to 5th by the lottery. So we better hope for a bottom 3 finish.

Ottawa won't be catching Colorado, they still have an NHL lineup and will win their fair share of games going forward.

If they go 7-12 in their next 18, that means Ottawa has to go better than 10-7-1 in their next 18, I don't see that happening. Ottawa is playing better but that's probably best case scenario for Ottawa and worst case for Colorado.

Best case scenario for Ottawa IMO

NYR-W
NJ-L
FLA-W
TB-L
BUF-L
PIT-W
NJ-L
TB-L
CAR-OTL
NYR-L
WAS-L
ATL-W
TB-L
FLA-W
TOR-L
PHI-W
MTL-OTL
BOS-L

That's 6-10-2, you might be ablt to throw a win or two more in there, but the schedule is no easy going forward being on the road and playing some very good team. If they lose one of those games to Florida as well, I think they lock up the basement and the 2nd game is a back to back against TB the night before.

shabbs wrote:Panthers have been on a tailspin of late going 3-7-0 in their last 10. Colorado are 1-7-2 in their last 10. Certainly possible threats for the bottom of the league.

Those 2 certainly are a cause for concern but I find that, for whatever reason, not much ground is made up or lost at this time of year.

SeawaySensFan wrote:

shabbs wrote:Panthers have been on a tailspin of late going 3-7-0 in their last 10. Colorado are 1-7-2 in their last 10. Certainly possible threats for the bottom of the league.

Those 2 certainly are a cause for concern but I find that, for whatever reason, not much ground is made up or lost at this time of year.

You are very right. Making up 6 and 7 points with 18 games left is very, very hard, especially when the team isn't very good to begin with.

NEELY wrote:

SeawaySensFan wrote:

shabbs wrote:Panthers have been on a tailspin of late going 3-7-0 in their last 10. Colorado are 1-7-2 in their last 10. Certainly possible threats for the bottom of the league.

Those 2 certainly are a cause for concern but I find that, for whatever reason, not much ground is made up or lost at this time of year.

You are very right. Making up 6 and 7 points with 18 games left is very, very hard, especially when the team isn't very good to begin with.

I'll say it again though. It's not too tough if we are going to be playing .600 hockey. 6 points is basically 3 wins. It's getting more and more probable by the day that Florida and Colorado catch us. Not to mention that most of our remaining games are against teams like Florida and other teams ahead of us. Look at how fast Toronto and NJ have rocketed up the standings. Even playing .500 hockey, we will make up ground on Florida and Colorado should they continue their current trends.

I won't be the least bit surprised if we end up drafting out of the top 4. There is real cause for concern here. I'm going to lose my Cussing mind if we don't end up with a top 4 pick after having to endure this season. And if Anderson singlehandedly plays us out of the top 4 and then diddles off to a contender, It's jihad time.

NEELY wrote:

SeawaySensFan wrote:

shabbs wrote:Panthers have been on a tailspin of late going 3-7-0 in their last 10. Colorado are 1-7-2 in their last 10. Certainly possible threats for the bottom of the league.

Those 2 certainly are a cause for concern but I find that, for whatever reason, not much ground is made up or lost at this time of year.

You are very right. Making up 6 and 7 points with 18 games left is very, very hard, especially when the team isn't very good to begin with.

It's not the team I am worried about. It's the goaltender that is singlehandedly winning us games with his GAA of just over 1 and a save percentage of .977. We basically have to have the offense shut out in order to lose.

Colorado will win it's share of games down the stretch. They just lost to SJ in OT/SO and they are icing an NHL roster eveyr night. FLA is a way worse off but still far enough ahead that Ottawa will have a tough time catching them. Ottawa plays them twice and if they lose once (I bet the lose the 2nd of the back to back in FLA as every team does), no way they catch FLA.

FYI to everyone. COL plays EDM 3 times down the stretch. 6 points min will be given out to teams people are worried about.

NEELY wrote:FYI to everyone. COL plays EDM 3 times down the stretch. 6 points min will be given out to teams people are worried about.

Ha! That's comforting. It would be useful to know how many times each of the bottom 5 teams (EDM, OTT, NYI, FLA, and COL) are going to play each other -- might sooth some nerves around here, anyway.

FLA and NYI also play. It's pretty close to impossible Ottawa plays itself out of a top 3 pick, probably not even top 2.

We're 1 point out of last place, remember that as well

rooneypoo wrote:

NEELY wrote:FYI to everyone. COL plays EDM 3 times down the stretch. 6 points min will be given out to teams people are worried about.

Ha! That's comforting. It would be useful to know how many times each of the bottom 5 teams (EDM, OTT, NYI, FLA, and COL) are going to play each other -- might sooth some nerves around here, anyway.

Yeah, well now's the time to relax and to tell people not to panic.

rooneypoo wrote:

NEELY wrote:FYI to everyone. COL plays EDM 3 times down the stretch. 6 points min will be given out to teams people are worried about.

Ha! That's comforting. It would be useful to know how many times each of the bottom 5 teams (EDM, OTT, NYI, FLA, and COL) are going to play each other -- might sooth some nerves around here, anyway.

Ott plays FLA 2 more times, one coming on the 2nd 1/2 of the back to back in FLA. 100% the toughest road game in The NHL. EDM and COL play each other 3 times (6 points Ottawa has to get right there) and NYI and FLA play once.

Ottawa has a top 3 pick locked up unless something unreal happens in the draft lotto.

We can still make the playoffs, it's still too early to count us out.

Big Ev wrote:We're 1 point out of last place, remember that as well

FLA could very well drop 12 of their last 18 without much doubt. That said, Ottawa would need to go better than 9-9 to pass them because of the wins and goal diff. It's not going to happen.

Ottawa easily has the toughest schedule going forward too, it isn't even close.

:twtwo: