Around the Quarter Pole

[Street Pharmacist]

Well, a quarter of the season is done. There are some expected things, surprising things and good stories.




Biggest surprise?

For me, the dominance of the West. We knew it would be the tougher conference, but many people felt swapping Detroit for Winnipeg would help even things out. Nope. Right now, if the current pace continues, it takes 112 points to make the playoffs in the West. Yikes! It would take 89 in the East which is about normal for the East.




Other surprises?

I didn't see Philadelphia being as bad as they were, but they've really turned it around and could actually still see the playoffs, though not likely. Not a bottom feeder anymore though.


The Oilers were poised to be improving as they had improved last season and many saw the trend continue. Most around here expected the demise, I did not. I had them around 9th place, fighting for a spot. They've been abysmal. Almost every player is worse than last year, and that's bad, real bad.

Colorado is 15-5-0. This is on the back of high shooting percentages and high save percentages. I don't see it continuing to this extreme, and they are showing signs of slowing (last night excluded). This is a team that was second last, last year. How many times have we seen a team that bad be that good the next year. Philadelphia a few years ago?

Flames scoring goals. Someone here predicted it (dissentowner?) and I shot them down. Oops. I still see us in bottom 10 in scoring by the end of the year, and bottom 2 or 3 in the league standings.



Good stories?


Josh Harding. Dude gets diagnosed with MS, only to come out gangbusters.

Iginla has been playing well, though the points aren't necessarily there. I hope he's a big part of a Cup win this year.

Alex Steen. Seems like a great guy and I'm happy for him. Nobody saw his emergence, but I'm not sure it'll continue at its current pace.


Sean Monahan was supposed to go down at 9 games. In fact, some said to put him back in junior after training camp (before training camp occurred and he showed us what he could do). He's second in team scoring, and that's pretty impressive for a guy who wasn't even 19 before the season started.

Our prospects. I won't go into detail, as there are numerous threads about it, but it's nice to have prospects to be excited about


Expected:

Calgary isn't good

Buffalo isn't good

San Jose got off to another great start

Canucks are trending down



Predictions:

Johnny Gaudreau signs his pro contract at the end of the college season and plays a couple games before the end of the NHL season. Hand wringing on CP ends. Just kidding, it's a message board and that's impossible.

Poirier also plays this year

Flames win draft lottery after finishing one place ahead of the Oilers

Canucks finish in 7th in the west and lose out in 4 straight.

Toronto suffers a long losing streak and ends up 8th. Much hand wringing commences in the media.

Rask wins the Vezina

Ovechkin wins the Richard

San Jose wins the President's Trophy



Edit: Edited for spelling and clarity

[TurnedTheCorner]

Good surprises you've listed. Colorado's hot start has definitely been the biggest surprise to me - I wasn't expecting Roy to enjoy such immediate success in the NHL with that roster. Time will tell how the season ends up for them, but the start is a surprising accomplishment.

The Jeckyll and Hyde start for the Rangers was a surprise for me personally. Yes, they had a brutal road trip to start the season -- but I thought they would fare better than they did. Their record is around .500 even after a terrible start, so we'll see if they play more to expectations for the remainder of the season.

Steen's goal scoring total has to be a surprise to everyone. A goal a game for one quarter of the season is something I thought would be reserved for Ovechkin or Stamkos. I can't see how Steen can keep it up close to that pace for the remainder of the seasos, even on a stacked Blues roster.

[codynw]

One of the biggest surprises for me was Tomas Hertl. Had never heard of this kid at all before his 4 goal game and now he's leading all rookies in scoring and is playing on the first line of a potential cup contender. Incredible.

[codynw]

Also, another surprise was Tampa Bay's great start. Definitely didn't see that coming. Maybe in a few years, but I really didn't expect them to be good this year.

[TurnedTheCorner]

Originally Posted by codynw

One of the biggest surprises for me was Tomas Hertl. Had never heard of this kid at all before his 4 goal game and now he's leading all rookies in scoring and is playing on the first line of a potential cup contender. Incredible.

I'm OK with chalking him up to Thornton for now. We'll see if he turns into a legit NHLer or another scoring sensation propped up by Thornton.

[Street Pharmacist]

Originally Posted by TurnedTheCorner

I'm OK with chalking him up to Thornton for now. We'll see if he turns into a legit NHLer or another scoring sensation propped up by Thornton.

What are you taking about? It's the others who have propped up Thornton! Need be nothing if it wasn't for Cheechoo putting home Thornton's crappy passes

[Flame19,289]

Originally Posted by Street Pharmacist

Biggest surprise?

For me, the dominance of the West. We knew it would be the tougher conference, but many people felt swapping Detroit for Winnipeg would help even things out. Nope. Right now, if the current pace continues, it takes 112 points to make the playoffs in the West. Yikes! It would take 89 in the East which is about normal for the East.

Totally agree. It's remarkable, really.

If the season were to end today, Boston, the top team in the East with 29 points, would be in 9th place in the West and out of the playoffs.

And then you look at how incredibly close it is in the West... The top 8 teams are sandwiched between 30 and 32 points. There could be some interesting jockeying for position down the stretch if it remains this close.

[Five-hole]

Originally Posted by Flame19,289

Totally agree. It's remarkable, really.

If the season were to end today, Boston, the top team in the East with 29 points, would be in 9th place in the West and out of the playoffs.

And then you look at how incredibly close it is in the West... The top 8 teams are sandwiched between 30 and 32 points. There could be some interesting jockeying for position down the stretch if it remains this close.

You will see a regression in both the East being "weak" and the West being "strong" as inter-conference play increases, since teams will be taking points from each other.

It doesn't change that the West is obviously a stronger conference, of course, but the point totals won't be as extremely disparate as it is now.

[corporatejay]

Why are people still talking about "7th in the west" or "8th in the west". Isn't it all divisional now except for the crossover?

[wingmaker]

Exactly. A lot of the points in the west have come from games against the east. As the divisional play ramps up, teams will be stealing points from each other and the end of the year totals will be less than their current projections. That said, the phenomenon of the dominance of the west and the collective points pace of the top teams is absolutely mind boggling.

[TurnedTheCorner]

Originally Posted by corporatejay

Why are people still talking about "7th in the west" or "8th in the west". Isn't it all divisional now except for the crossover?

Because it's still 8 teams from each conference that make the playoffs, not four teams from each division.

[codynw]

Originally Posted by corporatejay

Why are people still talking about "7th in the west" or "8th in the west". Isn't it all divisional now except for the crossover?

No. The top three teams from each division make the playoffs, then the two teams with the best record, no matter which divison, make up the other two playoff spots for their conference. It's still eight Western teams and eight Eastern teams.

[Street Pharmacist]

Originally Posted by Five-hole

You will see a regression in both the East being "weak" and the West being "strong" as inter-conference play increases, since teams will be taking points from each other.

It doesn't change that the West is obviously a stronger conference, of course, but the point totals won't be as extremely disparate as it is now.

I disagree about the east on general, as 89 points is not far off what had traditionally been the pace. Add in the increased inter conference play this year and it could even conceivably go down.

The west cannot have a 112 pt pace

[DeluxeMoustache]

Playoff spots for Top 3 from each division plus 2 wildcards

Edit: was beaten to it

[corporatejay]

Originally Posted by TurnedTheCorner

Because it's still 8 teams from each conference that make the playoffs, not four teams from each division.

Originally Posted by codynw

No. The top three teams from each division make the playoffs, then the two teams with the best record, no matter which divison, make up the other two playoff spots for their conference. It's still eight Western teams and eight Eastern teams.

Right, but it's the breakdown like this.

1 v. 4
2 v. 3

in each division unless, as mentioned there is a crossover.

It's not 1 v. 8, 2 v. 7 etc..

I could be wrong.

[OutOfTheCube]

Meh, I've already basically tuned out this season. Both my favorite teams are crap. Only interested in trades and the draft really. And on how young players progress.

[TurnedTheCorner]

You are wrong. It's 1 vs. 8, 2 vs. 7. Then 2 vs. 3 in each division. If 4 teams make it from each division, there can still be a "crossover". 1 vs. 4 in each division is possible, but not certain.

http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=6...vid=nhl-search

Originally Posted by The NHL

The top three teams in each division will make up the first 12 teams in the playoffs. The remaining four spots will be filled by the next two highest-placed finishers in each conference, based on regular-season points and regardless of division. It will be possible, then, for one division to send five teams to the postseason while the other sends just three.

Seeding of the wild-card teams within each divisional playoff will be determined on the basis of regular-season points. The division winner with the most points in the conference will be matched against the wild-card team with the fewest points; the division winner with the second-most points in the conference will play the wild-card team with the second-fewest points.

The teams finishing second and third in each division will play in the first round of the playoffs. The winners of each opening-round series will play for berths in the conference championship series.

[corporatejay]

Originally Posted by TurnedTheCorner

You are wrong. It's 1 vs. 8, 2 vs. 7. Then 2 vs. 3 in each division. If 4 teams make it from each division, there can still be a "crossover". 1 vs. 4 in each division is possible, but not certain.

http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=6...vid=nhl-search

Thanks, this seems unnecessarily complicated. Why didn't they just keep it the way it was.

[J epworth]

Just wondering, how do you see Poirier playing, first he still needs to sign his ELC, and also, can only then be called up on emergency basis. What happened with Baertschi a few years back doesn't happen very often, it will be very unlikely that we would need to call him up on an emergency basis. Also, with Feaster's comments at the beginning of the season that their biggest mistake was calling Baertschi up for that stint, I doubt they would want to do the same for Poirier and put unreasonable expectations on him if he succeeds.

[Caged Great]

The Flames only have 22 games remaining against meh opponents like the Nashvilles and Oilers etc. The other 39 games are all against teams like SJ etc. We've only played 6 games against weaker competition and have gone 4-2.