[Sylvanfan]

They are starting to convince me that they're a lot closer to being a playoff team than they are to a team that will be picking in the top 5. The West is still a brutal Conference for a team to make the playoffs, and there are a lot of games to be played against those Monsters from California.

But if you do go back to last year combined with the first 13 games this year it's getting to be about half a season where this team has been collecting points at a pretty consistent pace.

It's to a point where I'm no longer hoping they'll win and not completely embarrass themselves...to I think they will win games, and I'm hoping they keep winning and make a push for the playoffs like the 03-04 team.

Think back to the 2007-08 Chicago Blackhawks team. The year that Kane and Toews were both rookies. People questioned if Kane would be able to play in the NHL at his size, and there was no guarantee Toews would be the player he turned into to. Look at the rest of that roster, and consider how those guys were regarded at that time. They needed that good year where they surprised people to make others believe they were that good.