Quote:
Originally Posted by Otto-matic
As much as I want to say yes, my brain is telling me no.
IMO Anaheim, Chicago, St.Louis and Minnesota are the locks with Calgary, Vancouver, Colorado, LA, Dallas, Winnipeg and San Jose all being tossed up for the last 4 spots.
As much as it pains me to say, Edmonton could be in that mix too all baring on the moves made this summer.
A lot will need to align properly again for the Flames to make the dance. That's the prob
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I'd take Vancouver and Dallas out of that list. Vancouver is aging fast and I never understood why people thought Dallas was/is so strong.
However, you forgot Nashville. Still, that's five spots for four teams. Not bad.
For my prediction I'm looking at it more of who on our team could play near or at the level they did this year. We had a ton of career years. Lots of fun this year, but could mean a step back next year. The saving grace is a lot of the career years were from rookies or young players who could easily keep building.
I see Wideman, Russel, Hudler, and Jooris taking a step back. I see Monahan staying about the same point wise but still improving as a player. Gio should be about the same too. Gaudreau and Brodie continue to improve, and we get a full year of Bennett which will give us a nice 1-2 punch at center.
The mystery is how our goaltenders will do. Even who they might be. They don't need to be elite, but they need to have good seasons.
All that said, I see things evening out and us fighting for a spot in thd final 5 games. The optimist in me says we make it in.