Quote:
Originally Posted by Oil Stain
St.Louis
Chicago
Nashville
Minnesota-XXWildcardXX
Dallas-XXWildcardXX
Winnipeg
Colorado
Anaheim
LA
San Jose
Calgary
Vancouver
Edmonton
Arizona
Almost the same as last season. Dallas sneaks into a wildcard. Calgary can't replicate last season's run of pretty much everything going right. LA rebounds from a terrible SO/OT record. San Jose has a dead cat bounce.
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Dallas allowed 260 goals last year, and did nothing to remedy the situation except downgrade their defense and add another goalie who isn't much better than the one they already had. Sure they might score more but at this point they look like a slightly better version of Edmonton. Unless they do something about that D situation (bottom 4-5 in the league with Philly, Toronto and Edmonton) they aren't sniffing the playoffs.
Your reasoning for SJ ahead of CGY is interesting. SJ is going to have a "dead cat bounce" while Calgary "can't replicate last season's run of pretty much everything going right " despite huge upgrades to the roster. SJ made a lateral move in goal and signed Paul Martin and Joel Ward. I'll take Hamilton and Frolik, thank you very much.
Honestly, Dallas and SJ ahead of Calgary sounds like wishful thinking to me rather than a legitimate prediction.
When straight up comparing the rosters it looks even worse (forget about the results from 14/15). Calgary's defense is in a different league than SJ and DAL, no point in comparing or contrasting but I will anyway... Calgary is a 9/10, SJ is a 6 or 7 and DAL is 3 or 4. I should mention that this is the most important position on the team in my eyes.
Given Calgary's strong depth up front, I don't think SJ has any edge at the forward ranks though Dallas clearly does on their top 6 alone (their depth is mediocre though IMO). Too bad this is a league that punishes bad defensive teams more than rewards great offensive ones. You need balance and Dallas is the opposite of that. SJ is just 'meh' throughout their lineup.
Goaltending is a wash between all three teams, though SJ's is more unproven I suspect Jones will at least be average.
The only way I see DAL and SJ ahead of Calgary is if EVERYTHING goes wrong for the Flames. Just because you think "everything went right last year", it doesn't mean everything will go wrong this year to balance it out. Besides, everything didn't go right last year. Not sure if you heard but our best player and captain missed the last 21 games and playoffs. We also went through a 3 week stretch with 3 of our top 4 centers injured. Those two situations add up to three solid months of misfortune that our Jack Adams coach helped us navigate through. Just because we weathered through adversity while others wilted, it doesn't mean there's a slight against our future chances... if anything it means we can probably deal with the next shovelful of #### that gets heaped on our faces, whenever and whatever that is.
I agree LA has an excellent chance of finishing ahead of CGY given your reasoning.