Quote:
Originally Posted by Itse
That said:
I can't remember another year recently when the west has loaded up for the playoffs like this.
Most of the teams are going to be disappointed. A part of me is definitely glad we didn't join in on the frenzy.
Oh, and what Bingo and others have said. We have a lot of question marks still with experience and goaltending, going all in would have been a huge risk, plus we're still one of the best teams in the west.
Yes, I'm definitely sweating a bit more about facing Nashville and Vegas, but it was always going to be unlikely that the rest of the conference is just going to let us walk over them.
Look at it this way: we're the team others in the west are looking up at and thinking "we need to get better to beat them".
It's not such a bad place to be.
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Assuming the standings stay as is...
SJS face VGK in the first round
NAS face STL in the first round
WPG face DAL in the first round
BOS face TOR in the first round
CBJ face WAS in the first round
Even without the inevitable upsets, half the teams that loaded up will be gone after the first round.
I go back to what I said earlier... not only did CAL not give up a bunch of assets, and not only are we leading the west, but we probably have a younger core than any of the teams listed above. WPG is also fairly young, as is TOR, but CAL compares quite well with all those teams this year (save TBL), and better than any of them going forward.