Quote:
Originally Posted by Mathgod
A record-setting team that sees its star goalie suffer an unfortunate injury at the worst possible time, does not suddenly mean that the team isn't great.
Likewise, when a team that needs all kinds of luck and help on the OOT scoreboards for the final 2 months to barely squeak into the final spot, gets that spot and then their goalie suddenly goes god-mode for a few weeks, doesn't suddenly mean that team is great.
As we all know, sample sizes in the playoffs are extremely small, so luck inevitably plays an enormous role in determining which teams go on long runs and which ones don't.
The Panthers are riding an incredibly hot goalie right now, going 6-0 in OT games and squeaking out 1 goal wins. Does that make them a great team? Maybe you're convinced, but I'm not.
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You don’t really have to be convinced. Teams are as good as they’re playing in the moment and they’ll do that regardless of what anybody thinks.
You look at it like they needed help to squeak into the final spot in the playoffs. But every team gets help. It might not happen at the same time, but Florida deserves credit for putting themselves in a position to benefit from that help in the first place.
Again, though, the Ullmark thing is just kind of… meaningless, isn’t it? Ullmark said there was a difference between being hurt and being injured, and he was the former. The only one reporting otherwise was “insiderrrrr” Kevin Weekes (lol). But that’s beside the fact that we absolutely saw that an “unfortunate injury” (or whatever the excuse is for Ullmark’s play) was the difference between Boston being a “great” team and a team that goes out in the first round. How can you say otherwise? We saw it. We also just saw it in Calgary. Take away part of what makes a great team great and… you guessed it, they’re not great anymore!
You can pretend that Florida is a meh-team just lucking their way to the finals. But that just ignores too many fundamental truths about hockey, imo. If luck is what brought Florida here, you better believe it’s what led Boston to the regular season record and led McDavid to his ridiculous totals. The difference between great teams and average teams might only be how ready and able they are to capitalize on good luck when they have it.
Florida seems to be really, really good in that department. Regardless of how many people stay doubters and haters. They don’t seem to have any issue proving people wrong. Good for them.