[devo22]

it's pretty safe to say that my season didn't get off to the start that I wanted. I was pretty aggressive last offseason after taking over the team, moving out a plethora of draft picks and semi-decent prospects in order to ice a team that was somewhat competitive. I knew that playoffs would be a tough task for this group, but we struggled a lot more than I anticipated.

so I looked for a trade or two and had a ton of PM exchange. At one point, I thought I'd end up moving all of Hampus Lindholm, Brett Pesce, Gustav Nyquist, Yanni Gourde and Carl Soderberg. But all of those talks ultimately fell through for a reason or another - either myself or the other GM pulled the plug on a deal, and so I ended up staying put with a group that went 13-20-3 in their first 36 games. Then came the next 18:

vs TB 5-2 W
vs MIN 6-3 W
vs BUF 3-1 W
vs CAR 4-2 W
vs COL 5-3 W
vs WSH 3-1 W
vs PIT 4-2 W
vs NYI 3-2 W (OT)
vs TB 5-3 W
vs SJ 3-2 L
vs SJ 5-3 W
vs TOR 3-1 W
vs PHX 4-2 W
vs CAR 1-2 L
vs CBJ 4-1 W
vs ANA 5-3 W
vs ANA 2-3 OTL
vs DET 4-3 W (OT)

a 15-2-1 run, fueled by a 9 game winning streak, has catapulted this team into playoff contention, and I have absolutely no idea why. I changed nothing. The sim simply decided this was a winning team all of a sudden. The only two regulation losses were one goal games, in one of which we outshot opposition 46-28. James Reimer has been absolute fire for me (2.29 GAA and .928% svs) and our blueline has been excellent (Lindholm, Pesce and Scandella have a combined 30 goals and 96 points).

As of now, we sit in a playoff spot (60 points, 8th in East). I've probably angered the sim by creating this thread and I fully expect to fall back on Earth soon, but this has been a really fun ride.