Late Summer Reverse Standings Poll - 29th

[Bingo]

Clearly I'm not running 30 rounds of this ... just looking to establish either a bottom five, or as far as we need to go to see where Calgary comes in.

1. Buffalo 48% - McDavid

[Party Elephant]

I'm offended that Edmonton is still on the board

[Journey17]

Love for it to be Calgary but really doubt we'd get that lucky. Hanifin is ours instead.

[bubbsy]

gotta go with ottawa.

i feel their goaltending is overrated, their high end forwards aren't really high end, and their d right about average. Karlsson is the only game breaker on the team, but his numbers will drop with less offensive talent aroundr him to open lanes for him to sneak in from the point.

throw in the year long bobby ryan contract year rumours, if i were the sens i'd ride this out year out and be happy with the lottery pick.

[Bingo]

Sticking with Arizona, but I'm in a bind because I didn't have Buffalo last. I have Arizona then Calgary.

[Textcritic]

The Oilers have been the worst team in the NHL for the last five years. They were an embarrassing distance from the next worst team in their conference, and have improved only marginally if they have improved at all. They employ the worst coach in the NHL. They have arguably the worst collection of defensemen in the NHL. They are one of the three or four most shallow teams in the entire league down the middle. Their goaltending consists of a tandem of two career backups, each of whom has never played more than 20 games in a single season.

[Lanny_McDonald]

How is Ottawa getting votes over us here?

Ottawa's centers: Turris, Legwand, Zibanejad, Smith
Calgary's centers: Stajan, Backlund, Monahan, Bouma

Ottawa's RW: Ryan, Chaisson, Neil, Stone
Calgary's RW: Hudler, Colborne, Jones, McGrattan

Ottawa's LW: Michalek, MacArthur, Greening, Hoffman
Calgary's LW: Glencross, Gaudreau, Raymond, Bollig

Ottawa's G: Anderson, Lehner
Calgary's G: Hiller, Ramo

Ottawa's blue line: Karlsson, Phillips, Cecil, Methot, Cowan, Wiercioch
Calgary's blue line: Giordano, Brodie, Russell, Smid, Wideman, Engelland

The only position where we have an edge is on LW. We are somewhat competitive on the blue line and only marginally behind in goal. We get crushed in the middle and on the right side. I can't see Ottawa finishing bottom five in the league.

[Flash Walken]

Originally Posted by Textcritic

The Oilers have been the worst team in the NHL for the last five years. They were an embarrassing distance from the next worst team in their conference, and have improved only marginally if they have improved at all. They employ the worst coach in the NHL. They have arguably the worst collection of defensemen in the NHL. They are one of the three or four most shallow teams in the entire league down the middle. Their goaltending consists of a tandem of two career backups, each of whom has never played more than 20 games in a single season.

And yet, with all that, I don't know if Calgary fares much better over the course of a season.

Going to be difficult replicating the success they had last season in terms of 1-goal games.

Losing Stempniak and Cammalleri is going to hurt. Bollig could be a top 6 player for Calgary next season.

It's going to be difficult to out-suck the flames next year.

[Five-hole]

Carolina is going to be awful.

[Cali Panthers Fan]

Edmonton until they're off the board. They are still really, really awful, and no indication of being much better this year.

[gilligans_off]

I voted Nashville. I just have a feeling they're gonna suck.

[Cali Panthers Fan]

Originally Posted by New Era

How is Ottawa getting votes over us here?

Ottawa's centers: Turris, Legwand, Zibanejad, Smith
Calgary's centers: Stajan, Backlund, Monahan, Bouma

Ottawa's RW: Ryan, Chaisson, Neil, Stone
Calgary's RW: Hudler, Colborne, Jones, McGrattan

Ottawa's LW: Michalek, MacArthur, Greening, Hoffman
Calgary's LW: Glencross, Gaudreau, Raymond, Bollig

Ottawa's G: Anderson, Lehner
Calgary's G: Hiller, Ramo

Ottawa's blue line: Karlsson, Phillips, Cecil, Methot, Cowan, Wiercioch
Calgary's blue line: Giordano, Brodie, Russell, Smid, Wideman, Engelland

The only position where we have an edge is on LW. We are somewhat competitive on the blue line and only marginally behind in goal. We get crushed in the middle and on the right side. I can't see Ottawa finishing bottom five in the league.

I wholeheartedly agree. Their centers are still better than ours. Their goaltenders are definitely better than ours. Their defense is a little suspect, but still better than ours. Their RWers are definitely better than ours, Bobby Ryan's overrating aside. Chiasson is very underrated and will slide into the 2nd line spot without much trouble. Their LWers are still better than ours, especially if Michalek can find his scoring touch again. They lost Spezza and some others, but this has been a younger building team for awhile now and will still be competitive. Won't finish bottom 5 for sure this year, but also probably won't make the playoffs.

[bubbsy]

Originally Posted by New Era

How is Ottawa getting votes over us here?

Ottawa's centers: Turris, Legwand, Zibanejad, Smith
Calgary's centers: Stajan, Backlund, Monahan, Bouma

Ottawa's RW: Ryan, Chaisson, Neil, Stone
Calgary's RW: Hudler, Colborne, Jones, McGrattan

Ottawa's LW: Michalek, MacArthur, Greening, Hoffman
Calgary's LW: Glencross, Gaudreau, Raymond, Bollig

Ottawa's G: Anderson, Lehner
Calgary's G: Hiller, Ramo

Ottawa's blue line: Karlsson, Phillips, Cecil, Methot, Cowan, Wiercioch
Calgary's blue line: Giordano, Brodie, Russell, Smid, Wideman, Engelland

The only position where we have an edge is on LW. We are somewhat competitive on the blue line and only marginally behind in goal. We get crushed in the middle and on the right side. I can't see Ottawa finishing bottom five in the league.

the senators aren't all that much better at C than the flames. In fact, i'd say they are worse. they were the 9th worst team in the league and lost their best center and player in spezza. Sure they brought in legwand but that's going from a ~70 point center to a ~45 point.

Their D is also questionably better, given the youth they will be relying on. Heck the flames had a better goals against than the sens last season.

with ryan on the way out and little to no influx of talent at the nhl level, i strongly feel a fall from 9th worst could be drastic.

[Cali Panthers Fan]

Originally Posted by Flash Walken

And yet, with all that, I don't know if Calgary fares much better over the course of a season.

Going to be difficult replicating the success they had last season in terms of 1-goal games.

Losing Stempniak and Cammalleri is going to hurt. Bollig could be a top 6 player for Calgary next season.

It's going to be difficult to out-suck the flames next year.

I don't necessarily agree. Stempniak added almost no offense last year for his ice time, and while a dependable 2-way player, was not a difference maker at all and was more of a placeholder for a young forward to step in this year. Cammalleri was really inconsistent in terms of effort last year, and while he's a definite threat to score at all times, he would disappear for many games at a time leaving the team stranded for offense, and it's not like he was known for his checking ability. He did so much after the trade deadline to improve on what was going to be a poor year for him that the optics are skewed. I honestly think we will get more production from Baertschi or Gaudreau this year.

We have a weak group of NHL level centers, yet we still outclass Edmonton's group by a wide margin, even if Nugent-Hopkins finds his game again.

In short, Edmonton is no good.

[Parallex]

Sigh... Calgary.

Having said that the only sure thing (if such exists) for me was the Sabres being dead last. Looking at the standings from last year I think the teams that finished close to the Flames last year all made significant improvements and the West is just so good right now.

[Imported_Aussie]

I'm going to keep voting Winnipeg. Cannot add new players to that team, Guys like Kane want out, goaltending is abysmal, and their division is stacked. I can see that team imploding in a big way this year. Calgary will finish low, but I see Winnipeg, Buffalo, Arizona and Edmonton below, possibly even Carolina. There is still some real suckage out there, especially with the 2015 draft having two generational talents

[the2bears]

Originally Posted by Party Elephant

I'm offended that Edmonton is still on the board

They can't even win this. Pathetic.

[ForeverFlameFan]

Went with Carolina. They made absolutely no acquisitions and just aren't a good team. The only two players that are playing decent are Skinner and Semin.

[bubbsy]

Originally Posted by ForeverFlameFan

Went with Carolina. They made absolutely no acquisitions and just aren't a good team. The only two players that are playing decent are Skinner and Semin.

when they won the cup around ward/staal, as young as they were, you'd have thought they would be a strong team for a decade.

Staal doesn't even land in the top20 centers in the league any more, yet has the 4th highest cap hit of any center in the NHL. used to root for the guy, but i'm done.

[Browndog71]

As much as I think some of the teams in the east are Garbage - Ott, Car, Fla - the conference is just much weaker and they should be able to win a few more games against some of the higher ranked teams with more frequency than us.

We only have the Oilers and arguably the Canucks to routinely butt hurt. But these are the funnest games to win in my opinion.

Sadly, still think Flames won't duplicate last years impressive efforts and results.

Picked Calgary