Battle of the bottom: Who has the hardest schedule down the stretch?

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by Tinordi

If Nashville was tanking they wouldn't be playing Rinne who's playing out of his mind.

Well playing your backup down the stretch makes it just a little too obvious no? It's no coincidence that Nashville and Carolina are repeating last year's late season slumps. What I have learned over the past couple of seasons is that you have teams like the Flames that are amongst the bottom feeders all season being consistently not good enough and you have teams like the Hurricanes and Predators that are competitive and in the playoff mix for the first half of the season and when it becomes apparent they will miss the playoffs their play drops drastically down the stretch. No surprise they weren't even in the conversation for top 5 pick in January but all of a sudden it's a possibility for both teams.

Not sure why people are adamant that tanking doesn't exist when it's even been admitted in the NBA. It's just part of business in professional sports with the heavy weight placed on the significance of drafting the best young players in the sport. It's the sole reason the draft lottery exists in the first place so refuting it is akin to being in denial that it doesn't happen.

[Yoho]

Originally Posted by Split98

I have a lot of respect for the Blackhawks

Now you do, I'm not sure if they asked you in 2006 before they drafted Toews if your answer would be the same.

[theTrumanShow]

Originally Posted by TheDebaser

And the Islanders don't even have Tavares or Vanek anymore.

Or grabner

[saillias]

Originally Posted by The Original FFIV

Obvious tank job, shame on Poile, lost all respect.

Go easy on the Preds, they're just letting Jesus take the wheel.

[SuperMatt18]

A team like Nashville is on that overachieves most of the time though, and relies on hard work to succeed.

Not that surprising to see a team like that drop at the end of the year once they are out of the race, hard to play that grinding style when you know you are out of it.

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by SuperMatt18

A team like Nashville is on that overachieves most of the time though, and relies on hard work to succeed.

Not that surprising to see a team like that drop at the end of the year once they are out of the race, hard to play that grinding style when you know you are out of it.

You mean that same hard work style the Flames have continued to play since being out of it since essentially December? So you are saying Trotz accepts nothing less than 100% from his players except after the deadline when they can stop working? No need to make excuses for the obvious.

[Split98]

Originally Posted by Yoho

Now you do, I'm not sure if they asked you in 2006 before they drafted Toews if your answer would be the same.

Now, yes. But I'm responding to the idea that the Avs success will forever be tainted by their success with high draft players.

[gvitaly]

I have calculated calgary's draft position using weighted odds(taking the lottery into account as well), hopefully this gives us a bit more perspective.
Draft Pos_____Chance
1_____________9.8%
2_____________1.4%
3_____________9.0%
4_____________21.5%
5_____________33.8%
6_____________16.5%
7_____________5.0%
8_____________1.9%
9_____________0.8%
10+___________0.4%

So there you have it.

[jg13]

March 15th Conversation..

Originally Posted by jg13

i expect carolina to be a lot worse down the stretch than they have been all season.

Originally Posted by strombad

Why is that? I don't see anything remarkably different about their game now than during the season.

They're riding a 2 game winning streak, Nashville is on a 3 game winning streak.

IMO the Flames would have to go 11-4 or Carolina/Nashville would have to go 3-12 (like kyuss said) to make either dropping below us realistic. I just don't see it.

Originally Posted by jg13

if the flames go 9-6 and carolina goes 6-10 we're tied.

could very well happen but yeah still a long shot..

Now..

If the Hurricanes go 4-6-0 and the flames go 6-4-0 we're tied.

We could still very well finish infront of these guys. how terrifying