Are the Flames Stanley Cup Contenders?

[GullFoss]

Favorites:
Tampa
Toronto
Nashville
Winnipeg
Columbus

Contenders
Colorado
Boston
Washington
Calgary
Carolina
Pittsburgh
San jose

[Macindoc]

Originally Posted by GullFoss

Favorites:
Tampa
Toronto
Nashville
Winnipeg
Columbus

Contenders
Colorado
Boston
Washington
Calgary
Carolina
Pittsburgh
San jose

You have Columbus as a favourite?

[GioforPM]

I think Buffalo is at least in the second grouping.

[Macindoc]

And you could argue for Colorado to be in the first.

[カナダ人です]

Originally Posted by GullFoss

Favorites:
Tampa
Toronto
Nashville
Winnipeg
Columbus

Contenders
Colorado
Boston
Washington
Calgary
Carolina
Pittsburgh
San jose

So what you're saying is, any team that makes the playoffs could win the Stanley Cup?

[btimbit]

I'd agree with maybe them being in that second group of teams with the likes of Boston, Colorado, Colombus. Not a favourite by any means but a WCF appearance isn't a stretch

[GullFoss]

Originally Posted by Macindoc

You have Columbus as a favourite?

I do. Very underrated defense group (arguably top 5 in the league), a top 10 game breaker, the best goalie in the world and a very strong 1,3, 4 forward lines. The only real knock on the team is that they're missing a second high quality centre to compliment dubois.

All in all that's a real good recipe to take a trip to the finals. If Bob gets hot - he's almost unstoppable with that defensive group in front of him. And then add to that a first line that can break open games and a third and fourth line that can provide depth scoring.

[GordonBlue]

Originally Posted by keenan87

I think this year it would be nice to see them comfortably make the playoffs and win 1-2 rounds. In the off-season, it would be nice if they can a goalie (dont fully trust Rittich yet) and another top 6/9 player.

Sign one of Bobrovsky, Varlamov, or Talbot

Sign one of Eberle or Hayes

Trade Frolik and Stone for picks

2019-2020
Gaudreau-Lindholm-Neal
Tkachuk-Monahan-Eberle/Hayes
Bennett-Backlund-Ryan
Dube-Jankowski-Mangiapane

Brodie-Giordano
Hanifin-Valimaki
Andersson-Hamonic
Kylington

Talbot/Bob/Varlamov
Rittich

...Then if Neal doesn't do well, hope he gets picked up by Seattle

Lol. Talbot. You're better off with what you have.
And Eberle? You want a one dimensional defensively weak winger who disappear s in crunch time?

[Enoch Root]

Originally Posted by GullFoss

I do. Very underrated defense group (arguably top 5 in the league), a top 10 game breaker, the best goalie in the world and a very strong 1,3, 4 forward lines. The only real knock on the team is that they're missing a second high quality centre to compliment dubois.

All in all that's a real good recipe to take a trip to the finals. If Bob gets hot - he's almost unstoppable with that defensive group in front of him. And then add to that a first line that can break open games and a third and fourth line that can provide depth scoring.

I agree. I think Columbus is the sleeper of the Eastern conference

[Bingo]

Teams in the standings vs their underlying numbers ...

Buffalo, Washington and Toronto as pretenders?

Philly, Jersey, Pittsburgh and Carolina as ripped off?

Flames who they are.

Team	Rk	Stats	Diff
Philadelphia Flyers	27	7	20
New Jersey Devils	29	10	19
Pittsburgh Penguins	26	9	17
Carolina Hurricanes	20	4	16
San Jose Sharks	17	2	15
Los Angeles Kings	31	17	14
Vegas Golden Knights	14	1	13
Florida Panthers	25	12	13
Minnesota Wild	13	5	8
Montreal Canadiens	16	8	8
St Louis Blues	30	22	8
Chicago Blackhawks	28	21	7
Arizona Coyotes	23	20	3
Calgary Flames	7	6	1
Edmonton Oilers	18	19	-1
Tampa Bay Lightning	1	3	-2
Boston Bruins	10	13	-3
Winnipeg Jets	9	14	-5
New York Rangers	19	25	-6
Detroit Red Wings	21	27	-6
Vancouver Canucks	24	30	-6
Columbus Blue Jackets	8	15	-7
Ottawa Senators	22	29	-7
Nashville Predators	3	11	-8
Colorado Avalanche	5	16	-11
Dallas Stars	11	23	-12
New York Islanders	15	28	-13
Toronto Maple Leafs	2	18	-16
Washington Capitals	6	24	-18
Anaheim Ducks	12	31	-19
Buffalo Sabres	4	26	-22

[DeluxeMoustache]

^ which numbers are used for ‘stats’?

[Enoch Root]

Stats leaders:

1) Vegas
2) San Jose
3) Tampa (sure)
4) Carolina
5) Minnesota
6) Calgary
7) Philadelphia
8) Montreal
9) Pittsburgh
10) New Jersey

Hard to buy what that is selling

[Bingo]

Originally Posted by Enoch Root

Stats leaders:

1) Vegas
2) San Jose
3) Tampa (sure)
4) Carolina
5) Minnesota
6) Calgary
7) Philadelphia
8) Montreal
9) Pittsburgh
10) New Jersey

Hard to buy what that is selling

You think?

Vegas, SJ, Tampa, Carolina, Minny, Pittsburgh are known to be good two way teams. Montreal got off to a good start, Philly has goaltending woes but playing better than their record dictates.

I do a combined stats ranking ... average of the "for" categories with the average for the "vs" categories.

Gets away from focusing too much on say just CF% and not enough on scoring chances etc.

[Enoch Root]

Originally Posted by Bingo

You think?

Vegas, SJ, Tampa, Carolina, Minny, Pittsburgh are known to be good two way teams. Montreal got off to a good start, Philly has goaltending woes but playing better than their record dictates.

I do a combined stats ranking ... average of the "for" categories with the average for the "vs" categories.

Gets away from focusing too much on say just CF% and not enough on scoring chances etc.

Yes I think.

How can you look at that list and conclude that the stats you are considering is doing a good job of representing who the best teams are?

[Bingo]

Las Vegas was a cup finalist. SJ and Tampa preseason favourites. Penguins have two recent cups. Carolina in everyone’s list for pushing the play. Calgary clearly playing well.

Thats 6 of 10

.


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[Enoch Root]

you're counting Carolina, who are stats darlings but aren't very good. That's a circular argument.

Vegas hasn't been one of the best teams in the league this year (yet). Neither have the Pens. And SJ has been maybe in the 10-15 range, but not elite (ranked 2nd).

I think most people would agree that the best teams this year (so far) have been:

NAS
TB
TOR
COL
WAS
WPG
then maybe
BUF
CAL
MIN
BOS

Two of the top 3, and 5 of the top 6 missing.

[Bingo]

Not sure I agree. Toronto has leaky defence an amazing goaltending so they be up a list of the standings but not necessarily up the list and how they’re playing

Vegas almost the complete opposite where they were playing well but we’re not getting the goaltending

Nashville and Winnipeg or both teams that are doing not quite as well as expected but are still playing well so there are non-issues in terms of differentials

The whole point of having a statistics ranking versus the standings ranking isn’t that they should mirror each other 100%. It’s about pointing out teams that seem to have numbers that suggest they are playing either better or worse than they should


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[Bingo]

Vancouver and the Islanders with the two teams early if that had good records but we’re playing pretty putrid. Buffaloes joined that list of late. the oilers certainly are getting better results than they should of late


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[Enoch Root]

Of course they shouldn't agree 100%.

But if you looking at the standings as one suggestive list, and the stats as another, the stats list is not close to doing as good of a job of suggesting which have been the best teams this year.

And say what you want about Toronto and Nashville, but you aren't going to get much support if you try to claim they haven't been among the top 5 teams so far this year.

Vegas has been good since Calgary blew them out, but they weren't playing very well before that. You're talking your position here, IMO.

[GioforPM]

Originally Posted by Enoch Root

Vegas has been good since Calgary blew them out, but they weren't playing very well before that. You're talking your position here, IMO.

They sure crapped the bed last night. They should be ashamed of themselves.