Speculation: 6points in 5games

[Caniackid]

i feel like 6 points in 5 games wont give us **** in this division, honestly

NJ is currently on a 140 point pace so you might be right.

 

[Navin R Slavin]

I thought optimism was in. 96 won't get us in? Really?

 

[MinJaBen]

i feel like 6 points in 5 games wont give us **** in this division, honestly

Yeah, the metro might be the place where a 96 point season doesn't get you in this year.

 

[JCLA]

Eh, we might not get 1-3 seed but 96 would still probably get us a wild card.

 

[MinJaBen]

Eh, we might not get 1-3 seed but 96 would still probably get us a wild card.

Not if 96 puts in 6th in the Metro and the wild cards in the east go to the 4th and 5th place metro teams. It wouldn't surprise me at all if there were six teams in the Metro this year with 96+ points. CBJ, Pitt, Caps, Flyers, Devils and the Canes all look really good right now.

 

[Primetime8]

i feel like 6 points in 5 games wont give us **** in this division, honestly

The teams in the Metro play each other so much throughout the season that 96 will be a wildcard spot. I just think getting to 96 points in this division will be the extremely hard part.

 

[The Faulker 27]

I'm more excited about this team than I have been in a long time, but the Metro is gonna be a gauntlet. NJ might drop off, and it's still very early, but they could be the surprise-we-made-the-playoffs flavor of this season. If they keep up the pace I just don't see how we control our destiny with Pittsburgh and Columbus being virtual locks even at this point. It'll be a fun ride with this group either way.

As Minja pointed out, it'be great if this was a season the Metro sent 5 teams to the post season and the Canes were one of them.

 

[Navin R Slavin]

Y'all do realize we're 3 points out of second with two games in hand, right?

 

[Navin R Slavin]

And also, that it's October 20th?

 

[MinJaBen]

Y'all do realize we're 3 points out of second with two games in hand, right?

After last season, I'll count games in hand when they are points in hand.

 

[RodTheBawd]

Exactly Hank. We're pretty deep into the season at this point. NJD vs. Vegas for the Cup, Edmonton drafting #1 overall.

 

[The Faulker 27]

Y'all do realize we're 3 points out of second with two games in hand, right?

Yes but Canes.

 

[JCLA]

Not if 96 puts in 6th in the Metro and the wild cards in the east go to the 4th and 5th place metro teams. It wouldn't surprise me at all if there were six teams in the Metro this year with 96+ points. CBJ, Pitt, Caps, Flyers, Devils and the Canes all look really good right now.

Like I said, I don't see that happening.

 

[tarheelhockey]

We'll make it if we deserve to. If we **** around and blow games we should have won on a regular basis, then it doesn't matter if we miss by 1 or 5 or 10... we deserved to miss. If we play like we did in Calgary on a regular basis, we have nothing to worry about.

And in particular, I don't think it does much to stress about the division. If we have a winning record in the division, chances are we're going to shred the rest of the league and make it in. If we have a losing record in the division, why would we expect to make the playoffs?

Play well. Win games.

 

[Svechhammer]

So how quickly do the divisions get switched up if a 95 point NYR gets left out of the playoffs while Columbus and Carolina are in, and the 2nd best team in the Atlantic finishes with 94?

 

[vorbis]

I agree with people saying the meatgrinder that is the Metro will probably deflate the upper 90's point aspirations for the wild card teams. somebody's getting 1 point at most in every single intra-Metro game. it's not something that will be noticeable in October, but come February things will start to look like a normal division.

 

[CandyCanes]

i feel like 6 points in 5 games wont give us **** in this division, honestly

That'd give us 98 points which I feel would be good enough.

 

[Navin R Slavin]

Well, threadstarter equated 6 in 5 to 96 points plus two "bonus games", but you're right: 1.2*82=98.4.

 

[geehaad]

i feel like 6 points in 5 games wont give us **** in this division, honestly

My thought about the target was that it was keeping a few big negatives about the series of games in mind: road games to start the season, the road games being on the west coast, and the fact that CAR starts so poorly every season. Sort of a "baby steps" target. If we were talking about 5 home games, then hell yeah, 6 points isn't good enough.

 

[Anton Dubinchuk]

So I lazily looked up some stats.

Since the last time the Canes made the playoffs, this is their best record through 5 games. Only twice did they even hit 6 points through 5 games (2010-2011 started 3-2-0, 2013-2014 started 2-1-2).

So as silly as it seems to be patting the team on the back for being above the pace this early into the season, this is uncharted territory for this team.

 

[A Star is Burns]

I almost feel like the division is getting overrated currently, because if you look at the actual standings, it's not nearly as bad as people make it out to be. One overachieving team in New Jersey, three underachievers thus far in NYR, NYI, and Wsh, Philly about where you'd expect on the lower end of the playoff race at their best, and Columbus and Pitt doing well as you'd expect. I'm not sure what all the fuss is about at this point.

Obviously if the three underachievers turn it around, and Jersey stays amazing (in my mind, they won't) then it'll live up to it. But it hasn't yet.

 

[Anton Dubinchuk]

While the Rangers aren't nearly this bad in real life, we know better than anyone that this hole they've dug themselves so far is anything but negligible. It's very possible that they are already out.

 

[JCLA]

While the Rangers aren't nearly this bad in real life, we know better than anyone that this hole they've dug themselves so far is anything but negligible. It's very possible that they are already out.

Yep, the first away trip last year sealed our fate.

 

[Roboturner913]

Yep, the first away trip last year sealed our fate.

I don't know about that....January was pretty rough. IIRC there were 5 losses in a row, then back-to-back wins, then 5 more losses in a row, then a win, then like 4 more losses in a row. The early stretch put them behind the 8 ball for sure, but you're not going to make the playoffs losing 14 out of 18-19 games in Jan-early Feb.

 

[JCLA]

I don't know about that....January was pretty rough. IIRC there were 5 losses in a row, then back-to-back wins, then 5 more losses in a row, then a win, then like 4 more losses in a row. The early stretch put them behind the 8 ball for sure, but you're not going to make the playoffs losing 14 out of 18-19 games in Jan-early Feb.

We spent half the season climbing out of a hole because of that opening away trip and then got within one point of the playoffs only to stumble again. If we don't suck it up that first road trip with two games that should've been won we would've been in a better position to handle that january.

but january didn't help either.

edit: really the first 13 games are what did it, not the away trip. We won 3 games in our first 13.