Are the pens going to the playoffs?

[Turin]

I actually don't think you watch hockey. Is no team allowed to be good except the Pens? Are you one of those fans?

Philly is a roller coaster and has been. They are an inconsistent team and everyone who actually watches hockey has said that all year. But when they are on, they are on. This is a tournament at the end of the day. They have shown they can be as good as any team when hot and as bad as any team when cold. The definition of inconsistent.

Let's talk about NJ. Hall is playing out of his mind. Young/fast dangerous team. Does that mean they are winning the Cup? Nope. They could go on a historic run, but there is no shame in calling out their positives. It won't make you lesser of a Pens fan. Trust me.

You don’t need to pontificate to me the merits of not being a homer. Philly runs hot and cold because their top talent is very good and every other element is bad, they might win a round. Right now Washington is being talked up because they’ve beaten the worst defensive team in hockey twice now. I get not wanting to appear to be a homer, but you might as well save that for when your rivals are actually good, like Washington last year.

And for the record, the favourites to me are Nashville and Boston, with Pittsburgh and Tampa right there and Winnipeg and Vegas slightly below them. Wash or Toronto could make noise in the East but it’d be stunner to see either team win the Cup. For as much as people insist that anything can happen in the playoffs, the Cinderella team never wins.

 

[ColePens]

You don’t need to pontificate to me the merits of not being a homer. Philly runs hot and cold because their top talent is very good and every other element is bad, they might win a round. Right now Washington is being talked up because they’ve beaten the worst defensive team in hockey twice now. I get not wanting to appear to be a homer, but you might as well save that for when your rivals are actually good, like Washington last year.

And for the record, the favourites to me are Nashville and Boston, with Pittsburgh and Tampa right there and Winnipeg and Vegas slightly below them. Wash or Toronto could make noise in the East but it’d be stunner to see either team win the Cup. For as much as people insist that anything can happen in the playoffs, the Cinderella team never wins.

Oh boy.. someone listens to Madden and loves when Benz says pontificate. Wonderful. If complimenting other teams is going to make you feel inferior because you are a Pens fan, exit stage left. I think there is a ton of parity in the league and it makes for a great run to the playoffs. Sitting there and talking about Nashville/Boston is the obvious take. It's fair to make assessments on every team in the playoffs.

 

[Nadal On Clay]

Honestly, I would rather play any of Washington, Philly, Columbus or New Jersey before playing any of the top 3 in the Atlantic. The only problem with playing the metro teams is that we may lose some guys to injuries for the next rounds...

 

[Turin]

Oh boy.. someone listens to Madden and loves when Benz says pontificate. Wonderful. If complimenting other teams is going to make you feel inferior because you are a Pens fan, exit stage left. I think there is a ton of parity in the league and it makes for a great run to the playoffs. Sitting there and talking about Nashville/Boston is the obvious take. It's fair to make assessments on every team in the playoffs.

You gonna keep going on about that, despite having nothing to back it up? Everybody and their dog recognizes the weaknesses of the teams we are talking about. As for Madden and Benz, I’ve never listened to either in my life. I’m not from Pittsburgh. Your entire post is a giant man made out of straw. Wow a Madden disciple, he’ll be easy to take down! I didn’t know Kathy Newman posted on HFBoards

Like, you can’t seem to comprehend that saying that these teams have issues isn’t born out of a hatred of said team. I don’t even dislike the Flyers or Capitals on principle, I even almost cheered for Philly in 2010. I certainly don’t dislike these teams more than Boston. It’s funny to me watching their fans crap all over their teams and calling for coaching changes while some posters in Pittsburgh, mainly you to be fair, talk them up and make things up about them in order to do so. I’d guesss it’s to appear objective at all costs, and that’s fine. I don’t care about that though. For all the parity there is said to be the NHL we sure see a lot of the same teams year after year.

 

[JimmyTwoTimes]

Honestly, I would rather play any of Washington, Philly, Columbus or New Jersey before playing any of the top 3 in the Atlantic. The only problem with playing the metro teams is that we may lose some guys to injuries for the next rounds...

Exactly, this format actually favors us for once.

 

[Jaded-Fan]

As an aside to the McCurdy early early cup chance tweet that I linked, he certainly always has marched to his own drummer with his models, although as I said he seems to be among the best in the models actually playing out, and gets better year by year.

One of the bigger surprises to me was having TB's chances second tier, with a dozen teams with as good or better chances than them. Eight in fact with a better chance at the cup going into the playoffs.

 

[NMK11]

As an aside to the McCurdy early early cup chance tweet that I linked, he certainly always has marched to his own drummer with his models, although as I said he seems to be among the best in the models actually playing out, and gets better year by year.

One of the bigger surprises to me was having TB's chances second tier, with a dozen teams with as good or better chances than them. Eight in fact with a better chance at the cup going into the playoffs.

Wait, so he has SJ as the favorite for the West and the Pens and Caps as having the best chance for the Cup? Odd prediction, but I did like watching his models the last two years.

 

[Jaded-Fan]

Wait, so he has SJ as the favorite for the West and the Pens and Caps as having the best chance for the Cup? Odd prediction, but I did like watching his models the last two years.

You can simply go with CF% as a predictor and over the years it has been a decent way to predict who might have some succss in the playoffs. McCurdy came into this from a matheatics background and each year tweaks has algorithms and they have become better and better. Obviously he puts a lot more into them than simple CF%.

It is no guarantee of course, but he did as an example have the Pens rated much higher in his models last year, almost throughout the playoffs, than I would have.

 

[Rakell67]

WSH 95 PTS 4H/3A 41 ROW
PIT 90 PTS 4H/3A 40 ROW
CLB 89 PTS 2H/4A 36 ROW
PHI 88 PTS 3H/4A 36 ROW
NJD 86 PTS 5H/2A 34 ROW
FLA 83 PTS 4H/5A 35 ROW

3/24 Games:
WSH 6 MON 4
ARI 2 FLA 4
TBL 1 NJD 2
STL 2 CLB 1

3/25 Games:
PHI @ PIT

3/26 Games:
FLA @ NYI
WSH @ NYR

 

[Rakell67]

xxx____2016___2017___2018
OCT___7-4-0___6-2-1___7-5-1
NOV___6-4-2___7-5-2___6-5-2
DEC___5-7-2___12-1-2___6-8-0
JAN___6-2-3___6-5-0___9-3-0
FEB___8-4-1___7-2-3___8-3-1
MAR__12-4-0___9-4-3___6-3-1
APR___4-1-0___3-2-0
TOT_48-26-8__50-21-11__42-27-5

 

[ColePens]

xxx____2016___2017___2018
OCT___7-4-0___6-2-1___7-5-1
NOV___6-4-2___7-5-2___6-5-2
DEC___5-7-2___12-1-2___6-8-0
JAN___6-2-3___6-5-0___9-3-0
FEB___8-4-1___7-2-3___8-3-1
MAR__12-4-0___9-4-3___5-2-1
APR___4-1-0___3-2-0
TOT_48-26-8__50-21-11__41-26-5

It's crazy to look at these month to month numbers. Average to bad to instantly good? Insane how these bad starts never bit us in the ass.

 

[WDYT]

Pens are pretty locked in their path at this point. In the first round, they likely play one of Philly, NJ, Columbus, or Florida (and almost certainly not Washington). In the second round, they likely would play one of those teams, in addition to Washington. The only likely difference is if they'd have home ice vs Washington or not. Third round, they would likely play one of Tampa, Boston, and Toronto without home ice. Where all of this would fall is going to end up being pretty random whether they win the division or not.

Not too worried about where the standings fall at this point. Just that they go into the playoffs as healthy as possible and that they have their lines clicking.

 

[ColePens]

Pens are pretty locked in their path at this point. In the first round, they likely play one of Philly, NJ, Columbus, or Florida (and almost certainly not Washington). In the second round, they likely would play one of those teams, in addition to Washington. The only likely difference is if they'd have home ice vs Washington or not. Third round, they would likely play one of Tampa, Boston, and Toronto without home ice. Where all of this would fall is going to end up being pretty random whether they win the division or not.

Not too worried about where the standings fall at this point. Just that they go into the playoffs as healthy as possible and that they have their lines clicking.

Definitely agree. Gotta get L3 and L4 some chemistry. Something other than HGH clicking.

 

[Tom Hanks]

xxx____2016___2017___2018
OCT___7-4-0___6-2-1___7-5-1
NOV___6-4-2___7-5-2___6-5-2
DEC___5-7-2___12-1-2___6-8-0
JAN___6-2-3___6-5-0___9-3-0
FEB___8-4-1___7-2-3___8-3-1
MAR__12-4-0___9-4-3___5-2-1
APR___4-1-0___3-2-0
TOT_48-26-8__50-21-11__41-26-5

Pretty close results to the 2016 run. I doubt it will end that way. This season seems more of a focus to get to the playoffs healthy and fresh enough for another gruelling cup run. Home ice in the first round at least would be nice though.

 

[Peat]

Wait, so he has SJ as the favorite for the West and the Pens and Caps as having the best chance for the Cup? Odd prediction, but I did like watching his models the last two years.

I was going to speculate that maybe he puts a lot of stock on goaltenders being well rested as all three teams have relatively lightly used goaltenders, but it would be weird to put Toronto highest in the Atlantic when Rask hasn't played all that much and Andersen's played the third most.

 

[Andy99]

Definitely agree. Gotta get L3 and L4 some chemistry. Something other than HGH clicking.

Gotta figure out what works on Sid’s RW too...I’m not sure we’ve found it....

 

[JimmyTwoTimes]

Gotta figure out what works on Sid’s RW too...I’m not sure we’ve found it....

Should be ZAR.

Or Sprong(yeah i know).

 

[Tom Hanks]

Should be ZAR.

Or Sprong(yeah i know).

I think they’ll start with Simon. He looked alright with Jake and Sid briefly.

To keep his minutes down (and hopefully quality up) he might switch with Sheary on L4. That way they could keep their minutes lower. Sheary in the past has been better when his minutes are capped too.

If ZAR could be RW that might solve it but not sure he can. The coaches will have a better idea

 

[JimmyTwoTimes]

I think they’ll start with Simon. He looked alright with Jake and Sid briefly.

To keep his minutes down (and hopefully quality up) he might switch with Sheary on L4. That way they could keep their minutes lower. Sheary in the past has been better when his minutes are capped too.

If ZAR could be RW that might solve it but not sure he can. The coaches will have a better idea

Yeah we are going to see some.changes if we go on a long run again anyways. We ended up with Scott Wilson on Malkins line ...hornqvist and hagelin on the 4th by the time we won the cup.

 

[Tom Hanks]

Yeah we are going to see some.changes if we go on a long run again anyways. We ended up with Scott Wilson on Malkins line ...hornqvist and hagelin on the 4th by the time we won the cup.

Well we hope Hornqvist (2 series) and Hagelin (whole playoffs) aren’t hurt or playing hurt.

Wilson was capable to fill in the top 6 for a short time and we ZAR, Simon, Sheary, Rust, Sprong that can do that do that to varying degrees too.

Our winger depth is still really good. We might not be able to ice a ‘perfect’ line up but neither will any else and we weren’t close to ‘perfect’ on paper last year. We just got it done.

 

[JimmyTwoTimes]

Well we hope Hornqvist (2 series) and Hagelin (whole playoffs) aren’t hurt or playing hurt.

Wilson was capable to fill in the top 6 for a short time and we ZAR, Simon, Sheary, Rust, Sprong that can do that do that to varying degrees too.

Our winger depth is still really good. We might not be able to ice a ‘perfect’ line up but neither will any else and we weren’t close to ‘perfect’ on paper last year. We just got it done.

Yeah that was my point, as long as our core players stay healthy(been lucky last two years besides letang) and do well , and get some production from the role players we have just as good of a shot as anyone.

 

[PenguinSpeed]

Pens are pretty locked in their path at this point. In the first round, they likely play one of Philly, NJ, Columbus, or Florida (and almost certainly not Washington). In the second round, they likely would play one of those teams, in addition to Washington. The only likely difference is if they'd have home ice vs Washington or not. Third round, they would likely play one of Tampa, Boston, and Toronto without home ice. Where all of this would fall is going to end up being pretty random whether they win the division or not.

Not too worried about where the standings fall at this point. Just that they go into the playoffs as healthy as possible and that they have their lines clicking.

-If Kuzy's xray scan says broken arm from yesterdays crash, Washington will be a cupcake this time around for us

 

[JimmyTwoTimes]

-If Kuzy's xray scan says broken arm from yesterdays crash, Washington will be a cupcake this time around for us

He will be fine. Listed day to day with upper body.

 

[PenguinSpeed]

He will be fine. Listed day to day with upper body.

-By whom?

 

[JimmyTwoTimes]

-By whom?

Caps forum..GDT thread.