BBA, I have huge respect for you, but I have much to disagree with in this post. First, there is a huge difference in the mind of a fan between a game that is ‘meaningless’ and a game that your team might lose. As a fan I’ll pay the price of a game my team might lose, not sure I would pay to attend a meaningless game, certainly wouldn’t pay full price. (See: pre-season)
To be clear, I didn't call the game "meaningless". My comment was this game doesn't "mean a whole lot". Of course 2 points is 2 points, but 2 points when you are 14 points up on the highest team outside the playoffs (points above the NYI before last night) with 20 games to play isn't as meaningful than a bubble team struggling to keep or get into the playoffs (like we were in 18-19)
That's fine if that's how you feel, but my point is, I don't think it reflect fans in general. Fans buy season's tickets knowing that there will be less meaningful games or games the team doesn't give its all. Businesses buy blocks of games knowing that some games like that, etc....
In fact, during the dark years from 08/09-18/19, I bought season tickets for 7 straight seasons, knowing full well that the team would likely be playing a bunch of games that really didn't matter much after the holidays. Year after year.
We have 14,000 season ticket holders (full, half, partial) and all of them are buying knowing that there will be games with less meaning and worse performances than others.
I get it for some single game purchasers, but many of those fans are buying because of the team coming to town. I went to Vancouver because my son is a Vancouver fan. I often go to the Rangers and Islanders because my buddies are Rangers and Islanders fans, etc...
So I stand by it. I don't feel sorry for fans buying a ticket for a less meaningful game. It goes with being a fan.
I disagree that this game had no meaning. If they had won the game, with the rangers taking an otl, the canes could have closed the gap to three points, first place in the division certainly has meaning in seed, matchups and playoff home games.
Sure, I agree with that. Every game has "some" meaning in that 2 points are 2 points. When a team is comfortably in a playoff spot, the game has less meaning in the big picture than a team on the bubble. That's what I read into the other posters comment about this being meaningless, but I could be wrong.
I’d also lean on the old adage that two points in October count exactly the same as two points in March. Whether this game is meaningless or not can’t be known until we’re looking back after the season. If the finish second by a point or third by a point, then every point was meaningful.
See my response above.
But the biggest meaning I saw in this game was in the character of the team. They took a game they should have won and found a way to lose. Just as I posted after the Minn win was a ‘character’ win, this was a ‘character’ loss. Playoffs are determined by character, and this game was very meaningful because it reflected the character of the team (As did the Minn game)
We can disagree here. Regular season is 82 games and I'm not determining character out of 1-2 games. I prefer to look at the body of work as a whole vs. individual games to make assessments.
I’m not all doom and gloom on this team, but this game and the teams record against the top teams, as reviewed above, shows that this team IS an average team, more accurately an average playoff team. That’s all my original post said, I stand by it.
They certainly aren't an "Average" team. They have the 3rd best record since they turned it around on Dec 12th. They are top 10 in points even with that horrible start. That's not average.
In terms of "average playoff team", 16 teams make the playoffs so saying they are in the 6-10 range (what I would consider average) out of 16 teams is reasonable. I don't disagree with that.
I've said time and time again that I think they need to add more scoring / top 6 talent or they will struggle to get deep into the playoffs. I still think that. I don't think their character is an issue though, I think their lack of talent in the top 6 and an unstable goaltending situation are the concerns. There character is what has taken them as deep as they've got in the past and I'm not worried about that.
Btw, I’d wager a sizable amount that Winnipeg doesn’t think this game was meaningless.
Sure, just like I'm sure we put more meaning into the Florida game than they did. It happens.
