I don't see how can this team be tagged as "choking"
They have played almost ALL SEASON without the 4th, 10th and 56th leaders in NHL scoring last year. Oh and they also missed Jared Cowen who would be our 2nd best D-man IMO and a collection of other guys as well like Latendresse and Craig Anderson who would have won the Vezina if he played all season
Choking? Not even close. They should be close to the 15th spot in the East, particulary when you consider that this is a rebuilding team full of rookies where 60% of those guys don't even have 100 NHL games...
Now that you know the facts, wouldn't change the thread of your title?
So far, outside of the Toronto game, all loss were "close".
- Lost 3-2 to the Bruins (one of the best teams in the league and our nemesis) where it could have went both ways with a lot of shots and scoring chances both sides
- Lost 4-2 to the Sabres, we didn't convert enough of our chances, Miller just was a lot better than Robin Lehner in that game
- Lost 2-1 to the Panthers. We outchanced them 21-6... Clemmensen just stole that game from us
- Lost 3-2 to Tampa. Refs totally screwed us
We should have anything from 2 to 4 pts more in the standings because of that Tampa game and the earlier game against the Habs were Benoit GOOD goal was called back...
Anyway, how many rebuilding teams would make the playoffs without their 2 superstars, a star, their starting goalie and a young pillar on defense?