Out Of Town Scoreboard VIII Getting to watch others work toward the playoffs.

[Devils Dominion]

We need the Kings to make the finals to prevent our worst fears from coming to fruition.
And they still might even w/LA getting there.

If an "upstart" like St Louis or Nashville happens to reach the Finals, they will be happy just to be there and then get rolled by the Rags in short order.

 

[Emperoreddy]

Is Tampa a good posession team? Maybe they are this year, I just remember them being bad in the past.

Anaheim has been a bad posession team for years. Coincidence that Sants Clause's Washington teams were bad at posession too? I think not.

LA is still one of the best possession teams in the league this year. Still pretty high on them.

I'm not very high on Chicago without Kane. They haven't been scoring much lately. Goaltending has been winning them a lot of game since he's been out. I think Crawford is better than most people give him credit for, so I wouldn't completely rule them out.

Best possession teams in the league right now are the Jets, Penguins, and Kings. Why this could be the year the metrics get it wrong because I wouldn't pick any of them to win it all.

 

[Emperoreddy]

We need the Kings to make the finals to prevent our worst fears from coming to fruition.
And they still might even w/LA getting there.

If an "upstart" like St Louis or Nashville happens to reach the Finals, they will be happy just to be there and then get rolled by the Rags in short order.

You are putting the kart so far ahead of the horse. Rags need to get out of the east first and that is not even close to a certainty.

You are to dismissive of a stronger east.

 

[Devils Dominion]

You are putting the kart so far ahead of the horse. Rags need to get out of the east first and that is not even close to a certainty.

You are to dismissive of a stronger east.

Price & the Habs need to show me that they can make the Finals, I hear too much hot air coming out of Montreal. Time for results up there.

Tampa has the speed & skill to keep up with the Rags, but can Bishop hold up in the postseason? Remains to be seen.

Pitts, Wash, NYi & Ottawa (if they get in) have no shot of doing anything significant this Spring.

I'm not sold on Detroit either though they have the scoring ability to hang with the Rags/TB for at least more than 4 or 5 games.

Boston, as much as they have struggled, has the horses and goaltending to upset a top team if they get a few bounces. But they are clearly not as strong as they have been in past seasons.

 

[JimEIV]

How often do we see superior teams fall to a hot goalie and a random 3rd liner who has the week of his life with 3 huge impact goals....it happens every year practically...match ups, who's hot at the right moment, the tides, the sun and the moon...playoff hockey is such a weird roller coaster of momentum.

And what happened in the regular season, you can just throw that right out the window.

 

[MadDevil]

This year seems pretty wide open in both conferences. The Rangers and Habs have the best goaltending in the conference, so I'd put them at the top in the East. Washington is Washington, who knows what you'll get in the playoffs. The Islanders could be good, or could bow out early. The Pens look like garbage, but with Crosby/Malkin anything is possible. Tampa's got the offense, but can they shut it down when they need to? Detroit, Ottawa, Boston, who knows. Out West, it's kind of up for grabs too. The Ducks are a Boudreau team, so they probably won't get very far. The Blues always seem to find a way to lose. The Kings are the Kings, you can never count them out. Chicago will be without Kane. Minnesota has been on a roll with Dubnyk. Vancouver, Calgary, Winnipeg are all wild cards.

 

[Dialamo]

Anybody but the Rangers please. I'll even accept the Wild and the Pens winning (even though those two are unlikely).

 

[Emperoreddy]

This year seems pretty wide open in both conferences. The Rangers and Habs have the best goaltending in the conference, so I'd put them at the top in the East. Washington is Washington, who knows what you'll get in the playoffs. The Islanders could be good, or could bow out early. The Pens look like garbage, but with Crosby/Malkin anything is possible. Tampa's got the offense, but can they shut it down when they need to? Detroit, Ottawa, Boston, who knows. Out West, it's kind of up for grabs too. The Ducks are a Boudreau team, so they probably won't get very far. The Blues always seem to find a way to lose. The Kings are the Kings, you can never count them out. Chicago will be without Kane. Minnesota has been on a roll with Dubnyk. Vancouver, Calgary, Winnipeg are all wild cards.

Well we know Tampa is the highest scoring team in the league. We know that. They are also the only team in the east in top 5 in shots against.

Tampa's season really depends on how Bishop does. Their PP is also an issue. It is ranked pretty low. PK isn't bad though. They keep shots down, so they need Bishop to make some big saves.

Looking at west LA is the best team in suppressing shots. Wild and Blues are also top 5 at it.

LA's biggest question mark has to be how much gas is in those tanks. They are still stingy in Goals against and Shots against, decent special teams, but the offense needs to be better and it is a serious question if they can play this much hockey again.

Honestly if Dub keeps it up the Wild could be a west dark horse. They have a decent amount going for them.

Though if you are looking for a big team. St. Louis really has everything going for them. So the question is can they just get over the hump. If they can get this first round jinx off them they are built to go REALLY far.

Honestly if it wasn't for their playoff history woes I would put St. Louis near the top as one of the best odds to win the west. We might be to dismissive of the Blues on here.

 

[MadDevil]

I actually like the Blues and would like to see them do well. They just never seem to be able to get over the hump in the playoffs. Of course it doesn't help when you have to go through battle tested championship teams like LA or Chicago every year either.

 

[Emperoreddy]

I actually like the Blues and would like to see them do well. They just never seem to be able to get over the hump in the playoffs. Of course it doesn't help when you have to go through battle tested championship teams like LA or Chicago every year either.

They have the team to do it and maybe Marty adds some championship wisdom in the locker room.

They are a better team then the Hawks and Kings this year.

Honestly the only thing I hear against them on this board is they are playoff chokers and should thusly be dismissed.

Then again it also seems the opinion is to plan the parade down Broadway and just skip the playoffs entirely.

 

[Bleedred]

They have the team to do it and maybe Marty adds some championship wisdom in the locker room.

They are a better team then the Hawks and Kings this year.

Honestly the only thing I hear against them on this board is they are playoff chokers and should thusly be dismissed.

Then again it also seems the opinion is to plan the parade down Broadway and just skip the playoffs entirely.

I'm skeptical of Brian Elliott. I remember him giving up a lot of weak goals in that Kings series a few years ago after Halak got injured. They would have lost the series anyway, but they likely could have gotten a win in that series with better goaltending. He wasn't bad in the 2013 series against them, but still gave up a couple poor ones in that series.

Nothing can be worse than Miller last year though. That was a complete joke. I'm still more confident in him than the Ducks inexperienced guys.

 

[Emperoreddy]

I'm skeptical of Brian Elliott. I remember him giving up a lot of weak goals in that Kings series a few years ago after Halak got injured. They would have lost the series anyway, but they likely could have gotten a win in that series with better goaltending. He wasn't bad in the 2013 series against them, but still gave up a couple poor ones in that series.

Nothing can be worse than Miller last year though. That was a complete joke. I'm still more confident in him than the Ducks inexperienced guys.

He has been good this year and Allen is good too even though I wouldn't feel comfortable with that. Plus they got Marty whispering in their ears which might keep them settled down.

Barring Kane coming roaring back they look like the best team. Nashville looks good too but I don't think they have the experience to carry them through.

Wild could surprise but not much about the Ducks or the Canucks inspire me. Jets are tough but still fodder to me. Kings are tricky but still hard to think they are the team to beat in their state. Not an easy out but I just don't see them running the gauntlet again. They would need to take some early series really quickly for me to think they will have enough gas.

In the east Henry is a question mark and 6-7 regular season games won't change that. Need to see him in form in the playoffs.

 

[Devils Dominion]

The St Louis Blows, like Pitts,have early exit written all over them.
But, tarasenko is a game breaker that could end some OT games.

The buffaLOL fans cheering their OT loss last night was weak.
That alone should sway the hockey Gods.

 

[Bleedred]

Detroit is another team with really questionable goaltending. No confidence in Howard at all. Maybe all these injuries have taken their toll on him, he's not what he used to be and has looked weak the last two years.

Gustavsson isn't good either. Is he injured too? He wasn't in after Howard got pulled last night. That other guy is very inexperienced. Detroit easily has the worst goaltending of any playoff team in the East. It isn't even close. Their goaltending is also easily worse than Ottawa, Florida, and Boston as far as the teams fighting for that last spot.

MAF is the only one that comes close, he's having a good season though.

 

[MadDevil]

Is there a team in the league you DON'T think has questionable goaltending?

 

[Bleedred]

Is there a team in the league you DON'T think has questionable goaltending?

Have you watched Howard this year? Guy sucks balls. He sucked last night before he got yanked giving up 3 on 9 or 10 in the 1st period to the Sharks of all teams. They haven't scored 3 goals in a period in god knows how long.

NYR (as long as Henrik is healthy)

Montreal

TB (Bishop is just inexperienced at playoff time)

NYI (Halak is better than most people give him credit for)

Washington (Holtby is having a good year and has been good in the playoffs when they've been in)

Boston

Florida

Ottawa (Hammond is a question mark but they have Anderson who is awesome)

Not worried about any of these teams in the East's goaltending. Bishop is inexperienced, but I'm not overly concerned.

Nashville

Chicago (Crawford gets hated on too much)

LAK

Not worried about any of those teams goaltending either.

Winnipeg is questionable for obvious reasons. Pavelec hasn't been good before this season for a number of years, other goaltender is a rookie.

Calgary is questionable, so is the rest of their team.

Anaheim has two guys who are basically rookies in net.

Minnesota is a question mark because Dubnyk is on a hot streak. He's not bad, he's just probably not as good as he's been this year.

St Louis is a question mark to me, but not as big as some of those other teams.

Vancouver is another question mark in net. Lack is very inexperienced, Miller isn't very good anymore either. He might not even be ready by playoff time. Don't forget how terrible he was for the Blues last year.

 

[Benedict Parisechuk]

Are you sure about that? Because I remember people saying that last year too. I was one of them.

Weren't you one of the ones saying a few weeks ago that you could see them going on a run again? What's changed since then? Sometimes their offense has looked awful, but it always seems to turn on in the playoffs.

They've played too much hockey over the past three seasons to go on another deep playoff run. Just getting into the playoffs is gonna take a toll on them. If they make it, I think they win a round at most, before completely running out of gas.

And yea if this isn't the year St. Louis doesn't get over the hump then they probably never will. I could see Hitchcock getting the John Fox treatment if they don't at least get to the finals.

 

[Devils Dominion]

Hawks up on Cbj

 

[Emperoreddy]

Here is the hitch in the road of Columbus passing us. They got a death march of a weekend. Hawks tonight then the Blues tomorrow.

 

[Bleedred]

This is a very exciting game actually. Back and forth with goals in this Hawks/Jackets game.

The coaches probably aren't happy with the all the odd man rushes though.

 

[Emperoreddy]

This is a very exciting game actually. Back and forth with goals in this Hawks/Jackets game.

Ya that said. It's a tie game.

 

[Bleedred]

And there's another one for CBJ.

This is actually starting to get ridiculous with all these goals.

 

[Bleedred]

Fully expecting the Blackhawks to tie it on the PK.

We're the only team that's power play can't score on Columbus.

LOL Hawks crew saying Columbus has given up 17 PP goals in their last 12 games.

 

[Emperoreddy]

If CBJ does survive this weekend they will totally pass us. Might pass Philly too.

 

[Emperoreddy]

Wild and Flames tied in a big game for both teams. Flames need this one more though.