playoff locks eastern conference

[Que]

Pittsburgh
Ottawa
Columbus
Washington
Tampa Bay
Toronto
NYR
Boston
Montreal
Carolina
NYI
Florida
Buffalo
Detroit
Philladelphia
New Jersey

Just saying.

 

[tony d]

Right now:

Tampa, Ottawa, Montreal, Toronto, Pittsburgh, NY Rangers, Washington, Columbus

Philadelphia and Buffalo should contend as well. Don't discount the Islanders especially with Tavares in a contract year.

 

[Do Make Say Think]

I think we have a good shot at getting top 2 in the division.

The Senators remain a solid team with one of the best players, if not the best, in the world. We can also expect two high profile prospects to come in and hopefully have an impact in both White and Chabot.

We are, yet again, being underestimated.

 

[Filatov2Kovalev2Bonk]

Depends how we deal with MEth's loss and if ANderson misses more than 10-15 games due to his yearly injury thing. Toronto should improve, MTL is always near the top and Tampa Bay? Who knows.
Oh yeah, scum Boston exists. Dogfight between us and them for a top three, I think.

I see us being bubble-ish this year. Rangers are a tire fire, Pittsburgh will slip slightly, Columbus forget it, I could see more Atlantic Division than Metro in the playoffs this year.

 

[OmniSens]

NJ is getting no notice around here. They've gotten significantly better. That's before even if they get Kovy back.

 

[BonkTastic]

NJ is getting no notice around here. They've gotten significantly better. That's before even if they get Kovy back.

New Jersey might have the worst blue line in the league.

Unless Kovalchuk plays defence, I give that team very little chance of being in the playoffs this season.

 

[OmniSens]

New Jersey might have the worst blue line in the league.

Unless Kovalchuk plays defence, I give that team very little chance of being in the playoffs this season.

I didn't say they'd make the playoffs, but they won't be a basement team anymore. Schneider can steal games all the time

 

[trentmccleary]

Washington and Florida just got significantly worse.
Montreal, Tampa and the Rangers all look a little worse.
Did Boston do anything to get better? Did Columbus?
Detroit still looks awful.
Toronto spent $10M on old declining vets, does that make them unstoppable all of a sudden?

Really, this stuff all ends up working itself out on the ice. It's tough to keep up with what 29 other teams did.

How do our players rank in scheme of things? And I don't talk out of your *** and compare players without using any data. Where do our players and systems rank league wide. Are they likely to perform better or worse? By how much?

Individual teams don't matter in trying to peg your team. Individual players don't matter either. Our team and our systems will fit somewhere on the Bell Curve. The Bell Curve does not change appreciably. We should try to figure out how we compare to last year's team, where did we get weak and where could we improve? Because this year's edition will be playing in the exact same league with the exact same distribution. It doesn't matter which 2-3 teams pass us or which 2-3 teams fall below.

"Everybody else improved"
I sometimes feel like we could finish 1st in something, let's say the PP (we can dream right?). We're going into next season with the same team. There are always lots of posters here claiming that "everybody else improved". Like 30 teams could somehow now pass us, because they all have better players. They didn't lose anybody important to the other teams that somehow improved. None of their players got older. They just all improved... and the likelihood that half of them got worse seems absurd to these people.

 

[swiftwin]

100% locks
Pittsburgh
Washington

90% locks
Tampa
Rangers
Ottawa

75% locks
Toronto
Columbus

50/50
Montreal
Boston

 

[IranCondraAffair]

For me, the East is basically:

Pittsburgh

A bunch of average teams

Florida/NJ/Detroit.

I don't see Ottawa as the most talented team in the world, but Ottawa has less holes than teams like Montreal, NYR, Buffalo, Philly, Toronto, and Carolina, IMO. Lots of middling teams. I see 7 spots and 12 teams with a realistic shot.

 

[Cosmix]

100% locks
Pittsburgh
Washington

90% locks
Tampa
Rangers
Ottawa

75% locks
Toronto
Columbus

50/50
Montreal
Boston

So, does this mean that 7 teams make the playoffs and 2 do not?

 

[Gil Gunderson]

For me, the East is basically:

Pittsburgh

A bunch of average teams

Florida/NJ/Detroit.

I don't see Ottawa as the most talented team in the world, but Ottawa has less holes than teams like Montreal, NYR, Buffalo, Philly, Toronto, and Carolina, IMO. Lots of middling teams. I see 7 spots and 12 teams with a realistic shot.

A healthy Tampa team is right there behind Pittsburgh.

 

[Micklebot]

I think Boston will surprise people. After the coaching change last year, they were really good, and their biggest weakness last year was D, which should be significantly bolstered with the addition of MacAvoy.

Carlo, MacAvoy, Krug and Chara is a damn good top 4, and they had the best line in the NHL last year. Rask is a great #1 goalie too, they have all the pieces to make the playoffs and do some damage imo.

 

[OgieO]

I think Chabot makes us a better team by the end of the season. He'll help us get the puck out of our zone and that was a big weakness when EK wasn't on the ice. He doesn't have to be a star, but just getting the puck out of our zone and in their zone with control will make a huge impact.

I also think year 2 of playing under Boucher will make a big difference. I don't think we are a lock, as I only really see Pittsburgh as a lock, but I think we are pretty close to 100 points again. Assuming good health for the most part.

 

[OD99]

...But more importantly I think Sens fans tend to forget that the team we saw in the playoffs is not the team that played for the good part of the season for us. We added a ton of depth ie injury free ryan, Macarthur, stalberg, wingels, Burrows, dzingle, claesson

That's a big roster change especially when we consider it took the team almost half the season to get comfortable with the system.

Maybe the leafs rookies become even better and reach new Pt totals but Ottawa for sure is a better team now then a year ago Imo. Also potentially adding white and Chabot might be interesting

I am fully on board with this thinking.

Add in Anderson not missing 26 straight games (or whatever the Condon run was) plus hopefully a fully healthy Stone and all of a sudden this team looks primed to have a better regular season than last year.

 

[DJB]

I predicted the Leafs would win the division a while ago and im sticking to that.

Its going to be a dog fight between Sens, Bruins, Habs and Bolts. I can see Buffalo in the hunt this year too.

 

[2CHAINZ]

There is only 1 100% lock in the east and that's Pierre Dorions sboozefest senators. Trapping since 16.

 

[Boud]

There is only 1 100% lock in the east and that's Pierre Dorions sboozefest senators. Trapping since 16.

PD is the real Trappavelli

 

[2CHAINZ]

PD is the real Trappavelli

#Trappavelli I like it

 

[BonHoonLayneCornell]

We are the only team that matters. We just need to take care of our own business. Every year, ever team has optimism but only some will live up to it. I'd be interested to see a necro bump of this thread that surely existed last year.

 

[Sensinitis]

This is the year we hit 100 pts, imo.

It would be the first time in over 10 years.

 

[PaulD]

Tbay
Sens
Panthers

only three that make it from the division

 

[Tnuoc Alucard]

I think Boston will surprise people. After the coaching change last year, they were really good, and their biggest weakness last year was D, which should be significantly bolstered with the addition of MacAvoy.

Carlo, MacAvoy, Krug and Chara is a damn good top 4, and they had the best line in the NHL last year. Rask is a great #1 goalie too, they have all the pieces to make the playoffs and do some damage imo.

Gotta give you this one.

 

[Lenny the Lynx]

This is an ugly one

 

[Langdon Alger]

This is the year we hit 100 pts, imo.

It would be the first time in over 10 years.

Ruh roh