I was optimistic, I believed we should make the playoffs. That will happen, anything on top of that is gravy as far as I am concerned.Fixing goal and LHD in the off-season didn't do it for you? A year of experience for Ehlers and Laine plus the arrival of Connor and development from Armia, Copp and Lowry didn't stir your optimism? OK, you're entitled. But even Nobody Important has abandoned pessimism.
Seriously, there was a lot of solid reason behind raised expectations for this year. I didn't expect 1st in the division but I had/have real hope for that much. I expected to make the playoffs. That's all. But having made the playoffs I can't not expect, much less hope for, a 1st round win. Going into the playoffs, I really don't much care about winning our first PO game ever, or even winning 2 or 3 games. If we lose that series in 4 or in 7 makes little difference to me. Its like losing a game after winning one period. Its just a loss. I'm past the point of taking satisfaction from almost running with the big dogs. We are all grown up now. It is time to be a big dog.
Whatever makes you happy. This is, after all, entertainment.
Fair enough.I'm bringing it into the picture because you are saying that you will be happy with what I consider to be very low levels achievement. You sound much more optimistic in this post than in the previous ones but even so, "anything on top of that is gravy" is pretty low expectations. Basically, you are saying that you will be happy with a very small, incremental improvement over our previous best, which wasn't very good.
I don't think I am setting lofty goals but if we don't win a series I won't look back on this season fondly as one of great achievement. There will have been good moments of course but losing in the first round still leaves us among the group of teams which can be called average. We get a 'C' on our report card. Even if we survive to the 7th game and take every loss to double OT it is still a C, maybe we get a C+ for that.
But you are entitled to set your own standard for satisfaction.
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Fair enough.
I suppose I see the playoff berth as a bigger achievement than yourself. To me, us being in contention for top spot in the Central all season and making the playoffs with relative ease is a big step forward, much more than a C grade. I suppose every season until now (except our one playoff year) has been a F grade judging by your rating scale
I won't look back on the season as a great achievement if we go out in the first round, but I will be satisfied that we took a step in the right direction. When you get to the playoffs anything can happen, there is a lot of randomness involved and every kick at the can is meaningful.
Low expectations do make it easier to be happy about the season though
I agree we will have taken a step in the right direction. But I know I will be pissed no matter how I try to console myself if we don't win a series. I will be PO'ed whenever we get eliminated, if we get eliminated, but with a first round victory it will be a little easier to get over. The first 8 out will have been revealed to have been pretenders, not contenders. I don't want to be in that group.
Being swept by the Ducks that year really sucked. It left us hunting for silver linings - like how many minutes we lead and how few minutes we trailed, etc. Bah, humbug! Silver linings are for losers.
Those were very low expectations before the season too. Of course you are allowed to set your expectations wherever you choose. But with 16 of 31 teams making the playoffs and the 31st team being in its first year of existence being satisfied with merely achieving league average seems pretty pessimistic. Yayyyyy! We're mediocre! Wahooo!
and it only took 8 years from a running start!
Maybe because we are the only NHL franchise ( excluding Vegas ) to have never won a playoff game and it's a tad embarrassing.
As far as series go... Look at the 17 seasons this franchise has gone without a series win. OK... so 11 of those were in Atlanta. Still looks bad, and you can't win a series without first winning a game.
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