2014-2015 Central Division Standings

[Multimoodia]

a healthy blues team w/out stastny or gunarsson was > dallas last year, why wouldn't it be > than them now

Because the theory is that by adding Spezza and Hemsky that catapults their offense. Which could very easily could be true.
That said they still didn't solve their defensive issues which had more to do with Dallas' out of the playoffs finish that their offense. They're a good team, but depending upon other teams not being healthy and Spezza remaining healthy is a very large gamble.

 

[BlueDream]

I'd absolutely love to hear some more rational as to how Minnesota is the best team in this division. Because they added Vanek? Good grief.

 

[Multimoodia]

a healthy spezza is just as good as stastny + dallas added hemsky as well.
if minny gets a full year from harding, parise and koivu they will be closer than last year

The latter two is a reasonable enough assumption. Harding though is a coin flip at best. They're still another year or two away with the current personnel and I fear that Vanek is going to be less than advertised in the western conference, in particular in the central.

 

[Multimoodia]

Minnesota still isn't finishing first and at best I see them finishing second (severe injuries for one of Chicago/St. Louis and Colorado falling heavily) most likely they're in a dogfight for third.

 

[Mike Liut]

if I was bitter I'd put the blues last. Chicago is a clear 1 then avs/blues/stars/wild are interchangeable between 2-5 and within a couple points depending on health imo. all 5 will make the playoffs

How is Chicago clear #1 when the Blues just finished ahead of them and the Blues got stronger and they didn't?

 

[LGB51]

I have the Blues last after an unfortunate locker painting incident with a new type of paint leaves the entire team with a seasonal-long bout of amnesia.

On the positive side, since Berglund didn't try very hard during the game (he's lazy and unmotivated you know) he doesn't breathe in all that much of the potent mixture and goes on to be the Blues leading scorer, thus making his contract look that much better in retrospect.

Priceless gems this is.

 

[LGB51]

How is Chicago clear #1 when the Blues just finished ahead of them and the Blues got stronger and they didn't?

Chicago did get stronger, they added Brad Richards.

 

[Falco Lombardi]

I have the Blues last after an unfortunate locker painting incident with a new type of paint leaves the entire team with a seasonal-long bout of amnesia.

On the positive side, since Berglund didn't try very hard during the game (he's lazy and unmotivated you know) he doesn't breathe in all that much of the potent mixture and goes on to be the Blues leading scorer, thus making his contract look that much better in retrospect.

You're awesome

 

[bluesman11]

I think picking them to win the division is too optimistic, I went with 2nd.

 

[DeuceNine]

So...A lot of you, were leery how Dallas played us last year, and were a team that could really do some damage to the Pacific Cali teams, but they get a lot more dangerous offensively this season, and you aren't sweating them. I guess I don't understand, that train of thought. A large majority of you didn't want to draw Dallas in the first round, and even thought they might get through Anaheim, but now that they got much more offensively potent it ain't no big thing?

I don't think they got that much more dangerous TO US. They may continue to eat Pacific teams alive, and will play us extremely well but I suspect with the additions both teams have made, games might end up 4-3 vs 3-2. Same difference.

I'd absolutely love to hear some more rational as to how Minnesota is the best team in this division. Because they added Vanek? Good grief.

Because they knocked out Colorado. you know how these things go, one playoff series and you become the new dynasty. Even if Vanek does work in the regular season, he'll turn spiritual in the playoffs and disappear.

 

[Celtic Note]

Chicago did get stronger, they added Brad Richards.

I am torn about how Richards will effect them. I guess I feel like he will boost their in season stats. But, Brad's overall contribution to the game is lacking, so will he be a positive impact in the playoffs?

Lest we forget they lost Zus and Bollig. I think that will hurt them more than people expect.

 

[Falco Lombardi]

I don't see any way that Richards isn't a massive upgrade on Zues myself but hey. Bollig I would agree more with but with Bickell and Shaw, it shouldn't be by that much.

What do people expect from Colorado? Highly unlikely that Varlamov can play that well again IMO. Don't really think that Iginla is going to be that good a fit and trading PA for Briere is a downgrade as well. That said, Mack should only get better, which is a pretty scary thought.

Losing Stastny and potentially RoR (even if he stays, a long term relationship seems unlikely at this point) could really hurt them a lot.

 

[CaliforniaBlues310]

No Sobotka means Minny, Chicago, Colorado and Dallas are all better than us now.

 

[erderuft]

I am torn about how Richards will effect them. I guess I feel like he will boost their in season stats. But, Brad's overall contribution to the game is lacking, so will he be a positive impact in the playoffs?

Lest we forget they lost Zus and Bollig. I think that will hurt them more than people expect.

Aren't CHI currently well above the salary cap? Somethings gotta give, and that something could possibly be the difference in finishing first or second or third or whatever. The Blackhawks have some serious pieces still, and should be more than competitive this coming season. But they're in kind of a bad spot right now.

 

[Majorityof1]

Aren't CHI currently well above the salary cap? Somethings gotta give, and that something could possibly be the difference in finishing first or second or third or whatever. The Blackhawks have some serious pieces still, and should be more than competitive this coming season. But they're in kind of a bad spot right now.

$2 million and some change over. Next year is the issue as the Toews and Kane extensions will kick in at an extra $8.4 mill and Saad will be getting a raise. They just need to move Versteeg or Bickell now and they will be fine. Most likely Bickell, as that will give them room for call ups.

 

[JustOneB4IDie]

No homer vote here, Blues will finish behind the Hawks.

 

[Falco Lombardi]

Some of the opinions in these threads around the Central boards are kind of head scratching. On one of them, they joke about Ryan Miller being awful....but then criticize the Blues for not bringing him back.

Think it was the Preds board that said the Blues haven't upgraded with Stastny because we lost Sobotka. Don't know if that is Stastny is being underrated or Sobotka overrated.

This is the best time of year though. Everyone is optimistic and feeling good about their team

 

[Meatball]

I like our chances. At the very least, I think we end up taking one of the top three spots in the central.

 

[Dbrownss]

Some of the opinions in these threads around the Central boards are kind of head scratching. On one of them, they joke about Ryan Miller being awful....but then criticize the Blues for not bringing him back.

Think it was the Preds board that said the Blues haven't upgraded with Stastny because we lost Sobotka. Don't know if that is Stastny is being underrated or Sobotka overrated.

This is the best time of year though. Everyone is optimistic and feeling good about their team

Yea that thread is worth some laughs....


Lehtera replaced sobokta
Ott is soboktas bottom 6 replacement.
Completely dismissed Gunnerson


Also STL was in presidential running without a legit 2c. And well we added another lower end 1C and a potential 2c.

 

[BlueDream]

Adding Stastny, Lehtera and Gunnarsson alone greatly improves our puck-possession game. Anyone who says the Blues didn't improve or "stayed the same" is in complete denial. But hey, the Predators are the 6th best team in the division so I can see why their fans might refuse to look at reality. They'll be extremely fortunate to even make the playoffs, led by Derek Roy!

 

[Note Worthy]

Some of the opinions in these threads around the Central boards are kind of head scratching. On one of them, they joke about Ryan Miller being awful....but then criticize the Blues for not bringing him back.

Think it was the Preds board that said the Blues haven't upgraded with Stastny because we lost Sobotka. Don't know if that is Stastny is being underrated or Sobotka overrated.

This is the best time of year though. Everyone is optimistic and feeling good about their team

And that he was a "meh" 2nd line center and more of a 3rd line one.

 

[542365]

And that he was a "meh" 2nd line center and more of a 3rd line one.

I read that too Even if he puts up the points some predicted in that thread, 50, that would still put him as a high end 2C You simply can't justify that he's a 3rd line center because he's not. His 60 points put him as a clear 1C, but even a drop in production will put him in the 2C range. It's sour grapes all the way around as far as I'm concerned. He was the best available free agent and we signed him to a reasonable contract. Sour grapes was to be expected.

 

[Multimoodia]

You have to understand that he's downward trending. In a couple of years he'll be scoring less than 30 pts per season. He's also getting older and most players fall off the proverbial cliff at 28 years of age.
This past year was an enormous aberration caused by him wanting a big contract. Colorado would not have signed him even if Stastny had only requested $4mil/year on a single year contract.

Certainly it couldn't be that he was playing in Sacco's broken system surrounded by scrubs for far too many years.


Even most of the more embittered Av fans do not have some of this ridiculous logic, but I do hear it from post-2009 expert Haek fans and for some odd reason I'm now seeing this from a cadre of Pred fans.
Of course, in their defense they've never actually seen a #1 center in day-to-day life so I can understand their confusion.

 

[BlueDream]

I read that too Even if he puts up the points some predicted in that thread, 50, that would still put him as a high end 2C You simply can't justify that he's a 3rd line center because he's not. His 60 points put him as a clear 1C, but even a drop in production will put him in the 2C range. It's sour grapes all the way around as far as I'm concerned. He was the best available free agent and we signed him to a reasonable contract. Sour grapes was to be expected.

Not to mention Stastny is also very good defensively, so that makes him even more qualified as a top 6 center. He can play in any situation. Because of his two-way game he's just as good as a 70-point scorer.

Then again Preds fans have no idea what a top 6 center even looks like so it's funny what they're saying.

I also love the argument that he only topped 60 because it was a contract year.

Some opinions are just...

 

[Note Worthy]

I read that too Even if he puts up the points some predicted in that thread, 50, that would still put him as a high end 2C You simply can't justify that he's a 3rd line center because he's not. His 60 points put him as a clear 1C, but even a drop in production will put him in the 2C range. It's sour grapes all the way around as far as I'm concerned. He was the best available free agent and we signed him to a reasonable contract. Sour grapes was to be expected.

Definitely. I remember so many Preds fans around free agency day clamoring about how they were in the good position to get Stastny; they really felt they had a shot and were excited about it.

They didn't get him and are now saying his a 3rd line center anyway. The pure definition of sour grapes.