Admit it, swallow your pride and say what players/teams you were wrong or even right about

[93LEAFS]

Thought Svechnikov would do better, and felt that Kotkanimei needed to go back to Finland.

 

[Gaylord Q Tinkledink]

When Skinner, Lindholm, Hanifin, and Ryan (UFA) were moved with only Hamilton and Ferland coming back in those deals; and when the Canes went into the season with Darling and Mrazek in goal; and when the Canes started the season with only 1 center with NHL experience at center (Jordan Staal); and when the Canes hired a rookie coach with no head coaching experience; and when the Canes hired Don Waddell as GM; they were the laughing stock of HF and most thought they’d be one of the worst teams. 99 points later, I’d venture a guess that most posters, including me, were wrong about them.

Pretty sure with how things go for Edmonton and Buffalo, Carolina was never THE laughing stock of the league. Everything else is spot on.

 

[JimmyTwoTimes]

Crosby back to 100 points. Knew that after the 2nd round exit last year.

Didnt think Guentzel would get 40 goals, usually saves that for the playoffs.

Thought the Oilers would actually do whats best to make the playoffs instead of padding stats for McDavid. But was wrong thinking it would be RNH with him again, even worse it was their better Center in Drai. Who could be on line 2, making others better. Pens had ...

Crosby
Malkin
Staal

They didnt have solid wingers. Crosby made Dupuis into a perrenial 20 goal scorer. Kunitz into a 25-30+ goal scorer. Malkin had Talbot, and past their primes' Fedotenko and Sykora when we won the cup in 09. Staal had Matt Cooke and Tyler Kennedy.

Cant tell me as good as McDavid and Drai are they cant make their lines better without having to be together so McDavid can win ARTs. Maybe since he came up short this year they actually decide to get better as a team instead of just stacking the top line.

And some Oilers fans say they dont have wingers...thats what the Centers are there for...to develop them. It eventually happened with Pens centers and it paid off. No idea why the Oilers arent copying their model with 3 Centers. Dont expect them to look great right now when they aren't getting a chance with the top 2 Centers. Instead it was Kassain with both lol. He had a decent season but their whole approach to this line up thing is crazy.

 

[8LX7psQ]

Crosby back to 100 points. Knew that after the 2nd round exit last year.

Didnt think Guentzel would get 40 goals, usually saves that for the playoffs.

Thought the Oilers would actually do whats best to make the playoffs instead of padding stats for McDavid. But was wrong thinking it would be RNH with him again, even worse it was their better Center in Drai. Who could be on line 2, making others better. Pens had ...

Crosby
Malkin
Staal

They didnt have solid wingers. Crosby made Dupuis into a perrenial 20 goal scorer. Kunitz into a 25-30+ goal scorer. Malkin had Talbot, and past their primes' Fedotenko and Sykora when we won the cup in 09. Staal had Matt Cooke and Tyler Kennedy.

Cant tell me as good as McDavid and Drai are they cant make their lines better without having to be together so McDavid can win ARTs. Maybe since he came up short this year they actually decide to get better as a team instead of just stacking the top line.

And some Oilers fans say they dont have wingers...thats what the Centers are there for...to develop them. It eventually happened with Pens centers and it paid off. No idea why the Oilers arent copying their model with 3 Centers. Dont expect them to look great right now when they aren't getting a chance with the top 2 Centers. Instead it was Kassain with both lol. He had a decent season but their whole approach to this line up thing is crazy.

Strange bitter cookies coming from a fan of a playoff bound team. The Oilers were tying to make the playoffs, the whole time. That's the sad part.

 

[JimmyTwoTimes]

Strange bitter cookies coming from a fan of a playoff bound team. The Oilers were tying to make the playoffs, the whole time. That's the sad part.

Well theres no rivalry, with them being in a diff conference. So I want to see them do good. Actually make the playoffs. This is getting ridiculous.

They should know better not to stack the top line with McDavid and Drai. Let those two make their lines work. If they want to put RNH with Conner then fine. Just saying I dont by the whole " our wingers suck thats why we dont make the playoffs" when Pens had the same problem. Yet their Centers were so good they not only carried the way for awhile but helped develop those wingers into decent players. Oilers need to let that happen

 

[Spearmint Rhino]

Predicted 62 pts for my Habs, was off by just a little

Season was exciting but now I have the bubble team remorse, no playoffs and no lottery pick unless we get damn lucky

 

[Warden of the North]

Not on a one year timeframe, but I expected Boston to slow down quite a bit over the past few years, but if anything theyve gotten better.

Chara has held on far longer then I expected him too. Bergeron is still an ELITE two way centreman. Marchand has developed into one of the best wingers in hockey as he got closer to 30. They did some excellent draft work pulling Pastrnak where they did, and have developed solid NHL players in guys like McAvoy and Debrusk. They did the proper thing and moved Lucic at exactly the right time.

It pains me to say it, but they're an efficiently run organization.

 

[Huokaus]

Wrong about Teräväinen. Never really thought he could succeed in the NHL the way he's done the past couple of seasons. I thought he was too small and weak and not fast/swifty enough to be more than a 50-point power play specialist.

 

[Rschmitz]

Wrong about Callahan being completely washed up and useless, right about Cernak being legit

 

[PatrikBerglund]

I was adamant the Sabres weren't going to tank again this year

They hired the tank general and Sobotka was our #2 centre, what dif you expect?

 

[Pens x]

I didn’t see the Canes or Islanders making the playoffs.

 

[Nizdizzle]

Going into this year:

- I thought the Leafs offense was slightly better than Tampa Bay's. This is clearly not the case this season.
- Islanders faired far better than I think anyone expected. I didn't exactly argue against this, but I imagine if someone brought it up as a possibility I would have.
- Draisaitl just crushed any point ceiling i would have put for him this year.

 

[sandysan]

didn't think that domi to center would work any better than the failed drouin to center experiment last year. was very pleasantly surprised.
Also I initially considered Tatar nothing more than an throw in with the real acquisition being Suzuki
live and learn

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

Pretty sure with how things go for Edmonton and Buffalo, Carolina was never THE laughing stock of the league. Everything else is spot on.

Go back and read the thread when Waddell was named GM and Brindy was hired. Lots of "LOL", "YIKES", "WTF", "Nail in the coffin for the franchise", "Plan to move to Houston", "Clown owner", etc....

The Canes were ridiculed a bunch this off-season and even early in the season.

 

[sandysan]

It's very strange not to see anyone in this thread saying they were wrong about Carey Price because I've seen dozens and dozens and dozens of posters since the summer and even into the season say how awful he was and yet he went out and had an incredible season and nearly carried Montreal into the playoffs.

when its done so frequently, is it really a surprise ?

 

[NotLeddy]

Right about Tatar, a lot of people didn't bother reading about the news of the shoulder surgery he had in the summer of 2017 that came out last season.

Right about Larkin being a 75ish pt center and that'd he'd have a great season even being the go-to matchup center without Zetterberg in the lineup...

Right about Bertuzzi and AA, a lot of Wings fans weren't very high on them going into the season despite both of them having great, consistent 5v5 production

Right about Mrazek having a bounce-back year behind a team that doesn't hang him out to dry every night

Wrong about the Habs in general, where they'd be in the standings, wrong about Domi, Price, Weber etc.

Wrong about Buffalo being bad, thought they'd for sure be in the running for a WC spot with the acquisitions they got over the summer like Skinner and Sheary, and assumed Mittlestadt was a lot more NHL ready.

Wrong about NYI being a playoff team like a lot of people, let alone an 103 pt team 2nd place in the Metro.

 

[Mikeshane]

Wrong
I thought Oilers would get in the playoffs. I even expected a coaching change, but I definitely didn't think the new coach would be Hitchcock.
Joe Thornton played better than I thought, I actually think he was better this year than he was last year.
Right
Philadelphia wouldn't be better. I saw quite a few people expecting the Flyers to surprise people this season and exceed expectations but I knew that wasn't gonna happen. They had too many question marks and not all your question marks work out wonderfully.
Kopitar wouldn't repeat his previous season performance. He not only put up good points but he was a jack of all trades and an absolute workhorse. To try and match that season just wasn't realistic.

 

[SuperScript29]

I'm not gonna write the whole post because it was a lot of conversation, but this is what I said about Barkov back in 2013 shortly after he was taken 2nd overall:

"he could become a 2nd/3rd line player. But I can also picture him being the next Svitov. Big skillful player that was never able to adjust to the NHL."

Needless to say, a few people laughed at my post, and rightfully so. I humbly eat my crow lol.

 

[Gilles Meloche]

After his rookie season I said Steve Mason would be an "elite" NHL goalie, starting netminder for our Team Canada teams and a hall of famer...

YIKES!!

 

[mitchthemitch]

Right about the Habs..most of the players had off years and everyone was writing them off

 

[sepHF]

I was very wrong about Draisaitl / Bennett. I thought the Oilers were passing on the better player because Draisaitl was bigger and they only cared about size.

Really glad I was wrong.. lol

 

[SoundAndFury]

I went on the record quite a few times Kuznetsov can't be a successful NHL center. Also always considered Tarasenko to be better during their KHL days and felt very on point about it in 2012 - 2015.

 

[CharasLazyWrister]

I was definitely wrong about Montreal. Thought they’d be bottom 3 in the league, and bottom 5 at best, rather easily. Was it wishful thinking being a Bruins fan? Yes. But their roster also justified my prediction.

I thought Anders Bjork would have surely made an NHL impact by now.

I was doing a lot of “I told you so” with my friends earlier in the year when Vegas was struggling and out of the playoff picture. Oops.

Not that I said it wouldn’t happen, but if you had told me Carolina would be a dark horse contender, I’d have laughed quite heartily.

 

[sepHF]

Crosby back to 100 points. Knew that after the 2nd round exit last year.

Didnt think Guentzel would get 40 goals, usually saves that for the playoffs.

Thought the Oilers would actually do whats best to make the playoffs instead of padding stats for McDavid. But was wrong thinking it would be RNH with him again, even worse it was their better Center in Drai. Who could be on line 2, making others better. Pens had ...

Crosby
Malkin
Staal

They didnt have solid wingers. Crosby made Dupuis into a perrenial 20 goal scorer. Kunitz into a 25-30+ goal scorer. Malkin had Talbot, and past their primes' Fedotenko and Sykora when we won the cup in 09. Staal had Matt Cooke and Tyler Kennedy.

Cant tell me as good as McDavid and Drai are they cant make their lines better without having to be together so McDavid can win ARTs. Maybe since he came up short this year they actually decide to get better as a team instead of just stacking the top line.

And some Oilers fans say they dont have wingers...thats what the Centers are there for...to develop them. It eventually happened with Pens centers and it paid off. No idea why the Oilers arent copying their model with 3 Centers. Dont expect them to look great right now when they aren't getting a chance with the top 2 Centers. Instead it was Kassain with both lol. He had a decent season but their whole approach to this line up thing is crazy.

it's a compelling argument forsure but you have to think you're dragging down RNH or Draisaitl by making either of them play 3rd line minutes. And also you can just look at the stats, when Draisaitl and McDavid are together the Oilers win more games then when they're separated.

 

[BenningHurtsMySoul]

Gaudreau being out of the league by his third season.

He’s a top 10 player in the entire league.