Does anyone still think we're a playoff team?

[azcanuck]

I said at the beginning of the season we are NOT a playoff team.

Defense too soft, giving up too many clear cut chance. I do think OEL is playing better this season but Demers and Gologoski are nightmares.

Mr. Analytics Chyka has put together a better team on PAPER. But a hockey team has to have a mix of grinders, power forwards and outright talented offensive guys. It's very helpful to have all three traits in SOME players. The coyotes have virtually no players that possess all three traits. Max Domi came close . I know his production was down last season and he's on the smaller side but we have nobody like Max on the team. Christian Fischer is somebody we need more of. Can Crouse be that power forward?

Too many perimeter players not willing to pay the price around the net. Lots of shots on goal from the outside with little screens, no rebound battles and all around AWOL around the net.

I've given RT a pass for a long time because it's hard to judge a coach when he had so many young upstarts, they are hard to get playing a more all around game coming out of juniors where they were stars and not much was expected in that regard. But we are well into the rebuild and it's fair to say we have bigger expectations. This team should have a better record. I put it 60 percent Chyka, 40 percent RT.

I still have faith moving forward. Strome has showed signs he belongs ( I could very well be wrong on this guy) and guys like Keller I suspect can be close to a superstar level. Perlini has all the tools to be a premier player in this league but some guys never get it mentally. He seems to lack intensity. It's time for him to step it up. Alex is coming back and you will see more of the same from his you see from others. Soft player who looks for the fancy goal.

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[SniperHF]

Well I too did not think they would be a playoff team so the answer the question is still no for me

A lot of the issues with the roster you mention are right. But I think some of this is more due to circumstance and availability rather than outright trying to be as soft a team as they are. So it's fine to say yeah sure they should try and improve in that area. But I wouldn't go so far as to (in all cases, some yes) outright call it blame for the situation when it was about trying to shore up a team that was a complete trashheap circa March 2015.

Demers for example was acquired for peanuts, though we do have to pay him. But we had to pay McGinn too and he was doing nothing at all. Where as at least Demers can eat some minutes and the pipeline on D is not strong enough to fill that void from within. If Chychrun were healthy they could probably get away with making a move there.

Goligoski similarly was the best D available at the time and we desperately needed some veteran presence on the team then. So it's hard for me to hindsight that deal because looking at what was going on before they signed him was not good. Guys like Grossmann who can't keep up with the league were playing 50+ games, Murphy and Stone were not progressing. Michalek was done.

And we do have to hit the floor.

I do think they should also look to emphasize players who can handle board play and the cycle better in the draft. But that will take time to filter into the team.

So yeah these are problems holding the team back from being more competitive, but a lot of these moves were made to make them more competitive than they were before. Which they did. I do think it's legit to criticize the FO for not identifying that potentially this last offseason. But before that not so much.

 

[RemoAZ]

I didn't think we'd be a payoff team either. This year should be all about developing Strome, Fischer, Crouse, Perlini and the rest of the young guys to get them ready to move forward with or decide that they need to go. Hopefully they take a long look at a few Tucson guys as well like Capobianco. Best thing that could happen this year is we identify and develop a core to build around and finally add a star by winning the lottery. We know that latter has about .01% chance of happening so developing the young guys to be a legit playoff contender is about all we can hope for. They should dump as many vets that won't be around for picks at the deadline as well.

 

[azcanuck]

Last year fans on here wrote all that momentum built up with useless wins in March will somehow translate into wins in October.
Never happens that way.
Just took away from a better lottery slot and getting someone like Tkachuk.
This is already a lost year. I'd like to see guys develop but another shot at a superstar lottery player would be great.
This team is the antithesis from what would be required to win in the playoffs. There you really need a blood and guts effort and we have very few guys that are IMO "playoff" type guys.

 

[cobra427]

I didn't think we were a playoff team a month ago, but I do now, as long as Keller/OEL/Raanta don't get injured.

5th GAA
4th PK
3rd shots for
5th shots against
6th FO%- doesn't matter much but I'll throw it in there.
Last in GF but scoring chances are good, looking for that stat.

Our team D and goal tending are good, we just need a few more goals, they will start coming. If the stats above continue, we make the playoffs. We aren't getting outplayed in 4 out of 5 games like the last 3 years, in fact its the opposite. The long term shot advantage we have will pay off if it continues.

Not sure why all the doom and gloom, things are looking up when you peel the onion back

 

[MIGs Dog]

My preseason prediction was that we would compete for a playoff spot. This was before knowing that Chychrun, Galchenyuk, and Dvorak were going to miss significant amounts of the season.

Being an eternal optimist I think we could still make a run. Alex and Jacob back within a month (hopefully) and we should be a better team. Dvo gone for probably 3 months at least.

Lots of positives in the stats despite the low goal total and fewest pts in the league.

Last year required 95 points to qualify in the West. If that holds true again we have 75 games to earn 91 pts, which is a 1.21 pts per game pace.

Over the final 41 games last year we collected pts at a 1.15 pace. Do that for the remainder of the season and we would finish with 90 pts.

But this team is better and will be better when our MASH unit gets back into action.

I think we'll be close.

 

[FinnishCoyote]

I think we end up with 85-90 points, lots of positives this year but we are still atleast year away. If we win draft lottery and Hayton is ready next season, we could be really, really good next year.


Obviously unlikely, but possible

 

[MIGs Dog]

If we win draft lottery

This is a serious forum. Quit joking around.

 

[FinnishCoyote]

This is a serious forum. Quit joking around.

No, we win draft lottery and pick 15th rated premium player

 

[YotesFan47]

I just want Kakko, that's it. Make it happen Uncle Gary.

The way I see it, we still need a top pair RD to play along side OEL, and a top LW and RW. We fill those 3 spots and we can begin to actually contend. How we fill those holes are up to JC but we need to find a way to get those 3 spaces filled.

If POJ, Capobianco, and Dineen can be players then we can start to shift D for help in those 3 slots.

 

[Name Nameless]

Yeah, I must be the one here who *still* believes.

 

[OriginalJetsCoyotes]

Hard to say, I want to be optimistic but the best I can say is we shouldn't be a basement dweller this season.

 

[GiveAFlyingPuck]

Hard to say, I want to be optimistic but the best I can say is we shouldn't be a basement dweller this season.

But there we are.

 

[Name Nameless]

Hard to say, I want to be optimistic but the best I can say is we shouldn't be a basement dweller this season.

17 goals against, third least in the league. High number of shots, "just" fix the actual goal-scoring, play-off team.

 

[GiveAFlyingPuck]

I don't think you can just be fast. The speed also needs toughness. We're trying to play in the Salty Spitoon League and are sent to Weenie Hut Jr's.

So, we aren't playoff material.

 

[Neighborhood Coyote]

I don't think you can just be fast. The speed also needs toughness. We're trying to play in the Salty Spitoon League and are sent to Weenie Hut Jr's.

So, we aren't playoff material.

Ha, nice reference!

My take, this team has the potential to be a playoff team. But they are just a bit off... (have to be to get shut out as many times as they were to start the season).

 

[BUX7PHX]

We have a lot of pieces that track towards being a playoff team. I truly still believe that we are, based heavily on the defensive play. We have been there before with a lack of scoring, and while our defense has been fairly good, there are actually still improvements that can be made there as well. The record looks worse than our play, and if we can get a little juice going in November or December, similar to how we started to get things flowing in late January/early February, we still have a very reasonable chance of making the playoffs.

This has also been done without some major pieces and contributors in Galchenyuk, Dvorak (who we won't have this year), or Chychrun. We do need to shore up some small things, but I had always thought that this was going to be the year that everything kind of made sense to everyone from a system perspective (regardless of who coach is) and an experience perspective (few rookies, everyone has pretty much had a good taste of the work it takes to make it and stay within the league).

 

[WJF]

Only those that put stock in analytics and esoteric metrics...

 

[Upperdeckjet]

I don't know if your team is playoff bound, but I sure liked the look of your team against my Jets. Once you get a couple of those injured players back, I would rather not have to play you guys.

 

[CNYCrunchfan1]

No way...at least three guys short of a playoff team. The west is too hard, to many physical teams that will beat us up. We need some beef and a couple NHL caliber goal scorers.

 

[doaner]

For sure. We haven’t had a full team yet. Rants has been amazing and once chucky gets going, it’ll be a fun team to watch. Looking forward to seeing how he does tomorrow in CBJ. We’re by far a much better team this year then last and we did really well down the stretch.

 

[cobra427]

For sure. We haven’t had a full team yet. Rants has been amazing and once chucky gets going, it’ll be a fun team to watch. Looking forward to seeing how he does tomorrow in CBJ. We’re by far a much better team this year then last and we did really well down the stretch.

I am not so sure Rannta has been amazing. His .911 save percentage is lower end amongst starters. We are facing less shots as a team this year. Limiting shots is a team D and puck possession stat.

 

[cobra427]

No way...at least three guys short of a playoff team. The west is too hard, to many physical teams that will beat us up. We need some beef and a couple NHL caliber goal scorers.

Game is about speed now which we have, our PPG will go up, has to with the chances we are getting. Chances could go down too though.

 

[Name Nameless]

I am not so sure Rannta has been amazing. His .911 save percentage is lower end amongst starters. We are facing less shots as a team this year. Limiting shots is a team D and puck possession stat.

They say 27 saves against the Jets. I think they must have missed some of the shots in the bombardment there.

Not worried about Raanta.

 

[Prarievarg]

I can see us being better than 20 of the teams in this league. I can also see us being worse than 25.