Does anyone still think we're a playoff team?

[azcanuck]

I see this team built along the way of the Penguins. The Pens have so many soft perimeter players but the difference is Malkin and Crosby, arguably top 5 players in the world.
I see a lot of posts point to shots on goal and less shots against. It's good we have puck possession but what kills us is the shots from 30 feet out with no traffic and no battling in front of the net.. Goalies today are too good too be scored upon with this recipe. We got soft little perimeter players.
It's not going to change much as the year goes by. But I know we will make a push in March, it always happens.

 

[Bonsai Tree]

If there are no generational players I couldn't care where we land in the top 6. The draft is such a crap shoot. No one would have predicted that Zadina would have dropped from #2. Few saw Hayton as a our pick.

 

[mouser]

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.

That’s pretty much where I’m at right now. Need to see the injured guys back on the ice before I can really project how the rest of the season might play out.

 

[Imaravencawcaw]

That’s pretty much where I’m at right now. Need to see the injured guys back on the ice before I can really project how the rest of the season might play out.

Same here. People seem to be forgetting that Dvo was a top 5 point producer on the Coyotes, and Chucky would have been as well if he were a Coyote last year. It was a borderline playoff team with those 2, so it's going to be a struggle without them. If those kinds of injuries happen to any team outside of the top dogs you'll see some regression, that's not even mentioning a top 4 defenseman like Chychrun.

The difference this year is that the Yotes have signs of life in the analytics and pretty much every stat category besides goals for and wins. Early on last year they sucked something awful in the points column AND every other stat or analytic you wanted to look at.

 

[LuckyNumber11]

I for one still think we might challenge for a playoff spot. I don't think we get it, but I still see us as the first or second team out
I figure we can't hit the goalie in the chest all year

 

[Sinurgy]

No

 

[CNYCrunchfan1]

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.

Speed without toughness is useless..most of the league has speed now, we are not special in that regard. We have been told this fantasy that were so fast...mostly by Nash lol...well so is everyone else and their tougher and have more skill. Its good to dream though I guess.

 

[cobra427]

Speed without toughness is useless..most of the league has speed now, we are not special in that regard. We have been told this fantasy that were so fast...mostly by Nash lol...well so is everyone else and their tougher and have more skill. Its good to dream though I guess.

What is toughness anyway? Speed rules, you can't beat on guys in front of the net any more. Forechecking and completing checks is important. Have you noticed the big slow D men and power forwards are all but gone now. Speed without skill and smarts is useless, so we are young, but we have it. We just need some more finishes and we will be fine. We have skill guys now that can step up.

 

[zz]

Might not be a playoff team, but I don't expect us to stay in the basement either. Our goalie and D are fine, and it seems like there's some hard work and a decent level of skill at forward, just need some tweaking to get the occasional dirty goal. I think we'll be a bubble team, finishing just outside of it, with a mediocre draft pick.

 

[GiveAFlyingPuck]

I was hoping for 5 or 6 wins out of our 11 games in October. Currently we are only a Cousin's shootout goal ahead of last year's October.

We'll need a 4 game winning streak to get to 6 wins for the month. The only thing working in our favor is that the two home opponents this week, VAN and TBL will both be on the back end of back-to backs, both playing Vegas the night before they play us. 4 game win streaks have been hard to come by for this team. I think we'll need 10 points at the end of October to hopefully sniff the playoffs. Being in single digit points at the end of the month will be difficult to recover from.

 

[MIGs Dog]

Only 4 pts from wild card

 

[finkelsteinberg]

I'm saying yes.

 

[YotesFan47]

4-6-1 in October is ok, its manageable. We have 13 games in November, maybe we go 7-4-2 (11-10-2 in first 24).

We have 15 games in December, 7-6-2 (18-16-4 in 39 with 42pts).

2nd half of the year we get hot going 26-15-3 (44-31-7 for 95 points).

That's a pretty good season right there

 

[TheLegend]

Only 4 pts from wild card

With more than 70 games in hand....

 

[Imaravencawcaw]

Yotes have play 6 of 8 on the road, and by the end of the games today will have at least 1 game in hand on every Pacific division team except Edmonton. Nobody outside of San Jose looks even a little bit scary.

The Coyotes can make the playoffs and since they're not in the Atlantic of Central divisions there's really no excuses not to at this point. Gotta take advantage of a down year (so far) in the Pacific.

 

[Bonsai Tree]

Not sure. I think that we will come close.

 

[Grimes]

Yotes have play 6 of 8 on the road, and by the end of the games today will have at least 1 game in hand on every Pacific division team except Edmonton. Nobody outside of San Jose looks even a little bit scary.

The Coyotes can make the playoffs and since they're not in the Atlantic of Central divisions there's really no excuses not to at this point. Gotta take advantage of a down year (so far) in the Pacific.

EDM will always be a coin toss and right now look on the right side of things. They had that Eurpoe stint and have the best player in the world. Anything can happen for them.

Flames are solid. Better team than us on paper. But just like us a couple key injuries could put them away. Ibfeel they have more top end talent but less depth. Winning the majority of our games agains them could go a long way.

SJ will make the playoffs.

Vegas and the ducks are going to need amazing goaltending. The Ducks more than Vegas.

Can never count the Kings out.

The Central is so stacked. We need to hope for a top three spot in the division. Right now I see SJ getting a spot for sure. Vegas, Flames and EDM have a very good shot. Us the Ducks and L.A all have a shot too. It's not impossible in a weak division.

 

[MIGs Dog]

Yotes have play 6 of 8 on the road.

Right, and both home games were Saturday Kachina games. Time to ditch the Kachina. It's cursed.

 

[cobra427]

EDM will always be a coin toss and right now look on the right side of things. They had that Eurpoe stint and have the best player in the world. Anything can happen for them.

Flames are solid. Better team than us on paper. But just like us a couple key injuries could put them away. Ibfeel they have more top end talent but less depth. Winning the majority of our games agains them could go a long way.

SJ will make the playoffs.

Vegas and the ducks are going to need amazing goaltending. The Ducks more than Vegas.

Can never count the Kings out.

The Central is so stacked. We need to hope for a top three spot in the division. Right now I see SJ getting a spot for sure. Vegas, Flames and EDM have a very good shot. Us the Ducks and L.A all have a shot too. It's not impossible in a weak division.

Agree that san jose looks like a lock to make the playoffs. Outside of that, it is hard to say. We certainly have a shot this year. We aren't being out played so far overall and our GAA is low.

Oilers-have Mcjesus, so maybe, but not much else
Canucks-Look weak on paper, they are the longest shot
Vegas-everything went right last year, could regress and miss, injuries or things go wrong
Ducks-fortunate to have the points so far, they are being outplayed mostly, could miss
Kings-Vet team, one last shot or are they over the hill now
Flames-Pretty good on paper but plenty of question marks like Smitty

 

[Bonsai Tree]

Right, and both home games were Saturday Kachina games. Time to ditch the Kachina. It's cursed.

Just, no.

 

[BUX7PHX]

Just, no.

How many playoff series did we win with the Kachina?

(I seriously joke, as these are the best sweaters ever, but yes, it would be nice to have success while wearing them)

And not to jinx it - can't say that this is more gut feel than anything else (not being privy to any sort of insider information or anything like that) - but I think that this could be a special year. Probably a little less likely with the injury to Dvorak, as he and Fischer were the two players that I had my eye on to take that next development step. But when I suggested going over 100 points in the season predictions thread, I still think that we are closer to that than being an 84-90 point team.

 

[Grimes]

It's a long season and there will be ebbs and flows, so it will be important to capitalize on tired teams. We have the Canucks and TBL coming off b2b's against Vegas. We need to capitalize on these. A win vs Canucks and an OTL vs TBL would be a very good way in doing so.

 

[OriginalJetsCoyotes]

We got to change this to "Does anyone still think we're not a playoff team?"

I'm all in, we got this!

 

[Name Nameless]

Play-off team?

 

[MIGs Dog]

If every home game opponent parties in Vegas the night before were a shoe in