Pre-Game Talk: Honest Expectations for the Playoffs

[drwpreds]

That schedule is complete garbage- the absolute worst case scenario for out of town fans like me. So the poor Ducks need extra time off for having to play Sunday, huh??? Give me a break.

They get 3 weekend games, we get 0. Just scanning the other series, as far as dates and game times we probably drew the worst schedule of anyone in the league. 14 of 16 teams have at least 1 weekend date on the schedule.

And its ironic, for awhile I was actually hoping for Anaheim because of the chance it would start on Wednesday and give us a possible Sunday home game in game 3.

Now I am pulling hard for the Sharks to knock LA out as payback for them choking that Winnipeg game....

Oh well.......

 

[Gnashville]

LA is 10-1 in playoff series since 2011 and the only loss is to Chicago in the WCF. Let's beat the Ducks and hope the Sharks can weaken or beat the Kings.

 

[LCPreds]

What an awful schedule. Tuesday night at 8:30??? What a joke.

 

[NSH615]

What an awful schedule. Tuesday night at 8:30??? What a joke.

Chicago and St. Louis have it as well. It is to please NBC and the East Coast.

 

[drwpreds]

There are 2 series that will have 2 games completed by the time the Preds/Ducks get going. And one series features games on back to back nights- and it involves a team that had to play tonight, just like the Ducks did.

Yet the Ducks can't play on Wednesday and get almost 5 days off to "recover" from their game today.....

Ridiculous

 

[drwpreds]

What an awful schedule. Tuesday night at 8:30??? What a joke.

Completely. Being in Birmingham I am not sure how I am going to be able to make that work- may have some tickets for sale soon....

 

[LCPreds]

Chicago and St. Louis have it as well. It is to please NBC and the East Coast.

That's even worse.

 

[Osprey]

It's simple. One of the potential matchups was a team that tends to choke during the regular season and turn otherworldly in the playoffs and the other matchup is a team that tends to be otherworldly in the regular season and choke in the playoffs. It's a little amazing, to be honest, that a few of you wanted the former so badly and are disappointed in getting the latter.

Anaheim is terrible in Games 6 and 7. In three straight postseasons now, they've had 3-2 leads and choked away both opportunities to put them away, losing in 7 all three times. Their record in Game 6s since 2011 is 1-4 and their record in Game 7s is 0-3. If the Preds can make a series of this and get it to a Game 6, they'll have a real chance.

 

[Drake744]

Starting on Friday is complete crap. Plain and simple.

Chicago and St. Louis have it as well. It is to please NBC and the East Coast.

Everything in this country revolves around pleasing the east coast.

 

[drwpreds]

It's simple. One of the potential matchups was a team that tends to choke during the regular season and turn otherworldly in the playoffs and the other matchup is a team that tends to be otherworldly in the regular season and choke in the playoffs. It's a little amazing, to be honest, that a few of you wanted the former so badly and are disappointed in getting the latter.

Anaheim is terrible in Games 6 and 7. In three straight postseasons now, they've had 3-2 leads and choked away both opportunities to put them away, losing in 7 all three times. Their record in Game 6s since 2011 is 1-4 and their record in Game 7s is 0-3. If the Preds can make a series of this and get it to a Game 6, they'll have a real chance.

It is just the way this board rolls. I guarantee you if we had gotten LA, the same doom and gloomers would be on here talking about how unbeatable LA and Quick are in the playoffs, and that we had no chance against them either.....

 

[predfan24]

Ah yes- here come the doom and gloomers, right on schedule.

So let me get this straight- now that the matchup is set, everyone is suddenly acting like it was clear cut choice for us to prefer the Kings, is that right? A Kings team that is picked by almost every expert as one of 3 favorites to win the Cup (Hawks and Caps). And the Ducks are so superior that we are getting swept......

Some of you guys never cease to crack me up. Anaheim is a great team, no argument there. We very well may lose to them, would not surprise me in the least. But we are a good enough team that we can absolutely stack up with them. It you think they are that much worse of a matchup for us than LA, or that the Ducks are a far superior team than us, then I don't know what to tell you. Don't agree with either of those statements....

I am far from a doom and gloomer. I am a very logical person. I don't like this match up. I didn't change my mind when this happened. I was hoping LA would win yesterday as I see them as being a more beatable team at this point. I can see our defense and Rinne having problems with their forward corps. This isn't the Ducks of old. They have nice depth everywhere along to go along with Getz and Perry. The D lacks a true standout #1 but it has several high quality young players.

They have been hot for months and IMO are right up there with the Hawks and Kings as the favs in the west. The Preds are going to have to play really well and goaltending is going to have to be on point all series long. I do not trust Rinne.

Anything can happen. The greatest sports moments are made when least expected. Hope the Preds prove me wrong but I don't have a good feeling. Again, time will tell.

 

[drwpreds]

Agree. I now believe that we will be swept by the Ducks.

Come on man- there is no logical reason to look at these two teams and see that it is so lopsided that it will be a sweep.

That prediction is right up there with your "we will be lucky to make the playoffs" one......

 

[BonMorrison]

Bring it on, Ducks.

 

[NSH615]

Come on man- there is no logical reason to look at these two teams and see that it is so lopsided that it will be a sweep.

It doesn't have to be so lopsided to be a sweep. If they lose by 1 in each game, that isn't lopsided. And to echo what others have said this is a different Ducks team than we played in Oct/Nov. I just don't like this match up at all.

That prediction is right up there with your "we will be lucky to make the playoffs" one......

Again you keep taking this comment out of context. I said if they keep playing the way they were at that time, they would be lucky to make the playoffs.

 

[drwpreds]

I am far from a doom and gloomer. I am a very logical person. I don't like this matchup. I can see our defense and Rinne having problems with their forward corps. This isn't the Ducks of old. They have nice depth everywhere along to go along with Getz and Perry. The D lacks a true standout #1 but it has several high quality young players.

They have been hot for months and IMO are right up there with the Hawks and Kings as the favs in the west. The Preds are going to have to play really well and goaltending is going to have to be on point all series long. I do not trust Rinne.

Anything can happen. The greatest sports moments are made when least expected. Hope the Preds prove me wrong but I don't have a good feeling. Again, time will tell.

I don't feel great about the matchup either- the Ducks are a great team. I am not even saying that I expect us to win. I am just referring to those predicting a sweep and that we basically have no chance.

The Preds are pretty darn good, too, and in fact a pretty underrated one in my opinion. Line up the 2 rosters side by side and tell me where the Ducks have such an advantage that we have no chance. If we get good goaltending (and I know that can be a big if) we can stack up with anyone.

 

[drwpreds]

Again you keep taking this comment out of context. I said if they keep playing the way they were at that time, they would be lucky to make the playoffs.

With qualifiers like that you can never be wrong about anything.

When you made that comment we were red hot and in the middle of a great streak of winning hockey. It made no sense then and still doesn't today.

And anyone predicting this series based on the fact that we beat them twice in October is a fool- that has zero bearing on anything.

 

[RCola88]

It's simple. One of the potential matchups was a team that tends to choke during the regular season and turn otherworldly in the playoffs and the other matchup is a team that tends to be otherworldly in the regular season and choke in the playoffs. It's a little amazing, to be honest, that a few of you wanted the former so badly and are disappointed in getting the latter.

Anaheim is terrible in Games 6 and 7. In three straight postseasons now, they've had 3-2 leads and choked away both opportunities to put them away, losing in 7 all three times. Their record in Game 6s since 2011 is 1-4 and their record in Game 7s is 0-3. If the Preds can make a series of this and get it to a Game 6, they'll have a real chance.

I say this every year to my self, but the past has no impact on right now. I hate this part about sports, its a different team, and I think the Ducks could put a series away against us.

 

[RCola88]

I see this going to 7 and depth scoring is the key. Rinne will play well enough to keep it even, but I am leaning towards the Predators because of Forsberg's play right now. He gives us two threating lines, and here's to hoping Willy can up his game

 

[Gnashville]

I say this every year to my self, but the past has no impact on right now. I hate this part about sports, its a different team, and I think the Ducks could put a series away against us.

Yes and no. But the trend is always bet on experience and will. The Predators have almost no one with game 7 type experience or long playoff runs and have a history of folding when the going gets tough. I expect the same.
At some point they are going to have to face their playoff demons and become clutch at least starting with a team they have beaten in the past will help exercise those ghosts.

 

[Osprey]

I say this every year to my self, but the past has no impact on right now. I hate this part about sports, its a different team, and I think the Ducks could put a series away against us.

What happened in past postseasons absolutely has relevance. Some teams have "it" in the postseason and step it up and some teams don't and choke. We've seen this plenty of times. For example, look at Washington being at least 0-4 in Game 7s, LA being 4-0 in theirs and St.Louis never getting past the 2nd round, despite everyone saying that it's a "different team" each year. Having a few different players doesn't change team psychology. That doesn't change so easily. What made you choke in the past doesn't just disappear because you changed a few players on the team.

It's like giving a speech to a room full of people and it being a disaster. The next time that you have to give a speech, even if you rehearsed extra and feel much more confident, as soon as you get up to the podium and see everyone staring at you, what made you choke before will affect you to at least some degree. If you had to bet money on who will give the best speech and your options are a speaker coming off a few great speeches and a speaker who crashed and burned during his last few speeches, but he's a "different person" now, would you really consider betting on the latter because you believe that the past has no impact?

That's not unlike what can go on in the playoffs. The playoffs are a stage under bright lights and in front of the whole hockey-watching world. Teams can be extra anxious, get slightly away from their games, commit more errors, get more down when things are going badly and things can snowball. When you get to the playoffs again, what led to all of those things happening before wouldn't have simply disappeared, and, now, you have to cope with the memory of last time and the temptation to slip into thinking "here we go again" when things seem to repeat themselves.

Any team can overcome its mental hurdles at any time, but they're still hurdles to overcome. The Preds have their own, since they have don't have much experience with Games 6 or 7s, but the point is that the Ducks have their own issues with those same games, so it may be a wash and either team's series if the Preds can push it that far.

 

[sparkle twin]

I wanted to play the Kings, I just felt that we had success against them lately, and the Ducks have just been running through teams for the last 3 months.

Then again, personally, I'm happy I won't have to hear the announcers slobbering all over the most perfect defenseman to have ever existed, walks on water himself, Drew Doughty for 7 games.

Now that it's officially the Ducks, I just want someone to put Kessler on his ass. I'm afraid he might goad Joey or Neal into stupid penalties.

There are 2 series that will have 2 games completed by the time the Preds/Ducks get going. And one series features games on back to back nights- and it involves a team that had to play tonight, just like the Ducks did.

Yet the Ducks can't play on Wednesday and get almost 5 days off to "recover" from their game today.....

Ridiculous

A few years ago this exact scenario happened to us. I can't remember who we played but we started on Friday and there were teams that had completed 2 games before we even started our first. I want to say that it was against Anaheim as well, but I can't remember for sure.



The worst part of our schedule is that there is no extra day built in for travel later in the series. Almost every other series IN THE EAST has an extra day in there, most between games 4/5 or 5/6 or 6/7. We have to travel across the country and don't get an extra day anywhere! Meanwhile, Pittsburgh/NYRangers get 2 days off between 1/2 AND 2/3.

 

[Scoresberg]

Reg season 14th vs reg season 6th.
Horrible Rinne vs the best goalie tandem in the league.
Ducks are the hottest team since Christmas. They have the best special teams in the league which is unbelievable.

I wanted the Kings. Although, I like that we are the underdogs and no one believes in us but the only way we are going to win this series is if Rinne shows up to play again. No easy goals can be allowed. Rinne has to be the man.

Honest prediction: Look at last year's ANA vs WPG series. WPG put up a hell of a fight but in the end ANA was just so much better that it didn't matter. We fight and fight and maybe take one game but in the end the power of the Ducks will just roll over us and the Ducks will advance. 4-1.

 

[wadesworld]

Honest prediction: Look at last year's ANA vs WPG series. WPG put up a hell of a fight but in the end ANA was just so much better that it didn't matter. We fight and fight and maybe take one game but in the end the power of the Ducks will just roll over us and the Ducks will advance. 4-1.

Dang. Why do we even worry about making the playoffs then? Let's just save ourselves the stress of having to play teams we clearly have no chance against and go play golf or something.

 

[deanwormer]

Honest prediction: Look at last year's ANA vs WPG series. WPG put up a hell of a fight but in the end ANA was just so much better that it didn't matter. We fight and fight and maybe take one game but in the end the power of the Ducks will just roll over us and the Ducks will advance. 4-1.

You are really comparing the Preds to last years win-a-pig team? what games have you been watching? The Preds - though wildly inconsistent over the season - are better than last years version - which gave the eventual cup champs their best series; WPG - last years Mild, limping in cause someone has to. We roll 2 pairs better than any they had; we roll 2 lines as good as anything they could have and then a legit 3rd if Fish is healthy. Not even close.

Is ANA better than last year? Well, they've been on a roll for sure, but they aren't as good as last years Hawks. I'm not quite ready to predict we'll win, but I know darned well we aren't going down in a pathetic heap.

 

[Drake744]

.
A few years ago this exact scenario happened to us. I can't remember who we played but we started on Friday and there were teams that had completed 2 games before we even started our first. I want to say that it was against Anaheim as well, but I can't remember for sure.

I think it was 2010 vs Chicago. I remember I was moving back from Florida and I was glad that I had the extra days to get back to town so I didn't really have to rush.