This past playoffs we played against 2 Canadian teams that had been lacking playoff experience and took advantage of that. If Kings make the playoffs and we have to play them we will have a much tougher series the same would go with the Sharks rebounding and making playoffs as well. If having to play the Flames again they should be better with the playoff experience they gained as well as some improvement to the roster like Hamilton and Frolik joining the team. It should be a harder run to the conference finals this time around.
Hopefully the Ducks are able to be healthy for the playoffs and are better at showing killer instinct no more damn 3 - 2 blown series leads. Still have my doubts about the Ducks winning the Cup or even making the Stanley Cup finals.
I think, all things being equal, the Kings would be in tough against us. We're far deeper. They have the best player in Doughty and the better goaltender in Quick, but there's just not enough there otherwise. They're not like Chicago. If the Kings were to win, it would be because we collapsed late series again. We'd lose to anybody then. Also, the Flames were no challenge. They'd need an almighty improvement to be a threat.
I also take a little issue with the idea that we're an average defensive team. I think that's what the numbers look like, but that's a bit misleading. When they play the system, the team is exceptional defensively. The problem was those period-long breakdowns where everyone decided to just hump doorknobs rather than cover their assignments. Anecdotally, I feel like we gave up goals in bunches. I haven't done any numbers analysis or anything. But I feel like the Ducks defending was like shutting a watertight door on a damaged boat. A whole ******** of water gets in while you're struggling to close the door, but once it's closed, nothing gets in, and then the only question is how far you sank in the mean time.
