How your team is doing, and why

[Empoleon8771]

The Penguins have been alright. They've had issues with team defense and ES on the year (team defense issues have gone away for the most part), but even with those issues, they have 33 points in 28 games after having a pretty tough schedule to start the year (played a ton of road games and back to back games). I think they had 15 of 25 games on the road to star the year, with 6 back to back games in that sequence (with 5 of 6 2nd games being on the road). I think they've been fine considering that.

Although then again, the Penguins record when they fired Mike Johnston in 2015 was the exact same as it is now (15-10-3), so maybe they are in trouble

 

[VoluntaryDom]

TJ Brodie has been struggling immensely and has single handily cost the Flames a few games this year. Dougie Hamilton and Travis Hamonic have also struggled. It's hard to tell if they can bounce back as GG refuses to try different pairings or switching sides. Especially when it comes to Brodie who excelled when paired with Gio on the other side.

Huh. Hamilton is good enough to bounce back and I suspect Brodie is too but Hamonic might just not be good anymore.

 

[Gurilla]

Doing fantastic. Mainly due to health and goaltending. Still lots of room for improvement.

 

[bukwas]

Leafs are doing alright due to good coaching, depth and Andersen.

 

[CantLoseWithMatthews]

Leafs are doing okay but could be better. Matthews is playing great. Rielly, Andersen, Brown, Kadri, Nylander, and Marner, JVR, Hainsey are all doing great for us. Moore, Bozak, Komarov, Gardiner, Martin, and Zaitsev have been disappointing though. Hyman is in both groups

 

[VanIsle]

With the Bruins as now the 3rd most injured team in the league, they were at 2 for a long time, I would have to say not bad. Won 6 of their last 7 and close to a playoff spot if they win tonight they are 3rd in the Atlantic.

 

[VoluntaryDom]

Leafs are doing okay but could be better. Matthews is playing great. Rielly, Andersen, Brown, Kadri, Nylander, and Marner, JVR, Hainsey are all doing great for us. Moore, Bozak, Komarov, Gardiner, Martin, and Zaitsev have been disappointing though. Hyman is in both groups

I agree.

Idk why there's the impression that Nylander and Marner have been bad this season.

 

[CantLoseWithMatthews]

I agree.

Idk why there's the impression that Nylander and Marner have been bad this season.

both have had weak stretches and dominant stretches imo. Nylander looks better than last year but I still expect more from him. Marner looks about the same

 

[Do or Die]

Jets:

1. Goaltending
Many of us said the last 2 years (and not believed by many) that this team, with decent+ goal tending would easily make the playoffs. We are getting it, in spades from Helly.

2. Depth
Chevy has patiently (some would say too much so) built up the team and farm, through good drafting.
A scary top 6, an very underrated checking line (Tanev, Copp, Lowry) and 4th line beasts in Perreault and Armia. With no Trouba holdout, Myers successful return from injury, and the addition of Kulikov - Jets can also go 7 deep on D. They just wear teams down with speed, size and skill..... all up and down the lineup.

3. Upside up front
The Chief and Wheeler are giving the team elite performance.....but things can actually get even better - Laine, Ehlers, and Connor are just scratching the surface in terms of what they can do, going forward. All these guys have major skill tool sets. Jack Roslovic is killing it in the AHL, right now.

4. Powerplay
From near the bottom...... to near the top, this year. Teams are now paying a price for trying to slow down this team with infractions

 

[TheKingPin]

Flyers started out playing great. Fast northward hockey. Had a few injuries and a lot of bad calls by the coach. The rookies have made some rookie plays as expected. A few went in to the net and some of those lost us games. As of late they have played uninspired hockey likely indicating the coach has completely lost the team after playing a d oriented style that values games played over skill or chance to win. Guys like Brandon Manning get close to leading us in icetime. That’s in games we are losing. He also uses manning in OT. The last game Konecny had several breakaways and was trying as he does most nights with zero support and that earned him 00:36 of ice time in the third. This team goes no where with this coach.

 

[MinimaMoralia]

The Oilers struggles are well documented. Injuries, individual regression, questionable coaching desicions and the shedding of scoring depth have them where they are. With Talbot out for a few weeks, it'll probably get worse before it gets better.
That being said, they have managed to find secondary scoring more often in recent times, Pulju is looking like he's about to break out, and MCD is healthy and looking like he did last year. If they can keep afloat until Talbot and Sekera come back, there's a chance they could still make a bit of noise.

 

[nbwingsfan]

The Wings are actually doing better than expected (most expected bottom 3-5) but we will still miss the playoffs for the expected reason.

We have the worst group of D and I'm actually both excited/terrified to see how laughably bad that group is once Green is traded near the TD.

Mrazek won't be with the team next year and Howard has come back to reality after a strong start.

Larkin and Mantha are by far our best players which is encouraging... but things are bleak.

 

[Dumais]

CBJ, doing meh

The bad
Goal scoring down & PP sucks,
Top 2 goal scorers is:
Anderson 10g (age23).
Werenski 8g (age20).


The good
Bob being BOB
14guys pushing double digits in points.
Torts not on the hot seat.

 

[SladeWilson23]

Devils are doing good despite the awful system Hynes runs. The thing with the Devils is that they haven't been fully healthy for one game yet the entire season. Schneider, Palmieri, Johansson, Zajac, Boyle, and Mueller have all missed / or currently missing significant amount of games, and they're still doing good. This team has shown it can be good offensively, and they've shown they can be good defensively. Problem is they haven't shown the ability to be good at the same time.

The reason they've been good is definitely because the kids have been good out of the gate. The veterans have been decent, but not at their best which gives me reason to be optimistic. Once the vets hit their groove, it'll take some of the pressure off the kids and hopefully provide a safety net for when the kids eventually slow down. Also Brian Gibbons has been shot out of a cannon.

 

[CorgisPer60]

Rangers - Pretty good. Exactly as expected: all offense, no defense.

How recent is this? The entire season to date? Shit, if that's the case, then the Jets are doing better in the advanced metrics than I thought as of late, if they're overcoming their earlier projected "bad" trajectory by this degree.

 

[LEAFANFORLIFE23]

Toronto is doing great, they are challenging Tampa for 1st in the east and the NHL, and all Tampa has to do is go on a mini slump and Toronto can take over that spot.

The reason is simple, it's the scoring depth and and the goaltending, at least in terms of the starter

Think about it, Matthews has 13 goals, Kadri has 13 goals, JVR has 13 goals Marleau has 10 goals, well he has 9 goals and 1 goal Kris Russell scored that Marleau got credit for, Brown has 8 goals

When you have that kind of depth you are going to win a lot of games, combine that with a goalie playing like Andersen is and you have a good team.

But it's not just that it's the reserves, they have quality players that cannot get into the lineup, I don't see much in Josh Leivo myself, but guys like Kapenan, and Soshnikov are good players that can't get into the lineup because there is to much depth.

If the Leafs can get on a run, and they have proven they can they already have 3 different 3+ game win streaks oe being 6 games, and Tampa stumbles just a bit Toronto has the chance to take over top spot in the east, possibly the NHL.

 

[Trap Jesus]

Injuries have been a legit excuse so far for Boston. They're finally close to full health now so we'll see.

 

[Mickey Marner]

What an awesome gif

 

[aufheben]

How recent is this? The entire season to date? ****, if that's the case, then the Jets are doing better in the advanced metrics than I thought as of late, if they're overcoming their earlier projected "bad" trajectory by this degree.

Sorry, yes, that's from Dec 1st. This is just Corsi differential for the Jets:

Sean Tierney (@ChartingHockey) | Twitter

 

[Szechwan]

Vancouver is better than last year and actually fairly fun to watch for once... but as expected, they're still not very good.

They're better because Boeser and Horvat have been pretty damn impressive thus far, and the team-- while lacking high end talent -- works it's ass off most nights.

I expect they'll finish the year just outside the bottom 5 in league though, when all is said and done. Goalies have been a bit of rollercoaster.

 

[Kevin27NYI]

Isles are doing great because they have a lot of offensive weapons. The top 6 is insane, two first lines.

 

[FlamesFan18]

Playing how I expected them to play but yet I am still disappointed.

Better than expected: Gaudreau, Monahan, Ferland, Smith

As expected: Giordano, Tkachuk, Backlund, Hamilton, Frolik, Jankowski, LW Bennett, Jagr, Kulak

Disappointing: Stone, Brouwer, Lazar, Versteeg, Brodie (awesome start but has lost all confidence playing with Hamonic)

Very disappointing: Hamonic (I expected this but because we traded an unprotected 1st I had hoped he would be what we paid for), C Bennett

Didn't expect anything from the rest.

 

[HanSolo]

Ducks: send help. Half the team is dead and Bieksa is the worst version of himself he's ever been.

Vegas: sort of coming down from the incredible start. They're not competing as hard and Subban is off his hot start since the injury.

 

[Alexander the Gr8]

Caps: The team is doing okay considering all the injuries early in the season and the talent lost last summer. We were in trouble but it seems the team finally turned around.

 

[Mr Positive]

The Oilers have been bad this year, and now we have injuries, and are somehow winning more. I think this means that at least some of our issues are psychological, or maybe that the team just needed a shakeup, even if some talented players aren't on the roster atm

This season feels like it will be a journey