Matias Maccete
Chopping up defenses
- Sep 21, 2014
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I can be fan as much as anyone else and I certainly understand looking through rose colored glasses but in order for this team to exceed 70.5 points they would have to win 30 games, (30-41-11). Who is this roster beating 30 times? Arizona Coyotes had a established lineup last year, somehow managed to win 30 games, and they still couldn’t reach 71 points. Can you compare this Knights' roster to Vrbata, Ekman-Larrson, Dvorak, Hanzal, Domi, Goligoski, Rieder, Doan, Perlini, Burmistrov, Duclair, etc.?
Keep in mind there will be injuries to the few decent pieces Vegas has. Who takes their place when these guys hit the IR? They will also be unloading any and all come trade dead line. No question all this franchise wants, at this point, is as many draft picks as possible. The team that starts the season probably will be better than the team that finishes.
Knights don't hit 60 points.
That list is somewhat deceiving, Domi missed significant time, Dvorak got crap ice time the first half of the season, Perlini didn't play until later in the season, gogo was awful for most of the year, Doan was a shell, Duke was pretty bad and being used very poorly, even OEL had a rough year dealing with injuries and a death in the family. We didn't have Burmistov all season, and he was good but not great anyway. I also think the coyotes were very poorly coached last year, and I think they should've had more wins. Basically I think that list of players is less impressive than you might think, and I also think you're looking at a point total that was lower than it should've been.
Honestly after you factor all those things in I'm not sure the Knights are any worse talent wise than last year's coyotes. The Knights forward group is much better IMO, goaltending is probably better, but D core is probably much worse. It's hard to be certain though, our d coach was brutal so it may end up being closer than personnel would indicate. When you see OEL and Goligoski leading the list you'd think it's at least a decent group but as I said above they were very poorly coached IMO. It's still possible you're right and the Knights don't crack 60, but I just don't think I'd use last year's coyotes as a measuring stick.
This reads almost conforntional I think, and I'm not intending it to be. I just don't think last year's coyotes team is an effective way to predict what may happen with the Knights. I do think you're almost certainly correct about the roster being better now than when the season ends, the Knights could have a pretty rough post TDL stretch depending on who they move.