Observations, Part X

[Soundgarden]

That's precisely why they're not doing it that way. Look at what happened at least partly in result -- Nashville was a hair away from moving to Hamilton and Atlanta moved to Winnipeg. Columbus never moved but certainly faced some dire financial straits as a result of being a punching bag for so long. They want to give teams the chance to compete, and I get\respect that.

Yeah, if I paid half a billion dollars, I'd expect better players than Uwe Krupp or Tony Hrkac and I love the idea of having your new teams become stable earlier, that's doing expansion right. Nobody wants to see a team go 17-62-4 or whatever. We're a big boy team now, we can handle a solid loss. It'll definitely be an interesting time leading up to the draft though.

 

[drwpreds]

Yeah, if I paid half a billion dollars, I'd expect better players than Uwe Krupp or Tony Hrkac and I love the idea of having your new teams become stable earlier, that's doing expansion right. Nobody wants to see a team go 17-62-4 or whatever. We're a big boy team now, we can handle a solid loss. It'll definitely be an interesting time leading up to the draft though.:popcorn:

Yep- other than that pesky little detail about how it affects your favorite team, I find the whole expansion draft process fascinating. Who is protected, who is not, who gets chosen, etc, etc.

 

[ILikeItILoveIt]

....... and now, back to this season and our playoff race.

We go into tonight with a Magic Number of 16.

Tonight's Rooting Card looks like this:
- Flyers over Hawks
- Oilers over Blues
- Nucks over Avs

If it goes as desired:
- Remain 5 points behind Hawks with 1 game in hand
- Remain 8 points behind Blues with 2 games in hand
- Remain 9 points ahead of Avs with 1 game in hand
- Magic Number drops to 14

Sure would be nice to catch the Hawks and send them into the Pacific as the #1 Wild Card. Then we beat the Blues and Stars leading into the Conference Finals.

Welp, that worked out pretty well except for the Avs. So the Magic Number remains at 16 but we creep toward the Top 3 in the Central.

Tonight's Rooting Card:

1. Devils over Mild
2. Preds over Isles (Captain Obvious)
3. Bolts over Stars

This would reduce our Magic Number to 15 (right now it's at 17 with the Mild),
and pull us to 6 points behind 1st place Stars with a game in hand.

As the Kings continue to scorch, they will likely be the #1 Seed, meaning the #1WC (right now us) would play the Central champs. Given the collective slides by Stars/Blues/Hawks, this ain't all bad.

 

[nine_inch_fang]

Everyone is talking about how dangerous the Kings are right now....yet we have a better record over the last 10 games and a similar record since the all star break.

Kinda reminds me of all the bellyaching about how much better Chicago would be with their trade deadline moves but look at them now.

 

[NSH615]

Welp, that worked out pretty well except for the Avs. So the Magic Number remains at 16 but we creep toward the Top 3 in the Central.

Tonight's Rooting Card:

1. Devils over Mild
2. Preds over Isles (Captain Obvious)
3. Bolts over Stars

This would reduce our Magic Number to 15 (right now it's at 17 with the Mild),
and pull us to 6 points behind 1st place Stars with a game in hand.

As the Kings continue to scorch, they will likely be the #1 Seed, meaning the #1WC (right now us) would play the Central champs. Given the collective slides by Stars/Blues/Hawks, this ain't all bad.

Shouldn't it still be currently 16 over the Avs since Minnesota has a game in hand over the Avs?

 

[NSH615]

Everyone is talking about how dangerous the Kings are right now....yet we have a better record over the last 10 games and a similar record since the all star break.

Kinda reminds me of all the bellyaching about how much better Chicago would be with their trade deadline moves but look at them now.

Let's just see how these next 3 game goes. NYI, WSH, LAK. I have a feeling that the Kings are going to complete the season sweep of us come Monday.

 

[Scoresberg]

Yo Yoshi, where's the GDT?

 

[Scoresberg]

Anyways, I want to see us gain that momentum at home we had last year till the slump. I mean no one could come at us when we were playing at the Bridge. Now, I like our chances better on the road.

8 out of 12 at home. We'll catch that divisional spot. Like 303 has said many times, we don't have to care how the other teams play, just worry about our team and keep the hot streak going.

I want to see us dominate today.

 

[Roman Yoshi]

Yo Yoshi, where's the GDT?

It's saint patrick's day, everything is moving a lil slower than normal

 

[Pred303]

We have a very tough schedule remaining, 8 home and 4 road or not. 4 very tough road games (@WSH, @DAL 2, @PIT). And 5 good teams coming in here (LAK, SJS, COL 2, NYI). Many teams with something to play for. This isn't going to be easy, we could very well play well and still go 6-6. These next three games against NYI, @WSH, LAK will basically determine whether we are chasing or being chased, and that's about as rough a stretch as you will see, all against teams with better records than us.

I have no idea what will happen by next Tuesday, but if we take 4 of these 6 points I think we will catch one of these teams ahead of us by year end.

A few random thoughts;
..I really don't care who we catch first round honestly. If we play well we can beat any given team. If we don't we can't.
..We aren't feared by any team. We have never given anyone reason to fear us. That can be an advantage.
..We are in sneak mode right now. We've closed on these teams ahead without many around the league really noticing.
..When teams (fans) dismiss us they think of Rinne having an awful year and us with no offense. Not the team we've been for the last 6 weeks.
..In years past we have almost always been at a disadvantage because teams shorten their benches come playoff time. With our top 4 d, and more scoring depth that should be less of a disadvantage.
..Games here like tonight you hope guys like Forsberg and Josi, the guys Eastern teams haven't seen much of, surprise your opponent.

Going to be exciting next two-three weeks. Just hope it's a good exciting for us.

 

[Roman Yoshi]

San Jose is my first pick, Dallas would be my second pick for potential teams with Anaheim a distant third. No idea how it will shake out, but I am not convinced LA doesn't get the number 1 seed.

 

[FossilFndr]

I like us having a tough schedule ending the season, get even more used to playoff hockey every night. Unfortunately winning against the Kings Monday is doubtful. I've got a ticket, 3rd row section 101 and we usually lose when I come to town. You should be grateful I have not been to any other games this year and won't be back till conference finals.

 

[Scoresberg]

I don't fear anything but the Kings and the Hawks. We can win those teams for sure, too.

 

[Pred303]

Man I love stretch drives when they mean a ton. Come to think of it, I just love hockey.

We just played an excellent game against a good team. Cann't ask for more than that. More tomorrow, tonight i'm just going to open a beer and enjoy it.

 

[Pred303]

We played a fine game last night, and while both good and bad things happened as they always do, it was a 60 minute type effort of a game. A few observations;

..the first goal. Neal with superior hustle, Jarnkrok with a superior pass.
..This is why you want depth in your lines. When the second cools off, the first picks it up.
..hated that first goal allowed because it was one of those non-scoring chance chances. root cause was failure to clear the puck and then losing the ensuing faceoff in our end.
..speaking of which, we lost too many defensive zone faceoffs honestly. 12 of 21. those lost faceoffs helped create many of their shots and scoring chances.
..some will blame no gaustad for that, but sissons was 3 of 6 in our zone and held his own.

..goal two. just when I was getting frustrated with the pp for failure to get any zone time. Johansen with the right pass, Ellis with a fine shot.
..goal three. Good look from Bitetto to Neal. Great fancy back pass from Neal, great shot by Johansen. loved how he used his long reach at last second to take the puck just a few inches wider and get the puck over his shoulder. A beautiful goal all around.

..much of the old "johansen doesn't hustle" argument is simply that Johansen is a big guy with slow acceleration. So often people mistake that as not hustling, when it's just he's slow from a standing start.
..their second goal to start the third hurt. Meant we had 18 minutes of worry on our hands. The guy basically broke both Fisher and then Jackmans ankles and that is a shot I know Rinne wanted back. I know I sure did. Was a bad goal to give up all the way around.

..hand it to the refs. the reversing of the Arvidsson penalty was a gutsy call. Those are the type refs I want in big games, whether the call goes for us or against us.
..I've watched thousands and thousands of hockey games and am sure I've seen similar 'corrections'. But I admit I don't remember the last time I've seen that.

..the shots that were all going in for the second line, haven't gone in these past two games.
..the Forsberg and ribeiro misses of open nets were so painful. and actually were relatively low pressured shots.

..worry about when Gaustad, Nystrom, Bourque all get healthy. lol. I just think Lavy will put them back in the lineup automatically for Sissons, Watson.
..I'm ok with Bourque taking Wilson's place for a few games to see if that doesn't wake Wilson up. So we could easily see a Bourque-Gaustad-Nystrom 4th line next week. It will be a mistake if we do though.

 

[drwpreds]

We played a fine game last night, and while both good and bad things happened as they always do, it was a 60 minute type effort of a game. A few observations;

..the first goal. Neal with superior hustle, Jarnkrok with a superior pass.
..This is why you want depth in your lines. When the second cools off, the first picks it up.
..hated that first goal allowed because it was one of those non-scoring chance chances. root cause was failure to clear the puck and then losing the ensuing faceoff in our end.
..speaking of which, we lost too many defensive zone faceoffs honestly. 12 of 21. those lost faceoffs helped create many of their shots and scoring chances.
..some will blame no gaustad for that, but sissons was 3 of 6 in our zone and held his own.

..goal two. just when I was getting frustrated with the pp for failure to get any zone time. Johansen with the right pass, Ellis with a fine shot.
..goal three. Good look from Bitetto to Neal. Great fancy back pass from Neal, great shot by Johansen. loved how he used his long reach at last second to take the puck just a few inches wider and get the puck over his shoulder. A beautiful goal all around.

..much of the old "johansen doesn't hustle" argument is simply that Johansen is a big guy with slow acceleration. So often people mistake that as not hustling, when it's just he's slow from a standing start.
..their second goal to start the third hurt. Meant we had 18 minutes of worry on our hands. The guy basically broke both Fisher and then Jackmans ankles and that is a shot I know Rinne wanted back. I know I sure did. Was a bad goal to give up all the way around.

..hand it to the refs. the reversing of the Arvidsson penalty was a gutsy call. Those are the type refs I want in big games, whether the call goes for us or against us.
..I've watched thousands and thousands of hockey games and am sure I've seen similar 'corrections'. But I admit I don't remember the last time I've seen that.

..the shots that were all going in for the second line, haven't gone in these past two games.
..the Forsberg and ribeiro misses of open nets were so painful. and actually were relatively low pressured shots.

..worry about when Gaustad, Nystrom, Bourque all get healthy. lol. I just think Lavy will put them back in the lineup automatically for Sissons, Watson.
..I'm ok with Bourque taking Wilson's place for a few games to see if that doesn't wake Wilson up. So we could easily see a Bourque-Gaustad-Nystrom 4th line next week. It will be a mistake if we do though.

Always enjoy your recap posts. I will just add one thing that I posted in the GDT that I think is worth repeating:

After giving up the early goal in the third period, we held the Islanders to ONE shot on goal for the final 18 minutes of the game. That is incredible.....

I can't imagine how frustrating it would be if we were down 1 goal and could only manage one shot on goal for almost the entire third period.

 

[Montross]

..hand it to the refs. the reversing of the Arvidsson penalty was a gutsy call. Those are the type refs I want in big games, whether the call goes for us or against us.
..I've watched thousands and thousands of hockey games and am sure I've seen similar 'corrections'. But I admit I don't remember the last time I've seen that.

I do not recall a single time I have seen a penalty reversed like that. It was quite surprising to see.

 

[drwpreds]

Central Division standings on Jan 20:
Chicago 68
Dallas 63
STL 63
Minn 52
Colorado 51
Nashville 48
Winnipeg 45

Current standings:
Dallas 93
STL 91
Chicago 88
Nashville 85
Colorado 76
Minnesota 75
Winnipeg 63

Standings since Jan 20:
Nashville 37
Dallas 30
STL 28
Colorado 25
Minnesota 23
Chicago 20
Winnipeg 18

A pretty incredible turnaround by the Preds. We have gained 17 points on the Hawks in less than 2 months.

16-4-5 record since January 20.

And we have points in 16 of the past 17 games (11-1-5). And in those 17 games, we lead the league in goals scored and have allowed just 6 power play goals, 3rd fewest in the league. (and 3 of those came in that weird NJ game- exclude that game and it is 3 allowed in 16 games).

It really is last season in reverse. Last year at this time we were in the middle of a horrible free fall. Just the opposite this year.

 

[TitansVolsPreds615]

I do not recall a single time I have seen a penalty reversed like that. It was quite surprising to see.

I made the same observation. It was the right call, just never seen it.

 

[Roman Yoshi]

Echo the thoughts about the reverse call. I've had it happen a lot in my hockey games, but never seen it at the pro level.

Great all around effort last night. The fact we limited their shots by such a significant margin in the 3rd was a good indication we are moving towards a playoff style of play. I liked it.

I also really thought Salomaki had a great game. He didn't really do anything that one would consider outstanding, but he did a great job of harassing the puck carrier when he was on the forecheck. Loved how he hit his target right by the Islander bench despite the game essentially being over (maybe 20 seconds left). Play a full 60 indeed.

RyJo and Neal had great games forechecking as well. Causing havoc and turn overs in the offensive zone.

Last thought, the Islanders are going to struggle in the playoffs if their best option in net is greasy Griess. The guy gives up so many juicy rebounds. I'd be worried.

 

[Pred303]

those are some amazing numbers drw.

 

[PredsV82]

If you think about it, our horrific record in OT is really masking how good a team we really are. Given that there is no 3 on 3 in the playoffs, I think the result is we will be a much better team than our seeding would reflect.

 

[Pred303]

without a doubt Andy

 

[drwpreds]

If you think about it, our horrific record in OT is really masking how good a team we really are. Given that there is no 3 on 3 in the playoffs, I think the result is we will be a much better team than our seeding would reflect.

Absolutely- we have pretty much had as good a season as anyone in the league excluding Washington.

I think we are flying under the radar- if I was another team the Preds are a team I would not really want to face.

I just posted something about this topic in the Around the NHL thread, but we have only 22 regulation losses, which is tied for 3rd fewest in the league.

We also have 32 regulation wins, tied for 4th most in the league- too bad that is not the standings tiebreaker, rather than ROW. It really should be considering there is no 3 on 3 in the playoffs.

Regulation wins and regulation losses are a much better indicator how good a team is when looking ahead to playoffs.

 

[David Singleton]

..worry about when Gaustad, Nystrom, Bourque all get healthy. lol. I just think Lavy will put them back in the lineup automatically for Sissons, Watson.
..I'm ok with Bourque taking Wilson's place for a few games to see if that doesn't wake Wilson up. So we could easily see a Bourque-Gaustad-Nystrom 4th line next week. It will be a mistake if we do though.

Jackman's benching in favor of Bitetto and Granberg gives me hope that it won't be that automatic, particularly if the Predators continue do play well.