Order of which I would prefer my team to preform.
- Win cup
- Compete for cup. (win 1+ rounds of playoffs)
- Tank for high draft picks.
- First round playoff exit
- Bad team but not horrible. (11-14th in conference)
- Miss playoffs by a couple points. (9-10th in conference)
I might be alone here, but I would prefer the team to tank for a couple years and get some star prospect players rather than barely squeak into the playoffs only to lose 1st round, or miss the POs by a couple points.
IMO mediocrity play now will get us mediocre draft picks, which will keep us being a mediocre team. If your team does not have a legitimate chance to win the cup, you should be rebuilding. The exception to this being you have young talent/stars that are getting experience and improving and the team is on a trajectory to compete for the cup within a few years.
#3... Tanking guarantees nothing but lost revenue from a reduced fan base. Also, DW has said they won't do that type of full rebuild.
DW has in the past traded mediocre trade players and picks for far better players. Doesn't mean it's a guarantee to happen again but counting on high picks to save the franchise carries a lot of risk in and of itself too.
remember when the Sharks lost twice to Colorado by a score of 10-3?
And that matters how? They were never going to challenge Co IMO and I never said they would. I actually said I would be surprised if they even take a point in any game against the Avs this season. So yea... not sure what your point is. No one is saying they're challenging for the division title man.
They added that last week in Friday news dump fashion.
Yeah I think Randy mentioned it or I wouldn't have known it was a new development.
Don't worry. The B1G will change the rules to let them in... oh wait sorry wrong sport.
No idea what that references...?
I honestly think the NHL would look at which markets would miss the playoffs over something like that before making a decision like would be made. What should have happened is the NHL should have put a maximum on th amount of games a team can have postponed due to covid before being forced to forfeit before the season began. Preferably 0.
While points are points, how we get points matters for our long term outlook too. As great as we have been in shootouts, that kind of luck can't continue. We need to get better results in regulation or those points could easily stop coming.
Agreed that they should have pre established how the standing would work out if teams miss a ton of games or play different numbers of games. Maybe there will be a play in round like last season.
Obviously they can't expect to only win in shoot outs. My opinion which has been stated over and over is that a higher level of consistency and execution is still coming. They haven't played their best hockey yet. So far they've been lucky to have more than 2 or 3 of their top players going at once. Most are showing signs of getting up to speed though. Meier and Hertl have both taken strides and Couture, Donato, Kane and to a certain degree Labanc are kind of carrying the forward group as far as producing chances. I don't know about Coutures advanced stats but he's got 10 points in 11 games. Evander has 9 in 11. Donato has 7 and he was almost an after thought 3rd liner prior to the season. Donato on a 50 point pace right now (based on 82 game season). That's great production on a team that has a non existent PP. Any of these other guys (including EK65) start to produce and they'll start winning more games in regulation. There is another gear that this team has played at yet as far as offense and frankly defense.
As far as BB lineup decisions... Other than continuing to play Jones, which has actually worked in many cases due to his lightfoot performances in the Shoot out, he's done most of what I personally wanted. Simek is with EK65 and that has helped at least fix the EK65 pairing and they aren't bleeding goals. Vlasic has been limited to 3rd pair and PK minutes and is probably being carried by Knyzhov which helps. And the you have Burns and Ferraro who can act as a shut down pair while still allowing Burns to put up 7 points in 11 games so far. Again with no PP production. This is pretty much exactly what I expected and what I was hoping for. They tread water until everyone finds their game and learns how to apply their game within the system. Now if they can fix the 2nd period let downs they might actually challenge for the 3rd spot and not just the 4th spot.
I thought Jones played a decent game, better than the .889SV% tells. One goal was on the power play, and the other two goals came about because defensemen made poor choices. Burns let Kopitar get behind him to score on a break away. Karlsson gave up on Bjornot (sp?) and let him turn the corner and go unchallenged behind the net which he took maximum advantage up setting up the IQ challenged Brown to score.
That brown goal was entirely stoppable and wasn't a bad play by ek
I think that was mostly Simek fault but Jones definitely takes some blame there. EK65 did exactly what you hope a d-man does. One of the rare times where I thought EK65 actually looked like he was doing the right thing in a one on one defensive situation. Drove him wide and behind the net and didn't let him feed it in from on the rush side. He's not supposed to chase the guy behind the net at that point. He's supposed to go net front and Simek was supposed to pick up Brown coming in behind. They'l watch film of that and I bet Simek doesn't mess that up again.
Also Balcers has done a whole lot of nothing. Not to degrade our savior.
I'm fine being patient with him. He's starting from scratch with the system and the players. Think about how TDL acquisitions struggle at first typically. I mean except Kane. He was liberated. So far Balcers hasn't hurt the team and his positioning in the offensive zone has been right there for some near great opportunities. Once he gets to move up in the line up I think the dam breaks for him.
