what is your team's biggest concern heading into playoffs?

[Hoek]

Is Vasi really back? He's gonna have to cover for the brain farts our D is still prone to from time to time. That and making sure we can score enough 5on5.

 

[Mav3rick07]

Goaltending. Skinners been playing well enough now, but if he poops again in the playoffs, then that's it for Oilers in playoffs.

Yup. And as good as Pickard's been, I wouldn't trust Pickard in a seven game series against Vegas or Colorado.

 

[Commander Clueless]

Leafs:

The defense, goaltending and special teams.


Also the offense and coaching.



Oh and that lingering curse from that witch that one time.

 

[BlueAzN]

That we have the tensile strength of butter

 

[The Hockey Tonk Man]

what's your team's biggest issue/question heading into the playoffs?

bruins have a bunch of them:

-lack of offensive depth behind pastrnak
-PP has been terrible
-how will the goalie situation be handled
-will thin center group get exposed

they had a physicality issue about a month ago but they at least seem equipped to handle that now

Holding a lead is another one
But they’ve been a little better at that lately

 

[Clint Eastwood]

The pessimism about the Panthers is interesting to read. I still view them as a huge threat come playoff time and one of the favorites to go the cup finals coming out of the East. Despite the cold start, I would still not want to draw them round 1.

 

[hn777]

Coaching for the Jets.

Bowness is looking for any excuse to go back to Connor - Scheifele - X
A line which has been outplayed and outscored over many years now.

Stick with the present topline Ehlers - Scheifele - X (being Vilardi atm.)
This topline configuration has outplayed and outscored opposition at an almost 2:1 ratio over the last three seasons.

In general, I hope Bowness builds lines on chemistry, and not stubbornness to stick with a fixed system if it isn't working.

 

[Miro4Norris]

Pittsburgh : should I request holiday from work only for one week during the Stanley cup finals or should I do it for two weeks if it gets to game 6-7?

 

[Giguere27]

Ducks:

- special teams
- accumulated injuries to (young) core players

 

[EbonyRaptor]

Whether I'll still be alive whenever the Hawks finally get into the playoffs.

 

[frisco]

Fortunately, trouba still has the upside of “series altering clean hits” to make up for it.

Not too mention the series altering dirty hits in which he excels.

My Best-Carey

 

[CookiesAndMilk]

EDM players said "Cup or bust" at the beginning of the season. My biggest concern is that they will choose "bust"come playoffs. That won't be good.

 

[Bouboumaster]

Lack of depth up front

Severe - and I mean Severe - lack of talent on defense duty

A bit unstable goaltending

Severe lack of playoffs

 

[Duder54]

Oilers fan.

- Defence
- Goaltending

 

[hangman005]

I'm going with showing up, even if they make it they still might not actually show up.

 

[miscs75]

Whether I'll still be alive whenever the Hawks finally get into the playoffs.

Uncle Gary will make sure that happens sooner than you think. At the rate it’s going, Chicago will be back in before Buffalo, Ottawa or Philly. We can’t have Connor Bedard miss out on the big dance for too long, it’s not good for ESPN+ and it’s blackout viewers.

 

[Spilot23]

Avs :
- Team defense (Makar and Toews need to lead the pack, they've been awful defensively)
- Goaltending (Fourgiev is a popular nickname on our boards. Enough said)
- Depth after Mackinnon (We need more from Mittelstadt's line)

 

[hangman005]

EDM players said "Cup or bust" at the beginning of the season. My biggest concern is that they will choose "bust"come playoffs. That won't be good.

For you maybe.

Not that I can talk, if we make it it's because we tripped over the line.

 

[HolyHagelin]

Not too mention the series altering dirty hits in which he excels.

My Best-Carey

The League disagrees with you

 

[CookiesAndMilk]

For you maybe.

Not that I can talk, if we make it it's because we tripped over the line.

I gotcha

At least you would trip to the cup. I've never heard of someone who busted his way to the cup

 

[Machinehead]

I have one concern:

With Trouba
CF - 47.08%
xGF - 47.94%
GF - 44.79%

Without Trouba
CF - 51.03%
xGF - 48.89%
GF - 53.60%

The Rangers are -10 at 5v5 with Trouba on the ice, a 44.79% rate which would rank 28th in the league. The Rangers are +16 without him, a 53.60% rate which would rank 11th in the league. And keep in mind, that's at even strength. So you have a team that's 11th in goal differential at 5v5, plus they're 4th on the PP and 3rd on the PK.

Guess who's going to be playing 25 minutes a game in the playoffs.

 

[Dog]

Leafs biggest weakness is goaltending in my opinion then PK.

 

[Tawnos]

I'm a Rangers fan... my two biggest concerns are

1) Zibanejad. He hasn't been the same player this year. A lot of the aggressiveness on the puck that made him so effective offensively has disappeared. If we don't have a high performing Zibanejad at even strength, it's going to be hard to get very far. I'm not even really talking about numbers when I say that. It's the choices he makes with the puck on his stick that aren't working. He can still put up good numbers, but the way he impacts the game shift to shift is more important.

2) Believe it or not, Shesterkin. His numbers are decent, but it's more about how he's had a hard time this season making the big save in the big moment. If anyone gets a breakaway against him, all they need to do is go top glove and they've got a goal. It even happens on odd man rushes. You really need your goalie making the big save in the big moment to go far in the playoffs. He's also allowed a soft goal at bad moments a bunch of times. These problems have continued even after he righted the rest of this game.

 

[b in vancouver]

Bruins

That they're surprisingly great year will probably get them Tampa. Seriously?

Power play is brutal.

 

[GeeoffBrown]

Flames have some conditional picks based on other teams' playoff success