It's easy to look at things now as obvious facts but if you actually read some of what people are saying it just goes to show how quickly things can change.
Basically San Jose, LA, and Phoenix are all where people expected they would be. Plus I guess Calgary and Edmonton... well not so much Edmonton but people learned their lesson their
Anaheim however has greatly exceeded expectations, while Vancouver has gone the other way. Anaheim was a tricky one to call, they were auditioning a lot of new/young players throughout the roster with the loss of Ryan and Koivu/Selanne being a year older, then Getzlaf & Perry can be inconsistent from year to year. Also their blueline was looking pretty inexperienced, basically being Beauchemin and a bunch of kids. So obvious concerns there at the start of the season, but what we got from them was both Getzlaf and Perry playing exceptionally well at the same time (it's usually one or the other, or neither), the bottom 9 forward depth have been chipping in all season to the point that they can basically score at will, and the young dmen have all been amazing for them.
Canucks haven't been so lucky. Not many were confident of our playoff chances, but the vast majority still thought we were a good regular season team that should be a shoe in for the playoffs. Personally I guess I voted 1st here just for the heck of it, while in the league board thread I put more thought into it and picked them 2nd, though I was still being optomistic there.
So in my opinion really the only people who look stupid now are those that voted 6th or even worse 7th. Like we would actually fall behind Calgary or Edmonton... Although now after I've said that just watch Calgary go on a winning streak to end the season and pass us
