BrooksBurner

Hey I was trolling @Pete. Leave me alone

Easiest money of my life

Whoever got Panarin's jersey should sell it before the playoffs. Hedge bets

Lots of pros and cons both ways. Also, Gus/Zac Jones infinitely better than that trash bag Nemeth

It’s a very interesting debate. Throw in that I think Copp and Vatrano were both much better adds and players than Wennberg or Roslovic.

Two years ago they also had a .935 Igor. And a healthy Chytil.

Panarin 2 goals to 50, Kreider 1 goal to 40 ... smells like a fun parlay

That's a tough one.

Only you would do a gif search resulting in this

The difference is whether I can watch the game in peace or not

Yeah well @Scott said beaver and started it. You never know these days

Check out that left quad popping through his pants....at least I think it's his quad

Happy birthday old timer!

Joke or not itll probably be an afternoon game. Maybe 3 pm. Stupid.

Doubt it

End thread basically. And we’re all rooting for them the same, just with different perspectives and expectations.

No. You don’t debate in good faith. As soon as I saw all situations it’s 100% not worth it.

Well, no, stats aren’t the only thing. I don’t agree with your eye test either. I still see way too much reliance on cross ice passes (even that example of Panarin in OT yesterday, totally forced and that was with time and space). I don’t see any improvement in the defensive lapses year over year. And yet, none of it matters one bit if they tighten up in the playoffs. I’ll be the first one to tell you. I’ve been wanting to see it all season, but I’m not going to pretend it’s happened already just because the majority are rosy optimists.

Right, and that’s scary because 3 years ago I was anticipating two clear windows, with a short 1-2 year lull in between them, and it kinda feels like this is the best it’s going to get for this window, and it’s about the same as it was two years ago. I don’t think it’s going to be good enough. The second window has been damaged because Kakko is more or less a bust relative to the top 6 core player aspirations. He and Laf were supposed to be the cornerstone pieces.

The thing is he wasn’t wrong about it either, but nobody really cared because they were just happy to make it. Expectations were different. I think with expectations higher this year, people just don’t want to recognize the warts are basically just as bad. The funny thing is he’s disregarding now the same stats he used back then. Pretty hilarious, really.

If you don’t get it from what I posted then there’s not really anything else to say. They were appropriately branded lucky two years ago. I think it had to do with it beng their first year back in the playoffs. This year is mostly the same and it’s branded differently.

Just following the stats, and they back up what I see on the ice. See the post I just made above.

I said almost a carbon copy. There’s some minor differences, with next to no big differences. The only big difference I am aware of is faceoffs, where they have been substantially better, but somehow that hasn’t helped them with possession numbers. This is a game early, but have at it: 21-22 / 23-24 Standings Stats 110 pts / 112 pts 44 RW / 42 RW 24 RL / 23 RL 4 OTW / 8 OTW 6 OTL / 4 OTL So two years ago the team was actually better in regulation wins and not as good at 3v3 gimmick hockey or shootouts. That’s the key to the very minor difference in point totals. Most of this is just random variance (luck) of those game modes. Goals For/Against 254 GF / 278 GF 207 GA / 229 GA +47 diff / +48 diff Better offensive output, worse defensive output, but goal diff the same. Special Teams + Faceoffs 25.2 PP% / 26.8 PP% 82.3 PK% / 84.4 PK% 48.1 FO% (24th) / 52.3 FO% (7th) Minor, but slightly better special teams. Big difference in faceoffs. Michael Peca might just be a Benoit Allaire type genius but in faceoff mentoring. Analytics (5v5, using NST) 2.25 xGF/60 / 2.53 xGF/60 2.53 xGA/60 / 2.63 xGA/60 47.1 xGF% (23rd) / 49.01 xGF% (21st) 2.35 GF/60 / 2.49 GF/60 2.2 GA/60 / 2.52 GA/60 51.63 GF% (14th) / 49.7 GF% (18th) A little better expected offense generation (thanks Panarin line!), a little worse expected goals against. The thing that strikes me the most is they actually rate worse defensively at 5v5 which was something Laviolette was supposed to be able to address. The biggest things I take away here are 1) not much is different, and 2) Peca/faceoff improvement is evident. I saw some stat from Valley where they went from 9 goals off faceoffs, to 20. That can be helpful.

This season was pretty much a carbon copy of two years ago. Let’s hope the luck carries through to the playoffs like it did that year too. Just a little extra luck on top of that and they can win it