Predictions for 2017-18 Season

[GASabresIUFAN]

Looking at our projected lineup, which teams in the Atlantic are we better then? Not TB, TOR or Bos. We might be better then Mon, except for that Price guy. Certainly OTT is a more proven team, but has significant injuries right now. I'd say we are even with Fla and better the Det.

 

So what is the best possible result?

4/5th in the Atlantic, in a battle with Mon for the 4th slot ahead of OTT, Fla and Det

 

Worst possible result?

7th in the Atlantic ahead of Det, as Fla stays healthy and gets back to playoff form, Price keeps Mon in the playoff hunt and OTT gets healthy and surges behind their young forwards back into playoff contention.

Edited September 25, 2017 by GASabresFan

[Derrico]

I donno man, teams change from year to year. Nobody saw Toronto's turnaround last year. If you told me at the start of the season Ottawa would come *this* close to playing in the cup I would have called you crazy. Toronto was unbelievably lucky last season when it came to injuries. We lost our best player for 2 months and arguably next three best players for long stretches of time. Anything can happen; especially considering a whole new coaching staff and likely 50% turnover with our starting D.

[MattPie]

Pokey, you're the Resident Website Pessimist after only 111 posts? You have to work harder than that my friend.

 

This pessimism thing reminds me of a scientific experiment I once heard of where they had two rats in a maze. They gave one shocks but not the other one. The one that kept getting shocked got complacent and just stayed in the same place all the time, awaiting its punishment. The other one roamed free until he solved the maze. That's us, the fans, or the rats that keep getting shocked. I don't know how people are not pessimists with this kind of recent history. The tank two years in a row left me in a fetal position. But it took the Cubs 100 years...Calling Steve Bartman!

 

Pokey is relentless though, I have found him to be the voice of complete and utter pessimism around here, so I think he might be the resident. His plus-minus is so minus even PI2000 can't believe it. It's still preseason though, so some of the veteran pessimists may come back into the line-up.

 

I might buy Center Ice in January but for now I'm tired of being shocked by bad results and being charged for it, so I'll watch it free on the computer. As a public service:

 

 

 

*Type Ice Hockey (or Am. Football) then usually Feed 2 works. Warning, you have to figure out your way around the popups, and it takes some figuring out until you get the game and put it full screen, but it's worth figuring out.

 

I think it's generally frowned-upon to post links to illegal streams.

[LGR4GM]

I donno man, teams change from year to year. Nobody saw Toronto's turnaround last year. If you told me at the start of the season Ottawa would come *this* close to playing in the cup I would have called you crazy. Toronto was unbelievably lucky last season when it came to injuries. We lost our best player for 2 months and arguably next three best players for long stretches of time. Anything can happen; especially considering a whole new coaching staff and likely 50% turnover with our starting D.

I think the Defensive change is going to be the largest impact. That unit as a whole may change everything. 

[North Buffalo]

I might buy Center Ice in January but for now I'm tired of being shocked by bad results and being charged for it, so I'll watch it free on the computer. As a public service:

 

 

 

*Type Ice Hockey (or Am. Football) then usually Feed 2 works. Warning, you have to figure out your way around the popups, and it takes some figuring out until you get the game and put it full screen, but it's worth figuring out.

Common guys hockey no matter what the level or team is better than the NFL!

[StuckinFL]

I think the Defensive change is going to be the largest impact. That unit as a whole may change everything. 

The issue isn't the D, but the fact that our forwards don't seem to be able to score. I often got into fights with my father about Bylsma and the D being the issue last year and his response that outside of ROR and Eichel our forwards were awful and underachievers. I have a tempered optimism but more and more I'm beginning to question whether or not he's correct.

[Doohicksie]

The issue isn't the D, but the fact that our forwards don't seem to be able to score.

 

I think the change on D may be a direct contributor to the inability to score.  There's definitely a lot of new personnel on D, but the implementation of the new system (in which D becomes an integral part of the offensive attack) is not fully functional yet.  So I'm not surprised that scoring looks dismal so far.  I also expect that to pick up in accordance with the learning curve of the team for the new attacking system.  We've seen glimpses of it looking good, but in general it's still a work in progress.

[LGR4GM]

I think the change on D may be a direct contributor to the inability to score.  There's definitely a lot of new personnel on D, but the implementation of the new system (in which D becomes an integral part of the offensive attack) is not fully functional yet.  So I'm not surprised that scoring looks dismal so far.  I also expect that to pick up in accordance with the learning curve of the team for the new attacking system.  We've seen glimpses of it looking good, but in general it's still a work in progress.

[Doohicksie]

BOOM.

[North Buffalo]

both but the D pick up and start scoring that is where space will open up for the forwards. I think it helps all the way around. That being said its gonna take time to implement and middle of the road forwards especially on wing need to improve. Pommer is an improvement over Gionta and Foligno’s spot needs to be picked up by one of the young guns or a rotating group... Pulliot the only one I am really concerned abt and dont see him lasting more than a year. Hoping Nylander shows enough to replace him by December but who knows. Not talking position but expected or needed goals.

[GASabresIUFAN]

Sure once the system is fully operational the results hopefully will be better. However, When I started the Toronto loses thread my concern was the lack of effort. Losing is one thing, but losing without effort is quite another. If Toronto's roster is so much better then ours and we can't compete, then we have organizational issues that may take years to resolve. However there is no excuse for players fighting for NHL jobs now or in the near future to not give a full effort on every shift.

[Doohicksie]

Sure once the system is fully operational the results hopefully will be better. However, When I started the Toronto loses thread my concern was the lack of effort. Losing is one thing, but losing without effort is quite another. If Toronto's roster is so much better then ours and we can't compete, then we have organizational issues that may take years to resolve. However there is no excuse for players fighting for NHL jobs now or in the near future to not give a full effort on every shift.

 

Could the lack of apparent effort be a byproduct of learning a new system?  If some of the players are off a bit in the read-react-execute process, they may look like they're not moving as fast as they should which would be construed as lack of effort.  Or it could be that Housley wants them throttled back a bit in an effort to avoid injury.  I'm not going to worry about it until the games count.

[jsb]

Dang, I waited all summer to get to hockey season again, no way I'm dropping NHL TV because of a couple of preseason games with the Laffs. 

The Laffs not only have an edge in NHL talent but are 3 years into their system while we still have 3-4 young guns not quite ready for the show just yet plus we're in the infancy of running a new system. 

The Laffs all things being equal are probably a 15 point better team than us presently. 

 

Its hard to be patient but that's exactly what it will take this year. Playing at speed and Playing with speed unfortunately are 2 different things and although signs of a much quicker and faster team is evident, we're still an uncoordinated mess at playing with speed and enough of new guys that'll need to stew together awhile before they mesh well. 

 

As for Samson, I hope they keep him at Center but Kane and Pommytown need to play with Jack and Okposo needs to go back with ROR. I didn't see those Saturday lines meshing at all. 

 

As the song goes.... I WANT MY NHLTV

[nfreeman]

 

I think it's generally frowned-upon to post links to illegal streams.

 

Correct.

[LGR4GM]

both but the D pick up and start scoring that is where space will open up for the forwards. I think it helps all the way around. That being said its gonna take time to implement and middle of the road forwards especially on wing need to improve. Pommer is an improvement over Gionta and Foligno’s spot needs to be picked up by one of the young guns or a rotating group... Pulliot the only one I am really concerned abt and dont see him lasting more than a year. Hoping Nylander shows enough to replace him by December but who knows. Not talking position but expected or needed goals.

What were the lines last year? Can anyone write those out and then a 2nd set of lines with the new guys so we can compare?

[StuckinFL]

Back in the tank days when we looked to the future this year was supposed to be competing and making deep playoff runs and looking like a contender. Now we're speculating whether or not we will make it into the playoffs and when/if Eichel will sign here, if Samson is a total bust, and if any of our prospects can contribute to a NHL roster. We continually kick the goalpost further back and act like we're almost good. Next year is when it will all click and everything will fall into place.

Lets face the brass tax here, this team just isn't any good and Jack, Risto and ROR can't make up an entire NHL roster and Housley can't shine BS into gold. Kane is going to go unless we overpay and almost all of our vets are overpaid compared to what they contribute. We continually have to hand out bad contracts to keep players here because it's a bad team. I'd love nothing more than to hope and believe, but this team is continually an abysmal disappointment. How much longer before we have to shake out the roster and get sold another tank?

Edited September 25, 2017 by StuckinFL

[Doohicksie]

Well then go root for your Lightning.

[Thorner]

I think the Defensive change is going to be the largest impact. That unit as a whole may change everything.

 

That's the key. Will we ever get to see it, as a whole?

[qwksndmonster]

I'm not speculating whether or not we're making the playoffs. We're a lock for the 2nd round.

[Pokey Jones]

Back in the tank days when we looked to the future this year was supposed to be competing and making deep playoff runs and looking like a contender. Now we're speculating whether or not we will make it into the playoffs and when/if Eichel will sign here, if Samson is a total bust, and if any of our prospects can contribute to a NHL roster. We continually kick the goalpost further back and act like we're almost good. Next year is when it will all click and everything will fall into place.

Lets face the brass tax here, this team just isn't any good and Jack, Risto and ROR can't make up an entire NHL roster and Housley can't shine BS into gold. Kane is going to go unless we overpay and almost all of our vets are overpaid compared to what they contribute. We continually have to hand out bad contracts to keep players here because it's a bad team. I'd love nothing more than to hope and believe, but this team is continually an abysmal disappointment. How much longer before we have to shake out the roster and get sold another tank?

Hey, this is supposed to be my shtick :)

[Randall Flagg]

Even I think this level of negativity is getting absurd, and I've already conceded the next 15 NHL years to the Maple Leafs and Oilers.

[dudacek]

Could the lack of apparent effort be a byproduct of learning a new system?  If some of the players are off a bit in the read-react-execute process, they may look like they're not moving as fast as they should which would be construed as lack of effort.  Or it could be that Housley wants them throttled back a bit in an effort to avoid injury.  I'm not going to worry about it until the games count.

 

I found it interesting Phil explicitly said he thought the effort was excellent, the team just wasn't executing the system.

I believe the popular buzzword these days in Western NY is "trust the process."

[WildCard]

Even I think this level of negativity is getting absurd, and I've already conceded the next 15 NHL years to the Maple Leafs and Oilers.

You shut your who're mouth Edited September 25, 2017 by WildCard

[Radar]

Back in the tank days when we looked to the future this year was supposed to be competing and making deep playoff runs and looking like a contender. Now we're speculating whether or not we will make it into the playoffs and when/if Eichel will sign here, if Samson is a total bust, and if any of our prospects can contribute to a NHL roster. We continually kick the goalpost further back and act like we're almost good. Next year is when it will all click and everything will fall into place.

Lets face the brass tax here, this team just isn't any good and Jack, Risto and ROR can't make up an entire NHL roster and Housley can't shine BS into gold. Kane is going to go unless we overpay and almost all of our vets are overpaid compared to what they contribute. We continually have to hand out bad contracts to keep players here because it's a bad team. I'd love nothing more than to hope and believe, but this team is continually an abysmal disappointment. How much longer before we have to shake out the roster and get sold another tank?

Last I checked you had several choices of teams in Florida. Maybe they could use some of your upbeat fandom.

[GASabresIUFAN]

Are a 3rd and 4th line of:

Pouliot Reinhart Griffith

Moulson Larsson Bailey/Baptiste

 

really good enough for a team to make the playoffs?