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The New Division

and what 8-10 teams is he saying will finish above the Leafs exactly? The Islanders? The Craptials?
 
Teams I expect to see in the top 9 of the conference, in no particular order, are:

Pittsburgh
Montreal
Toronto
Ottawa
Boston
Detroit
Washington
NYR
Columbus

The wild card there is Columbus. They have the team to do it if Bobrovsky gives them 90% of what he did last year. If not I replace Columbus with the Islanders.
 
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Habsy said:
Teams I expect to see in the top 8 of the conference, in no particular order, are:

Pittsburgh
Montreal
Toronto
Ottawa
Boston
Detroit
Washington
NYR
Columbus

The wild card there is Columbus. They have the team to do it if Bobrovsky gives them 90% of what he did last year. If not I replace Columbus with the Islanders.
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There's a pretty solid 10 teams there that I could see making the playoffs. Throw in a team like Philly who could be a wildcard (they have the offense to compete - but their goaltending and D will be big Qs). The only ones out of it I would say are: Buffalo, Florida, Tampa, Carolina, Jersey.
 
JackBurton said:
People are putting way too much stock in shooting %. Good lord.
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I disagree with that! Toronto was 28th overall in shots for/average at 26.3 (only Nashville and Dallas finished worse) yet they finished 6th overall in goals for at 145, that stat tells me they had an unreal team shooting percentage.
 
corksens said:
Really? Kadri at almost 17%. Lupul at 26%. JVR at his career high.

Kessel, I would expect to maintain around his normal 12ish%.
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Great goal scoring teams are going to post high shooting %'s. Don't know why this is a surprise. The Leafs have been elite two years in a row.

Unless you think a 130 game sample size is small.
 
corksens said:
Really? Kadri at almost 17%. Lupul at 26%. JVR at his career high.

Kessel, I would expect to maintain around his normal 12ish%.
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Lupul was in the lineup for only 16 games. Even if he drops down to normal, wouldn't having him in the lineup for more than 16 games still help the team, not hurt it?

As for JVR... he was on pace for 55 points last year. Do you not think that's a repeatable performance? Do you expect a big drop off from 55 points out of him?
 
Pronger84 said:
I disagree with that! Toronto was 28th overall in shots for/average at 26.3 (only Nashville and Dallas finished worse) yet they finished 6th overall in goals for at 145, that stat tells me they had an unreal team shooting percentage.
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They had the 6th best shooting % and scored the 10th most goals the year before.

Fluke too?
 
It always something else with these guys. Isolate some random stat and put the importance on that for no particular reason.

The Leafs were apparently the only lucky team in the NHL last year.
 
Year / Shot% / GPG / Shots Per Game
12/13 / 1st / 6th / 28th
11/12 / 6th / 10th / 21st

Top 10 in shooting % and goals per game, bottom 10 in shots per game -- two years in a row.
 
And that has absolutely nothing to do with the stated team strategy of holding onto the puck to try and create high percentage shots.

High percentage shots equal a higher shooting percentage? No way. Never would have connected those dots.
 
hockeylover said:
Lupul was in the lineup for only 16 games. Even if he drops down to normal, wouldn't having him in the lineup for more than 16 games still help the team, not hurt it?

As for JVR... he was on pace for 55 points last year. Do you not think that's a repeatable performance? Do you expect a big drop off from 55 points out of him?
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Sure, but his play will naturally bump down others who took advantage of the time on the top PP and top-6.
 
corksens said:
Sure, but his play will naturally bump down others who took advantage of the time on the top PP and top-6.
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Which others?

Which Leafs will see the drop off production-wise? The only logical one I could see an argument for is Kadri. I take it by your non-response you don't question JVR's ability to hit 55...
 
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