Its up to Korpisalo. He wasn't great with CLB nor LAK. What makes you optimistic about him?

Still not a playoff team... 🤪

Over who though? Two of TO, Tampa, Boston or Florida will have to fall below 95. Who's going to do that? Boston? I doubt they lose 40 points off last season's total. TO? Despite the desire of most on here to see them burn, they will likely win the division. Florida? They have some issues for sure, does their goaltending show up? Who knows. Tampa? Yeah they could miss but they do have a good team still. I think it's optimistic to think both Ottawa and Buffalo make it. And if Ottawa still defends as poorly as they did last year, they are going to have problems.

Because the team goaltending was terrible last year. Sogaard wasn’t ready and Talbot couldn’t stop beach balls. Korpisalo had a .912 save percentage last year and Forsberg’s career percentage is .908 . If they combine for .905 that’s a huge improvement on last year

Absent the unforeseen, playoffs should be very possible. I don’t think Tarasenko replacing DeBrincat is the difference-maker though. It’s a healthy, more experienced Stutzle-Norris-Pinto.

Florida is looking thinner on blueline…Boston with holes up the middle…Leafs in a bit of disarray…division may be wide open.

Honestly even with terrible goaltending, both Ottawa and Buffalo came within 3 wins of the playoffs. Even with average goaltending both teams make it.

Don’t forget Chychrun and Norris combining to play only 20 games doesn’t help

I can see Ottawa fighting for a wildcard spot this season, don't see top 3 in Atlantic though.

The team just feels the same as it did last year but with different names

Korpisalo will likely decide this team’s destiny, either he’s the best goaltender this team has signed since Craig Anderson

Or

Jack Campbell 2.0

He wasn't great with LAK? 0.921 SV%, 2.13 adjGAA and 0.727 QS% in 11 games seems rather fine

I was not happy initially with the signing but when I saw that his hip surgery was in March 2022, I changed my mind.

He only played 1 season since the surgery, 14th highest GSAA last season and among the best QS% among starters.


It's not really goaltending though. It's TEAM DEFENSE

A concept that seems rather abstract for the coaching staff and management, who I think is the worst duo in the league by a big margin.

The talent is definitely there, one of the most talented teams in the league but it's really lacking in good defensive forwards. Need Giroux, Norris, Greig and Joseph to be healthy all season

They should be better in 2023-24. Probably a favorite for playoff spot in western conference. But so many good teams in East.

Florida hang over, Boston regression, and tb acting their age and amount of hockey they have played, all due a letdown. Will be interesting if ottawa/Buffalo and on a lesser note detroit are ready to punch their tickets. Changing of the guards has to come at some point, I was predicting it last year, so probably due this year lol

Ottawa isn't though... They will have to rely on the top guys and even then, Koprisalo has to do to Ottawa what Campbell did to Toronto in 20-21... BC defence looks very weak...

Toronto's prob. in for sure unless they go full tank mode, Buffalo's better, Tampa's better, Boston's better, Sorokin can steal at least a wold card spot and the 3 teams above NYI are better... IMO, Detroit's better

It's a long shot, but OTT could make the playoffs, it would just be unlikely

How does defence look weak?

Look at that offence, not a player that is defensively minded... And the defence, Chychrun and Chabot, not good at all defensively, Barnnstrom and harmonic are awful defensively and Sanderson/Zub are, best case, mid at defence... Zub is very overrated though

Who's more likely to win the Atlantic then?

Playoff numbers?

All bad takes

Actually, they are very good takes... Much better takes than Ottawa making the playoffs

Heh. That's not the part that I was reacting to, sir. I was referring to the tired fake victimhood crap that never stops from this guy. Multiple times a day, completely out of left field with no relation to the topic, he's moaning about how everyone is a hater to the Leafs!! Oh woe!! Because anyone who isn't tongue bathing the Leafs with every single utterance is a "Leafs hater".

It's pathetic. And delusional. And enough already.

6 games?

And he played vs the McDavids, 0.892 is actually pretty decent vs them lol


I have never seen so much ignorance in just 41 words... I mean, how do you even manage that?

I don't even know where to begin

Sanderson "mid at defense"? "Barnnstrom" awful? You have absolutely no idea what you are talking about

Korpisalo is a lot like both Mrazek and Campbell. Campbell had an unreal month and a garbage rest of the year, and Edmonton overpaid for him. Mrazek got carried by the Canes dcore, and when he went back to a system that doesn’t prioritize defense in Toronto, well we all know the story on that. Korpisalo needs a strong team defense in front of him to be successful, and Ottawa doesn’t have that. They are great offensively, but it is going to be a very long and painful year for Ottawa between the pipes.

It's not like the Atlantic has less firepower

Sanderson isn't very good on the defensive side of the puck yet... Brodie is mid at defense and I'd say Brodie better at that aspect of the game

Branstrom's awful at defence, everyone here knows that... So before you go off saying "you have ignorance" maybe put pieces together and realize, maybe Ottawa needs a defensively responsible defensemen before being a playoff lock

Don't even get me started on Korpisalo

We can't replace Alex DeBrincat. But we can recreate him, in the aggregate.

But seriously, Tarasenko isn't replacing DeBrincat straight up, but he's also not expected to. Realistically, you're replacing DeBrincat this year with Tarasenko AND Kubalik. Now I'm not gonna suggest that I'd rather have Tarasenko and Kubalik over DeBrincat, but I think if we're talking about replacing Alex DeBrincat the Senator they've not only replaced him this year, but made a significant improvement to their overall offense. 91+81 will absolutely produce more than the 28 goals they got out of DeBrincat last year.

Sanderson is a very good 2 way Dman . Zub is elite defensively .
Brannstrom had excellent defensive metrics