Quoting: Byrr
Boston allowed 50 less goals last season than the best of those teams and are returning with the same group. None of them are comparables. Hell, trying to say Pittsburgh have any kind of defensive defense is a joke in and of itself. The Islanders would be the closest thing to a comparable of them, the others just don't belong in any way, but even with their top 2 centers gone Bostons offense still easily outshines the Islanders.
Boston was also the best team in the league, and by like 20 points, without those defensemen. Trying to use that as a benchmark for what to expect from other teams is ridiculous. What Boston had left was night and day compared to what Florida has also. Boston also still had goaltending while Florida's has been awful other than the playoff run by Bob. Boston still had Lindholm, Grzelcyk, and others. Florida has OEL. There's a dozen reasons using those 2 teams for a comparison isn't a good idea. Other teams won't succeed in the same position just because Boston did, it's still more likely they don't.
Chicago maybe, the other 2 they don't stand a chance. Either way we are talking about teams no one expects to make the playoffs. They aren't important.
I think you both vastly underappreciate the loss of Bergeron specifically and overvalue actual goals against. Boston had the best GA/60 in the league last year with 1.74/60 at 5v5. their xGA/60 was 5th in the league with a 2.39/60 and their CA/60 was also 5th with a 53.08. Boston while yes they did have a historic season they were defensively outperforming expectations fairly significantly. It's highly unlikely Ullmark repeats the success he had last year and lack of Bergeron will greatly hurt their defensive play. Right now I would say they are on par with Minnesota.
Florida didn't have Spencer Knight for half the season though and he is a good young goalie. Bob is a good goalie when he is rested, he sucks when he is overworked. If you didn't know this you clearly didn't watch a single game during the playoffs because they talked about him getting rest constantly. I am also not saying that Florida will get 130+ points but it sure isn't hard to beat out a team like Buffalo who are at best on par offensively, have a slight edge defensively while Ekblad and Montour are out (worse after they are back), and no goaltending whatsoever.
Have you not seen Arizona's transformation from last year? They added Cooley, Guenther, Zucker, Kerfoot, Dumba, and Durzi. They lost 36 games of Chychrun, Fischer, Nemeth, Ritchie, and Gostbehere. Hayton will get a full year in a top 6 center role, Maccelli and McBain will continue to improve with more experience, Soderstrom might make the team full time too. They are a young team now with legitimate depth and they play in by far the weakest division. I would say they have a better chance of making the playoffs than Winniepeg.
bwhsocal a aimé ceci.
Répondre
Beecher,
CapFriendly
CapFriendly