AK_19 Posted July 25, 2019 Share Posted July 25, 2019 Las Vegas Colorado San Jose Nashville St. Louis Chicago Arizona Canucks I believe those teams will make the playoffs. Calgary had tons of players with career highs and high shooting %s (Lindholm, Gaudreau). Giordano is getting old and just had a career Norris Trophy year. The chances of them sustaining the same level of play is low. Also, their goaltending issues were not resolved as Rittich hasn't shown he can be any better than an elite back up. They didn't have much in terms of injury last year either. I think their off season moves made them weaker with the Lucic/Neal swap. He's going to be an anchor on that line. Winnipeg lost a lot of good players in Myers, Trouba, Tanev, and Chariot. I think its way too much of a hit for them to maintain a playoff spot. I think their goaltending is going to get exposed behind what was a pretty strong d-core the seasons prior. Dallas's add of Pavelski will be offset by Benn's regression. Their forward depth is still awful, I feel like they have 3-4 forwards in their healthy line up that wouldn't make the cut on our team. They aren't necessarily a worse team but they haven't improved as much as other teams. With that being said, Heiskanen is quite the x-factor. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain Canuck #12 Posted July 25, 2019 Share Posted July 25, 2019 2 hours ago, JamesBlondage said: Thought this might be of interest. Hockey Buzz's Oilers blogger just released his early season preview of the Pacific division. https://www.hockeybuzz.com/blog/Sean-Maloughney/Early-Pacific-Division-Predictions/261/100659 This is the first time I've seen the slightest hint of positivity towards the Canucks by a blogger on that site in a long time. Will be interesting to see if this is an anomaly, or might be the start of something new! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
captainhorvat Posted July 25, 2019 Share Posted July 25, 2019 Vegas Sharks Canucks Flames Anaheim Edmonton LA My projection for division standings. I got canucks ahead of flames because we always kick thr ass in the regular season and those points will put us on top. Calgary looked slow against Colorado in the playoffs and with the addition of Lucic they will only get slower. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Podz92 Posted July 25, 2019 Share Posted July 25, 2019 20 hours ago, Captain Canuck #12 said: This is the first time I've seen the slightest hint of positivity towards the Canucks by a blogger on that site in a long time. Will be interesting to see if this is an anomaly, or might be the start of something new! I admit I fully expected when I started reading this to be angry by the end of it. And wow was I ever surprised! Hope this is a turning point for the way others view our team... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sedinery55 Posted July 26, 2019 Share Posted July 26, 2019 On 7/10/2019 at 4:19 PM, Fanuck said: Nashville St Louis San Jose Calgary Winnipeg Vegas Colorado Dallas The real question is, realistically, which of these playoff teams won't make it next season? Winnipeg, Vegas, Dallas would be my pre-season picks to take a step back leaving the door open perhaps for......another team to step up. Returning Playoff Teams Nashville - Improved their forward group by bringing in Duchene, losing PK on the back end could hurt them, should one of their top 3 D run into injury issues. Pekka Rinne seems to have peaked, can Sarros step up and play a solid 30 games? I think they are still a playoff team, but I wouldn't bank on them winning the central. St. Louis - Stanley Cup winner, finally found their game, will struggle to score during the regular season, but should win tight games. Is Binnington the real deal? Thats the question, I think they win enough games to make it. San Jose - No more Pavelski, who knows what happens with Jumbo, but the fact that they resigned Karlsson, got Lablanc to sign for 1 million, and will have Meier and Couture there to net 30 goals a piece, not to mention the 50 point guarantee from each of Karlsson and Burns, this team should win the West. Colorado - Unbelievably mobile defense, awesome contract for Mackinnon who has really established himself as a top 3 player in the league, Colorado should win the Central division this season. Vegas - Took a step back with their D Corp, but their forward group is so strong, and having Flower in net will definitely win you some games. Still a playoff team in my mind. Non Playoff Teams Calgary - Not sold on Talbot in net with Rittich going forward, bringing in Lucic does not make them better, if he can't play with McDavid, hows he going to play with Gaudreau and Monny? If he is playing in a bottom 6 role, he cannot keep up either, and is below 50 percent corsi. As great as Michael Backlund is, he is not a second line center, had Calgary landed Kadri from the Leafs for Brodie, I would have them in the playoffs, as it is, they are too top line heavy, and I think will struggle to score outside of Gaudreau - Monahan and Tkachuk. Winnipeg - Major step back this season with loosing Trouba and Myers, I know Myers is replacement level, but who is going to fill the minutes on the right side? Myers is still serviceable, is Pionk going to be anything more than a PP specialist? Hellebyuk needs to find his game again, he looked just average last season, like he was always chasing the puck. Laine and the team seem to be on different planets, let alone the same ice surface. Dallas - Great up and coming D core, very mobile, I don't see Bishop recreating his amazing season, and outside of Seguin and Benn, who is scoring? They had one the stingiest goals against last season, but the Cancucks scored more goals. Rope Hintz is coming along nicely, but I don't see him with more than 50 points. New Playoff Teams Vancouver Canucks - We might have some issues in 2 years when we cannot afford to bring in legit assets to help out our prime years core as we suffer through some contracts not aging well, but for this season and next, we have a team that can finally compete in the fast paced, sometimes heavy, western conference. Im all for skilled hockey, but adding an elite forechecker and puck retriever in Ferland will help Petey and Boeser have more time and space. We paid a premium for some reason to take the Miller contract off of Tampa Bay's hands, however we now have 2 competitive scoring lines, with Miller's in tight playmaking available to Horvat and either Baertschi or Pearson. Adding Myers and Benn, while not a top pairing defenders, will improve our D corp significantly over having Guddy and Pouliot. Markstrom, while having a career year at 29, doesn't scream sustainable, seems to be comfortable in net with the things he has implimented from Ian Clark, he is not chasing the play so much, and counting on his size to bail him out, he is sound positionally, and with Demko ready to take some of the workload off his shoulders, we should be a playoff team. Arizona Phil the Thrill Chicago Over due Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nucker 67 Posted July 26, 2019 Share Posted July 26, 2019 18 minutes ago, sedinery55 said: Not sold on Talbot in net with Rittich going forward, bringing in Lucic does not make them better, if he can't play with McDavid, hows he going to play with Gaudreau and Monny? I'm not sold on the goaltending swap between the AB teams, but I think the trade will be good for Lucic and Neal. The thing with Lucic "protecting" McDavid, he really didn't need to. It was a bad signing by Chia. McDavid is big, powerful and fast. Gaudreau gets swatted around all the time, so he may find himself with a bit more space to do things with Lucic on the ice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aqua59 Posted July 28, 2019 Author Share Posted July 28, 2019 On 7/26/2019 at 12:38 PM, NUCKER67 said: I'm not sold on the goaltending swap between the AB teams, but I think the trade will be good for Lucic and Neal. The thing with Lucic "protecting" McDavid, he really didn't need to. It was a bad signing by Chia. McDavid is big, powerful and fast. Gaudreau gets swatted around all the time, so he may find himself with a bit more space to do things with Lucic on the ice. I'm still wondering if Lucic is fast enough to keep up? I think that was a factor in trading him too. The question remains in my mind what good is Neil in Edmonton? The trade seems like trading two wet paper plates. Reading posts above predicting the west's final standings I'm surprised Winnipeg has slipped.. then I'm not after some good points have been made. I think Winnipeg has a problem keeping people in Winnipeg. Brought me to the thought of how important geography is in a player's choice during free agency or trade scenario. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CharlieChan Posted July 28, 2019 Share Posted July 28, 2019 Everyone is overrating Colorado They no longer have their number 1# quarterback defensive point producer Tyson Barrie's 59 points. Kadri is a solid #3 or #4 centreman & they also lost Kerfoot who was a decent #4 centre So Colorado should be worst next year because they haven't replaced their #1 D. Whose going to feed the first line on the powerplay? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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