Popular Post knucklehead91 Posted June 10, 2021 Popular Post Share Posted June 10, 2021 Hey everyone, so this year when I looked at the divisions at the start of the year it gave me this sense that the majority of the divisions were a 'feast or famine'. Top teams feasting on bottom teams and bottom teams starving/fighting amongst each other for their 2 points. However when I looked at the Canadian division, I had a hard time deciding what teams I thought would make the playoffs and which ones would miss the playoffs. Just with how teams were restricted to play within one division, I feel like out of all the divisions to play in, the Canadian division was the toughest on a nightly basis. Now I want to clarify when I mean the 'toughest' I mean in terms of equality, I felt like 6/7 teams were playoff teams, however 2 teams had to miss. Which 2 teams that was to be, was a toss up to me. Ottawa was the only team that I could agree with myself, was not a play off team. However Ottawa on paper did not look like they would be a push over either and they proved that the the rest of the Division that they would make teams work for their win. The fact that the Canadian div had 1 less team than the rest made it much more difficult to pick up the much needed 2 points elsewhere in the division. Canadian teams did not have an easy night for the most part. Teams in other divisions thrived in their atmosphere due to the weaker competition at the bottom of the div and the abundance of weak teams to feed on. For pretty much every other division it was pretty clear who the top 4 or 5 teams would be, when you have the 'California distress' in one division..... It's pretty obvious who is going to make the playoffs. Then in the East/Central div there are teams like DET, CHI, BUF, NJD, NYR, CBJ. Now I want to reiterate that I am not saying the Canadian division is the best division, but it was the toughest to play in, each game was fairly evenly matched and was a hard fought battle for 2 points, no matter who the opponent was. I feel like the large majority of the Canadian division is around the middle of the league to slightly above the middle of the league in a normal year. Playing in a division so tightly matched from top to bottom makes it much more difficult to battle adversity, because there are no easy LAK, SJS, ANA or BUF games to make up for the struggles throughout the season. Now I have done a bunch of research and gathered stats of head to head records etc to break down just how much more different/difficult it was to play in the Canadian division compared to all the other divisions in the league. Thus the 'feast or famine' analogy. I'll start with a couple examples and then I will break down each and every division. Im going to include goals for and goals against in this as well. So first I will start by using the example of VAN vs MTL. Montreal was 6-0-3 against Vancouver this season. Vancouver on the other hand was 3-5-1 against Montreal. The 6-0-3 record for MTL looks like they handled VAN, but it was closer than that. Same goes for Calgary, they went 7-3-0 against Vancouver, but VAN's record was 3-5-2 against CGY TOR vs VAN 5-3-1 VAN vs TOR 4-5-0 WPG vs VAN 6-3-0... VAN vs WPG 3-5-1 Now lets look at some other lower seeded teams in other divisions I'll even use teams that were close to a playoff spot ARZ vs VGK 2-5-1 ARZ vs MIN 1-7-0 LAK+SJS+ANA+ARZ combined for 5 wins vs VGK LAK+SJS+ANA+ARZ combined for 7 wins vs COL BUF had 6 wins against top 4 teams in the division CHI had 7 wins against top 4 teams in the division. Record and WIN % against top 4 teams in the respective divisions VAN 14-21-2 vs top 4 teams 39% Ottawa.. who went 0-9-0 vs EDM had a 14-21-2 record against the top 4 teams in the division, also sporting a 39% win% CGY 16-19-2 vs top 4 teams 44% The two worst teams in the Northern division were both basically .500 vs the #1 team in the division. VAN was 4-5-0 and OTT was 4-4-1 Western Div ARZ 10-19-3 31% SJS 8-19-5 25% LAK 10-17-5 31% ANA 7-19-6 22% Central Div DAL 9-12-11 28% CHI 7-19-6 22% CBJ 9-16-7 28% DET 11-17-4 34% Eastern Div NYR 11-17-4 34% PHI 12-13-7 36% NJD 9-18-5 28% BUF 6-24-2 19% In every other division top teams 'feasted' on bottom teams, who 'starved' vs top teams. Thus the 'feast or famine' divisions. Vegas had a 84% win rate versus non-playoff teams. So now lets look at Top 4 versus non-playoff teams. Northern Div TOR 16-5-4 64% EDM 21-8-0 72% WPG 18-9-1 64% MTL 13-10-5 46% - MTL is the only team in the league to have a better win% within the top 4 vs the non-playoff teams. This shows just how well rounded the Northern division was, that from top to bottom any team stood a chance on any given night. Western Div COL 25-5-2 78% VGK 27-5-0 84% MIN 25-6-1 78% STL 16-10-6 50% Eastern Div WSH 24-7-1 75% PIT 22-8-3 69% BOS 21-8-3 66% NYI 23-6-3 72% Central Div CAR 20-7-5 63% FLA 25-6-1 78% TBL 23-7-2 72% NSH 24-7-0 75% If you were to average out the top 4 win% against non-playoff teams North - 61.5% West - 72.5% East - 70.5% Central - 72% average win% vs playoff teams North - 39.6% West - 27.3% East - 28.9% Central - 28.1% The Canadian division was just barely better than a coin toss from top to bottom. It was the most well balanced division and the toughest division to win in. But that does not mean it was the best division. Just in terms of balance and nearly equal competition all around. Teams like LAK SJS ANA BUF NJD etc.... really made it easy for the good teams in the division to solidify a playoff spot. So really, despite how poorly things looked in the standings, the Canucks are much closer to the middle of the league than the bottom. We only looked like a bottom team because of how we finished in the division, which was the toughest division, plus the injuries, ridiculous scheduling and COVID. Okay now if you want to read the head to head match ups with GF - GA for the match ups.. To get a better understanding and view of the 'Feast or Famine' Here you go How to read the chart: LHS = team Across the top = record against that team and the goals scored. DIVISION REC GF-GA REC GF-GA REC GF-GA REC GF-GA REC GF-GA REC GF-GA REC GF-GA REC GF-GA CENTRAL TBL FLA NSH DAL CBJ DET CHI CAR CAR 4-3-1 18-17 6-0-2 29-19 6-2-0 24-17 6-1-1 28-18 5-1-2 28-21 4-3-1 22-20 5-2-1 30-24 FLA 5-2-1 31-24 5-2-1 29-23 6-2-0 23-20 7-0-1 32-17 6-2-0 24-16 6-2-0 31-24 2-4-2 19-29 TBL 3-5-0 24-31 6-2-0 31-21 6-2-0 27-15 5-3-0 24-24 5-2-1 21-19 7-0-1 37-19 4-3-1 17-18 NSH 2-6-0 21-31 3-5-0 23-29 5-3-0 18-24 6-2-0 23-17 6-2-0 28-15 7-0-1 26-14 2-5-1 17-24 DAL 2-5-1 15-27 2-3-3 20-23 3-0-5 24-18 5-2-1 30-17 6-2-0 27-19 3-3-2 24-22 2-4-2 18-28 CHI 1-6-1 19-37 2-4-2 24-31 1-5-2 14-26 5-2-1 22-24 6-2-0 28-22 6-2-0 30-16 3-4-1 24-30 CBJ 3-3-2 24-24 1-5-2 17-32 2-5-1 17-23 3-4-1 17-30 3-4-1 19-22 2-3-3 22-28 3-3-2 21-28 DET 3-4-1 19-21 2-4-2 16-24 2-5-1 15-28 2-3-3 19-27 4-2-2 22-19 2-5-1 16-30 4-4-0 20-22 EAST PIT BOS NYI NYR PHI NJD BUF WSH WSH 2-2-4 24-29 4-4-0 25-26 6-2-0 24-18 4-4-0 23-26 6-2-0 33-24 8-0-0 32-19 6-1-1 30-21 PIT 3-4-1 19-21 6-2-0 26-19 6-2-0 31-25 3-4-1 27-32 6-1-1 33-21 7-1-0 31-14 6-2-0 29-24 BOS 5-3-0 21-19 3-3-2 18-21 5-3-0 22-18 6-1-1 32-20 3-3-2 17-17 7-1-0 32-16 4-2-2 26-25 NYI 2-4-2 19-26 5-2-1 21-18 6-2-0 23-12 5-1-2 23-17 6-2-0 23-14 6-1-1 29-17 2-5-1 18-24 NYR 2-4-2 25-31 3-4-1 18-22 2-5-1 12-23 4-3-1 34-20 6-2-0 35-19 6-1-1 27-19 4-4-0 26-23 PHI 5-3-0 32-27 2-4-2 20-32 3-1-4 17-23 4-3-1 20-34 4-4-0 27-28 5-3-0 23-24 2-5-1 24-33 NJD 2-6-0 21-33 5-1-2 17-17 2-5-1 14-23 2-6-0 19-35 4-3-1 28-27 4-3-1 27-27 0-6-2 19-32 BUF 1-7-0 14-31 1-6-1 16-32 2-6-0 17-29 2-4-0 19-27 3-3-2 24-23 4-3-1 27-27 2-5-1 21-30 WEST VGK MIN STL ARZ SJS LAK ANA COL COL 4-3-1 17-18 5-2-1 31-25 5-3-0 26-21 6-1-1 35-19 6-2-0 30-19 7-1-0 28-12 6-1-1 30-19 VGK 3-4-1 24-24 6-1-1 34-19 6-2-0 23-18 8-0-0 33-14 6-2-0 30-19 7-1-0 29-13 4-4-0 18-17 MIN 5-1-2 24-24 2-4-2 19-35 7-1-0 32-12 5-2-1 32-23 6-2-0 25-21 7-1-0 24-14 3-5-0 25-31 STL 2-4-2 19-34 6-1-1 35-19 3-4-1 22-23 5-1-2 29-25 3-4-1 17-24 5-1-2 26-19 3-5-0 21-26 ARZ 2-5-1 18-23 1-7-0 12-32 5-2-1 23-22 5-2-1 33-25 3-4-1 23-22 6-1-1 25-17 2-5-1 19-35 SJS 0-6-2 14-33 3-5-0 23-32 3-3-2 25-29 3-4-1 25-33 6-2-0 25-20 4-3-1 20-22 2-5-1 19-30 LAK 2-6-0 19-30 2-3-3 21-25 5-1-2 24-17 5-3-0 22-23 2-5-1 20-25 4-3-1 25-22 1-7-0 12-28 ANA 1-5-2 13-29 1-5-2 14-24 3-5-0 19-26 2-4-2 17-25 4-3-1 22-20 4-4-0 22-25 2-4-2 19-30 NORTH EDM WPG MTL CGY OTT VAN TOR TOR 6-1-2 31-19 6-4-0 30-28 7-2-1 34-25 6-2-1 25-21 5-2-2 35-32 5-3-1 32-23 EDM 7-2-0 34-22 4-4-1 22-26 6-4-0 34-28 9-0-0 41-18 6-4-0 33-29 3-5-1 19-31 WPG 2-7-9 22-34 6-3-0 31-28 6-2-1 30-20 6-4-0 32-25 6-3-0 27-17 4-4-2 28-30 MTL 5-2-2 26-22 3-3-3 28-31 3-6-0 15-24 4-4-2 24-31 6-0-3 41-26 3-6-1 25-34 CGY 4-6-0 28-34 3-5-1 20-30 6-3-0 24-15 3-5-1 28-31 7-3-0 35-26 3-5-1 21-25 OTT 0-9-0 18-41 4-5-1 25-32 6-3-1 31-24 6-3-0 31-28 3-4-2 20-30 4-4-1 32-35 VAN 4-6-0 29-33 3-5-1 17-27 3-5-1 26-41 3-5-2 26-35 6-3-0 30-20 4-5-0 23-32 For me personally I view this as a sign of hope for a much more exciting and competitive year for the Canucks, despite all that we battled, we were slightly under .500 Thats without Pettersson for 30 games, the toughest scheduling in the league to start the season and to end the season. As well as being decimated by COVID and never really recovering from that. Imagine if we had Pettersson for those 30 games. We went 14-14-2 from the day Pettersson was shut down. Or did everyone forget the 7 wins in 8 games prior to COVID? Imagine if we had him even with COVID I think Pettersson would have helped us win at least 5 games of the 14 losses. With those 5 wins, we would be in the playoffs and Montreal would be out. Which by the way Vancouver, Ottawa and Calgary would all be in a playoff spot in 5 wins and under. As for the other divisions..... Buffalo would need 12 more wins to TIE NYI and 13 wins to make it into a playoff spot. NJD would need 8 to tie and 9 to get in, same goes for DET and CBJ 8, 8 to tie and 9 to get in. ANA 10 to tie 11 to get in, LAK and SJS would need 7 to tie and 8 to get in. The NYR who were 5th, would need 6 wins to make it into the playoffs.... Vancouver had a rough start but in the 12 games after Pettersson was shut down and leading up to COVID Vancouver went 8-3-1 The boys were heating up. It's really unfortunate we got COVID.... Anyways, I hope this post can bring some positivity to a such an unfortunate season. There was also the emergence of Hoglander, Boeser regained his confidence and played a full season and was one of our better players and Demko continued to build on his magical playoff performance. Keep your heads up and be proud of the boys and what they battled through this year and look forward to the 2021-22 season!! We are a lot closer than you think! @DSVII There ya go, my 'feast or famine' outlook on the season! 8 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Viper007 Posted June 10, 2021 Share Posted June 10, 2021 It all comes down to, this is an anomaly of a year, and will most likely never happen again. Do I think the Canucks are as bad as their record? Definitely not. Too many factors to consider. No practice times. No team bonding. Being isolated even at home. COVID. Schedule. I just hope that COVID is a non-factor come next season, that way it'll be a more even playing field (although Vancouver still gets shafted with travel schedule). 1 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Dumb Nuck Posted June 10, 2021 Popular Post Share Posted June 10, 2021 (edited) That’s a long winded effort of putting lip stick on a pig. Edited June 10, 2021 by Dumb Nuck Geez, you type lip stick without the space and it changes to Leipsic. 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dazzle Posted June 10, 2021 Share Posted June 10, 2021 5 minutes ago, Dumb Nuck said: That’s a long winded effort of putting lip stick on a pig. Do you have anything else to contribute? 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dumb Nuck Posted June 10, 2021 Share Posted June 10, 2021 1 hour ago, Dazzle said: Do you have anything else to contribute? Fire Green and we can forgo all the excuses and start celebrating winning a Cup. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mordekai Posted June 10, 2021 Share Posted June 10, 2021 (edited) 1 hour ago, Viper007 said: It all comes down to, this is an anomaly of a year, and will most likely never happen again. Do I think the Canucks are as bad as their record? Definitely not. Too many factors to consider. No practice times. No team bonding. Being isolated even at home. COVID. Schedule. I just hope that COVID is a non-factor come next season, that way it'll be a more even playing field (although Vancouver still gets shafted with travel schedule). I was just thinking this recently if we just had petey for all season and a better demko to start the season; we could possibly won 4 extra games (instead of losses) and say one of the games was a win against the habs, it would put us ahead of Habs for the playoffs whom are in the semi-finals... just saying... Edited June 10, 2021 by mordekai Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris12345 Posted June 10, 2021 Share Posted June 10, 2021 (edited) Interesting take. I thought it would be bad from day one and anything but tough, and boy was I right. Van and To soft as butter. During the regular season, Ottawa, Van, Calgary and to some extent Montreal all terrible. Just a poor display of a stretch run to be honest. The MassMutual division was tough. In the end it doesn't matter as it will have no historical impact on next year. Edited June 10, 2021 by Chris12345 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fanuck Posted June 10, 2021 Share Posted June 10, 2021 The Habs, as winners of their division, are going to get a serious wake-up call when they meet Vegas/Col. The overall weakness of the North division will be exposed for what it is sadly. Say what we want about the North division and 'parity' but it was weak teams playing even weaker ones in my view. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sbriggs Posted June 10, 2021 Share Posted June 10, 2021 11 hours ago, Dazzle said: Do you have anything else to contribute? I think his name say it all 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lmm Posted June 10, 2021 Share Posted June 10, 2021 10 hours ago, Dumb Nuck said: Fire Green and we can forgo all the excuses and start celebrating winning a Cup. didja hear the news?!? there will be good rockin tonite in the Green + Baumer households butits downtownfrowns for the Browns Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IBatch Posted June 10, 2021 Share Posted June 10, 2021 2 hours ago, Fanuck said: The Habs, as winners of their division, are going to get a serious wake-up call when they meet Vegas/Col. The overall weakness of the North division will be exposed for what it is sadly. Say what we want about the North division and 'parity' but it was weak teams playing even weaker ones in my view. Pretty sure the consensus thinking was our division lacked top tier talent, but was loaded with teams a level down. The OP is correct in that our division didn't have the weakest teams to pound on and pad stats with. Bet we will find out a little of what that is like next year with ANA, LA and SJ in our division ... too bad ARI won't be joining us. MTL ... WNP lost Schieffle and that hurt them big time, but both these teams are built for the playoffs - sure they will be the underdogs against this years top regular season point getters .... Vegas and COL are contenders after all. Might not be a thrashing either. Won't be surprised at all to see six or seven games out of that series, or to see MTL as the last team standing. Staal, Perry, Anderson and TT were the correct adds - really aside from lacking top end killer game breaker talent MTL stacks up well against both teams this year. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
knucklehead91 Posted June 10, 2021 Author Share Posted June 10, 2021 (edited) 4 hours ago, Chris12345 said: Interesting take. I thought it would be bad from day one and anything but tough, and boy was I right. Van and To soft as butter. During the regular season, Ottawa, Van, Calgary and to some extent Montreal all terrible. Just a poor display of a stretch run to be honest. The MassMutual division was tough. In the end it doesn't matter as it will have no historical impact on next year. 4 hours ago, Fanuck said: The Habs, as winners of their division, are going to get a serious wake-up call when they meet Vegas/Col. The overall weakness of the North division will be exposed for what it is sadly. Say what we want about the North division and 'parity' but it was weak teams playing even weaker ones in my view. I guess you guys are misinterpreting what I mean by tough. And I stated it multiple times. Tough as in the competition between top and bottom are relatively close and equal. Not saying top tier of the league, but middle tier. Ottawa proved and I could tell on paper, that they wouldnt be a push over. As you can see when the head to head records are broken down, it was pretty close. I also stated that the Canadian division is around the middle of the league, not the top. Tough as in its a dog fight between 2 middle of the league teams each night, for their 2 points. Yea we arent a division with top of the league rosters. But we also arent a division with bottom of the league feeders like LAK, SJS, ANA, BUF, NJD, CBJ, DET edit: top teams vs bottom teams in the other divisions were not close.. especially in the West division. The MassMutual east you can easily pick 4 of 5 teams to be a lock for playoffs. Equal competition top to bottom = tough to make playoffs as each game is almost a coin toss as to who is going to win each game. Its a dog fight each night. WSH, PIT, BOS, NYI, FLA, TBL, CAR, VGK, COL are all teams that are clearly in the upper echelon of the league and what makes it even easier for them is having teams like BUF, NJD, ANA, LAK, SJS, CBJ, DET in their divisions, teams that are clearly bottom of the league. Even with an off night or injuries in the lineup, WSH, PIT, BOS, NYI > BUF, NJD, NYR, PHI FLA, TBL, CAR, NSH, DAL > DET, CHI, CBJ VGK, COL, MIN, STL > ARZ, LAK, SJS, ANA In the Canadian division though, injuries had a bigger impact on a teams ability to win consistently. WPG and Montreal had a few injuries during the year and their record was reflective of Ehlers, Gallagher, Weber missing time. Same goes for Vancouver. We had a shotgun start to the year and fell behind quick. However after some practice time 13 games into the season and a bit of rest we began to claw our way back into playoff potential. We lost Pettersson, but we continued to play well and we went 8-3-1 leading up to the COVID shut down. Pettersson + COVID = playoff team No Pettersson + No COVID = playoff team No Pettersson + COVID = not a playoff team. I mean just look at how injuries affected Toronto, no Tavares and they blew a 3-1, series lead.., AGAIN. The Jets went from sweeping to being swept with the absence of Scheifele. Yes the Montreal Canadiens and the truth of the Northern Division are in for a real awakening when they face a top team like COL or VGK next round. But I dont believe Montreal is going to go down easily. The whole point of this was to show that the division we play in and the standings at the end of the season will not correlate to the same result next season. We will get our Buffalo Wings roast Duck. We’ll even get our fair share of Kraken Calamari to fill up on. Edited June 10, 2021 by knucklehead91 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris12345 Posted June 10, 2021 Share Posted June 10, 2021 11 minutes ago, knucklehead91 said: I guess you guys are misinterpreting what I mean by tough. And I stated it multiple times. Tough as in the competition between top and bottom are relatively close and equal. Not saying top tier of the league, but middle tier. Ottawa proved and I could tell on paper, that they wouldnt be a push over. As you can see when the head to head records are broken down, it was pretty close. I also stated that the Canadian division is around the middle of the league, not the top. Tough as in its a dog fight between 2 middle of the league teams each night, for their 2 points. Yea we arent a division with top of the league rosters. But we also arent a division with bottom of the league feeders like LAK, SJS, ANA, BUF, NJD, CBJ, DET edit: top teams vs bottom teams in the other divisions were not close.. especially in the West division. The MassMutual east you can easily pick 4 of 5 teams to be a lock for playoffs. Equal competition top to bottom = tough to make playoffs as each game is almost a coin toss as to who is going to win each game. Its a dog fight each night. WSH, PIT, BOS, NYI, FLA, TBL, CAR, VGK, COL are all teams that are clearly in the upper echelon of the league and what makes it even easier for them is having teams like BUF, NJD, ANA, LAK, SJS, CBJ, DET in their divisions, teams that are clearly bottom of the league. Even with an off night or injuries in the lineup, WSH, PIT, BOS, NYI > BUF, NJD, NYR, PHI FLA, TBL, CAR, NSH, DAL > DET, CHI, CBJ VGK, COL, MIN, STL > ARZ, LAK, SJS, ANA In the Canadian division though, injuries had a bigger impact on a teams ability to win consistently. WPG and Montreal had a few injuries during the year and their record was reflective of Ehlers, Gallagher, Weber missing time. Same goes for Vancouver. We had a shotgun start to the year and fell behind quick. However after some practice time 13 games into the season and a bit of rest we began to claw our way back into playoff potential. We lost Pettersson, but we continued to play well and we went 8-3-1 leading up to the COVID shut down. Pettersson + COVID = playoff team No Pettersson + No COVID = playoff team No Pettersson + COVID = not a playoff team. I mean just look at how injuries affected Toronto, no Tavares and they blew a 3-1, series lead.., AGAIN. The Jets went from sweeping to being swept with the absence of Scheifele. Yes the Montreal Canadiens and the truth of the Northern Division are in for a real awakening when they face a top team like COL or VGK next round. But I dont believe Montreal is going to go down easily. The whole point of this was to show that the division we play in and the standings at the end of the season will not correlate to the same result next season. We will get our Buffalo Wings roast Duck. We’ll even get our fair share of Kraken Calamari to fill up on. I completely agree a 56 game season where the Canucks played 6 NHL teams does not correlate to next year. I still don't think the division was tough. I think some of the bad teams were closely matched or there wasn't as big of a gap to your point. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
knucklehead91 Posted June 10, 2021 Author Share Posted June 10, 2021 Just now, Chris12345 said: I completely agree a 56 game season where the Canucks played 6 NHL teams does not correlate to next year. I still don't think the division was tough. I think some of the bad teams were closely matched or there wasn't as big of a gap to your point. Precisely, there wasnt a big gap. Which is what made it tough to win. That is what I meant by tough. Each team had to claw and scrape for their wins. Add on any mid season adversity and the wins become much harder. i am in no way insinuating the division was top tier. It was a pretty well balanced division and 6 of those teams could have been a playoff team, unfortunately 2 teams did have to miss out, the question at the start of the year was what 2 teams? Every other division you could pretty easily tell who was in and who was out before the season even started. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris12345 Posted June 10, 2021 Share Posted June 10, 2021 2 minutes ago, knucklehead91 said: Precisely, there wasnt a big gap. Which is what made it tough to win. That is what I meant by tough. Each team had to claw and scrape for their wins. Add on any mid season adversity and the wins become much harder. i am in no way insinuating the division was top tier. It was a pretty well balanced division and 6 of those teams could have been a playoff team, unfortunately 2 teams did have to miss out, the question at the start of the year was what 2 teams? Every other division you could pretty easily tell who was in and who was out before the season even started. Didn't 3 teams miss? I'm lost now lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Googlie Posted June 10, 2021 Share Posted June 10, 2021 (edited) 4 minutes ago, Chris12345 said: Didn't 3 teams miss? I'm lost now lol "6 of those (7) teams could have been a playoff team ..." Ottawa was always going to miss, in most people's opinion, thus just 2 Edited June 10, 2021 by Googlie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lmm Posted June 10, 2021 Share Posted June 10, 2021 10 minutes ago, knucklehead91 said: I guess you guys are misinterpreting what I mean by tough. And I stated it multiple times. Tough as in the competition between top and bottom are relatively close and equal. Not saying top tier of the league, but middle tier. Ottawa proved and I could tell on paper, that they wouldnt be a push over. As you can see when the head to head records are broken down, it was pretty close. I also stated that the Canadian division is around the middle of the league, not the top. Tough as in its a dog fight between 2 middle of the league teams each night, for their 2 points. Yea we arent a division with top of the league rosters. But we also arent a division with bottom of the league feeders like LAK, SJS, ANA, BUF, NJD, CBJ, DET edit: top teams vs bottom teams in the other divisions were not close.. especially in the West division. The MassMutual east you can easily pick 4 of 5 teams to be a lock for playoffs. Equal competition top to bottom = tough to make playoffs as each game is almost a coin toss as to who is going to win each game. Its a dog fight each night. WSH, PIT, BOS, NYI, FLA, TBL, CAR, VGK, COL are all teams that are clearly in the upper echelon of the league and what makes it even easier for them is having teams like BUF, NJD, ANA, LAK, SJS, CBJ, DET in their divisions, teams that are clearly bottom of the league. Even with an off night or injuries in the lineup, WSH, PIT, BOS, NYI > BUF, NJD, NYR, PHI FLA, TBL, CAR, NSH, DAL > DET, CHI, CBJ VGK, COL, MIN, STL > ARZ, LAK, SJS, ANA In the Canadian division though, injuries had a bigger impact on a teams ability to win consistently. WPG and Montreal had a few injuries during the year and their record was reflective of Ehlers, Gallagher, Weber missing time. Same goes for Vancouver. We had a shotgun start to the year and fell behind quick. However after some practice time 13 games into the season and a bit of rest we began to claw our way back into playoff potential. We lost Pettersson, but we continued to play well and we went 8-3-1 leading up to the COVID shut down. Pettersson + COVID = playoff team No Pettersson + No COVID = playoff team No Pettersson + COVID = not a playoff team. I mean just look at how injuries affected Toronto, no Tavares and they blew a 3-1, series lead.., AGAIN. The Jets went from sweeping to being swept with the absence of Scheifele. Yes the Montreal Canadiens and the truth of the Northern Division are in for a real awakening when they face a top team like COL or VGK next round. But I dont believe Montreal is going to go down easily. The whole point of this was to show that the division we play in and the standings at the end of the season will not correlate to the same result next season. We will get our Buffalo Wings roast Duck. We’ll even get our fair share of Kraken Calamari to fill up on. You have put some good effort into your analysis, but I am not sure a+b=c Vancouver and Calgary do not belong in the playoffs in any division, and Ottawa is young. People say, "If Vancouver had one a game here and a game there, they would have made the playoffs" But they did, there are probably 20 teams in the league that would have spanked us those first 2 games after covid, but Toronto stumbled into town with 2nd +3rd string goalies and Holtby beat them both. I look at eh Canucks , Edmonton and Toronto, ( and I know I'll get flamed for this) and I don't see much difference Edmonton prepared for the playoffs by getting McD his 100 points TO prepared by getting Matthews the Rocket Trophy I see Vancouver trending in the same direction with Hughes playing all 2 minutes of the power play You forget that the Canucks hot streak in March coincided with the Petey injury None of these teams play a good "team game" and that is what I thought this thread would be about Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris12345 Posted June 10, 2021 Share Posted June 10, 2021 3 minutes ago, Googlie said: "6 of those (7) teams could have been a playoff team ..." Ottawa was always going to miss, in most people's opinion, thus just 2 got er Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldnews Posted June 10, 2021 Share Posted June 10, 2021 (edited) 12 hours ago, Dumb Nuck said: Fire Green and we can forgo all the excuses and start celebrating winning a Cup. #confirmed. (to 'elaborate' = one-liner trolling 'champion' exposed by a mere second line lol) Edited June 10, 2021 by oldnews Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
knucklehead91 Posted June 10, 2021 Author Share Posted June 10, 2021 25 minutes ago, lmm said: You have put some good effort into your analysis, but I am not sure a+b=c Vancouver and Calgary do not belong in the playoffs in any division, and Ottawa is young. People say, "If Vancouver had one a game here and a game there, they would have made the playoffs" But they did, there are probably 20 teams in the league that would have spanked us those first 2 games after covid, but Toronto stumbled into town with 2nd +3rd string goalies and Holtby beat them both. I look at eh Canucks , Edmonton and Toronto, ( and I know I'll get flamed for this) and I don't see much difference Edmonton prepared for the playoffs by getting McD his 100 points TO prepared by getting Matthews the Rocket Trophy I see Vancouver trending in the same direction with Hughes playing all 2 minutes of the power play You forget that the Canucks hot streak in March coincided with the Petey injury None of these teams play a good "team game" and that is what I thought this thread would be about You’re missing the point. I already stated the canadian division is middle of the league. I never once said they were top. I broke it down pretty clearly. Wether or not all 7 canadian teams are bottom feeders, top tier or middle of the league, the division is equal. There are no massive advantages. The only advantages were injuries or scheduling advantages, not overall roster advantages. This is what makes it tough. Unlike the western division who had 3 bottom feeder teams, or in the east with BUF and NJD or the central with DET and CHI. There were MASSIVE advantages for 1/3 to 1/2 the games played. Also missing Pettersson and the hot streak was not something I overlooked. Thats a point you arent really understanding. This team was winning without Pettersson. With him, we would be in a playoff spot IF we didnt get decimated by COVID. Vancouver went .500 without Pettersson. Without Petey Pre-covid we went 7-3-1* Post COVID without Petey we went 7-11-2 sorry in my OP i had them as 8-3-1 pre-covid without Petey. Regardless the team was still winning without him. It wasnt until after COVID that we derailed again for a very obvious and understandable reason. With him and no COVID this team would have continued to win. Our schedule towards the end of the season was to be much lighter with more practice and rest and Vancouvers opponents were to be going through the much tougher portion of their scheduling. COVID took our lighter schedule and condensed it into 19 games in 30 days when it was originally 19 games in 45+ days. Also in a normal divisional alignment CGY and VAN were top 4 in their respective division. Comparing our division to other divisions and where we would fit is not what we are discussing. Because NSH, MIN, STL are not playoff teams in the Central div and probably not playoff teams in the East either. Next season in a normal division and no divisional restrictions, Vancouver and Calgary should be a playoff team. We will have 3 bottom feeders, an expansion team which could be a disaster or they could be like VGK but its still yet to be determined. VGK EDM VAN CGY SJS LAK ANA and SEA. Thats our division and thats a lot to look forward to. The Canucks like i said a few times now… Are closer to the middle of the league than they are the bottom. This is the optimism I am trying to bring forth to Canuck fans for next season. We are not in the same boat as LAK, ANA, SJS, DET, ARZ, CBJ, BUF etc. We are a mid tier team with an opportunity next season to make the playoffs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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