Are the playoffs already set?

CupofOil

Knob Flavored Coffey
Aug 20, 2009
48,786
45,910
NYC
Looking at the standings and I know it's way early for this but the playoff participants almost seem set, pretty much in both conferences and they're almost the same as last year...

Minnesota
Winnipeg
Dallas
Colorado

Clear top 4 in the central. St. Louis and Utah are mid, Preds and Hawks are terrible

Vegas
Edmonton
L.A.
Vancouver

Seems like a clear top 4 in the Pacific to me. Who is beating out Vancouver? Calgary is ripe for a quick fall down the standings, Seattle is as mid as it gets, California teams are miles away

Florida
Toronto
Tampa Bay
Boston

I'm still of the belief that Boston will get their shit together relative to the shitty bottom 4 in the Atlantic. Does anybody believe that Ottawa, Detroit or Buffalo unseats them? I sure don't. Pretty clear top 4

Carolina
Washington
Devils
Rangers

I fully believe that the Rangers will get it together. Does anybody believe that the Flyers, Islanders, Pens or Jackets will top the Rangers or the Bruins? The Rangers are a mess right now but no way IMO.

Pretty remarkable that the playoff participants are almost set on December 13th. Way early for this but can anybody make a strong argument for a team currently out to knock out a team currently in?
If this holds, the only difference from last year of the 16 would be the Devils knocking out the Islanders and nobody is surprised by this, the Devils were ravaged by injuries last year and were a prime candidate to bounce back this season. Pretty wild the consistency in the standings.
Is this crazy to say this right now and if you disagree, where am I wrong?

Edit: Shit, I see there's already a thread on this literally, a few posts below mine. Stupid me, oh well can the mods merge this then? Sorry
 
Last edited:

NHL1674

Whatever...
Sponsor
Aug 8, 2008
29,066
6,070
Minnesota
It certainly isn't for Minnesota. They've been in this spot before in December only to completely implode into a free fall. And now they are racking up injuries to important players. Middleton is the latest, and with Brodin out, that creates a huge hole on the blueline. Zuccarello and Ek are still out. They finally lost in a big way last night, and the question is how do they respond to that.

I still think the Wild will be a bubble team.
 

olli

Least biased user
Dec 2, 2016
3,880
2,137
Canada
Everything looks set until it isn’t, teams that are below the playoff line still have so much time to go on a winning streak and be right in the race.
 

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