Around the NHL 2022-2023 *Mod warning in effect pg145

[Brian39]

Dallas looks to be clear top team in the West. Edmonton and Colorado couid certainly beat them, part If they make right moves, but West is fairly crappy and they look like class of it.

I think most of us around here knew that the West was wide open this year, but it is still crazy to watch. The 3 seed in both Eastern Conference divisions are currently ahead of the #2 team in the West by both points and points percentage. I completely agree that Dallas currently looks like the class of the West and they currently have the same points percentage as the 5th best team in the East.

Sometimes, a split like this could be explained by the 'stronger' looking conference simply having more bottom feeders. The teams at the top take more easy points from the extra bad teams in their Conference and wind up with an inflated point total. But that is absolutely not the case this year. The West has 4 of the bottom 5 teams in the league and 6 of the bottom 8.

This Conference is awful at the bottom, bad in the middle, mediocre near the top and simply 'good' at the very top.

It's a shame that this is the year the wheels fell off for the Blues. Last year's Blues very well might have been the favorites to come out of this year's West. Dallas is on pace for 'just' 108 points, so it would have been a tight battle for #1 in the Conference. Colorado and Edmonton are hot right now and I could see them looking like the favorites heading into playoffs. But neither has the same aura that Colorado had last year.

Hopefully the East turns into an arms race and a few Western teams decide to load up to take advantage of a wide open Conference.

 

[PJJJP]

I think most of us around here knew that the West was wide open this year, but it is still crazy to watch. The 3 seed in both Eastern Conference divisions are currently ahead of the #2 team in the West by both points and points percentage. I completely agree that Dallas currently looks like the class of the West and they currently have the same points percentage as the 5th best team in the East.

Sometimes, a split like this could be explained by the 'stronger' looking conference simply having more bottom feeders. The teams at the top take more easy points from the extra bad teams in their Conference and wind up with an inflated point total. But that is absolutely not the case this year. The West has 4 of the bottom 5 teams in the league and 6 of the bottom 8.

This Conference is awful at the bottom, bad in the middle, mediocre near the top and simply 'good' at the very top.

It's a shame that this is the year the wheels fell off for the Blues. Last year's Blues very well might have been the favorites to come out of this year's West. Dallas is on pace for 'just' 108 points, so it would have been a tight battle for #1 in the Conference. Colorado and Edmonton are hot right now and I could see them looking like the favorites heading into playoffs. But neither has the same aura that Colorado had last year.

Hopefully the East turns into an arms race and a few Western teams decide to load up to take advantage of a wide open Conference.

The blues fell off, The Avs have had a lot of injures, the Knights have a lot of Injuries, the Flames lost some of their big players and their team has looked off all season long, a lot of Wild players had career years last year. Yeah the West looks shit oh what a year to get a high draft pick in

 

[BlueDream]

Jacob Trouba is my new favorite player. He just about killed Kadri. And when another Flame (Dube) charged at him to answer he calmly kicked the crap out of him too.

I love the way he plays the game. Old school and fun to watch.

 

[Mike Liut]

Good tank night so far. Philly, Fla, Det all winning and Van leading in the 3rd

 

[542365]

Wings, Flyers, Canucks all won. Sharks lost. Pretty good night for the Blues.

 

[Stealth JD]

Seattle in the Big Apple tonight in Tarasenko's Rangers debut. Wonder what kind of ovation he'll receive by the MSG faithful.

Anaheim, Chicago & Columbus all hosting games tonight. Go home-teams!

 

[PocketNines]

[Points – Games] or
[Wins – Regulation losses] ... quick proxy for point percentage

CBJ -17
CHI -14
ANA -12
AZ -11
SJ -10
MTL -7
VAN -6
STL -2
PHI even
OTT +1
DET +2

Bolded all playing tonight. IMO easier hope for better draft position is Blues have to descend fast with a long string of -1s because that is required to even get close to the top 5

 

[Brian39]

Points – games or wins – regulation losses ... quick proxy for point percentage

CBJ -17
CHI -14
ANA -12
AZ -11
SJ -10
MTL -7
VAN -6
STL -2
PHI even
OTT +1
DET +2

Bolded all playing tonight. IMO easier hope for better draft position is Blues have to descend fast with a long string of -1s because that is required to even get close to the top 5

It took me entirely too long to figure out that you were referencing two separate formulas that both get you to the same number. I was sitting here thinking 'what the hell type of equation lets you pick whether you want to subtract games or wins?'

For anyone dumb like me, the end number represents how many points above/below .500 each team is. We're 2 points below .500, the Canucks are 6 points below .500, etc. Great shorthand reference point to illustrate the difference games in hand makes.

Getting into the bottom 5 is a very tall order, but catching Montreal feels doable and isn't an insignificant difference. Going from 8th worst to 6th would take our current Bedard odds from 6% to 7.5% and our 'Bedard or Fantilli' odds from 12.4% to 15.4%.

 

[bleedblue1223]

We'd have to go on one heck of a losing streak to catch some of them, but catching Vancouver/Montreal is plausible.

 

[PocketNines]

It took me entirely too long to figure out that you were referencing two separate formulas that both get you to the same number. I was sitting here thinking 'what the hell type of equation lets you pick whether you want to subtract games or wins?'

For anyone dumb like me, the end number represents how many points below .500 each team is. We're 2 points below .500, the Canucks are 6 points below .500 points below .500, etc. Great shorthand reference point to illustrate the difference games in hand makes.

Getting into the bottom 5 is a hugely tall order, but catching Montreal feels doable.

I edited the formatting a little for clarity. I use wins minus regulation losses since the columns are adjacent, but points minus games gets you the same #

It helps to temper expectations about who the Blues can realistically catch because even if any of the bottom feeders go .500 (a lot to ask of them) they would just remain where they are.

 

[oPlaiD]

Seattle in the Big Apple tonight in Tarasenko's Rangers debut. Wonder what kind of ovation he'll receive by the MSG faithful.

Anaheim, Chicago & Columbus all hosting games tonight. Go home-teams!

I'm actually kind of excited to watch Tarasenko on the Rangers for some reason.

I guess there's a bit of a drive to vicariously live through his success considering we won't be seeing much of that this season...

 

[PocketNines]

We'd have to go on one heck of a losing streak to catch some of them, but catching Vancouver/Montreal is plausible.

Montreal, Vancouver, Philly, Ottawa, Detroit is my nightly scoreboard. Five games ago the Blues were +3

 

[Linkens Mastery]

 

[Mike Liut]

We'd have to go on one heck of a losing streak to catch some of them, but catching Vancouver/Montreal is plausible.

we need to hurry up and make a few more trades. We could easily drop a couple more spots. Probably not more than 2-3. Drafting 6-8 sounds great to me.

 

[Xerloris]

we need to hurry up and make a few more trades. We could easily drop a couple more spots. Probably not more than 2-3. Drafting 6-8 sounds great to me.

We need to tell Thomas we're concerned about his testicles and he needs to sit the rest of the season.

 

[Bobby Orrtuzzo]

Rangers are on NHL network for those who have it. Already have seen Vladi….I’m sad again lol

 

[oPlaiD]

Rangers are on NHL network for those who have it. Already have seen Vladi….I’m sad again lol

It's certainly a little painful watching this pre-game spiel all about Tarasenko and Vince Dunn.

At least the context is "these guys won the Cup together on the Blues so you know they're good!"

 

[oPlaiD]

Well that didn't take long.

Panarin passes it right past Dunn and Tarasenko already has his first goal wearing a different uniform.

 

[Xerloris]

Tarasenko just scored from Panarin.

That just made me happy for Vladi but f*** it's so depressing.

 

[LGB]

I'm getting the feeling that Tarasenko is going to be really good this season for the Rangers.

 

[Xerloris]

I'm getting the feeling that Tarasenko is going to be really good this season for the Rangers.

It's even more depressing knowing that Tarasenko tried to get us to sign Panarin before he ever came to the NHL but you know, we were like he's to small. f*** you Hitchcock.

 

[stl76]

Beautiful play…personally, I love it. Going to be fun watching Panarin and Vlad on a line together. Have a feeling those two are going to create some magic down the stretch here and into the playoffs! They look so happy haha

 

[Snubbed4Vezina]

I'm getting the feeling that Tarasenko is going to be really good this season for the Rangers.

I just made a friendly wager with a friend that he'd score more than 10 in their remaining 31 games. Off to a good start.

 

[Davimir Tarablad]

Strange to watch both Schwartz and Tarasenko play in a non Blues game.

 

[542365]

The only shifts that the Rangers aren’t dominating are when Mikkola is on the ice.