It looks like we won't have a cinderella this year

[MomoSissokko]

Islanders ?

 

[10Ducky10]

Matthews is still in it.

somebody should tell him

 

[tucker3434]

There was only one division that didn't have a 3/4 seed win.

 

[ZeHockeyFan]

It’s unfortunate Minny didn’t pull off the W tonight.

This might have been their best chance at a run in all honesty.

Why is that? Can you provide clarity?

 

[BHD]

The Jets would be the team that most resembles a Cinderella story. They have a good core, but the rest of roster isn’t hat sexy. I can see them making some noise though.

 

[Luigi Habs]

Jets are far from a cinderella team, they are serious contenders in many peoples eyes. Jets are way better than the Habs.

The Jets were underperforming in the regular season. They should’ve been battling the Leafs for 1st position. I would put them as favorites to beat the Leafs if they play the way they should be.

 

[Gnova]

Why is that? Can you provide clarity?

Because they are back to the central next year.
This is the easiest route that the Wild and Jets have had for years.

 

[nORRis8]

Every year I consider the Leafs a Cinderella team due to their playoff history being synonymous with losing no matter where they are seeded.

 

[Kranix]

Habs will complete the upset in dramatic fashion

 

[GermanSpitfire]

Why is that? Can you provide clarity?

The team gelled this season, they didn’t have any expectations put on them so they just went out and did their thing. The whole team clicked.

Next year will likely be different. They will have some pretty lofty expectations and people, including managent will expect improvement. Doubt they’re able to recreate what they had this year in that room.

 

[Maplebeasts]

The Jets were underperforming in the regular season. They should’ve been battling the Leafs for 1st position. I would put them as favorites to beat the Leafs if they play the way they should be.

They really shouldn't have been. They can't defend worth a damn.

 

[DuckyGirard]

The Jets were underperforming in the regular season. They should’ve been battling the Leafs for 1st position. I would put them as favorites to beat the Leafs if they play the way they should be.

They were until they lost on the trade deadline.

That combined with a series of injuries and the dog piling from the media caused them to go into a pointless melt down.

Also the weak D narrative is completely irrelevant at this point.

They're more or less missing 1 top pairing D. And it isn't unusual in a playoff situation to loose one of your top Dmen to injury.

Logan Stanley did a lot to fill in the back end. The rest of the guys are playing the best hockey they ever played. Not to mention the obvious influence of Helle.

If none of the D get injured and Helle is still hot it's entirely pointless to say they have a weak D. Obviously the D provides no offense but that isn't a problem when they have so many forwards.

The Lowry line on it's own compensates for a killer top D pairing.

I think there's many teams that would trade their 3rd line with their 2nd pairing for our 2nd pairing with our 3rd line.

 

[The Macho King]

Tampa has been the underdog in both series so far. Is that not a Cinderella story?

 

[DuckyGirard]

The Jets didn't sweep the Oilers. When you add up all the OT minutes they played a few seconds over 5 games.

Yeah it's bizarre how few people realise how hard the jets had to work in this series.

It was absolutely a constant pressure from McDrai, it's like throwing a scorpion into your bed sheets every night for a week.

There wasn't a moment in that series where a team could just shutdown and coast.

They played 4 games worth of the most intense playoff Hockey in 4 nights, or 5 games in 6 days.

 

[AlwaysSunnyInTampa]

Tampa has been the underdog in both series so far. Is that not a Cinderella story?

Cinderella's at least get some respect. We could sweep the Hurricanes and HF will turn into biblical levels of salt pile and then rave about how we somehow cheated. Then we'll be underdogs again.


That said I don't want to be Cinderella

 

[Butch 19]

It’s unfortunate Minny didn’t pull off the W tonight.

This might have been their best chance at a run in all honesty.

The bright side is that I won't have to see the word "Minny" for much longer.

 

[Super Hans]

If you wear the wrong attire to the Amalie Ball, you'll turn into a pumpkin.

 

[DuckyGirard]

Cinderella's at least get some respect. We could sweep the Hurricanes and HF will turn into biblical levels of salt pile and then rave about how we somehow cheated. Then we'll be underdogs again.


That said I don't want to be Cinderella

"somehow we cheated", at this point you might as well get an extra 5 on 4, than have an $8 million a year player not count as part of your cap.

Between this and state tax levels you guys got an extra 10-20 mill a year to work with.

 

[AlwaysSunnyInTampa]

"somehow we cheated", at this point you might as well get an extra 5 on 4, than have an $8 million a year player not count as part of your cap.

Between this and state tax levels you guys got an extra 10-20 mill a year to work with.

*shrug*

Your guess is as good as mine as to how all this went down brother. We straight up waived Tyler Johnson and I'm pretty sure we were about to have a shortsale on everyone. But Kucherov hurt also himself in game 1 vs CBJ in the 5OT marathon. I guess his injury somehow got worse and it ended up turning into a case where he needed hip surgery because his treatment plan wasn't gonna work.

As for the tax thing.... I'm saying this in a polite tone but it's not the deal people think it is. All those years of taxes and we have 1 Cup to show for it and everyone else in a higher bracket has been winning the Cup for forever. There is a case to be made teams like CHI, PIT and WSH (all Cup winners) ACTUALLY got to have $10+ million extra to play with because they were handing out 10+ year contracts before it was outlawed.

 

[DuckyGirard]

As for the tax thing.... I'm saying this in a polite tone but it's not the deal people think it is. All those years of taxes and we have 1 Cup to show for it and everyone else in a higher bracket has been winning the Cup for forever. There is a case to be made teams like CHI, PIT and WSH (all Cup winners) ACTUALLY got to have $10+ million extra to play with because they were handing out 10+ year contracts before it was outlawd.

I feel like this is not helping your case at all. "all these years of cheating and we only got one cup".

The cap took a while to work its way into team performance, and saying other teams were circumventing the cap doesn't help your case. Cups are bought? Ok?

 

[TropicalFruitGirl2]

While I like a good underdog story, if Montreal does get booted tonight and "expected" teams all get to the second round, I am fine with it.

I would be ok if the Habs came back and shocked the Leafs in 7 (it would keep Toronto consistent at the very least), but honestly, Montreal has the worst record of the teams that got into the post season, under .500, and a couple teams even had better records but didn't get in because of how the divisions played out.

So, Montreal can continue to be the Cinderella as long as they are able, but they probably shouldn't be where they are based on record and/or points, save for the division alignments having them as the fourth best in 'points'.

I don't consider the Islanders, like many have said, to be Cinderellas.
They may not be flashy like some others and the defense first mentality their coach preaches sometimes gets looked upon as some secondary tier thing (it shouldn't be), but pre-season, I had the Islanders as contenders to win their division, and at times, it looked like they might.

Forget the seeding, the Isles aren't a Cinderella team and definitely deserve to be where they are right now, and wouldn't be shocking in the least to see them get by the Bruins.

 

[AlwaysSunnyInTampa]

I feel like this is not helping your case at all. "all these years of cheating and we only got one cup".

The cap took a while to work its way into team performance, and saying other teams were circumventing the cap doesn't help your case. Cups are bought? Ok?

My face when I realize I was better off saying nothing

 

[Danrs112]

Because they are back to the central next year.
This is the easiest route that the Wild and Jets have had for years.

I don't think the Central next year is really any harder than the West this year other than the bottom few teams are a little easier.

For playoffs whats tougher?

Facing some form of
COL/VGK/STL

or
COL/NSH/STL/WPG

You still face Colorado either way

 

[Oheao]

The fact that there are more teams in the league makes it less likely there is a Cinderella team. When you had 16 out of 21 teams make it there'd inevitably be some bad teams in the playoffs so you get something like the 1991 North Stars making the finals, but now since almost half of the teams (and half for next year) miss now, you're going to have at least OK teams make it in.

 

[Gnova]

I don't think the Central next year is really any harder than the West this year other than the bottom few teams are a little easier

You still face Colorado either way

In general, the west was filled with rebuilding teams.
Even making the post season in the central is a task every year.
It was almost a foregone conclusion they would make the post season in the west.