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North Division Teams Struggling This Year

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CabanaBoy5

CabanaBoy5

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Feb 17, 2013
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A perusal at the standings at roughly the midpoint of the season shows that only the Leafs and Flames are in a playoff position. Ottawa Montreal Winnipeg have little reasonable chance at getting in and Edmonton and Vancouver are going to be in tough. Last year there were conflicting views on the strength of the North and how the Leafs’ first place finish meant little in assessing how good they were.

I contend regardless of where North teams are this year and level of competition, this year’s Leafs team belongs among the best in the league. But it’s interesting to note the struggles the other teams have had against the rest of the league.
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So does this means the North was actually weak? I recall earlier this season it was posted that their good records meant it was actually a strong division.
 
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TheBeastCoast said:
Sucks to suck. But hey the Jets got their cup this year. They beat us in December. I would be happy if we are the only Canadian team in.
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I think everyone expected Ottawa and Montreal to have difficulties but the place in the standings for Winnipeg and Edmonton, and a lesser extent Vancouver, is a surprise. So was the division weaker, or have these teams not performed well this year?

I know preaseason prognasticators had Edmonton as improved and most had Winnipeg finishing top 3 in their division.
Stanley Cup predictions for 2021-22 NHL season
Regardless of the strength of the division last year, the Leafs have proven to be a very good team and heads and tails better than these other teams. Whether the division was weak or not, it’s a moot point because the Leafs have shown to be elite against all competition.
 
Personally, I saw all that "North division bad" as a way to troll Canadian fanbases to get reactions and it worked every time, especially since there are so many masochistic fans that would push the trolls agenda for them in those fan bases.

I thought all the divisions were remarkably well balanced considering.
 
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Zybalto said:
Personally, I saw all that "North division bad" as a way to troll Canadian fanbases to get reactions and it worked every time, especially since there are so many masochistic fans that would push the trolls agenda for them in those fan bases.

I thought all the divisions were remarkably well balanced considering.
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It wasn't about trolling Canadian fans.

It was about devaluing the Leafs. It was about never admitting that the Leafs are actually an elite team. From both other fans and from many Leafs fans themselves. In fact most of the most vocal North Sucks people were Leafs fans and other Canadian hockey fans who were more than willing to trash their own teams in order to devalue the Leafs.

This is why noone will actually care about these "North was actually weak I told you so!" arguments anymore because the Leafs are proving that they're elite regardless of the division, so it doesn't matter anymore.

It could still be used to troll other Canadian teams but nobody actually cared about that part anyways.

Of course, on the topic of weak divisions, the same thing is true that has been true for years now - the Pacific is a joke and all records the last bunch for years of pacific teams like Vegas and West teams in general are suspect.
 
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I mean literally the entire Pacific Division would be outside of the Eastern Conference playoffs right now by points percentage. Would not even be 8th. Only Colorado and Minnesota in the entire Western Conference would be better than a WC team.

I just think teams are worse. EDM is somewhat of a surprise to most considering all of the "big moves" they made. I think Ottawa is somewhat of a surprise... They probably thought they would at least be a bubble team.

However the main thing is that I think the East just has 8 really high end teams right now, whereas the West is fairly weak... And all of the Western Canadian teams are still well within the mix to make the playoffs. I think Calgary will make the playoffs out of the Pacific, and EDM will likely still find a way too. WPG and VAN probably are not making it.
 
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SeaOfBlue said:
I just think teams are worse. EDM is somewhat of a surprise to most considering all of the "big moves" they made.
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Their success last year was built mostly on a massive shocker year from their 39yr old goalie.
 
Outside Vegas da entire Pacific is awful .. but gives Vegas a ticket to conference finals .. all other divisions are good and it will be very tough playoff matchups given parity in league with CAP
 
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zeke said:
It wasn't about trolling Canadian fans.

It was about devaluing the Leafs. It was about never admitting that the Leafs are actually an elite team. From both other fans and from many Leafs fans themselves. In fact most of the most vocal North Sucks people were Leafs fans and other Canadian hockey fans who were more than willing to trash their own teams in order to devalue the Leafs.

This is why noone will actually care about these "North was actually weak I told you so!" arguments anymore because the Leafs are proving that they're elite regardless of the division, so it doesn't matter anymore.

It could still be used to troll other Canadian teams but nobody actually cared about that part anyways.

Of course, on the topic of weak divisions, the same thing is true that has been true for years now - the Pacific is a joke and all records the last bunch for years of pacific teams like Vegas and West teams in general are suspect.
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Yea, you could be right there.

It's all aged so badly I'm surprised anyone still brings it up though....right up there with the embarrassing "will the Leafs make the playoffs" threads at the start of the year.
 
Each season should be judged on its own merits. The North Division precisely guaranteed that four of its teams would make the playoffs. Such certainties no longer exist now that we're back to the regular setup. I wonder though if a number of the Canadian teams potentially being sellers could be helpful for the Leafs come trade deadline time considering the current, real world landscape?
 
Confucius said:
I believe the Oilers will recover. The flames have a shot as well. There is a chance 3 Canadian teams make it
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The Oilers just need average goaltending the rest of the way and they are a lock. Even with their usual bad goaltending, they are still probable.

Current odds for Canadian teams to make the playoffs (via moneypuck)

Leafs: 99.7%
Flames: 90.1%
Oilers: 60.9%
Nucks: 12.6%
Jets: 9.1%
Sens: 2.2%
Toilet Seats: 0%
 
As we near the mid point of this season only the Leafs of the former North Div teams are sitting comfortably in a playoff spot at present.

Calgary is currently tied for 8th in the West and last WC spot based on points, while Edmonton, Winnipeg and Vancouver are all on the outside looking in, while Ottawa and Montreal and the 2 worst teams in the East and sit #30 and #32 in the league overall.

Based on points% Leafs sit 5th and Calgary 14th of the 16 playoff teams meaning 14 of the 16 current playoff teams are USA based [87.5%].

We can pretend that QofC of the North Div was something other than it was, but not sure what is up for debate here as the results speak for themselves, and this year only reaffirms what most knowledgeable hockey fans already knew last year that the North Div wasn't loaded with serious Cup contenders and as such the weakest of the 4 Divs.

The once in a hundred years World wide pandemic and format changes gifted 4 CDN based team a playoff spot last year, and this year if the playoffs began today only 1 team from the East and 1 (and just barely) from the West would qualify for this years playoffs.

While Hockey is Canada's game and majority of the players in the NHL come from Canada as the biggest supplier of talent for the NHL overall. Sadly the last time a Canadian based team won the Stanley Cup was Montreal in 1993 (29 years ago) so the strength of the NHL lies within the 24 American based teams that have won the last 28 Stanley Cups.

:(
 
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EDM has 5 and 7 games in hand over LA and ANA, so it's kind of deceiving to just look at the standings and not point%, for which they are essentially tied. They are playing MTL and OTT next. That will do wonders for them to rebuild their confidence and get back on track - if they win.
 
Mess said:
As we near the mid point of this season only the Leafs of the former North Div teams are sitting comfortably in a playoff spot at present.

Calgary is currently tied for 8th in the West and last WC spot based on points, while Edmonton, Winnipeg and Vancouver are all on the outside looking in, while Ottawa and Montreal and the 2 worst teams in the East and sit #30 and #32 in the league overall.

Based on points% Leafs sit 5th and Calgary 14th of the 16 playoff teams meaning 14 of the 16 current playoff teams are USA based [87.5%].

We can pretend that QofC of the North Div was something other than it was, but not sure what is up for debate here as the results speak for themselves, and this year only reaffirms what most knowledgeable hockey fans already knew last year that the North Div wasn't loaded with serious Cup contenders and as such the weakest of the 4 Divs.

While Hockey is Canada's game and majority of the players in the NHL come from Canada as the biggest supplier of talent for the NHL overall. Sadly the last time a Canadian based team won the Stanley Cup was Montreal in 1993 (29 years ago) so the strength of the NHL lies within the 24 American based teams that have won the last 28 Stanley Cups.

:(
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A resounding indictment of Hockey Canada's addiction too the old school eye test'n'truculence method of managing hockey teams.

The Leafs are the one Canadian team trying to lead the rest out of the wilderness....but their anti-toronto hate is so strong that most of them doubled down on the old skool approach out of spite.

Unfortunately it looks like some of them, like MTL and VAN, are finally smartening up and following our modern intelligent approach.
 
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CabanaBoy5 said:
Ottawa Montreal Winnipeg have little reasonable chance at getting in
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Not to nitpick but Ottawa and Montreal have zero chance of getting in, Winnipeg maybe 1% if we're being generous.

But to address the point of your post, a lot can change in one off-season. Calgary is looking ridiculous, Edmonton is lost, Ottawa is slightly worse(?) than expected and even without Weber & Price no one expected Montreal to fall this far. Not sure what's going on with Winnipeg. The vote's not in on Vancouver yet after they seem to have cooled following the initial Boudreau hiring bump.

Don't forget Covid has caused havoc among Canadian teams so it's really tough to judge anything compared to last season.
 
kevsh said:
Not to nitpick but Ottawa and Montreal have zero chance of getting in, Winnipeg maybe 1% if we're being generous.

But to address the point of your post, a lot can change in one off-season. Calgary is looking ridiculous, Edmonton is lost, Ottawa is slightly worse(?) than expected and even without Weber & Price no one expected Montreal to fall this far. Not sure what's going on with Winnipeg. The vote's not in on Vancouver yet after they seem to have cooled following the initial Boudreau hiring bump.

Don't forget Covid has caused havoc among Canadian teams so it's really tough to judge anything compared to last season.
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This is a really good point. Although it wouldn't have made much of a difference to Ottawa and Montreal, the fact the arenas are empty definitely takes away from the advantage Canadian teams would have had for home games. I think American teams coming into Canadian cities have an unfair advantage in that a motivating factor for some Canadian teams simply isn't there.
 
Leafs could have made use of a worthy opponent in the same tier as Carolina/Florida/Tampa to help them get battle ready. Hard to get that killer instinct when 50% of your games were against Ottawa Montreal and Vancouver. The other 3 teams were a bit meh too. Jets are the only team that managed to skate circles around us at times and Fred let in a lot of bad goals when his problems kicked in, otherwise I can't recall any moment the Leafs had to sweat.

This year should be better than the Bruins series. Real 82 game schedule and the remaining grind is fast paced and hectic (this reminds me of that 5 month break before jackets too, we haven't had a "real" setup in a long time). They'll be ready to roll this year.
 
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