Playoffs Positivity Thread

[Rapala]

89 very well could be enough. It'd take one of the 4 teams were competing with to play just above 0.600 hockey for it not to be.

Detroit has the strongest strength of schedule in the entire league, so they're likely done. Islanders are 4th and they sold at the deadline, so I can't see them doing it. It's going to depend on what Columbus and the Rangers do in the homestretch.

Do you actually believe the strength of schedule argument because I don't.
There are far too many variables that get overlooked.
Nothing can predict what a team will have in the tank or the effort they will put forth on any given night.
For me the exercise is very much a one game at a time proposition and take nothing for granted.

 

[Trabdy2]

It's awesome to see this team push to where they are today, slightly ahead of the pack fighting for the WC2 spot. The team has been playing some good hockey and they've gotten key plays when they've needed them. Lots of urgency and guys understanding their roles. I'm super impressed!

Slafkovsky, Newhook, Dvorak and Struble have stepped their games up notably recently.

 

[Apfle Strubble]

League parity is like a sine/cosine function where it's at its lowest when former contenders tear it down and ascending contenders reach their peak and at its highest when contenders exit their window and rebuilding teams are about to enter theirs. The massive reluctance to give more penalties this season because of the increased potency of power plays (a big reason for lower point total among league leaders) also drives parity as refs allow star players to get abused more

2021-2022 was The year of low parity in the Eastern conference and it has been trending toward max parity since. This season or the next one might be peak parity, then teams like the Pens especially will enter the season fully rebuilding. There are now 13 teams with 0.500 point percentage or over, last season it was 12, the one before it was 11. In 2021-2022, it was only 9

In these circumstances, the amount of points needed to make the playoffs is limited since more teams split a (relatively) limited number of possible points. In 2021-2022, the Caps were WC2 with 100 points, 89 might do it this season

 

[JianYang]

Do you actually believe the strength of schedule argument because I don't.
There are far too many variables that get overlooked.
Nothing can predict what a team will have in the tank or the effort they will put forth on any given night.
For me the exercise is very much a one game at a time proposition and take nothing for granted.

A perfect example to refute the strength of schedule argument is to look at what the Habs did in late demcember and January during the hardest part of their season. That's actually when they made their biggest push.

Besides, I think the scoreboard will be even more randomized down the stretch as top teams are more likely to rest certain guys if their spots are secured.... or just take their foot off the gas pedal with one eye on the playoffs.

 

[JoelWarlord]

I'm absolutely blown away that we're actually in this spot. I really thought we were pretty much destined to end up in the 24th-28th range this year, and was ready to write the season off entirely after our poor start. Last night was the first Habs game I've truly cared about the outcome in almost 4 years. Awesome to see the guys elevate like this.

 

[morhilane]

Someone is going to pick up the pace. 89 points is a very low bar.

Teams just don't have the runway....

Max amount of pts teams can get if they win all their remaining games:
Rangers: 96 (they can't lose more than 3 games worth of points until season end to get 90 pts).
Isles: 95 (can't lose more than 2.5 games...)
Detroit: 93 (can't lose more than 1.5 games...)
Boston: 92 (can't lose more than 1 game...)
Jackets: 97 (can't lose more than 3.5 games...)

Habs: 101 (can't lose more than 5.5 games for 90 pts, requires playing for 0.566 over the last 15 games...doable)

 

[BergevinBurner]

Do you actually believe the strength of schedule argument because I don't.
There are far too many variables that get overlooked.
Nothing can predict what a team will have in the tank or the effort they will put forth on any given night.
For me the exercise is very much a one game at a time proposition and take nothing for granted.

100%
Obviously nothing's set in stone and I'm not saying it can be used to predict any given game. It doesn't factor in injuries, fatigue, importance of the game to the teams involved, etc...

But if you have two "equal" teams and one has a strength of schedule of 0.600 and the others strength of schedule is 0.550, then over a large enough sample size you'll obviously see a clear trend of the team with the weaker schedule out performing the team with the harder schedule.

 

[habbubba]

He did tonight.

He made some terrific stops and let in a stinker,it happens to them all.