Positive and negative surprises at the Halfway Point of the NHL Season

[Lshap]

Many of us were on record before they lost anyone stating that roster wouldn’t make the playoffs the following year. That 2021 roster paced for 86 points.

Fan predictions are notoriously terrible, which is why there are threads like this every season.

 

[FinnishCoyote]

+ Cooley and Guenther are almost ppg

- Maccelli and Crouse have both been very bad

 

[mr figgles]

Positive: The Flyers are not in a playoff spot
Negative: They are not far enough from a playoff spot to get a high pick without luck

 

[Kingsfan1]

Positive - LA being 5th in points % being led by a ppg 37 year old Kopitar and missing Doughty through the first half of the season. Their goaltending situation is SUS at best with no tendy in the top 20 in GAA or SV%. Not sure how they do it.

Negative - Nashville being 3pts out of last.

HM: Ovi bounce back.

Kuemper is 5th overall in gaa for all goalies and 6th overall in sv% for all goalies . He’s actually doing phenomenal. Just go to NHL.com stats its on the front page for stats. Kuemper is balling out !

 

[ForumNamePending]

Not offering up anything that hasn't already been covered, but just going off the top of my head and glancing at the standings...

Positive surprises...
Washington - Not sure why they are so good.
Winnipeg - Although I guess they are a team that will have to do something come playoff time for their season to be viewed in a positive light.
Wild - Cooled off as of late, but didn't think they would be a head of Dallas, Colorado (until recently was probably a negative) and Nashville (see below) in the Central.

Negative surprises...
NY Rangers - Made the ECF last season, really good start this season, and then the wheels just came off.
Nashville - Really didn't know what to expect after going all in on FA, but surprised they just straight up suck.
Detroit - I dunno, I guess I shouldn't be surprised. They have become one of the league's preeminent wheel spinning franchises.

Also...
Out of the two perennial Atlantic doormats, for some reason I thought Buffalo was more likely to be flirting with the playoffs. So Buffalo negative, Ottawa positive.

 

[GreatSaveEssensa]

Rangers ainec. Never seen a roster quit on the home fans for an extended period of time. Generational d man one of the quitters, which is a surprise to me.

Who is the Rangers generational dman you speak of?

 

[Eggtimers]

Positive Surprises
- Tavares
- Eichel
- Monahan
- Werenski
- Stolarz
- Ovechkin
- Necas
- Washington
- Winnipeg
- Calgary
- Columbus

Negative Surprises
- Pastrnak
- Matthews
- Pettersson
- Dach
- Shesterkin
- Swayman
- Nashville
- NY Rangers

Those are mine.

Nice list
Positives I add :
Celebrini
Blackwood
Devils / Wild
Keumper
Kopitar

Negatives:
Bedard

 

[BB79]

Who is the Rangers generational dman you speak of?

Brian Leech quit a job I guess?

Surprisingly good
-Wild
-Capitals
-Jets
-Lightning playing so well after seeing Stamkos leave

Surprisingly shitty-
-Bruins PP, goaltending, can't score goals
-Rangers being trash after dominant 23-24 reg season
-Nashville sucks after adding Stamkos and others

Just depressing-
Sabres will miss the playoffs yet again.