The Playoff Push, Tanking and Scoreboard Watching Thread

[TruBlueFan1970]

Flames get 3 out of 6 points against the Stars, Oilers and Avs. They just won’t go away. Blues better keep winning.

 

[TheDizee]

Flames get 3 out of 6 points against the Stars, Oilers and Avs. They just won’t go away. Blues better keep winning.

Flames and Blues look like they want to be the 2 WC teams to me.

 

[BlueMed]

The Flames play Utah tomorrow. Hopefully Colorado taking them all the way to the shootout will make them more fatigued tomorrow. Huberdeau and Kadri each played 22 minutes.

 

[TruBlueFan1970]

Flames and Blues look like they want to be the 2 WC teams to me.

Also odd that the Avs didn’t use NateMac, Necas or Makar in the shootout. They afraid of the Blues getting in?

 

[ChicagoBlues]

While not great that they got 2 points when they would have gotten 0 if the Refalanche were not pathetic frauds, at least they did not get a regulation win.

We lead them in RW and ROW by a good margin. That's good.

 

[Stupendous Yappi]

Team	Magic Number to clinch Playoffs	Current Points	Games Remaining	Possible Points	RW	ROW	Common Games
Wild	12	88	7	102	33	38	vs C, vs V
Blues	13	87	7	101	30	36	vs U
Flames	.	82	9	100	26	31	vs U, vs W
Canucks	.	81	8	97	26	31	vs W
Utah	.	78	8	94	25	32	vs C, vs B

Blues play (Snuggerud’s first?) and then Calgary on a b2b at Utah, one of the common games remaining, tomorrow night. Utah is getting close to “must win out” territory if they want to make it.

 

[TheDizee]

Very important that we stay atleast 2 points ahead of Calgary as we will win the tiebreaker with them. That effectively makes it so we have a 3 point lead on them since they lose the tiebreaker if they tie us. Right now, we are only up 1 point on them (Assuming they win their games, which I always do).

Refalanche only 7 points ahead of us. Would take a huge collapse by them to take that spot but we do play them one more time at home this weekend. Stranger things have happened this past month.

 

[Spektre]

Colorado can’t do anything right

 

[TheDizee]

Also odd that the Avs didn’t use NateMac, Necas or Makar in the shootout. They afraid of the Blues getting in?

 

[oPlaiD]

I'm starting to lose my mind watching these teams play against the Wild and Flames and just dominate games for 2+ periods and the inexplicably blow leads and lose.

Watching recent games the Canucks look like a step above the Wild or Flames, but the results are going the other way. Guess that's sports, though.

 

[ChicagoBlues]

Also odd that the Avs didn’t use NateMac, Necas or Makar in the shootout. They afraid of the Blues getting in?

Yep!

 

[WeWentBlues]

Can't believe Colorado choked that game up 2-0 with 10 minutes to play

 

[MortiestOfMortys]

The Avs have had 46 different people play a game for them this season. That’s two entire different rosters in one season. Kudos to Sakic for seeing there was a problem and doing something to address it, especially at goaltending. But man, when has that ever worked out?

A team of mercenaries just doesn’t tend to go very far in the playoffs, especially when you go all-in at the TDL. The only “chemistry” on that team is between Makar and MacKinnon, and while they have a strong argument for best duo in the league, you can play them both 30 minutes a night and still not win a round in the playoffs. Plus, you’re gonna add the ghost of Gabe Landeskog to this roster? They’re paper tigers, imo. Very beatable in the playoffs.

 

[Beninnola]

Can't believe Colorado choked that game up 2-0 with 10 minutes to play

I went to bed I swear Moneypuck said flames had a 1% chance to win.

Really impressive that they keep coming back. Utah should give them hell today though. That’s a hard team to deal with when you’re on a traveling back to back when they’re fresh.

 

[Reality Czech]

Colorado can’t do anything right

The Colorado Averagealanche

 

[BlueOil]

The Avs have had 46 different people play a game for them this season. That’s two entire different rosters in one season. Kudos to Sakic for seeing there was a problem and doing something to address it, especially at goaltending. But man, when has that ever worked out?

colorado knew the last two years their goaltending sucked and didn't do anything about it either off season. sakic and macfarland weren't really responsive to that need. surprised they actually traded away their few remaining 2025 picks to bring in better guys. they've got a servicable duo now and almost no draft picks this season (or next).

 

[MortiestOfMortys]

colorado knew the last two years their goaltending sucked and didn't do anything about it either off season. sakic and macfarland weren't really responsive to that need. surprised they actually traded away their few remaining 2025 picks to bring in better guys. they've got a servicable duo now and almost no draft picks this season (or next).

It’s easy to get by on middling (and cheap) goaltending while the scoring holds out. Georgiev was two wins shy of back-to-back 40-win seasons on a sub-$3.5mil contract. That’s terrific value, especially compared to Blackwood at $5.25 until 20-freaking-30. They should have seen the warning signs way earlier though, I agree.

I don’t have any faith in either of their goalies being good long-term. They pushed all their chips in this year. As long as Makar and MacKinnon stay healthy they’ll always be competitive. But they’re gonna have to keep spending a ton of money in free agency each year if they want to contend. I don’t think they’re can pull it off.

 

[pseudoswede]

It's more of a two-year all-in (this and next season), and a decent portion of their productive roster is signed through at least 2028.

 

[Brian39]

Before this recent stretch Calgary had ONE comeback win the entire season and it was opening night. I’ve never seen anything like this.

I'm sure their fans are sitting there saying "before this recent stretch St. Louis hadn't won more than 2 in a row all season and now they rip off 9 straight!? I've never seen anything like this."

 

[Brian39]

Flames get 3 out of 6 points against the Stars, Oilers and Avs. They just won’t go away. Blues better keep winning.

Glass half full: In the last 5 days we earned 1 more point than the Flames despite them playing one of their games in hand. We also went from +2 to +4 on the regulation wins tiebreaker. And while they did have a tough schedule, their only win in the 3 games was a shootout win against a team we just beat in regulation. They are quickly running out of time to 'not go away' by getting slightly worse results than us.

 

[TheOrganist]

I'm sure their fans are sitting there saying "before this recent stretch St. Louis hadn't won more than 2 in a row all season and now they rip off 9 straight!? I've never seen anything like this."

This retort def made MJ1 hard. Rock hard.

 

[Brian39]

The Avs have had 46 different people play a game for them this season. That’s two entire different rosters in one season. Kudos to Sakic for seeing there was a problem and doing something to address it, especially at goaltending. But man, when has that ever worked out?

A team of mercenaries just doesn’t tend to go very far in the playoffs, especially when you go all-in at the TDL. The only “chemistry” on that team is between Makar and MacKinnon, and while they have a strong argument for best duo in the league, you can play them both 30 minutes a night and still not win a round in the playoffs. Plus, you’re gonna add the ghost of Gabe Landeskog to this roster? They’re paper tigers, imo. Very beatable in the playoffs.

I think there is more chemistry than you're giving them credit for. They still have 9 players from the Cup team, which includes 3 of their top 4 D and three of their top 4 forwards. It is also the same coach. Almost all the guys playing big minutes have deep familiarity with each other and the system. You can't just ignore Nichuskin, Lehkonen, Toews, Manson, and Girard aren't just afterthoughts beyond the Mac/Makar tenured Av duo.

Necas and the goalies have both played great so far in Colorado and I also don't expect them to just suddenly fall apart in the playoffs because they only had half a season to get used to the system. If that was going to be a struggle, I think those struggles would have started already.

I don't see them as a paper tiger at all. They turned a super top heavy team with awful goaltending into a deep team with good goaltending. They look for real to me.

 

[MortiestOfMortys]

I think there is more chemistry than you're giving them credit for. They still have 9 players from the Cup team, which includes 3 of their top 4 D and three of their top 4 forwards. It is also the same coach. Almost all the guys playing big minutes have deep familiarity with each other and the system. You can't just ignore Nichuskin, Lehkonen, Toews, Manson, and Girard aren't just afterthoughts beyond the Mac/Makar tenured Av duo.

Necas and the goalies have both played great so far in Colorado and I also don't expect them to just suddenly fall apart in the playoffs because they only had half a season to get used to the system. If that was going to be a struggle, I think those struggles would have started already.

I don't see them as a paper tiger at all. They turned a super top heavy team with awful goaltending into a deep team with good goaltending. They look for real to me.

All fair points. I think how much you should fear the Avs comes down to how much you trust that they really improved their goaltending. I don't particularly.

Blackwood -- their presumptive starter -- hasn't ever played an NHL playoff game. His last playoff action was in 2018 in the ECHL. He's having a great season, but it's his first one since the 2019-20 season with NJD. I think he's beatable.

Wedgewood at least played in 3 playoff games with Dallas in 2023. I'm guessing those were mostly relief appearances, since that amounted to ~105 minutes total. He had an .862 sv% during that time. Again, he's having a very fine season, but he's a career journeyman backup with a middling track record.

If they go on a run this post-season, it wouldn't be the first time a previously-discarded goalie went god-mode out of nowhere. They're both carrying good play into the playoffs, so it's not unreasonable to think they'll keep going. But it also wouldn't be the first time a good regular season team gets exposed because their system goalies fall apart under the pressure.

 

[jura]

 

[ezcreepin]

The Avs have had 46 different people play a game for them this season. That’s two entire different rosters in one season. Kudos to Sakic for seeing there was a problem and doing something to address it, especially at goaltending. But man, when has that ever worked out?

A team of mercenaries just doesn’t tend to go very far in the playoffs, especially when you go all-in at the TDL. The only “chemistry” on that team is between Makar and MacKinnon, and while they have a strong argument for best duo in the league, you can play them both 30 minutes a night and still not win a round in the playoffs. Plus, you’re gonna add the ghost of Gabe Landeskog to this roster? They’re paper tigers, imo. Very beatable in the playoffs.

Glass canon if you will.