Seriously. How did we get here? How did we find ways to win, considering...
-Our special teams suck
-Western Conference was tough this year
-Crappy chemistry at times
-Terrible start
-A couple of bad losing streaks
-Intense line shuffling
-Shaky goal-tending early on
-Blown games
-Even goal differential
we were one of the least penalized teams in the league, minimizing the damage done by oour crappy PK.
we did quite well scoring 5-on-5.
we are much better in close games. we win little, lose big.
timing is everything. when our goalies were struggling in december, hornqvist was playing lights out...when our offense dried up late, Pekka was strong...
Where is the 'lack of faith'? I am asking a genuine question.
I'm curious as to how we beat the odds. We displayed most things that the hockey world says won't get you very far and yet we managed to end the season with 100 points and tied for 7th place in wins.
It sounds really corny but when you listen to Preds players in interviews I get the feeling this is a special team. You hear every player talking about how much they believe in one another and the overall belief in the locker room that somehow someway they will get the job done. Everyone knows their role and there are no selfish players. If they are down a goal they honestly believe they will get it back. They don't know how or who will do it but they believe someone will step up. Chemistry in locker rooms in an underrated factor in all sports and I believe the Preds have great chemistry in their locker room.
In fact I believe this is the 2nd best team the Preds have ever brought to the playoffs. For these reasons I am cautiously optimistic.
We win with heart. We have intangibles. We are in fact quite possibly a special team. We have guys who bring it every night and pick up the slack when others have an off night. We buy into the system and we win even in games we shouldn't. We are very good in one goal games. For all those reasons, among others, I truly believe it will take at least 6 games for Chicago to beat us.
What Memphis said all is true, but we have a tremendous amount of heart and we give it our all, almost every night and it has brought us to where we are at...
Lets just hope the boys bring it in playoffs and we get it done
We win becasue of organizational consistency. Same GM and Head Coach for 11 years. A specific culture regardless of personnel. A stick-to-it-ness on and off the ice. A "faith" in our coaches, team, and approach to the game that is strong enough to withstand slumps.
Unlike most other teams, players and coaches are not looking over their shoulder when adversity hits. Players aren't aburptly traded and coaches are not fired. This leads to on-ice resiliency, which leads to winning close games and rebounding from tough losses.
We are the envy of the league in our consistency. Deep down, every coach would want the backing Trotz gets and every player would want the support our guys get.
Eventually, if players don't perform or they don't play "predator" hockey, they will be moved.
Do you think Legwand would still be here if this were any other team? no. Some of you would say he shouldn't be here. Yet, his role is vital to our success. It's not the role we paid $4.5mm for, but it's important to this team the way we play. So he stays, and we win, and we play great D against the best lines from other teams.
We got a special thing here. It doesn't show up in the boxscore or in the league stats but we lead the league in it.
We win becasue of organizational consistency. Same GM and Head Coach for 11 years. A specific culture regardless of personnel. A stick-to-it-ness on and off the ice. A "faith" in our coaches, team, and approach to the game that is strong enough to withstand slumps.
Unlike most other teams, players and coaches are not looking over their shoulder when adversity hits. Players aren't aburptly traded and coaches are not fired. This leads to on-ice resiliency, which leads to winning close games and rebounding from tough losses.
We are the envy of the league in our consistency. Deep down, every coach would want the backing Trotz gets and every player would want the support our guys get.
Eventually, if players don't perform or they don't play "predator" hockey, they will be moved.
Do you think Legwand would still be here if this were any other team? no. Some of you would say he shouldn't be here. Yet, his role is vital to our success. It's not the role we paid $4.5mm for, but it's important to this team the way we play. So he stays, and we win, and we play great D against the best lines from other teams.
We got a special thing here. It doesn't show up in the boxscore or in the league stats but we lead the league in it.
I agree with this and Smthsons remarks quoted in the playoff thread confirm this feeling.
However, as great as all this is, for it to be able to fully take root and thrive we need to win a series or two.
An honest assessment of this franchise would be that this year is the launch pad for next year, which will be our "make it stick" season. if we can win a round, or better yet two, this year we will have enough cash to either re-sign Hamhuis and Ellis or at least replace them with near-equivalent talent rather than having to downgrade.
Add in the emergence of Hornqvist and Wilson, and continued maturity of Rinne, Franson, Goc and (hopefully) Klein, along with better than average years from Legwand, Erat and Sully, and there is reason to think that next year we could seriously contend for the division and even the conference title.
We win becasue of organizational consistency. Same GM and Head Coach for 11 years. A specific culture regardless of personnel. A stick-to-it-ness on and off the ice. A "faith" in our coaches, team, and approach to the game that is strong enough to withstand slumps.
Unlike most other teams, players and coaches are not looking over their shoulder when adversity hits. Players aren't aburptly traded and coaches are not fired. This leads to on-ice resiliency, which leads to winning close games and rebounding from tough losses.
We are the envy of the league in our consistency. Deep down, every coach would want the backing Trotz gets and every player would want the support our guys get.
Eventually, if players don't perform or they don't play "predator" hockey, they will be moved.
Do you think Legwand would still be here if this were any other team? no. Some of you would say he shouldn't be here. Yet, his role is vital to our success. It's not the role we paid $4.5mm for, but it's important to this team the way we play. So he stays, and we win, and we play great D against the best lines from other teams.
We got a special thing here. It doesn't show up in the boxscore or in the league stats but we lead the league in it.
Didn't want to be the last poster on the Pred Board and have to shut all the lights off. As much as my heart is with that Board, being over here is like a breath of fresh air. Clean, easy, and all those familiar names that make Pred talk so good.
I'll still pop over there every once in a while but the software makes me want to hurl my mouse.
Didn't want to be the last poster on the Pred Board and have to shut all the lights off. As much as my heart is with that Board, being over here is like a breath of fresh air. Clean, easy, and all those familiar names that make Pred talk so good.
I'll still pop over there every once in a while but the software makes me want to hurl my mouse.
We win becasue of organizational consistency. Same GM and Head Coach for 11 years. A specific culture regardless of personnel. A stick-to-it-ness on and off the ice. A "faith" in our coaches, team, and approach to the game that is strong enough to withstand slumps.
Unlike most other teams, players and coaches are not looking over their shoulder when adversity hits. Players aren't aburptly traded and coaches are not fired. This leads to on-ice resiliency, which leads to winning close games and rebounding from tough losses.
We are the envy of the league in our consistency. Deep down, every coach would want the backing Trotz gets and every player would want the support our guys get.
Eventually, if players don't perform or they don't play "predator" hockey, they will be moved.
Do you think Legwand would still be here if this were any other team? no. Some of you would say he shouldn't be here. Yet, his role is vital to our success. It's not the role we paid $4.5mm for, but it's important to this team the way we play. So he stays, and we win, and we play great D against the best lines from other teams.
We got a special thing here. It doesn't show up in the boxscore or in the league stats but we lead the league in it.
We win becasue of organizational consistency. Same GM and Head Coach for 11 years. A specific culture regardless of personnel. A stick-to-it-ness on and off the ice. A "faith" in our coaches, team, and approach to the game that is strong enough to withstand slumps.
Unlike most other teams, players and coaches are not looking over their shoulder when adversity hits. Players aren't aburptly traded and coaches are not fired. This leads to on-ice resiliency, which leads to winning close games and rebounding from tough losses.
We are the envy of the league in our consistency. Deep down, every coach would want the backing Trotz gets and every player would want the support our guys get.
Eventually, if players don't perform or they don't play "predator" hockey, they will be moved.
Do you think Legwand would still be here if this were any other team? no. Some of you would say he shouldn't be here. Yet, his role is vital to our success. It's not the role we paid $4.5mm for, but it's important to this team the way we play. So he stays, and we win, and we play great D against the best lines from other teams.
We got a special thing here. It doesn't show up in the boxscore or in the league stats but we lead the league in it.
I never thought of it like this. Hopefully we can use this consistency to get past the first round.
Was listening to Crisp on the radio yesterday and something came to mind about the PK, lack of penalty minutes and percentages. While we aren't penalized as much, our percentage on the PK has gone down. In years past, our PK was a top 10 unit but we took way more penalties. In reality, we are probably giving up as many goals as we have in the past but it looks much worse because our percentage and rankings have been so bad. On the flip side of this, because we're not killing as many penalties, our guys are fresher at 5 on 5 which in turn has had a huge effect on how we got here. Just something to think about.
Through 51 games, Tootoo only has 40 PIM. That's an average of just over .75 per game, whereas the three season before this, he averaged 1.7 a game.
Some of it was due to injury, but now he isn't as reckless as he used to be. He's still as ineffective as ever with the puck on his stick, but still manages to make his presence known with a hit or shot on goal every once in a while.
). also see second game of back-2-backs.
