Now that the 16 playoff teams are known, name a weakness for everyone.
Phoenix: Offensive depth
I don't think offensive depth is the problem for the Yotes. The team has 10 skaters with double digit goals for the season (plus three with 8 and 9 goals). The team plays a defense first system, which should be well suited for the playoffs, and for the most part has been able to supply timely scoring throughout the season.
The weakness is the powerplay. Unfortunately, it is gawd awful.
Coyotes - Similar to St Louis, but to a much large extent. I don't think there is enough talent in any position other than goaltending for them to be a threat to really any team. The Florida of the west.
How did they win the Pacific Division?
That's right, opponents thinking the same as above^...
The Bruins have one of the deepest teams in the league and have a great PK.
Quote:
Originally Posted by BothEndsOfTheRink
Bruins - The PP. also whether the refs let them make games into a circus or not. Not nearly as good of a team if they can't punch and slash all the time.
Do you actually watch the Bruins or are you basing this off of the games the Bruins play v.s. the Canucks where the Bruins get slashed etc by the Canucks so they return the favor?
Now that the 16 playoff teams are known, name a weakness for everyone.
NY Rangers: PP cannot make the difference
Boston: Not disciplined enough
Florida: Not enough scoring Pittsburgh: Fleury and the defense are question marks for me
Philadelphia: Goaltending (Bryzgalov had horrible playoffs last year)
New Jersey: They allow SH goals like crazy
Ottawa: No defense
Washington: Goaltending
Vancouver: Luongo...
St Louis: No game breaker
Los Angeles: OFFENSE
Nashville: Thougness
Detroit: Old (so more fatigue)
Phoenix: Offensive depth
San Jose: PK
Chicago: Goaltending
Hopefully Pens fans now understand why I had questions about the defense and MAF.
Very bad way to word the Vancouver part. Henrik has played unquestionably his best hockey in over a year without Daniel the last 8 games. If you watch the games there can be no argument. Now, if you said Vancouver is missing their best winger and top goal scorer and offense may be a problem, you would be right. But Henrik has driven this team for the past 3 weeks.
I'll do mine:
NY Rangers - Offense beyond the top 4-6ish players. The PP. Will Lundquist's incredible season carry over?
Bruins - The PP. also whether the refs let them make games into a circus or not. Not nearly as good of a team if they can't punch and slash all the time.
Panthers - Scoring, and I don't trust the goaltending at all. I just don't think this team should be in the playoffs. This year is an anomoly imo. Probably the only sweep in the east.
Penguins - The defense isn't anything special, and neither is Fleury IMO.
Flyers - The goaltending. If the goaltending is actually good, then i have them coming out of the east.
Devils - I don't know about Brodeur anymore...and they give up alot of SH goals.
Sens - DEFENSE!!!!!
Capitals - The goaltending, and whether or not everyone shows up and plays as well as they need to.
Canucks - Obviously Daniel's health is a huge concern, but the biggest thing is whether or not AV has the balls to pull the plug on Luongo before it gets too late. 1 game lost because of him has to be as far as it gets. Anything beyond that and we may as well have traded Schnieder.
Blues - The lack of a real single offensive threat and high end talent. This is a good team, but i don't know if they can turn it up when games get intense and they need a goal bad. I really saw that in their game against Detroit the other day.
Coyotes - Similar to St Louis, but to a much large extent. I don't think there is enough talent in any position other than goaltending for them to be a threat to really any team. The Florida of the west.
Nashville - Not very big. Deep but not much high end talent up front. No real weaknesses other than that.
Red Wings - their fans laugh at the age thing, but it has to be true at some point. Howard has had some stinky games in the playoffs too. But there isn't much of a glaring weakness so I won't try to make one up.
Chicago - The goalending is horrific. And the defense is really weak other than Keith and Seabrook. Other than the big 4 up front, not much depth at all. Down the middle especially is hurting big time.
Sharks - The bottom 6 and goaltending. I think the bottom 6 was the biggest culprit for them losing to the Canucks last year.
Kings - The system they play i guess. I don't know why else they can't score more goals with the bodies they have up front.
Holy mother of ignorance.
Yandle, OEL, D-mo, Klesla, Aucoin, and Rozi make one of the best defensive groups in the NHL. Vrbata, Doan, Vermette, Whitne, and co. aren't too bad either.
The Hawks are 27th in both the PP and PK. I think we are the winners of a "special prize" for our "special teams"
Canucks went 4/43 in the PP in the last 11 regular season games (goals were against Oilers and Jackets, lol) and are 0/9 so far vs Kings with two SHA. Oh, and the PK let in 3 goals already (and an ES goal came right after a PK)
No, WE are worse! If we matched the Kings in special teams play we'd be leading the series 2-0. :/
Franzen is not the playoff beast everyone thinks he is. Scoring 4 goals in one game in a 7-1 decision to pump up your stats from 2 goals in 10 games is EXACTLY the reason why stats don't tell the whole story.
Their PP is abysmal. They scored 2 on Nashville through luck. It's the same thing they've been doing for 2 years that has made them in the bottom half of the league for the PP. There's no movement, no magic. Sending the puck to the point and shooting it from there hoping for a screen 95% of the time is not the recipe for success.
I like how just about everyone has said washington's biggest problem is goaltending.. Holtby has been awesome. We've got a 5'8 career AHLer in the lineup in place of a couple vets who can hit, take faceoffs, chip in goals, etc.
