McClean predicted we would struggle to get 20 wins this year, I plan on emailing and reminding him of that once we hit the mark.
We've beaten two teams in regulation that probably are worse than us, and two teams that are playoff bubble teams in a shootout. People might want to relax, unless you also think the Leafs are third best team in the conference.
We've beaten two teams in regulation that probably are worse than us, and two teams that are playoff bubble teams in a shootout. People might want to relax, unless you also think the Leafs are third best team in the conference.
Since many think ottawa will be the worst teams in the league so the wins they have is good.
You guys have 3 top-6 forwards (maybe 4 if you count Foligno, and only one of them's a real good one; you guys only had one forward with over 40 pts last year), a below average defence (right now, obviously you guys have some great pieces for the future here), and an average goaltender. Not exactly a recipe for success, but certainly not bad enough to barely win 10 games. I'd guess you'll win anywhere from 25 - 35.
I don't see you guys having much of a shot (if any really) at the playoffs this year, and probably not next year (although you should be 8 - 12 in the East IMO, not a lottery team), but once your prospects develop you should have a pretty good team. The only thing is that most of your good forward prospects (Puempel/Noeson) other than Zibanejad and Butler are at least a year or two away from playing in the NHL, let alone being impact players, so if you guys don't pick up a lottery pick this year and draft a forward, I could see it taking you guys a little longer than two years for you guys to have a good team.
You guys have 3 top-6 forwards (maybe 4 if you count Foligno, and only one of them's a real good one; you guys only had one forward with over 40 pts last year), a below average defence (right now, obviously you guys have some great pieces for the future here), and an average goaltender. Not exactly a recipe for success, but certainly not bad enough to barely win 10 games. I'd guess you'll win anywhere from 25 - 35.
I don't see you guys having much of a shot (if any really) at the playoffs this year, and probably not next year (although you should be 8 - 12 in the East IMO, not a lottery team), but once your prospects develop you should have a pretty good team. The only thing is that most of your good forward prospects (Puempel/Noeson) other than Zibanejad and Butler are at least a year or two away from playing in the NHL, let alone being impact players, so if you guys don't pick up a lottery pick this year and draft a forward, I could see it taking you guys a little longer than that for you guys to have a good team.
All it takes is a good prospect to make Leafs fans climax.
Okay, that was crass.
As psyched as I am for this win streak, I'm trying to be pessimistic. Beating Carolina is absolutely a step in the right direction, but winning four games early in the season doesn't guarantee that we'll win 20 (or even ten) over the course of the season. This is hyperbolizing and extrapolation at its finest.
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I DON'T WANT TO TAKE FOR EXAMPLE THE LA SPARKS
As psyched as I am for this win streak, I'm trying to be pessimistic. Beating Carolina is absolutely a step in the right direction, but winning four games early in the season doesn't guarantee that we'll win 20 (or even ten) over the course of the season. This is hyperbolizing and extrapolation at its finest.
Didn't the Oilers win their first four last year? Anywho, lots of hockey left to play.
I don't see how any reasonably intelligent Sens fan could say that the Sens have a brighter looking future than the Leafs do.
You're right if you think my analysis stops in 2-3 years.
The Sens have more upside in their entire organization over the long haul then the Leafs do, there really is no debating this at this point.
Where is your 1st line center? You will need one to become a contender. In the next 5 years we may have two of them with a trio of blue chip defenders.
I sincerely hope you're kidding about Reimer being more established than Anderson, and by our prospect pool being only "a little bit" better.
I didn't mean he was more established than Anderson; I meant he was the more valuable piece to our team than Anderson would be. He would also be the more valuable piece on your team. This kid is the real deal. He might have had two or three bad games out of the 40 some games I've watched him play.
Your prospect pool is only a little bit better. You have better high-end talent; but not by that much. Depth is roughly equal. Kadri has potential to be a top-line forward. Gardiner looks like something special; that kid can skate. These guys are only a little bit worse than Mika Z, and Rundblad. Tyler Biggs and Stuart Percy are pretty much the exact same level prospect as Puempel and Noesen. Colborne, Aulie and Frattin, Blacker, Mckegg, Scrivens, Ross, Rynnas, D'amigo, Ryan, Devane, Nicholls, Caputi, Mueller, Leivo, Broll are also good prospects. You guys have Filatov (Doesn't look like much, 3rd round pick), Butler, Silfverberg, Condra, Greening, Stone, Da Costa, O'Brien, and Petersson there too. Your prospects are only a little better.
In my other post I was being generous and only including players who I percieved to be "core" players. Meaning high-end players who are already established, and young enough to contribute to a team for a long time.
Last edited by BobloblawLeaf: 10-26-2011 at 12:19 PM.
I didn't mean he was more established than Anderson; I meant he was the more valuable piece to our team than Anderson would be. He would also be the more valuable piece on your team. This kid is the real deal. He might have had two or three bad games out of the 40 some games I've watched him play.
Not going to get into the rest of your post, but Reimer, while I like him, still has big holes in his game and there's no guarantee he'll be able to correct them. There are a lot of goalies who come out of nowhere, put up flashy first season numbers, and fall back into the mist. Video work during the offseason, and simply experience playing against a guy a couple times exposes any holes that goalies might have. NHL shooters already know that Reimer gives up bad rebounds off his pads and has a weak glove, and they've started to take advantage of it.
Goalies are a ****ing crapshoot. Reimer may be a valuable piece going forward, or he may be another Steve Mason.
Meh, we get exposed against good teams. We do decent against mediocre/bad teams. We are mid to lower pack. Fortunately the NHL is full of mediocre teams so we could remain in the hunt. Until Spezza picks up his annual injury...
In my other post I was being generous and only including players who I percieved to be "core" players. Meaning high-end players who are already established, and young enough to contribute to a team for a long time.
I think it's amusing that you call my stuff selective. You pretty much have to pile on about 8 leafs to compare to 3 Sens as though quantity > quality.
Let's just go line by line. I'll use most recent but plug in Connoly and Alfredsson.
I won't compare the goalies as one isn't established and the other is.
That's just our current line-up. In terms of prospects yours don't even compare and I'm not going to even go into it because there's no point. You can be as deluded as you want, but Ottawa has a top 3 prospect pool in the league which is much more than I can say about Toronto. I would say that Silfverberg is our 5th best prospect and I would take him over Kadri, your best prospect.
Quote:
Originally Posted by MapleLeaf
Armstrong's the perfect third-line winger.
The Leafs were 25-19-6 with Armstrong in the line-up last year. We were 12-15-5 without him. He's a contributor, even when he doesnt score.
Coincidental statistics mean nothing. What were the teams they played while he was out? Who was scoring? What time of year was it? Who else was missing?
Those are your only established top-9 forwards. We aren't even including Kadri, Bozak, and Frattin for the Leafs.
Neil's an established top-9 forward. Regin's an established top-9 forward. Greening's an established top-9 forward. If Kadri and Bozak are established top-9 forwards, then so are Condra and Butler. I don't see how Frattin could possibly be included as an established anything - he's played 8 NHL games. We might as well include Zibanejad and Da Costa, if that's the case.
Quote:
Originally Posted by MapleLeaf
Our NHL-level D is also better. For some reason you leave out Kuba, Gunnarson, Franson and Liles which quite flips the table.
Not sure why you decided to leave out Lee, Rundblad and Cowen, which not only shortens the gap considerably, it also greatly improves the prospect of Ottawa's future D corps - and it's not like the Leafs current D is going to be winning you any championships in the meantime.
As for your other points, there is absolutely no way in which Reimer can be considered a more established NHL goalie than Anderson - he's played 43 career games, while Anderson already has a season where he finished 5th in Vezina Trophy voting and 9th in Hart Trophy voting.
Prospect pools are subjective, but I just don't see the high-end potential in Toronto's system, which you alluded to in an earlier post.
I don't see how any reasonably intelligent Sens fan could say that the Sens have a brighter looking future than the Leafs do.
you forgot about one of the Sens most highly touted prospects in Jakob Silfverberg.....and the WHL's leading scorer(and almost a lock for Canada's WJ team) Mark Stone, as well as Stephane Da Costa...
