Quote:
Originally Posted by snarktacular
1 Foster will be our goat for the year.
2-4 Cogliano will be a failure as a checking center. Carlyle will force him into wing. He will probably have a rough transition for this year too. But the future of the 2nd line left wing rides on him.
5 3rd and 4th lines are our downfall again.
6-7 Blake and 2nd line has a resurgence. Almost makes up for the bottom 6.
8 Hiller back to form, no effects.
9 Fowler sophomore slump. Not an actual slump, but he doesn't improve like a lot of people expect.
10-11 Sbisa steps it up, defense is solid this year with a year of Beauchemin.
12-13 Lydman and Visnovsky can't quite match their career years. Some injuries. Young kids pick up some slack (this was in regard to Lydman and Visnovsky).
14-15 Ellis is good but is moved to free up money and space. Deslauriers sucks and makes us miss Ellis.
16 Damn that was one of mine too. Selanne will be more of a goal scorer this year. He needs to pass Jagr.
17 One slightly bold prediction based on recent history: Getzlaf plays 78 or more games.
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1 Yes and no. He wasn't really hated here because he didn't play. I guess he was about as hated as you could be for playing as little as he did. He did get shipped off for scraps. 1/2
2 Yes failed as a checking center. Yes turned to wing. Although seems to be a checking wing now.
3 Partial rough transition. Offensively only. Not mentioned in this thread, but I said that Cogliano was a 20-30 point guy and not 30-40 like his Oilers stats showed. Dead on there 1/2
4 As much as a conclusion can be made now, doesn't look like he's in the mix for 2nd line wing now.
5 No. I'd say top 2 lines and goaltending was the downfall.
6 Uh no. 20 points (pace) is not a resurgence, and that's pretending the injuries didn't happen.
7 2nd line was bad. 12 points from Blake. 38 points from Koivu. 66 from Selanne is good. 19 from Hagman.
8 Yes effects. Yes back to form eventually. 1/2
9 On one hand I'd say Fowler improved quite a bit. OTH his offense went down, and his +/- went down even more (which I think people expected to improve). I'll be nice and say I was right since he didn't take a big step.
10 Sbisa did step it up
11 I think the defense did step it up. Shots against went from 27th (32.3) to 10th (28.9). However the end result was bad, with GAA being 19th. Although that is still technically an improvement from 20th. And the hot streak was led by an improvement in defense and goaltending. In the end I'll say no. But Beauchemin was a big part of stabilizing this.
12 Yes they weren't nearly as good. And yes it seems like it was injuries that caused it
13 Yes the kids stepped up to backfill for LL's slide. Sbisa and Fowler.
14 I think Ellis was decent at the time. He was 1-5, but the team was wretched then. Then he got hurt. And he wasn't moved, but that had just as much to do with the injury. In the end this is a no.
15 Deslauriers didn't suck at the NHL level. And hey, 3-1. He looked wretched in the loss. He was a major disappointment in the AHL. I wouldn't say he made us miss Ellis, but he isn't good enough for backup (hence Fasth). So I'll say yes
16 Nope. Scored fewer goals
17 Yup. All 82.
8.5/17. Meh. It was worse than last year's predictions, like I predicted... so does that mean I'm 9.5/18?
Oh and I was wrong about the team's place. I thought the jumble would be 5-9, it turned out to be 6-11. So it was bigger than I thought and started later. And we were out of the jumble, so wrong there too. Also wrong about absolute place, I thought 8th but we were 13th.
