Three straight division titles, with the last two in a very difficult division, is very impressive. What a tremendous improvement from the dark days of missing the playoffs year after year that’s not so far in the past. So in that respect, it’s great.
However, the play the past month or so has me feeling less optimistic about the playoffs than I was earlier in the season. After almost blowing what was a fairly comfortable lead in the division while playing mostly non-playoff teams and then blowing a 2 goal lead and later almost blowing a 3 goal lead in the third period to put the division title at risk when it looked to be secure, it’s hard to feel super confident about making it through the very challenging run of teams needed to win the Cup. The Islanders, then Devils or NYR, then probably Boston or possibly Toronto, then Colorado or Vegas or Edmonton is a really tough run of games that is going to require scoring on good chances, an effective power play, strong goaltending and holding on to hard-earned leads and most of that has not been as good as necessary in the latter part of the regular season.
So, we’ll see. If the team plays pretty close to full potential like a few months ago, the Cup is certainly possible, but if the level of play of the past month continues the post-season is going to be much shorter than we want or than we expected not too long ago.
Cylinsier
Overall considering how we have been playing and the injuries, I feel pretty happy that we didn’t have to rely on other teams to help us fall ass backwards into first. We earned it in an ugly but gritty effort, and our reward is a first round matchup that I think is the most favorable one we could have asked for. I don’t think it’s going to be a cakewalk, I expect a good fight from the Islanders, but I think we have the higher likelihood of moving on.
If we make it to the second round then taking into account the losses of Svech and Patches I am willing to consider this season a relative success even if we don’t advance further. It will certainly be frustrating to miss the ECF again, but the other teams we will have to get through are all healthier and more loaded than us so I can accept that there’s only so much we can do in our current state. We’ve definitely taken steps backwards in a couple areas, but our defensive 6 look like they will be dominant again next year and I think we know exactly what we’re missing on offense so we just need to go get it.
KK has made big strides this year and that’s very promising. Necas has been in a bit of a rut but overall he shook the previous year’s funk and has shown marked improvement and the ability to be a clutch guy. Aho’s only problem is that he’s trying too hard to do too much, and that’s a sign of a good leader who is just still a bit green. With Svech back I have no doubt that he’s only going to continue to be the centerpiece of our talented core moving forward.
I would like to see a little more scoring consistency from Seth. I think he has been a really important piece for us in a lot of ways that don’t show up on the stat sheet, but if he can be a dependable scorer or even just increase his current assist output he’s going to be another crucial piece of this team and whatever people think about how we might have looked with Timo I am glad we didn’t send Seth in a package to get him.
I have more thoughts on the entire roster including which goalies should stay and go, but I am getting into post-mortem territory and the season isn’t over yet. Anyone looking at this analytically will acknowledge several other teams have better odds than us to go the distance this year, but our odds aren’t zero and it ain’t over til it’s over, so for now I just want to see us focus on what works and start finding ways to work with our shortcomings instead of trying to fix them in vain. For example the low scoring output from forwards, I don’t think that is fixable until the off season at this point. Our scoring comes from our defense so let’s lean into that for now.
Whenever the season ends I have more to say, but I am reservedly optimistic that we still have more to show this season. Let’s get through the Islanders and then see where it goes from there.
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Three straight division titles, with the last two in a very difficult division, is very impressive. What a tremendous improvement from the dark days of missing the playoffs year after year that’s not so far in the past. So in that respect, it’s great.
However, the play the past month or so has me feeling less optimistic about the playoffs than I was earlier in the season. After almost blowing what was a fairly comfortable lead in the division while playing mostly non-playoff teams and then blowing a 2 goal lead and later almost blowing a 3 goal lead in the third period to put the division title at risk when it looked to be secure, it’s hard to feel super confident about making it through the very challenging run of teams needed to win the Cup. The Islanders, then Devils or NYR, then probably Boston or possibly Toronto, then Colorado or Vegas or Edmonton is a really tough run of games that is going to require scoring on good chances, an effective power play, strong goaltending and holding on to hard-earned leads and most of that has not been as good as necessary in the latter part of the regular season.
So, we’ll see. If the team plays pretty close to full potential like a few months ago, the Cup is certainly possible, but if the level of play of the past month continues the post-season is going to be much shorter than we want or than we expected not too long ago.
Overall considering how we have been playing and the injuries, I feel pretty happy that we didn’t have to rely on other teams to help us fall ass backwards into first. We earned it in an ugly but gritty effort, and our reward is a first round matchup that I think is the most favorable one we could have asked for. I don’t think it’s going to be a cakewalk, I expect a good fight from the Islanders, but I think we have the higher likelihood of moving on.
If we make it to the second round then taking into account the losses of Svech and Patches I am willing to consider this season a relative success even if we don’t advance further. It will certainly be frustrating to miss the ECF again, but the other teams we will have to get through are all healthier and more loaded than us so I can accept that there’s only so much we can do in our current state. We’ve definitely taken steps backwards in a couple areas, but our defensive 6 look like they will be dominant again next year and I think we know exactly what we’re missing on offense so we just need to go get it.
KK has made big strides this year and that’s very promising. Necas has been in a bit of a rut but overall he shook the previous year’s funk and has shown marked improvement and the ability to be a clutch guy. Aho’s only problem is that he’s trying too hard to do too much, and that’s a sign of a good leader who is just still a bit green. With Svech back I have no doubt that he’s only going to continue to be the centerpiece of our talented core moving forward.
I would like to see a little more scoring consistency from Seth. I think he has been a really important piece for us in a lot of ways that don’t show up on the stat sheet, but if he can be a dependable scorer or even just increase his current assist output he’s going to be another crucial piece of this team and whatever people think about how we might have looked with Timo I am glad we didn’t send Seth in a package to get him.
I have more thoughts on the entire roster including which goalies should stay and go, but I am getting into post-mortem territory and the season isn’t over yet. Anyone looking at this analytically will acknowledge several other teams have better odds than us to go the distance this year, but our odds aren’t zero and it ain’t over til it’s over, so for now I just want to see us focus on what works and start finding ways to work with our shortcomings instead of trying to fix them in vain. For example the low scoring output from forwards, I don’t think that is fixable until the off season at this point. Our scoring comes from our defense so let’s lean into that for now.
Whenever the season ends I have more to say, but I am reservedly optimistic that we still have more to show this season. Let’s get through the Islanders and then see where it goes from there.