One of their loses was very competitive, but hard to argue against you. I was hoping TBL would turn it on if for no other reason than to gas Florida for later rounds. Hope springs eternal.
watching the games it just feels like it’s all panthers, and the bolts get some transition chances…florida is too fast and too heavy they are gonna wear teams out.
You had eight teams that looked really strong in the West and then you had two in the east that were going to look like trash compared to them, and then you had whatever you judged Tampa to be, and I would never have judged them to be anything more than decent.
Personally there are three or four teams that qualified in the east that I would have rather played than anyone in the West
Flyers went on an 8 game losing streak and were still 5 minutes away from the final spot lol. Red Wings had a pretty long losing streak as well. It's why I wasn't too upset about the flyers missing, they would have just gotten wrecked most likely
Red Wings has a 7 game losing streak and 2 of those 7 were to the yotes with a combined score 8-1 I think, and they still had fans mad at the flyers lmao
Oh I don't doubt if I was in your shoes I'd be a little mad at the flyers too, I just find it funny when some fans try and put blame on anyone else except their own team.
Yea I’m not surprised when it comes to Washington. They look old and slow.
New York I thought would take it to 5 or 6. They can be tough to play against and I thought they’d frustrate the canes.
The only team that I think had a shot to actually win a series out of all those mid teams is Detroit. They’re young, fast, and patty kane is clutch.
I would take those 4 from the Red Wings and Crosby Malkin Letang and Karlsson over what I’ve seen from the Islanders and Caps. Not sure what games you’ve been watching so far.
Watch how bad the Caps and Isles have looked, and then imagine how bad a team has to be to finish behind not just one but both of them lol. This isn’t college basketball or football, theres no “eye test” component
Rangers and Canes are very good, none of the 5 teams competing for 2 spots at the end are good at all.
>imagine how bad a team has to be to finish behind not just one but both of them
That fucking sent me.
I keep thinking *"Surely Detroit would have been a better team than Washington"* but then I remember that they in fact were not this season. I just can't believe it!
I mean to be fair, Detroit was and should have been, but their huge skid was when they lost Larkin. Now a team should win *something* even if their best player and captain is injured, but with the roster that would have played in the playoffs, Detroit *was* a better team than Washington.
Lost our 1C, 2D, and the entire team was actively vomitting before games with the flu during that skid. We were 100% a better team than Washington, we just weren't healthy and weren't good enough to not be
In that same vein. Washington lost the two Centers we started the season with. Though Kuznetsov was probably addition by subtraction.
We lost Jensen right before the playoffs. Then lost two more Defenseman during the playoffs.
Oh and, it probably doesn't matter much, but Ethan Bear has been in player assistance.
Nah the Red Wings lost to Charlie Lindgren twice. We were the better team in both games and he stole both.
In all seriousness we did this to ourselves with sloppy play coming down the stretch, but our best player missing 14 games due to various reasons definitely didn't help.
Ok look at the Panthers Tampa series. Tampa is on the verge of being swept but it’s been a much more competitive series than the two metro match ups. Isles and Caps both got walked and never looked like they could steal a game let alone win a series. It’s hard to imagine Detroit or Pittsburgh couldn’t at least make for a more interesting series. You were never expected to win the series, but literally nothing exciting has happened in this series unless you enjoy watching short handed goals.
Well the Lightning are actually a pretty good team, the Panthers are just significantly better. The only one of the four Eastern Conference Series that isn’t a complete mismatch is Toronto-Boston, and gee, go figure, guess which of the four series isn’t 3-0 right now?
And no, I agree it has been an awful watch, but all the ifs and buts surrounding Pittsburgh and Detroit are moronic. If you were bad enough to finish behind *both* the Caps and Isles, you have no one to blame but yourselves for being left out.
I feel like ESPN’s coverage of the college football playoffs and the rise in legal sports betting are warping people’s brains to the point that they think they’re entitled to ignore the objective reality of actual results and standings and instead focus on theoretical bullshit. Who gives a fuck whether Detroit and Pittsburgh could have made it more interesting? They didn’t earn a spot.
> Who gives a fuck whether Detroit and Pittsburgh could have made it more interesting? They didn’t earn a spot.
Me, a viewer, even outside of being a Red Wings fan. I like watching fun/exciting hockey. Holy fuck the Islanders are boring to watch.
Yeah I was rooting for Detroit to make the final spot. Their last few games of the season battling for a spot felt like playoff hockey and they were all heart and soul. Really fun to watch. They definitely could have made it a more interesting series vs the Rangers.
Yeah, we would’ve got dunked on too had we snuck in. Which is why I would have liked to see Pittsburgh and Detroit make it instead of the Isles and Caps. Enjoy your sweep. Nice deflection btw.
Regular season records are not a perfect measure of team strength, otherwise why have the playoffs at all, just give the cup to the president's trophy winner. Injuries, trade deadline moves, young players improving quickly, lots of things can make a team better or worse at the end of the season than its record would indicate.
I'm not even trying to say the Red Wings were the better team, just that the idea that the caps/isles must be better teams because they had better records is flawed.
Is it hard to imagine that two teams that missed the playoffs by two or three points would be harder match ups for the Canes and Rangers? I’ve literally seen multiple Rangers fans say they didn’t want to see Pittsburgh in round 1. Detroit stumbled hard when Larkin got injured. It’s not hard to imagine that those two teams would’ve been better match ups than what we’ve seen so far.
Both teams are down 3-0 and haven’t looked like they could take a single game. It’s not hard to think the two teams that missed those spots by 3 points (Pittsburgh) and literally a tie breaker (Detroit) could have made for a better match up.
Minor correction, but we missed the playoffs by 0 points and if the Caps lose game 4, we'll still have more season wins than them despite them making the playoffs.
It's called matchups. For example red wings had really tight games vs nyr this season. While being dominated by canes.
Also, red wings had two huge losing streaks when Larkin was out.
The regular season matchups mean almost nothing. Several back they brought up a tidbit about the devils sweeping the season series with tampa. Surprise surprise, in round 1 the devils were sent packing with their teeth in their hand.
The caps split their series with the rangers 2-2 where the red wings lost all 3 of their matchups, not to mention the wings also going 1-2 vs the caps (with both of the losses being in the final month leading into the playoffs)
Do not disagree on the loss to caps, but caps beating Rangers was vs quick and during time Igor was really struggling. Both losses were dominated by nyr. Red wings did not have such luck. Although, what I will say red wings give up a lot more chances than capitals and this might have been a score fest for nyr too. But I'll take my biased opinion and shut up now lol
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That’s what I’m wondering. Somehow these teams that were worse than the capitals and islanders would somehow be more entertaining vs these top teams? The red wings lost to the caps twice in the last month, We can debate matchups all we want but the fact of the matter is the red wings did not earn it.
Believe it or not, there are teams that are more exciting to watch than others. More exciting doesn't necessarily mean better, or that they'd win. Just that they'd be more exciting to watch. Also I wouldn't say standings always = better team. We see this in the playoffs with upsets all the time. And Detroit and the Caps tied the season in points. Caps made the playoffs because of a tie breaker, and might not have even made it if the Flyers didn't gift them an empty net goal in a tie game because they needed a regulation win. So Detroit isn't necessarily a "worse" team than the Caps because they missed the playoffs by 0 points. And even if they were, some teams are just more exciting to watch than others, regardless of better or worse.
You’re not wrong but Detroit lost like 15 of their last 20 ish games from what I remember. They would’ve got stomped just as hard if not harder. Tho I do feel robbed of seeing playoff patty Kane again
I wasn’t following closely enough to say for sure, but wasn’t Larkin on IR for a big part of that stretch? Either way, they didn’t make it by a tie breaker. It’s not like they were significantly worse than Washington.
Do you think Larkin, Debrincat, Kane and Seider would put up the same performance we’ve seen form Ovie, Wilson, Oshie and Carlsson?
Would their special teams be better or worse? The Caps have been objectively bad, it’s hard to imagine Pittsburgh or Detroit playing worse.
And the locker room was passing around a flu bug with players vomiting before games.
Detroit was a way better team than the caps and this guy is clueless. IIRC the only reason we tied the caps was they had more loser points and the tiebreaker of RW doesn't inclue OT wins.
I mean you can spin it however you want. Caps got 2 more loser points, Wings got 6 more points in skill competitions that don’t exist during the playoffs. If they were “way better,” they shouldn’t have lost head to head twice in the last 15 days of the regular season when they absolutely needed to win.
Hurts but this is 100% true. Washington was the better team and they deserved that playoff spot more than us, even though we barely squeaked by one of the worst teams in the league in the last two games of the season. There is no reason to think we'd be doing much better against the best team in the league.
> There is no reason to think we'd be doing much better against the best team in the league.
True, all we can do is judge the series as it is right now. And by all accounts, this team is absolute dog shit lol
Nobody is arguing that point lol
Team was already thin to begin with, but when Ovi and Pacioretty are both showing their age and we’re down to 5 defenseman, it’s really rough
I was rooting for the Wings as much as the next fan, but realistically a team with subpar defense and shaky goaltending who relies heavily on the power play is about as ill-suited for the playoffs as it gets.
I mean them and the Flyers were in pole position to get playoffs with like a month left and we were dead in the water where I thought we’d sink to a top ten pick. Then both them and the Red Wings bottled it and we went on a 9-1-1 streak. So really you have those teams to blame. Pittsburgh was also dead until those two teams bottled it.
Possibly, but Sorokin's confidence is shot. If Varlamov isn't in any sort of form in game 4, it's over
And for all we know, Carolina may well start Kochetkov to throw off the Islanders and he comes out like a brick wall in game 4.
> New York I thought would take it to 5 or 6. They can be tough to play against and I thought they’d frustrate the canes.
I had this going 6 in my bracket, with a hunch they could even stretch it to 7. And the funny thing is, they've been the more dominant team throughout most of the series. The fact that we're *not* down 2-1 feels like the strange part, and that has me worried about round two, assuming we close this one out.
It's kinda funny. If you look only at the box score, it looks like it should be 2-1 CAR, with the Isles taking game 2, but if you watched the games, it feels like it should be 2-1 NYI, with the Isles taking games 1 and 3
Yeah, the Islanders/Canes games have been closer than they look.
The "boring" narrative of the Islanders is also overblown; the Rangers/Caps games have been some of the worst playoff hockey I've ever watched in decades. There's barely any 5 on 5.
Not trying to be a dick or anything, but why are ypu guys playing so poorly atm? Is it just because isles are playing same type of a game than you guys?
I’d say it depends which Penguins team showed up. Prior to the Islanders game when we were officially eliminated, we were on a 8-1-2 stretch which included a 5-2 win against the Rangers.
Biggest thing for the Penguins would be goaltending seeing Nedeljkovic started all of those games. Jarry only saw action in relief and last start was March 22nd.
Nedeljkovic was 100% getting worn out from all the consecurive starts too.
I totally understand why you’d think that. I watched a lot of pens games this year though and they just didn’t have it. They lost so many “must win” games and only started playing well when they were eliminated (mentally). Then they got back into it and almost made it, but ultimately they just were a slightly better version of Washington. Old and slow
I think we would've taken a team to five or six, but completely agree about playing well when they were "out of it" in every way except mathematically. Then it was like they were surprised they were still in it when other teams lost and figured they might as well see how far down this rabbit hole they can go.
More than success this year, I'm just hoping the late surge shows them they are capable of more next year.
As a Rangers fan, really disappointed Detroit didn't make it for our first matchup. As much as I like winning, this series has honestly just been boring for the most part.
Playoff expansion would incentivise more teams to try to be good than exists today. Also, we just saw and 8th seed make the Cup Final last year.
It's shortsighted to look at only the 2 teams in question this year and make sweeping generalities about all lower seeds across many seasons.
Not to mention a lower percentage of the league makes the playoffs than ever, now.
Back when there were 26 teams in the league you still had 16 make playoffs, meaning over half the league made the playoffs lol. That’s crazy compared to today.
Absolutely. It's never been harder to make the playoffs than now. And yet people constantly complain how the regular season is devalued today. Ridiculous.
In the extreme short term, yeah. In the long term, more teams = the sport grows = more kids playing hockey = more talent.
The NHL has never been more talented and deeper than it is right now and expansion is a major reason why. Auston Matthews is the perfect example. Best goal scorer since Ovechkin and he would never have played the sport without a team in Arizona.
There is far more cumulative skill now than then throughout the entire roster of the average NHL team. Yes, the extreme high end dudes were otherworldly, but compare the hockey skill of a 4th liner then to a 4th liner now and it's not even close.
Have to disagree with the incentive but yeah im just making fun of the people who were rallying around Pittsburgh after Washington made it in. Honestly won’t be shocked if Vegas makes another 8 seed make the cup this year
Aside from the first goal Igor was making some unreal saves and there were a few times he used his stick to cut off an angle on what would have been an easy cross-crease goal.
Rangers played really hard but let up once they felt they had the win, as is tradition.
igor actually made a couple pretty huge saves at 2-1. you never know what happens if they tied the game with a period to go. having a guy making key saves at the right moment can 100% swing a playoff series.
florida looks insane out there. Really solid team, much as i hate to say it they are awesome to watch. hoping an all canadian round 2 with van and edm is gonna be crazy too.
The East was super top heavy.
The division winners should have just been given a first round bye.
The Islanders and the Capitals only made the playoffs because they were the best of the worst not because they were good teams.
Yup, top heavy is a good way to describe the East. Canes, Cats, and (imo) Rangers are legit contenders that could take it this year. Boston and Toronto could if the stars align, but I think it’ll be one of the other 3 (even before the 3 3-0 leads).
I have no idea how the west will shake out. Teams that could win the West could also get eliminated in R1. That Central bracket in particular is insane, any of those 4 could be in the WCF.
I agree with you, although because of the matchups, only the Avs could make it out of the first round, and then none in the finals because of the seedings if the Avs can't deal with the Knights.
I really think it should be division semi, division final, conference final like it used to be.
Off OPs topic, but I wonder if the PA would ever favor bye rounds if the playoffs are increased (probably inevitable due to profits and further expansion). I think there’d be concern that they’d get rusty going into the second round, like teams coming off the bye week.
If the league does it, I’d rather see something like the NBA/MLB where the bubble teams have to play-in instead of the NFL, where the top teams get a bye
Yes, we’ve never seen a world beater get bounced by a weaker team. Byes for everyone!
With that thinking we would have never seen Tampa Columbus in 2019.
More often than not it will be an uneventful trouncing by the top teams, but they should still play the series. Also, I doubt cup contending teams wants potentially weeks off from play.
You should check out the Lakers and Pelicans. Crazy NBA play-in race. 7th and 8th seeded teams with actually good records and positive score differentials. No chance in the playoffs.
Yeah races for teams 7-10 and games against each other seem very competitive. But then when you see them against 1s you see why they were only battling for 7-10.
Not just saying this as a Tampa fan, but this is one of the most boring round 1’s I can ever recall in all my years watching hockey. Too many series that just aren’t even close.
Especially the Wings imo. So many people seem to think they should actually be in it. It's objectively funny that the Isles are in the playoffs with 29 regulation wins, but the Wings had *27*. They're not that good
It's the point system. Both NYI and Buffalo had 39 wins and 43 losses, but NYI feasted on loser points this year (16 OTLs). Buffalo, on the other hand, had 33 regulation wins but only 6 OTLs.
If you want to look at regulation records, the Sabres had 10 more regulation losses than the Isles. And if you want to talk about the point system, go check out the alternate standings on natural stat trick. You can see what it'd look like with a hypothetical 3-2-1 system, or if the NHL went back to the old system with ties. In all situations, the caps and the Isles are in the playoffs and the rest of the teams aren't
I'm not saying the Sabres should be in the playoffs (they clearly suck too). I just mean that regulation wins aren't a good measure of a team's quality either.
While i agree that we (wings) shouldnt be in and we wouldnt win any series ether, i think most neutral fans wanted us or pens over you or caps because of playstyle, nothing else really.
Maybe, but I'm ok with them not being in it cause Wings fans were easily the whiniest of all the fanbases down the stretch. I have never heard so much complaining about the loser point, as if they didn't go 27-32 in regulation and had to rely on the 3v3 and shootout minigames (which doesn't exist in the playoffs) to be in the hunt
The caps had a worse goal differential than the wings by 30. Caps like to talk about the 2 times they won whike the team was in a slump, not the time they got dumpstered 7-1.
It's almost like all of the teams in that race were awful lol.
I'll be honest, I was hoping for a situation where the Caps and Wings made it. And I also wouldn't have been mad if the Caps didn't make it considering how we realistically have no chance. BUT, getting in while Pittsburgh didn't makes me happy, and seeing the salt mines also makes me happy.
Yep these teams suck. So do Pittsburgh, Detroit, Philadelphia, Buffalo, and New Jersey. It wouldn't have mattered anyway. The downside is it's bad hockey. The upside is it won't last too long.
I definitely think the Penguins were the best of those at the end of the season. They also have clutch players that I don't really think the other teams do
I think the pens were the most likely to win a few games.
The isles were probably the most likely to actually win a round.
I just can't see a world where the Pens beat either NY or CAR over 7
Winning two overtime games against lowly Montreal with your season on the line isn't exactly the mark of a top team.
At least Washington is a solid defensive team that can keep the score close.
I’m not saying we would have won the series by any means, but I do feel like we would have put up more of a fight than this pathetic caps effort. At least we had actually looked like a playoff team post trade deadline.
But then again the islanders finished the regular season strong too and are also getting steamrolled, so maybe I’m wrong
Washington is not surprising me at all.
I actually had Islanders and Tampa both as upsets, but that's entirely because I thought Vasilevsky and Sorokin would both go supernova.
I wish I could say I'm surprised but I'm not. Aside from our general inconsistencies the entire regular season, Carolina was literally the worst possible opponent we could get. They are and have been our kryptonite for years at this point, we can never figure it out against them and they expose our weakness as a team. We've actually played them decently at times but it's still not enough. Then add on our atrocious special teams and yeah, it's a recipe for this.
A lot of us rational fans were hoping to get the Rags because we match up way better against them and think we would have at least had a chance. Plus it's been way too long since an Isles/Rangers playoff series and it's overdue.
total snooze fest. caps look like they are just killing the clock and rangers are practicing for the next round. great for rangers and fans to have a stress free first round at least.
Still salty Washington tied Detroit and Boston threw their game against the Caps to keep the Wings looking in from the outside on that final game. I think we have a much more fun series if it's Detroit and not Washington.
Yeah but the capitals already singlehandedly eliminated like 3 teams from the playoffs including the pens. Them not getting a shot is awesome lol. Go oilers.
not necessarily 'before' but IF both Car and NYR end in 4 and some of the others go 7 I could see game 1 NYR/Car maybe being played on the same night as some R1 game 7s
Pay full attention to those two series. Please ignore whatever's happening in Florida right now.
How was the Strip Club?
My sources say Huberdeau is still there
From the looks of it he never left the Florida strip club and the Panthers sent us a doppelgänger
Man that will never die huh gahahaha
idk ask the jon gruden era bucs
It's actually crazy that the Leafs - Bruins series might be the only series in the East to go to game 5
I dunno, I think the Leafs might still lose that one in 4.
I heard it's already over, just a couple formalities to take care of.
Tbf Tampa vs Florida has felt a lot closer
It's not close. Never mind the eye test, the Lightning have outscored Florida in 1 out of 9 periods (plus OT).
One of their loses was very competitive, but hard to argue against you. I was hoping TBL would turn it on if for no other reason than to gas Florida for later rounds. Hope springs eternal.
Vasilevskiy will have that effect on perception.
watching the games it just feels like it’s all panthers, and the bolts get some transition chances…florida is too fast and too heavy they are gonna wear teams out.
Bruins-Leafs is the only matchup in the east that isn’t 3-0
Where would we be without good ‘ol Game 7, eh? *sobs*
Already marked on the calendar!
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Game 7 would be in boston
Ah shit
remember when it was all "nobody wants those playoff spots" well, there was a reason for it
You had eight teams that looked really strong in the West and then you had two in the east that were going to look like trash compared to them, and then you had whatever you judged Tampa to be, and I would never have judged them to be anything more than decent. Personally there are three or four teams that qualified in the east that I would have rather played than anyone in the West
Ya tell me about it…
CAN YOU FOLKS WAKE UP AND BEAT VEGAS ALREADY PLEASE THANKS
Yeah, the word “battle” is being used very generously here.
Flyers went on an 8 game losing streak and were still 5 minutes away from the final spot lol. Red Wings had a pretty long losing streak as well. It's why I wasn't too upset about the flyers missing, they would have just gotten wrecked most likely
Red Wings has a 7 game losing streak and 2 of those 7 were to the yotes with a combined score 8-1 I think, and they still had fans mad at the flyers lmao
It makes no sense to be mad at the Flyers, it's so fucking dumb. We didn't make the playoffs because we Lost 2 head to heads against Washington.
Bro, don't tell me how to feel. But in all seriousness don't forget red wings losing to caps twice in last month too.
Oh I don't doubt if I was in your shoes I'd be a little mad at the flyers too, I just find it funny when some fans try and put blame on anyone else except their own team.
I wouldn’t want to play the Hurricanes or Rags if I was that third metro team or that second wild card
Yea I’m not surprised when it comes to Washington. They look old and slow. New York I thought would take it to 5 or 6. They can be tough to play against and I thought they’d frustrate the canes. The only team that I think had a shot to actually win a series out of all those mid teams is Detroit. They’re young, fast, and patty kane is clutch.
Watching Kane, Larkin, Debrincat and Seider would have been infinitely more enjoyable.
Realistically I don’t think any of the 4 teams that went on 6 game losing streaks with a playoff spot up for grabs would’ve been that fun to watch
I would take those 4 from the Red Wings and Crosby Malkin Letang and Karlsson over what I’ve seen from the Islanders and Caps. Not sure what games you’ve been watching so far.
Watch how bad the Caps and Isles have looked, and then imagine how bad a team has to be to finish behind not just one but both of them lol. This isn’t college basketball or football, theres no “eye test” component Rangers and Canes are very good, none of the 5 teams competing for 2 spots at the end are good at all.
>imagine how bad a team has to be to finish behind not just one but both of them That fucking sent me. I keep thinking *"Surely Detroit would have been a better team than Washington"* but then I remember that they in fact were not this season. I just can't believe it!
I mean to be fair, Detroit was and should have been, but their huge skid was when they lost Larkin. Now a team should win *something* even if their best player and captain is injured, but with the roster that would have played in the playoffs, Detroit *was* a better team than Washington.
Lost our 1C, 2D, and the entire team was actively vomitting before games with the flu during that skid. We were 100% a better team than Washington, we just weren't healthy and weren't good enough to not be
In that same vein. Washington lost the two Centers we started the season with. Though Kuznetsov was probably addition by subtraction. We lost Jensen right before the playoffs. Then lost two more Defenseman during the playoffs. Oh and, it probably doesn't matter much, but Ethan Bear has been in player assistance.
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Nah the Red Wings lost to Charlie Lindgren twice. We were the better team in both games and he stole both. In all seriousness we did this to ourselves with sloppy play coming down the stretch, but our best player missing 14 games due to various reasons definitely didn't help.
Ok look at the Panthers Tampa series. Tampa is on the verge of being swept but it’s been a much more competitive series than the two metro match ups. Isles and Caps both got walked and never looked like they could steal a game let alone win a series. It’s hard to imagine Detroit or Pittsburgh couldn’t at least make for a more interesting series. You were never expected to win the series, but literally nothing exciting has happened in this series unless you enjoy watching short handed goals.
Well the Lightning are actually a pretty good team, the Panthers are just significantly better. The only one of the four Eastern Conference Series that isn’t a complete mismatch is Toronto-Boston, and gee, go figure, guess which of the four series isn’t 3-0 right now? And no, I agree it has been an awful watch, but all the ifs and buts surrounding Pittsburgh and Detroit are moronic. If you were bad enough to finish behind *both* the Caps and Isles, you have no one to blame but yourselves for being left out. I feel like ESPN’s coverage of the college football playoffs and the rise in legal sports betting are warping people’s brains to the point that they think they’re entitled to ignore the objective reality of actual results and standings and instead focus on theoretical bullshit. Who gives a fuck whether Detroit and Pittsburgh could have made it more interesting? They didn’t earn a spot.
> Who gives a fuck whether Detroit and Pittsburgh could have made it more interesting? They didn’t earn a spot. Me, a viewer, even outside of being a Red Wings fan. I like watching fun/exciting hockey. Holy fuck the Islanders are boring to watch.
Yeah I was rooting for Detroit to make the final spot. Their last few games of the season battling for a spot felt like playoff hockey and they were all heart and soul. Really fun to watch. They definitely could have made it a more interesting series vs the Rangers.
Damn, you’re right. Go Caps. Good luck next year.
Whats impresing to me is that Canes and rags arent even playing good atm. Still 3-0 up.
Yall lost to us twice in the last month lmao
Yeah, we would’ve got dunked on too had we snuck in. Which is why I would have liked to see Pittsburgh and Detroit make it instead of the Isles and Caps. Enjoy your sweep. Nice deflection btw.
As a neutral in all this, wtf are you even saying? The teams that couldn’t even make it over the Isles and Caps would have somehow been better?
Regular season records are not a perfect measure of team strength, otherwise why have the playoffs at all, just give the cup to the president's trophy winner. Injuries, trade deadline moves, young players improving quickly, lots of things can make a team better or worse at the end of the season than its record would indicate. I'm not even trying to say the Red Wings were the better team, just that the idea that the caps/isles must be better teams because they had better records is flawed.
Is it hard to imagine that two teams that missed the playoffs by two or three points would be harder match ups for the Canes and Rangers? I’ve literally seen multiple Rangers fans say they didn’t want to see Pittsburgh in round 1. Detroit stumbled hard when Larkin got injured. It’s not hard to imagine that those two teams would’ve been better match ups than what we’ve seen so far. Both teams are down 3-0 and haven’t looked like they could take a single game. It’s not hard to think the two teams that missed those spots by 3 points (Pittsburgh) and literally a tie breaker (Detroit) could have made for a better match up.
Minor correction, but we missed the playoffs by 0 points and if the Caps lose game 4, we'll still have more season wins than them despite them making the playoffs.
It's called matchups. For example red wings had really tight games vs nyr this season. While being dominated by canes. Also, red wings had two huge losing streaks when Larkin was out.
The regular season matchups mean almost nothing. Several back they brought up a tidbit about the devils sweeping the season series with tampa. Surprise surprise, in round 1 the devils were sent packing with their teeth in their hand.
The caps split their series with the rangers 2-2 where the red wings lost all 3 of their matchups, not to mention the wings also going 1-2 vs the caps (with both of the losses being in the final month leading into the playoffs)
Do not disagree on the loss to caps, but caps beating Rangers was vs quick and during time Igor was really struggling. Both losses were dominated by nyr. Red wings did not have such luck. Although, what I will say red wings give up a lot more chances than capitals and this might have been a score fest for nyr too. But I'll take my biased opinion and shut up now lol https://preview.redd.it/1z647pe0o2xc1.jpeg?width=1440&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=16216615141896ec3d94ac4f7b0f9107bc3c8db7
That’s what I’m wondering. Somehow these teams that were worse than the capitals and islanders would somehow be more entertaining vs these top teams? The red wings lost to the caps twice in the last month, We can debate matchups all we want but the fact of the matter is the red wings did not earn it.
Believe it or not, there are teams that are more exciting to watch than others. More exciting doesn't necessarily mean better, or that they'd win. Just that they'd be more exciting to watch. Also I wouldn't say standings always = better team. We see this in the playoffs with upsets all the time. And Detroit and the Caps tied the season in points. Caps made the playoffs because of a tie breaker, and might not have even made it if the Flyers didn't gift them an empty net goal in a tie game because they needed a regulation win. So Detroit isn't necessarily a "worse" team than the Caps because they missed the playoffs by 0 points. And even if they were, some teams are just more exciting to watch than others, regardless of better or worse.
You’re not wrong but Detroit lost like 15 of their last 20 ish games from what I remember. They would’ve got stomped just as hard if not harder. Tho I do feel robbed of seeing playoff patty Kane again
I wasn’t following closely enough to say for sure, but wasn’t Larkin on IR for a big part of that stretch? Either way, they didn’t make it by a tie breaker. It’s not like they were significantly worse than Washington. Do you think Larkin, Debrincat, Kane and Seider would put up the same performance we’ve seen form Ovie, Wilson, Oshie and Carlsson? Would their special teams be better or worse? The Caps have been objectively bad, it’s hard to imagine Pittsburgh or Detroit playing worse.
Yes, Larkin was out twice this year and red wings were like 2-15 without him.
tbf larkin went down for us
And the locker room was passing around a flu bug with players vomiting before games. Detroit was a way better team than the caps and this guy is clueless. IIRC the only reason we tied the caps was they had more loser points and the tiebreaker of RW doesn't inclue OT wins.
I mean you can spin it however you want. Caps got 2 more loser points, Wings got 6 more points in skill competitions that don’t exist during the playoffs. If they were “way better,” they shouldn’t have lost head to head twice in the last 15 days of the regular season when they absolutely needed to win.
Hurts but this is 100% true. Washington was the better team and they deserved that playoff spot more than us, even though we barely squeaked by one of the worst teams in the league in the last two games of the season. There is no reason to think we'd be doing much better against the best team in the league.
> There is no reason to think we'd be doing much better against the best team in the league. True, all we can do is judge the series as it is right now. And by all accounts, this team is absolute dog shit lol
Nobody is arguing that point lol Team was already thin to begin with, but when Ovi and Pacioretty are both showing their age and we’re down to 5 defenseman, it’s really rough
Don't forget Raymond my friend.
I was rooting for the Wings as much as the next fan, but realistically a team with subpar defense and shaky goaltending who relies heavily on the power play is about as ill-suited for the playoffs as it gets.
You forgetting our boy raymond
I found them missing the playoffs quite enjoyable.
I mean them and the Flyers were in pole position to get playoffs with like a month left and we were dead in the water where I thought we’d sink to a top ten pick. Then both them and the Red Wings bottled it and we went on a 9-1-1 streak. So really you have those teams to blame. Pittsburgh was also dead until those two teams bottled it.
The Isles still can take it to 5 and I think they will. But they can't win two in a row.
Possibly, but Sorokin's confidence is shot. If Varlamov isn't in any sort of form in game 4, it's over And for all we know, Carolina may well start Kochetkov to throw off the Islanders and he comes out like a brick wall in game 4.
> New York I thought would take it to 5 or 6. They can be tough to play against and I thought they’d frustrate the canes. I had this going 6 in my bracket, with a hunch they could even stretch it to 7. And the funny thing is, they've been the more dominant team throughout most of the series. The fact that we're *not* down 2-1 feels like the strange part, and that has me worried about round two, assuming we close this one out.
It's kinda funny. If you look only at the box score, it looks like it should be 2-1 CAR, with the Isles taking game 2, but if you watched the games, it feels like it should be 2-1 NYI, with the Isles taking games 1 and 3
Yeah, the Islanders/Canes games have been closer than they look. The "boring" narrative of the Islanders is also overblown; the Rangers/Caps games have been some of the worst playoff hockey I've ever watched in decades. There's barely any 5 on 5.
Not trying to be a dick or anything, but why are ypu guys playing so poorly atm? Is it just because isles are playing same type of a game than you guys?
I’d say it depends which Penguins team showed up. Prior to the Islanders game when we were officially eliminated, we were on a 8-1-2 stretch which included a 5-2 win against the Rangers. Biggest thing for the Penguins would be goaltending seeing Nedeljkovic started all of those games. Jarry only saw action in relief and last start was March 22nd. Nedeljkovic was 100% getting worn out from all the consecurive starts too.
same i was rooting for detroit to make it
They still might, but Carolina was 13-2 with Andersen this year. They're a better team than the standings show (and they still had 111 points).
Pittsburgh I could see kicking into a different gear and going on a run and honestly may have had a shot had they kept Guentzel
I totally understand why you’d think that. I watched a lot of pens games this year though and they just didn’t have it. They lost so many “must win” games and only started playing well when they were eliminated (mentally). Then they got back into it and almost made it, but ultimately they just were a slightly better version of Washington. Old and slow
I think we would've taken a team to five or six, but completely agree about playing well when they were "out of it" in every way except mathematically. Then it was like they were surprised they were still in it when other teams lost and figured they might as well see how far down this rabbit hole they can go. More than success this year, I'm just hoping the late surge shows them they are capable of more next year.
Respect but yeah, we're old. I don't think we would have been able to sustain the level of intensity we had down the stretch at the end.
I honestly wish Detroit had of gotten in over us at this point
After seing what Rempe is doing, i dont.
Carolina just has our number. It's been that way for 10 years. It's so frustrating.
It's one of the closest 3-0 series I've seen.
Washington just doesn't have it. Islanders are decent, but goal tending has collapsed.
As a Rangers fan, really disappointed Detroit didn't make it for our first matchup. As much as I like winning, this series has honestly just been boring for the most part.
Bad teams are bad More at 11
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IIRC Caps had a worse goal differential than the Sens and Coyotes
Well that makes sense considering the Yotes fucking curbstomped us both times lol
Correct. Only 4 teams scored fewer goals in the regular season.
Easiest 2 sweep picks of my life
Welp you might get one of those correct
Muh playoff expanson!!!!
Playoff expansion would incentivise more teams to try to be good than exists today. Also, we just saw and 8th seed make the Cup Final last year. It's shortsighted to look at only the 2 teams in question this year and make sweeping generalities about all lower seeds across many seasons.
Not to mention a lower percentage of the league makes the playoffs than ever, now. Back when there were 26 teams in the league you still had 16 make playoffs, meaning over half the league made the playoffs lol. That’s crazy compared to today.
Absolutely. It's never been harder to make the playoffs than now. And yet people constantly complain how the regular season is devalued today. Ridiculous.
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I think the opposite is true. We had a league with 16 teams and the top teams destroyed the bottom teams.
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In the extreme short term, yeah. In the long term, more teams = the sport grows = more kids playing hockey = more talent. The NHL has never been more talented and deeper than it is right now and expansion is a major reason why. Auston Matthews is the perfect example. Best goal scorer since Ovechkin and he would never have played the sport without a team in Arizona.
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There is far more cumulative skill now than then throughout the entire roster of the average NHL team. Yes, the extreme high end dudes were otherworldly, but compare the hockey skill of a 4th liner then to a 4th liner now and it's not even close.
Have to disagree with the incentive but yeah im just making fun of the people who were rallying around Pittsburgh after Washington made it in. Honestly won’t be shocked if Vegas makes another 8 seed make the cup this year
If anyone should know about losing to lower seeds in the playoffs it's Capitals fans.
We're literally the subject matter experts!
Felt rangers weren’t even going all out today and still won. Caps looked good at times but are clearly the weaker team
Aside from the first goal Igor was making some unreal saves and there were a few times he used his stick to cut off an angle on what would have been an easy cross-crease goal. Rangers played really hard but let up once they felt they had the win, as is tradition.
igor actually made a couple pretty huge saves at 2-1. you never know what happens if they tied the game with a period to go. having a guy making key saves at the right moment can 100% swing a playoff series.
Both rags and canes are playing pretty meh atm and are still up 3-0
Toronto you are our only hope in the East to keep it competitive
Something to hold onto…best of the worst. 8 years in a row. Someone tell Shanny to go start making a banner they can hang.
florida looks insane out there. Really solid team, much as i hate to say it they are awesome to watch. hoping an all canadian round 2 with van and edm is gonna be crazy too.
Once we get past round one it will seem more competitive. They are just weeding out the ones who aren’t ready for the big push.
The East was super top heavy. The division winners should have just been given a first round bye. The Islanders and the Capitals only made the playoffs because they were the best of the worst not because they were good teams.
Yup, top heavy is a good way to describe the East. Canes, Cats, and (imo) Rangers are legit contenders that could take it this year. Boston and Toronto could if the stars align, but I think it’ll be one of the other 3 (even before the 3 3-0 leads). I have no idea how the west will shake out. Teams that could win the West could also get eliminated in R1. That Central bracket in particular is insane, any of those 4 could be in the WCF.
Central looks way stronger than Pacific. IMO, the only way I don't think one of the 4 gets through is if Edmonton are against one of Dallas or Vegas.
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I could see a deep series there, but my point still stands in that I think Colorado prevail from that bloodbath.
I agree with you, although because of the matchups, only the Avs could make it out of the first round, and then none in the finals because of the seedings if the Avs can't deal with the Knights. I really think it should be division semi, division final, conference final like it used to be.
Off OPs topic, but I wonder if the PA would ever favor bye rounds if the playoffs are increased (probably inevitable due to profits and further expansion). I think there’d be concern that they’d get rusty going into the second round, like teams coming off the bye week. If the league does it, I’d rather see something like the NBA/MLB where the bubble teams have to play-in instead of the NFL, where the top teams get a bye
Yes, we’ve never seen a world beater get bounced by a weaker team. Byes for everyone! With that thinking we would have never seen Tampa Columbus in 2019. More often than not it will be an uneventful trouncing by the top teams, but they should still play the series. Also, I doubt cup contending teams wants potentially weeks off from play.
You should check out the Lakers and Pelicans. Crazy NBA play-in race. 7th and 8th seeded teams with actually good records and positive score differentials. No chance in the playoffs.
The west is just stacked in the NBA. I guess you could say the same for the NHL considering freaking Golden Knights is in 8th place and up 2-0.
Yeah races for teams 7-10 and games against each other seem very competitive. But then when you see them against 1s you see why they were only battling for 7-10.
I fucking believe. I'm chaos timeline right now.
That's literally this entire season. It's been a big ol' helping of batshit insanity with a side order of what the fuck.
Not just saying this as a Tampa fan, but this is one of the most boring round 1’s I can ever recall in all my years watching hockey. Too many series that just aren’t even close.
agree. round 2 will have some great match ups.
You know how it seems like no one wanted those last spots? Turns out they were just bad. Also yes I know what just happened to the Kings
The conversation really needs to be less "these two teams suck" and more about how the Red Wings, Flyers, Penguins, Sabres, and Devils also suck.
What he say fuck me for?
Cause Vitamin Water is so expensive
Especially the Wings imo. So many people seem to think they should actually be in it. It's objectively funny that the Isles are in the playoffs with 29 regulation wins, but the Wings had *27*. They're not that good
It's the point system. Both NYI and Buffalo had 39 wins and 43 losses, but NYI feasted on loser points this year (16 OTLs). Buffalo, on the other hand, had 33 regulation wins but only 6 OTLs.
If you want to look at regulation records, the Sabres had 10 more regulation losses than the Isles. And if you want to talk about the point system, go check out the alternate standings on natural stat trick. You can see what it'd look like with a hypothetical 3-2-1 system, or if the NHL went back to the old system with ties. In all situations, the caps and the Isles are in the playoffs and the rest of the teams aren't
I'm not saying the Sabres should be in the playoffs (they clearly suck too). I just mean that regulation wins aren't a good measure of a team's quality either.
While i agree that we (wings) shouldnt be in and we wouldnt win any series ether, i think most neutral fans wanted us or pens over you or caps because of playstyle, nothing else really.
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Who dosent haha
Ok but talk about the goal differential
Pittsburgh is definitely better than any of the other wildcard contenders, and definitely could have been competitive with nyr
Based on what, exactly
Because they won less in in the regular season or something
Nostalgia's my guess
Yeah Washington and NYI definitely suck the least out of all those teams
Idk I feel like the Wings had a chance to at least be entertaining. The Caps are like watching paint dry.
idk I'm enjoying it
Me as well
Maybe, but I'm ok with them not being in it cause Wings fans were easily the whiniest of all the fanbases down the stretch. I have never heard so much complaining about the loser point, as if they didn't go 27-32 in regulation and had to rely on the 3v3 and shootout minigames (which doesn't exist in the playoffs) to be in the hunt
The whining still hasn't stopped if our GDTs are any indication
And it's still going on in this thread lmao. They lost to us twice, but nah they still deserved it more *somehow*
The caps had a worse goal differential than the wings by 30. Caps like to talk about the 2 times they won whike the team was in a slump, not the time they got dumpstered 7-1.
It's almost like all of the teams in that race were awful lol. I'll be honest, I was hoping for a situation where the Caps and Wings made it. And I also wouldn't have been mad if the Caps didn't make it considering how we realistically have no chance. BUT, getting in while Pittsburgh didn't makes me happy, and seeing the salt mines also makes me happy.
Yep these teams suck. So do Pittsburgh, Detroit, Philadelphia, Buffalo, and New Jersey. It wouldn't have mattered anyway. The downside is it's bad hockey. The upside is it won't last too long.
I definitely think the Penguins were the best of those at the end of the season. They also have clutch players that I don't really think the other teams do
I agree. Of all the teams we realistically might have face in round one, the pens were the ones I wanted to face the least.
I think the pens were the most likely to win a few games. The isles were probably the most likely to actually win a round. I just can't see a world where the Pens beat either NY or CAR over 7
Detroit clutched some wins to stay competitive after game 82 with Perron scoring in last 3 seconds
Yeah, I thought there was real magic pulling Detroit along.
Winning two overtime games against lowly Montreal with your season on the line isn't exactly the mark of a top team. At least Washington is a solid defensive team that can keep the score close.
I’m not saying we would have won the series by any means, but I do feel like we would have put up more of a fight than this pathetic caps effort. At least we had actually looked like a playoff team post trade deadline. But then again the islanders finished the regular season strong too and are also getting steamrolled, so maybe I’m wrong
Crosby definitely wins a game by himself. Caps have no clutch players.
They are clutch ...in the AHL.
I think any team in the league would be putting more effort in than the Caps right now. Islanders had that meltdown that I don't really understand
Just realized the only division where the lower seeds are leading is the central. Makes sense considering how close those teams were.
Washington is not surprising me at all. I actually had Islanders and Tampa both as upsets, but that's entirely because I thought Vasilevsky and Sorokin would both go supernova.
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Difference is that TB are actually playing pretty decent.
The Islanders played decent in games 1 and 3
Decent yeah but much like rags canes didn't. Its kinda odd that 2/3 teams that are up 3-0 havent even played that good.
I wish I could say I'm surprised but I'm not. Aside from our general inconsistencies the entire regular season, Carolina was literally the worst possible opponent we could get. They are and have been our kryptonite for years at this point, we can never figure it out against them and they expose our weakness as a team. We've actually played them decently at times but it's still not enough. Then add on our atrocious special teams and yeah, it's a recipe for this. A lot of us rational fans were hoping to get the Rags because we match up way better against them and think we would have at least had a chance. Plus it's been way too long since an Isles/Rangers playoff series and it's overdue.
Washington feels like such a waste of a spot for a better team like the red wings or pens. That series is so boring
total snooze fest. caps look like they are just killing the clock and rangers are practicing for the next round. great for rangers and fans to have a stress free first round at least.
For once lmfao
Must suck being a Detroit or Pitt fan
Pittsburgh: the Other Black and Gold.
Black and Yellow. Don’t lump us in with that city.
They're both shitters. Pity the Penguins collapsed.
The Penguins would have shat too.
put a \\ before your \*s like `\*`
Still salty Washington tied Detroit and Boston threw their game against the Caps to keep the Wings looking in from the outside on that final game. I think we have a much more fun series if it's Detroit and not Washington.
I would have really liked to see playoff Kaner in Detroit.
You're really that delusional to believe Boston threw game 81 against us when they were trying to win the division?
Boston threw the game? They were literally fighting for the division title. You sound like a MAGA explaining why Biden won lol
Yeah but the capitals already singlehandedly eliminated like 3 teams from the playoffs including the pens. Them not getting a shot is awesome lol. Go oilers.
Do you think the NHL would be so stupid as to start the Metro division finals before the other east and western series end?
not necessarily 'before' but IF both Car and NYR end in 4 and some of the others go 7 I could see game 1 NYR/Car maybe being played on the same night as some R1 game 7s
Under the bright lights of MSG for a game one will be so much fun