NHL 2023-2024 Season - Arizona Stays Homeless
- Thread starter Animosity
- Start date
StoiCynic
Trakanon Raider
- 2,683
- 989
Considering how disgusted I was after last seasons first round exit, i'm surprised at how excited I am. Don't know about Laviolette, but i'm pretty excited for the assistant coaches and development staff Drury brought in. Weird thing to get excited about but everything i've seen and read about them checks every box for me. This particular house cleaning was LONG over due.
Also alot of new young talent across the league i'm looking forward to watching and hopefully far fewer teams blatantly tanking for Bedard. That shit really gets annoying when the top teams are neck and neck in the standings and it comes down to who played the most bottom feeders for free points. There needs to be a better point spread and I think we'll get it this season.
Also alot of new young talent across the league i'm looking forward to watching and hopefully far fewer teams blatantly tanking for Bedard. That shit really gets annoying when the top teams are neck and neck in the standings and it comes down to who played the most bottom feeders for free points. There needs to be a better point spread and I think we'll get it this season.
- 40,864
- 173,499
Ironically, it was the Hawks knocking the Penguins out of a playoff spot that got them points to put themselves into the spot to draft Bedard.
Animosity
Bronze Baronet of the Realm
- 6,500
- 5,494
Buffalo for sure will. They had the best offense in the league last year and are loaded with young defenseman. Once Levi got called up at the end of the season it looked to stabilize their goaltending. Ottawa should be better as well, but still questions on defense and goaltending. Montreal is gonna suck dick again. No goaltending, only a few good forwards and defense is still lacking.
- 1
- 40,864
- 173,499
I think Detroit will be better this year, but goaltending will be a problem, and you have one line of forwards that can score. You have to have four lines with depth to make real waves. I'll be surprised if Detroit makes the playoffs this year after the year they just had.
Montreal is going to be terrible again. They don't have lines that can put together goals consistently, and they don't have anyone who can stop goals. Possibly bottom of the league.
Ottawa has a chance, but I think this is going to come down to coaching for them. They have some talent, it's just a matter of can they put it to good use?
Buffalo is a big question mark. Have some talent, decent coaching, I guess we'll see if they can put anything together.
Denamian
Night Janitor
- 7,182
- 18,957
We effectively have an average first line and 3 good 3rd lines. Definitely not ideal. Raymond needs a good year after his sophomore slump. Hopefully we see Kasper, Soderblom and maybe Mazur force their way on to the team by the end of the year.
It is weird to see the D go from youngish and bad to mediocre and old over the last few years. At least we can rotate the 5 old farts over the course of the season. If Edvinsson's recovery from surgery goes well and he gets a spot, it will be interesting to see who gets forced out. Hopefully Chiarot.
I'm hopeful that Husso can bounce back from last year as long as Reimer and Lyon can carry more off the load than Hellberg and Ned did. We do really need Cossa and/or Augustine to pan out though.
At best they'll be a bubble team and I expect them miss the playoffs. Just hopefully not as badly this year.
- 2
StoiCynic
Trakanon Raider
- 2,683
- 989
Agree MTL has a long way to go. Sens and Sabres should be sneaky good though. Dunno about about that Sanderson contract, but I like what those teams are doing. I can see either of them jumping Boston or Florida in the Atlantic. If not next season than in the near future for sure. TB's depth is gonna get tested pretty soon too but they just know how to flip that switch and play the important games better than anyone. I know it's gotta come eventually with them, but i'll believe it when I see it.
- 1
Penance
Ahn'Qiraj Raider
- 5,029
- 4,727
As somebody who watches pretty much every game I am pretty confident in saying we don't have Killorn last season we struggle for a wildcard spot. This season for sure gonna be interesting. Got my eye on Essimont this league for depth. Yea he doesn't score, but he's the kind of wear you down grinder you can really take advantage of in the right situations on a depth line. Scoring will go way down with the loss of Colton and Killorn the the powerplay dynamic will be shaken up with the loss of Perry but honestly don't think that's such a bad thing. Also interested to see Nick Perbix and Darren Raddysh develop on the team, besides Vassy its gonna be up to our heavily invested in D more so then ever to really plug the holes in the team this season. Hopefully they've gotten rid of all that sloppy play that lead to stupid mistakes they made all regular season (and during the playoffs but losing Cernak hurt so I give them a pass).
- 1
Byr
Ahn'Qiraj Raider
- 3,663
- 4,943
The way I see the Atlantic is that Toronto and Tampa are the 2 best teams. 2 of Florida, Boston, Buffalo, Detroit and Ottawa will make the playoffs along with them. Florida went to the cup but they did so on a hot run by Bobrovsky. During the season they barely made the playoffs at all, they haven't done anything to get particularly better and have some major injuries that are going to last a few months on defense to start. Boston will have fallen off without their top 2 centers but they still have a very strong defensive core and goaltending behind them. Buffalo is probably the best of the 5 teams. If I had to pick 2 from that list, it would be Buffalo and Boston.
- 2
Penance
Ahn'Qiraj Raider
- 5,029
- 4,727
