Who will win the Stanley Cup?

Sabres · Guru

RE: Who will win the Stanley Cup?

VanIslander · Guru

I retract anything said that may in anyway be seen as an argument here.

VanIslander · Guru

Aw, what the hell...

The Predators got a lot of easy wins against division stinkers St. Louis and Chicago last season and without those they miss the playoffs. The team's coach will probably be fired this season as predicted by some who think he isn't an elite-level coach, more of a guy to develop youngsters, not to take a team to the next level. It'll take another season for the franchise to realize that. or so it has been said.

The players lack heart-and-soul star leaders. Not a Brind'amour among them. The preds top three forwards have personalities that are more sublime than intense (more on them later).

Does the team even have a player or two who is ready and able to be Conn Smythe calibre? Maybe, maybe not.

The team clearly lacks experience. At least Carolina had Stillman, Recchi, Weight, not to mention some vets on defense.

And it lacks excellence in terms of role players. Fiddler, Nichol, Smithson are not the sort of guys you sign when you feel your team is ready to contend for the Cup. These guys don't even make many NHL line-ups, are marginal fourth liners by all accounts. Hordichuk is a bona fide impact role player but in a limiting role come playoff time.

Come the playoffs, how many people have confidence in Hartnell, Legwand, Erat, Vasicek? And little Sullivan is a perfect example of a regular season performer and postseason fizzle.

That leaves Kariya, Arnott, Dumont as the team's TRUE stars come playoff time. Any team would want them for their skill, experience, proven postseason productivity, though their leadership is more by example, one their teammates might find hard to follow. Shut these three down and the team will fold.

The blueline lacks postseason experience and veteran leadership too. Does having one's best two blueliners be Kimmo Timonen and Marek Zidlicky make a team a guaranteed contender? Sure, the team will get some nice regular season hits and passing, but these two have a lot to prove. Who do they have backing them up? Hamhuis and Suter are good young guys, I like them a lot, but playoff monsters on defense under the age of 25? This team needs to sign or trade for two impact d-men with experience.

At least there's Vokoun, poor Vokoun in net, facing the 4th most shots in the league last season despite only playing 61 games (only Kolzig in pittiful Washington faced more shots per game). Vokoun is solid, had a 0.939 % in his only postseason series, a 2-4 record that will probably be repeated in 06/07 because the blueline is not Cup contender quality, not yet, and the forwards are not deep in talent or excellent role players, not yet.

It is not "ludicrous" to think that Nashville is NOT a Cup contender this season.

-- Edited by VanIslander at 19:45, 2006-09-11

-- Edited by VanIslander at 19:46, 2006-09-11

Sabres · Guru

Well Ill be humlbe and say that you raise some great points about them, but I dont think there are many people who cheer for teams from the west that would like to draw nashville in the first round of the playoffs.

Them being in an easy division and saying theyd miss the playoffs if they werent I think was a pretty bad statement mind you, I think it for sure helped there cause, but they had the 3rd most points in the West, the 8 points or so that they prob got a bit easier than other games wouldnt have had them missing the playoffs. You cant compare games against there "weak" teams and other teams from the west and say theyd lose all of the games they had that were easier if they were harder (other division teams). Theyd still win some of those too had they not had an "easy schedule".

Possibly Nashville is more of a regular season team with their lack of playoff experience, but either way they are going to resemble a powerhouse at times throughout the year. I think everyone here can attest that to win the Stanley Cup you need some luck, and if the Preds receive a little bit of luck they sure as heck can win it. Vokoun alone is enough to make you quivver, playoffs are pretty much live and die by your goaltending. The rest of the team is young and will make errors, but not as many as you think. Suter and Weber are really the only two who are real young on the back line. Zidlicky and Timonen, though undersized can get the job done, especially Timonen defensively and offensively.

In my eyes the only thing stopping them from being a powerhouse is size and more experience overall. I think adding Dumont and Arnott however added a boat load of experience.

VanIslander · Guru

Sabres wrote:

Possibly Nashville is more of a regular season team with their lack of playoff experience, but either way they are going to resemble a powerhouse at times throughout the year.

And could very well make the second round of the playoffs.

I still think the Rangers are better positioned for postseason success, and Atlanta, Vancouver no less ready. But it's your poll.

Sabres · Guru

Why do you like Atlanta so much? They werent even close to contenders last year and lost savard. yes they'll have Kari Leht for the full year likely but all in all i can't see how they improved, also losing their "#1" dman in Modry.

DWings · Member

*Yawn* Worst. Thread. Ever. Please stop.

Sabres · Guru

DWings wrote:

*Yawn* Worst. Thread. Ever. Please stop.

I don't mean to sound rude, because i hoenstly dont. But for someone who only pipes in once a month, I don't quite understand what the point of a post like this is. We're just trying have a active league. So why don't you stop trying to bring down the league and maybe put something into it?

I also don't really undertand why talking about who we think is going to win the cup is boring? I mean its what every hockey fan strives for their team to acheive..

-- Edited by Sabres at 15:18, 2006-09-16