Which team do you think has been the buggest surprise, and on the flipside the most disappointing thus far this season?
I would day that the Avalanche have probably been the biggest surprise thus far, definetely overachieving thus far with their current roster.
Biggest disappointment, would have to be the Leafs, who have seemingly underperformed for the talent they had, especially since they were kinda built towards this season with the vets on the team.
Disappointments - Toronto and Edmonton. The Oilers have the abilitiy to be a top team, but they've hovered around the middle of the conference.
Surprises - Montreal and Colorado. Montreal is a good team, but their goaltending has exceeded a lot of projections. They're getting big wins when needed.
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- Columbus - definitely have the talent to be a top 3 team in the league, things just haven't come together yet. However hopefuly the team can gel near the end of the year and going into the playoffs when it counts the most
- Islanders - I really think they should've waited to dismantle the team until at least half way through the season. Things have a way of evening themselves out and I think that team could certainly be a top 3 team in the East right now.
Surprises
- Minnesota - IMO no way should this club be the top team in the West. Solid defense but goaltending and forward are less than impressive, on paper at least, but I guess that's why they're in the surprise category
- Calgary - A pretty balanced team, but would never have expected them to be 7th in the entire league with 30 games to go.
- Montreal - wtfffff sim=retarded
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To NYIslander: Daniel Tjarnqvist, Duvie Westcott, Ilja Bryzgalov, Pat Rissmiller, Tom Poti, Bjorn Melin, Karri Ramo, Tom Gilbert
To Boston: Chris Pronger, Doug Murray, Jocelyn Thibault, Ken Klee, Wade Brookbank, Denis Istomin, Viktor Dovgan
The Carolina Hurricanes has no business being a contender yet they have been each and every week of the season. The team has absolutely no depth after its remarkably productive top unit of Knuble-Spezza-Eaves with Hamhuis-Smith and Roloson in net. The rest of the players are in the 60s OV!!! Yet the team has remained in playoff contention and even was atop the league for a while, top-4 in the East for two months. Can one overly productive unit carry the other three units if there's also remarkable goaltending? Carolina is evidence of such.
The Chicago Blackhawks is a team that began the season apparently wanting to be a force in the inaugural season. But failure came early and often as Havlat shined but the team struggled to get to .500 and only for a short while. This team has a solid centre core of Thornton, Handzus, Lindros, average defense and Huet well-rated in net. All the team seems to need is a couple of wingers to help Havlat and Craig, and maybe an offensive defenseman to lessen pressure on Modry and Mara. But the organization was silent on the trade front in the first two months and the team continued to struggle, in fact, it seems like team management must want to tank in year one as when trades started happening, the team started collecting first round picks, and now has four of them. A disappointment in year one, especially when many lesser teams (on paper) went on winning streaks as the hawks could only watch, but they are now getting primed for the future, with the basic building blocks to compete, but needing a couple of pieces to finish the puzzle. Still not too late to acquire some UFA before the trade deadline but it'd take a less conservative approach not conducive to the Hawks to date.
boston - r u serious? besides brutalizing nashville, NYI, and NYR respectively by taking datsyuk, pronger, and hossa for 30 cents on the dollar, this is still a very weak team, and yet, is surprisingly ahead of other much better teams
disappointments -
atlanta - if u here him tell the story. This team is constructed as an 8 seed for the next few years, and will remain an 8 seed until they get defensive help (especially for the PP).... good luck signing all your RFA and also signing that UFA goalie everyone knows you desperately will need.
p.s. this was all in jest chill out with the future bombardment of posts atlanta, boston, nashville, nyi, and nyr
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