Island Nucklehead wrote:
Do you have a feeling that the Islanders or the Capitals will go very far? Because those are the only playoff teams with more goals against than Toronto. They've allowed 13 more goals than any of the playoff bound Canadian teams. Their GA is closer to the Oilers (TO @ 113, EDM @ 115).
What I'm trying to say is, when you're in the bottom-half of the league in GA, I don't like your chances of doing much in the playoffs. Especially away @ Boston, a better defensive team, with a better goalie, and a much better goal differential (same for Montreal BTW).
As Canucks fans know, scoring is harder in the playoffs.
I imagine we can forgive Leaf fans for this mistake. It's been a while
I find this earlier response to Paddy's thread here quite interesting. The two hottest teams in the Eastern Conference heading into the playoffs are, yes, you guessed it, the Capitals and Islanders.
The Capitals are 9-1-0 and the Islanders are 8-0-2
You must always be wary of teams heading into the playoffs who are on a hot streak.
The Islanders, leaves and Washington are the bottom 3 in Goals against of the Eastern Conference playoff teams
Islanders - 131
leaves - 124
Capitals - 123
In Goals For of Eastern Conference playoff teams
Capitals are 2nd best behind the Penguins with 140
leaves are 4th best with 138
Islanders are 5th best with 134 (Michael Grabner 2nd on team behind Tavares with 16 goals)
BUT WHEN COMPARING BOTH CONFERENCE PLAYOFF TEAMS AT THE MOMENT, The Blackhawks only rate higher than the Capitals, leaves and Islanders in goals for. The Canucks are 4th in the Western in Conference in GF with 121 goals.
It's interesting that in the Eastern Conference Goal Scoring is what's working and in the Western Conference it's the opposite whereas Goals Against is getting the job done
It may come down to GA vs GF in the Stanley Cup this year
Either way, I don't have much faith in the Canucks as we saw in the Finals agains the Bruins that we couldn't score and in the first round against the Kings we couldn't score. So the long and short of it is, Goals Against does us no fucking good. And that in the end, goal scoring will be our nemesis once again. And our strength - goaltending, is going to be taken to task with the loss of our only two RH D-men in Bieksa and Tanev. Should have traded for O'Byrne, Gillis ya nimrod.
The bottom line is, if the Canucks miraculously make it to the Finals, our goaltending is going to have to be lights out in order for us to win. Cause scoring and the PP is not our forte. It hasn't been since that infamous Bruins game half way through last season. Nice job fixing that, Gillis.
Grabner - 16 goals
Hodgson - 15 goals
Kassian 1 goal in his last 28 games
Booth 1 empty net goal in 11 games.
and please, no whining about CoHo's and Grabners defense. Kassian and Booth are no better.
This year
Grabner is a PLUS 4
Booth is a minus 3
CoHo is a minus 5
KASSIAN IS A MINUS 7
How the fuck does Kassian be a minus 7 on a defense first team like the Canucks? I can understand CoHo's stats cause the Sabres suck at defense but Kassian?
“Tyler Myers is my guy... I was taking to Scotty Bowman last night and he was bringing up his name, and saying he’s a big guy and big guy need big minutes to play, he is playing great for ya… and I agree with him… He’s been exceptional” - Bruce Boudreau