Halfway Point Thoughts

[theohall]

In terms of the West - Vegas and Colorado are clearly the class of the division.
Right now - Minnesota looks better than the Blues - BOTH rookies who could win the Calder and one of the likely will?? Seriously???

Then it's the Blues and Kings fighting for the 4th spot. Yes, the Blues were ravaged by injuries the first half and Husso isn't that good. .879 SV% and 3.57 GAA isn't getting it done. NHL Radio was talking about the Blues GA this season, the Blues being 24th and bringing up Binnington. Were Binnington capable of playing every game, they'd be 13th - that's how much of an impact Husso's sub-par play has had on the Blues record. Husso's had what - 2 good games - maybe?? Add in the injuries and the lack of depth scoring that created, goaltending has to be superb every night - from both goalies. Blues are slowing getting healthy with both Schwartz and Bozak now back with the forwards. Thomas will still be missed, but someone should be able to pickup Barbashev's 4th line role. The question mark is filling that PK shift Barbasheve usually handles. Hopefully, this shows tonight (3/19/21) vs the sub-par while healthy Sharks.

The above has opened the window for the Kings. The Kings have a good mix of youth and experience, quality goaltending in Quick, and are playing, IMO, beyond what anyone expected of them. Given their last half schedule, they won't have to work as hard to move up in the standings, while the Blues face the Wild, Avs, and G. Knights 17 times.

Rest of the West just doesn't matter.

Central Division
Tampa is still the class of the league. Hedman will likely win the Norris again and Vasilevsky is, again, a clear Vezina candidate. On top of that, they've added another 4th liner with wheels and touch in Ross Colton. It's insane the way guys leave and the Lightning always have a replacement.

Florida Panthers - holy crap!!! Where did they come from. Some minor roster tweaks and they are challenging for 1st... If Quenneville doesn't win the Jack Adams, it would be a crime. Only his 2nd year with them and he's turned that team around.

Carolina - Brind'amour is damn good coach and it shows in the way he has that team playing, much like Berube did for the Blues although Berube hasn't been able to maintain that with all the injuries.

IMO - Chicago is going to fade. Dallas has 5 games in hand and while they are 8 back, the Stars or Hawks each can control what happens largely based on their last 4 head-head matchups. Preds started playing betting when Saros returned, so they are going to push. And that's not even considering what happens with Columbus. Columbus and Chicago only have 2 H2Hs left, but Columbus gets the Dead Things 5 times in the last half of the season. Chicago only gets the Dead Things twice. IMO - Dallas or Columbus is going to push the Hawks out of 4th. The rest won't matter.

The East is a flipping mess. Bruins are just now having players hit Covid protocol which is an absolutely horrible time for that to happen, so I think they slip. Caps, Islanders, Pens - are in. The question mark will be what happens between the Flyers and Rangers. It looks like Vigneault's style of coaching is beginning to wear on the Flyers along with Carter Hart hitting the sophomore slump. Not sure if it's the Vigneault thing or the Hart thing that is the bigger issue with the Flyers, beyond what appears to be a lack of defensive depth - so folks are saying. From what I've seen with the Flyers, the forwards aren't coming back to help enough - like happens with the Blues when they lose. If someone on the Flyers staff can get the forwards back on the right page, they have a better team than the current Rangers. Meanwhile, the Rangers are similar to the Kings with their mix of youth and veterans and some nights they look great. Other nights, the veterans look they are gliding and when they do, the youngsters follow suit. If I had to pick, the Flyers supplant the Bruins, unless the Bruins have a magical recovery following Covid stuff which no one has done this season other than the Stars who basically started 2 weeks later than everyone else.

The North - IMO, the Leafs will win the division, reach the semi-finals, then get crushed by any team they face in those semi-finals. I hear dudes on NHL Radio talking about the Leafs improved structure, watch some Leafs games, and the Leafs rely on neutral zone east-west passing for zone entries - which NO GOOD TEAM in the East/West/Central allows unless someone gets caught on a line change. The Leafs D is smoke and mirrors based on what they are getting away with on zone exits, zone entries, and questionable neutral zone play. I don't even see a reason to talk about the rest of the division, because no one plays defense worth a darn, with the possible exception of the Canadiens. But is that defense or goaltending? I think it's been goaltending considering the SV% and GAA of their netminders. What's nuts - because the North is so weak defensively, McDavid is likely going to win the Hart due to his ridiculous numbers, which probably wouldn't be so ludicrous if it weren't for such a weak division. Only other comment, Thatcher Demko has looked damn good recently. Holtby who??


Thoughts??