With the NHL season coming to a close and many positions for the playoffs already locked down, it looks like a perfect opportunity to look at my selections from last year.
The Eastern conference looks pretty awful at the top with my selections of Ottawa, the Rangers and Carolina to win their divisions. Two of those teams are in danger of missing the playoffs.
Buffalo, New Jersey and Atlanta at 4-5-6 are close to being right. if I had them at 1-2-3. Philadelphia at 8 was because I couldn’t imagine them missing the playoffs.
Pittsburgh at 14 was because I had them at 4 last year and overrated them. This year it seems I underrated them. By a lot. Oops.
In the West, Anaheim and Nashville at the top look pretty good. San Jose, Dallas and Detroit at 4-5-6 are also pretty decent. Edmonton and Columbus were my attempts at being bold. Turns out I was just being wrong.
Here are the standings as of April 2, with my prediction in brackets.
EASTERN CONFERENCE
1. Buffalo (4)
2. New Jersey (5)
3. Atlanta (6)
4. Ottawa (1)
5. Pittsburgh (14)
6. Rangers (2)
7. Tampa Bay (9)
8. Montreal (7)
9. Toronto (11)
10. Carolina (3)
11. Islanders (15)
12. Florida (12)
13. Boston (10)
14. Washington (13)
15. Philadelphia (8)
WESTERN CONFERENCE
1. Detroit (6)
2. Anaheim (1)
3. Vancouver (11)
4. Nashville (2)
5. San Jose (4)
6. Dallas (5)
7. Minnesota (9)
8. Calgary (3)
9. Colorado (13)
10. St. Louis (15)
11. Columbus (8)
12. Edmonton (7)
13. Chicago (14)
14. Los Angeles (12)
15. Phoenix (10)
The results
Within three spots: 17/30 (56.67 per cent)
Playoff teams: 12/16 (80 per cent)
All in all, not too shabby. Better than last year, anyway.
The playoff teams are something I’m pretty proud of, but it’s increasingly hard to pick the right order of things.
Although, let’s have a look at Sports Illustrated’s predictions and compare their results to mine. (Note: SI did not put teams 1-2-3 based on division championships. I will be adjusting their selections to meet that standard. Teams affected are: Carolina (4 to 3), Ottawa (3 to 4), Calgary (3 to 2), Nashville (4 to 3) and San Jose (2 to 4).
Within three spots: 13/30 (43.33 per cent)
Playoff teams: 12/16 (80 per cent)
(notable: 7/8 teams in Western conference)
Now this isn’t a knock on Sports Illustrated, as I’m a very happy subscriber, I just want to point out that this predicting stuff is harder than it looks!
Both of us had Pittsburgh and Vancouver missing the playoffs (SI had the Penguins 9th, and the Canucks 11th). Both of us had the Rangers winning the Atlantic division, while they currently sit in third and we both had Calgary winning the Pacific as they fight for their playoff lives with the Colorado Avalanche.
The new NHL leads to a lot of surprises, which is great for entertainment. I just hope that one day my picks can improve just a little bit.
