I’m new to the game ao still learning
Buffalo finally is actually good and could go all the way. Canes never seem to get over the hump but maybe it’s their time finally?
I’ll be watching the Wild in the west.
You can take a wild guess and still be dead wrong. It’s what makes playoff hockey so fun.
It’s Colorados Cup to lose. My money is still with them …
And it’ll be heartbreaking when somehow, from the rafters with a voodoo doll, Pete DeBoer beats them yet again
Corey Perry’s team has lost in the stanley cup finals 6 years in a row*. He’s back on the Lightning this season and they’re looking strong. I predict the curse continues.
* ok technically the streak was broken in 2023 when Tampa got bounced by the Leafs, but the fact the Leafs won a playoff series at all makes that season such a historical aberration it deserves an asterisk.
I think Tampa and Buffalo are going to be the real matchup for the east. If nothing gets upset.
West is a tougher call. I think Edmontons always a perennial threat, it’s been a rocky year for them though so I dunno. Colorado for sure will be in the mix.
That my stupid Leafs are nowhere to be found, therefore I’ll enjoy some stress-free playoff hockey.
It’s time to transfer our focus over to the other stress case.
I always like to see what seems like the most “interesting” team to watch.
The Buffalo Sabres haven’t been in the playoffs since 2011. They have the all-time record “drought” for the playoffs, missing 14 in a row.
They’re in a three-way tie right now for second-best record in the league. Interesting!
They also haven’t ever won a Stanley Cup. They and the Vancouver Canucks are the oldest active franchises that have never won a cup.
Buffalo has been to the Stanley Cup finals three times, in 1974-1975, 1979-1980, and 1998-1999. So even that’s been a really long time.
As an aside, Buffalo is an interesting sports town because they also have an extraordinary American football team that went to the championship game four times in a row and lost (1991, 1992, 1993, 1994). No other team has even played four in a row, let alone lost all four.
Sabres are me heart over head pick in the East.
What’s making them play so well? I’m new to the game
It’s probably a lot of things, but in short: their best players are maturing, therefore so is the team.
They got good draft picks and they actually committed to their strategy long-term. The Edmonton Oilers have had success doing the same thing; keeping the same players together helps build rapport, and a lot of them are extremely young when they get drafted.
Because Buffalo is a small-market team that doesn’t often win (therefore they don’t have much money), they tend to be in the middle or toward the bottom of the standings every season. Since they’re always toward the bottom, they have a higher chance of “winning” the draft lottery… but they didn’t get the #1 draft pick between 1987 and 2017.
When they did finally get a high draft pick, #1 pick Rasmus Dahlen in 2018, they improved immediately. He’s a defenseman, though, so they didn’t improve much and were last place again in 2020-2021. They won another #1 draft pick and chose another defenseman, Owen Power. Which makes sense, given Buffalo’s preference for being a defensive team.
Dahlen and Power were both 18 when they were drafted, so I imagine it takes some time to grow into roles on the team.
Fast forward to 2026: Power and Dahlen are still on the team, and Dahlen is the captain. So they actually built a long-term team around two really good players.
This happened recently with the Edmonton Oilers too, where they were terrible for years, finally got several high draft picks, and actually kept and built the players they drafted. The Oilers drafted Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (#1 in 2011), Leon Draisaitl (#3 in 2014), and Connor McDavid (#1 in 2015). They’ve kept all three players and went to the Stanley Cup finals the past two years.
That’s really interesting thanks
You’re welcome! I think this kind of pattern-matching is especially interesting.
For an older example of a similar pattern, both the Washington Capitals and the Pittsburgh Penguins come to mind. The Penguins were terrible in the late 90s and early 2000s, to the point where they owed their best-ever player Mario Lemieux so much money that he literally just took over the team instead.
The Penguins selected Evgeni Malkin as the #2 pick in 2004; right behind Alex Ovechkin, who was the #1 pick for the Washington Capitals. In 2005, the Penguins selected Sidney Crosby as the #1 pick.
Malkin and Crosby won three Stanley Cups together but it took a few years to jell as a team.
Similarly, it took several years to get a team around Alex Ovechkin that could win a cup.
It’s actually been really interesting to see the previously-mentioned Oilers see success, with their three top-three picks!
Crikey I didn’t know that! So that’s Crosby’s origin story
I actually forgot that the Penguins drafted their goalie Marc-Andre Fleury as their #1 pick in 2003 too! He was instrumental to their four final appearances (they won three).
So the Penguins picked Fleury as #1 in 2003, Malkin as #2 in 2004, and Crosby as #1 in 2005.
I also forgot that the Blackhawks had success in a similar way! Jonathan Toews was #3 in 2006 and Patrick Kane was #1 in 2007. They won three cups in 2010, 2013, and 2015 after decades of not winning.
If my Avs fuck this up, I’m going to become a leafs fan.
Edit: I only say that because my first choice was killing myself, but I didn’t think that was bad enough.
Hey, I’m a leafs fan. I’ll tell you what though, I’ve come to the conclusion it’s good for the ticker. That things a rusty old bucket of regret at this point, but I’ve got a saying, “Just once before I die.” It’s what’s keeping me going at the ripe old age of 45: the perpetual hope that it’ll happen once before I die. I’m going to live to be 200 at the time of my medically assisted suicide from boredom!
Haha that’s a great outlook.
Settle down, you’ve had 3 cups since 95
But I want MORE!
I’m jealous of you being an Avs fan. I’m kings and it’s often depressing
The Caps probably aren’t making the playoffs.
This is more of a stated fact than a prediction, though.
I don’t think they’re as bad as the record indicates, I think the east is just stacked as hell this year. The 85 points they have now would be good for third in the Pacific.
All I know is the 1st round is going to be amazing, especially in the East, every team is in with a shot. Getting out of the Central will be a grind, whoever gets through it is going to be beat up which is why I’m not picking any of them to win.
