Preseason Translation
Posted 11:27 AM ET | Comments 2
With the struggles of the Calgary Flames during their first three preseason games, I wondered if this was a sign of things to come as opponents would say, or simply false results caused by a lack of a full veteran roster, as many Flames fans would like to believe.
Do preseason results translate to regular season success? In th 2006-'07 season, the Eastern Conference preseason leaders were (based on winning pct), with their regular season finish in brackets:
Buffalo (1)
NY Rangers (6)
NY Islanders (8)
Washington (14)
Tampa Bay (7)
Boston (13)
Ottawa (4)
Pittsburgh (5)
Toronto (9)
New Jersey (2)
Atlanta (3)
Montreal (10)
Florida (12)
Philadelphia (15)
Carolina (11)
Western Conference:
Chicago (13)
Colorado (9)
Detroit (1)
Edmonton (12)
San Jose (5)
Nashville (4)
Los Angeles (14)
Columbus (11)
Anaheim (2)
Minnesota (7)
Calgary (8)
Dallas (6)
Phoenix (15)
Vancouver (3)
St. Louis (10)
Clearly, there were teams that came out of the gate slowly, i.e. Vancouver, and teams that exceeded expectations in last year's preseason, who played a different tune during the season. Obviously these aren't strong enough to hold up any predictions for this upcoming season, and realistically, you can't really draw even the most basic of conclusions. But by doing this I can turn a blind eye a little longer and continue to re-assure myself that this is only preseason. It's okay. It'll get better.
But who thought at the beginning of the season that Philadelphia would perform as badly as they did? What Flyers fan said that it was just pre-season and things would turn around come the drop of the puck for the real season? And in the back of my mind, I wonder if the Flames are still missing something.
Do preseason results translate to regular season success? In th 2006-'07 season, the Eastern Conference preseason leaders were (based on winning pct), with their regular season finish in brackets:
Buffalo (1)
NY Rangers (6)
NY Islanders (8)
Washington (14)
Tampa Bay (7)
Boston (13)
Ottawa (4)
Pittsburgh (5)
Toronto (9)
New Jersey (2)
Atlanta (3)
Montreal (10)
Florida (12)
Philadelphia (15)
Carolina (11)
Western Conference:
Chicago (13)
Colorado (9)
Detroit (1)
Edmonton (12)
San Jose (5)
Nashville (4)
Los Angeles (14)
Columbus (11)
Anaheim (2)
Minnesota (7)
Calgary (8)
Dallas (6)
Phoenix (15)
Vancouver (3)
St. Louis (10)
Clearly, there were teams that came out of the gate slowly, i.e. Vancouver, and teams that exceeded expectations in last year's preseason, who played a different tune during the season. Obviously these aren't strong enough to hold up any predictions for this upcoming season, and realistically, you can't really draw even the most basic of conclusions. But by doing this I can turn a blind eye a little longer and continue to re-assure myself that this is only preseason. It's okay. It'll get better.
But who thought at the beginning of the season that Philadelphia would perform as badly as they did? What Flyers fan said that it was just pre-season and things would turn around come the drop of the puck for the real season? And in the back of my mind, I wonder if the Flames are still missing something.
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05 Prospect Camp, HN Article and Jerseys
11 Fantasy First Round Selection - Your Call
13 The Defense % of the Top 10 Goal Scoring Teams
13 Fantasy Rankings
21 Preseason Translation
25 Kiprusoff and Next Year
11 Fantasy First Round Selection - Your Call
13 The Defense % of the Top 10 Goal Scoring Teams
13 Fantasy Rankings
21 Preseason Translation
25 Kiprusoff and Next Year
05 Coaching Decision
10 Tonight at the Joe
11 Slow Start and Kiprusoff
19 Something to grab on to
30 Kiprusoff and the too long contract
10 Tonight at the Joe
11 Slow Start and Kiprusoff
19 Something to grab on to
30 Kiprusoff and the too long contract
05 To the Point
Your analysis proves that the preseason is a chance for MOST teams to play the prospects in orer to find those 1, 2, 3 players that can actually play at the NHL level and make the team. I am not going to take the time, but I would suspect that most teams put their NHL roster in for the last 2 to 3 preseason games and the record in those games has a better correlation to regular season standings. Nice blog.
The Flames have a decent amount of new faces, a new coach and slow start. Sounds an awful lot like Vancouver last year and look how well they did. Though I hope the Flames obviously fail at every possible level, there's still plenty of hope if you ask me.