THN.com Roundtable: Which team or player has had the most surprising season?
As the NHL regular season winds down, we like to reflect on what has
happened since October. Teams and pundits go into each season with
certain expectations and each season comes with surprises, both good and
bad.
So this week, we’re looking at the biggest surprises from the regular season. No surprise, there’s more bad than good.
PHIL KESSEL
I was all in on Phil Kessel enjoying his first 40-goal season. A
player still in his prime (a) leaves what, for him, was a hellish media
crush in Toronto to join Pittsburgh, a team where he’d be the third-most
famous person at best; and (b) is guaranteed to play with a future Hall
of Fame superstar center still in his prime, be it Sidney Crosby or
Evgeni Malkin. And yet, the goals haven’t piled up for Phil the Thrill.
The uninspired Kessel we saw last season somehow crept onto the flight
to Pittsburgh and returned for this season – with even worse numbers.
The problem to me is Kessel’s lack of versatility. He has that
tremendous wrist shot he likes to snap on the short side, but he can’t
do a whole lot else. Kessel one-timer goals or slap-shot goals are
rarities. I have to give credit to the pundits who predicted Kessel
wasn’t a natural fit with Crosby or Malkin because Kessel likes to carry
the puck more than most snipers. I figured it wouldn’t matter – come
on, it’s Crosby and Malkin! – but I was wrong, evidently.
WINNIPEG JETS
Just because the Jets made the post-season in 2014-15 didn’t mean
they were expected to get back to the playoffs this time around. The
belief, however, was Winnipeg would at least be competitive and push for
a wild-card spot in the Western Conference. Instead, the Jets were
sellers at the deadline, sit a handful of points away from last in the
league and have a serious shot at landing the top pick in the draft. One
major sore spot for Winnipeg this season has been the penalty kill, and
it’s a large part of what has put them in the basement. Last season the
Jets’ aggressive style didn’t cost them too often. Winnipeg led the
league in times shorthanded, killing 308 penalties in 2014-15, but
boasted the league’s 13th best kill at 81.8 percent. That percentage has
dipped to 78.5 percent this season, 25th in the league, but their
proclivity for penalties hasn’t. The Jets are second in the league in
times shorthanded at 265.
And while Winnipeg has good possession numbers, their offensive
output has been lacking and the goaltending has been shaky. Coach Paul
Maurice’s club is due some good fortune if they maintain a favorable
possession rate in 2016-17, but issues in goal and the Jets’ habit of
playing down a man need to change to turn this ship around.
DALLAS STARS
Dallas deserves a lot of credit for putting it all together this
year. Coming into the campaign, it was easy to peg the Stars as a pretty
good team thanks to their offense, but there were certainly questions
about the new goalie rotation and how they would fare overall in a
bloody Central Division. As it turns out, they’re doing just fine, thank
you. Dallas is second only to Los Angeles in possession numbers, making
them a legit Cup contender, at least on paper. The Stars are first in
the Central right now and recently smoked Chicago – again.
Sure, they’ve given up a lot of goals, but no team in the NHL has
scored more than the Stars. No matter what happens in the playoffs (and
yeah, that Tyler Seguin injury did not happen at a good time), Dallas
has proven to be one of the season’s better surprises.
CALGARY FLAMES
While I admire and respect the work hockey’s number crunchers are
doing, I’m not a part of the analytics community. In fact, I’m pretty
sure they have a restraining order against me. Which is why their
pre-season warnings went unheeded. Now, I’m not saying I thought the
Flames would win the Stanley Cup or anything. I’m not even saying I
thought they would do as well this season as they did in 2014-15. But,
geez Louise, they went into Thursday night’s game against the Minnesota
Wild on pace for just 76 points this season. When everyone was saying
what the Flames were doing was “unsustainable” I was on board with that.
So a couple of those dramatic late-game comebacks turn into losses and
they finish with 90 points, still probably good enough for a playoff
spot. But 20 fewer points? Didn’t see that coming. The way I figured,
their possession numbers were bad, but they also had a bunch of good
young players who would step up a notch in that category and continue to
win on youthful enthusiasm. If they could play that way for one season
and be successful, what’s wrong with thinking they could have done it
for two? I didn’t listen to my math teachers in high school, which is
why I still think cosine is something you do to help someone get a loan.
I didn’t listen to the pointyheads this time, either. But like my math
teachers, they were right.
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