worst team

[Untilted 158]

We all have opinions on who is the best team going into this NHL season. How about talking about who we think is the worst. As far as i can see, it is the Washington Capitals? If it were not for Weekes and Jagr, the Rangers could give them a run for their money.

[TheZodiac 0]

Although I am a die hard Leafs fan, Fergie Jr is an idiot, I think the Leafs will be pretty bad but not the worst.1. Buffalo2. Carolina3. Washington

[Fubar The Sperm 1]

Although I am a die hard Leafs fan,  Fergie Jr is an idiot, I think the Leafs will be pretty bad but not the worst.1. Buffalo2. Carolina3. Washington

Your wrong. Buffalo is a lot better then you think.

[Squamch 0]

My instinct is Buffalo, cuz they were bad before, and I think they're worse now. If Briere or Drury go down with an injury, they'll finish bottom 5 for sure. If Ryan Miller plays like all the scouts say he can, combined with an emergence of Tim Conolly, they might get close to the playoffs. But as of now, I don't think they stand a chance. If not for Khabibulin, I'd say Chicago, but with him they might even make the playoffs. But they depend on a lot of youth, and have the building blocks of a pretty good team. If they make a couple of more additions, they don't look so bad.The Caps are in shambles. They have two very good forwards - Cassels and Ovechkin. The problem is, Cassels was very good 5 years ago. Ovechkin will be GREAT 5 years from now. On D, Eminger might be something special too, but that's thinking way ahead. Now, this might sound crazy, but Carolina could surprise a LOT of people. They have the seeds of a very strong hockey club, built by gathering discarded prospects. Two came from Philly. Justin Williams and Pavel Brendl. Yeah, everyone's given up on Brendl. But he's 24. Eric Cole's a good player with a lot of grit. They signed Cory Stillman who's getting better with age. They brought in Ray Whitney too, who thrives in situations where he's counted on for offence. In the middle, Brind'Amour can still play. Vasicek is getting better, and Eric Staal looks like a franchise player. Give this team a goalie and they could probably make the playoffs, even with their terrible defense.It's a toss up for me between Buffalo and Washington. In the end I go with Washington, cuz at least in Buffalo, they have a couple of guys who could potentially break out this year. In Washington, I think Ovechkin will be great (my pick for the Calder trophy), but no one else will.

[allinbluff35 0]

minnesota wild

[digitalmonkey 929]

Washington is a lock for last place!

[ajs510 122]

My instinct is Buffalo, cuz they were bad before, and I think they're worse now.  If Briere or Drury go down with an injury, they'll finish bottom 5 for sure.  If Ryan Miller plays like all the scouts say he can, combined with an emergence of Tim Conolly, they might get close to the playoffs.  But as of now, I don't think they stand a chance.  

Um...yeah, Buffalo finished 3 games over .500 last season and had more points than the following teams:NY RangersPittsburgh AtlantaCarolinaFlorida WashingtonColumbusChicagoMinnesotaLA KingsAnaheimPhoenixThey were 6 points out of a playoff spot last season, have only lost two players that anyone would consider significant (compare that to a lot of other teams) got some much needed help at Defense and still have their core of young talent plus a trio of AHL stars ready to move up from Rochester (Vanek, Roy, Miller). Your point about Briere or Drury going down with an injury tells me you don't know the Sabres very well, their whole system is built around not becoming too dependant on one player carrying the teams fortunes. Think of the Sabres as a junior version of the late-90's Avalanche, you couldn't shut down one weapon because they had 5 more waiting in the wings. To put things into a bit more perspective, the Avs and Sabres had the same number of players score 15 goals or more last season, 7. The big, gaping, obvious difference there is that the Avs had 20 something fewer goals scored against them, which led to the 7 extra wins that got them into the playoffs. The strides Buffalo has taken on Defense, by adding Numminen and Lydman and cutting loose the leaky sieve that was Alexei Zhitnik, the Sabres will be prime for making a run this year. Everyone picking Washington to be the worst team in the league this year has it 100% correct. Buffalo has a solid chance at the Northeast division this year, and I'm guaranteeing them a playoff spot here and now.

[kennyg1966 0]

heatley is gone...they are cooked

[digitalmonkey 929]

heatley is gone...they are cooked

Huh?!???!!!! :shock:

[Squamch 0]

Almost every team on that list below Buffalo got better. Buffalo didn't.

[ajs510 122]

Almost every team on that list below Buffalo got better. Buffalo didn't.

NY Rangers - Lost Bure, Lindros, Dunham, Holik, Kovalev, Barnaby, Leetch, Anson Carter, and Jussi Markannen from their 2003-2004 opening day roster. They still don't have a starting-caliber goaltender (Weekes isn't cutting it) and have only added Martin Straka, Martin Rucinsky and Marek Malik to stop the bleeding. Got Better? I think not.Pittsburgh - Yes, everyone and their mother knows that Pittsburgh is a much better team this year.Atlanta - Lost Dany Heatley, Shawn McEachern, Pasi Nurminen, Byron Dafoe, and are about to lose Slava Kozlov from their 2003-04 roster. Added Marian Hossa, Greg de Vries, and Bobby Holik. They don't have a proven goaltender on the payroll and they still have 5/6 of a defensive core that was shelled for 229 goals last season. Better? Not that much, if at all.Carolina - Lost Jeff O'Neill, Ron Francis, Kevin Weekes, Danny Markov, and Sean Hill from their 2003-04 roster. Added Cory Stillman (good pickup, wish the Sabres had gone for him) Ray Whitney (solid if he returns to form) and Oleg Tverdovsky (-10 for his career, should have stayed in Anaheim or Russia). No starting goaltender at the moment, Martin Gerber was Giguere's backup in Anaheim, lost 17 of 47 starts for his career. Better? Not remotely. Florida - By all appearances have added more weapons than they lost, will probably make the playoffs this season on the strength of Joe Nieuwendyk and Gary Roberts. Their future rests on the shoulders of an unhappy goaltender, unfortunately. Need some production out of their offense which only had one scorer over 50 points last season (Jokinen, who is unsigned so far). Better? Yes, remains to be seen if they did enough. Washington - One of the worst teams in hockey last season and they actually managed to get worse. Lost Robert Lang, Sergei Gonchar, and Jaromir Jagr (all mid-season trades). Added Andrew Cassells (Old, slow, done) and that's about it. Like I said, they got worse and are in for a long year.I don't care enough about the Western Conference teams to do analysis of their off season, but only Phoenix got remarkably better. Anaheim and Chicago made little strides (Niedermeyer and Khabibulin can't carry the entire team by themselves, but they're a step in the right direction. Columbus, Minnesota and LA may as well have hung a sign out that said FIRE SALE!...Buffalo's offseason moves - Decided to cut loose Alexei "Human Sieve" Zhitnik and Miro Satan, saving an eventual $7.5 million in salary. Added Teppo Numinen and Toni Lyndon to shore up the defensive core, retained the best goaltending trio in the league (Biron, Noronen, Miller) any one of which could contend for a starting job in Atlanta or NY. Did they get better? Not really. Did they get worse? No. Compare the Sabres shake-up to all the other teams in the league who took huge strides forward or backward (potentially gambling with team chemistry in the process, can you think of any other teams that have 22 guys returning to a club that was over .500 to begin with? We're in fine shape, thanks for playing. We Western NY'ers appreciate the concern.

[Fubar The Sperm 1]

zing!

[WestcoastCanuck 0]

Ha, when I first saw the shot against Buffalo I knew AJ would have a good response. I was right.If Washington doesn't finish in last place then some team is going to have to really under achieve.

[HatTrick 0]

If Washington doesn't finish in last place then some team is going to have to really under achieve.

That is a great quote. If only it weren't so true....

[DanielNegreanu 141]

I think Washington is the clear favorite and they know it. They have no plans of hitting the FA market this year since they couldn't win the vup anyway. Look for the Caps to finally look within for answers, by developing some of their promising young talent. I have high hopes for Alexander Semin as I drafted him in the first round of my junior draft a couple years ago. He'll get lots of time, but man his line is going to be pretty weak.

[jack24bauer24 0]

My instinct is Buffalo, cuz they were bad before, and I think they're worse now.  If Briere or Drury go down with an injury, they'll finish bottom 5 for sure.  If Ryan Miller plays like all the scouts say he can, combined with an emergence of Tim Conolly, they might get close to the playoffs.  But as of now, I don't think they stand a chance.  

Um...yeah, Buffalo finished 3 games over .500 last season and had more points than the following teams:NY RangersPittsburgh AtlantaCarolinaFlorida WashingtonColumbusChicagoMinnesotaLA KingsAnaheimPhoenixThey were 6 points out of a playoff spot last season, have only lost two players that anyone would consider significant (compare that to a lot of other teams) got some much needed help at Defense and still have their core of young talent plus a trio of AHL stars ready to move up from Rochester (Vanek, Roy, Miller). Your point about Briere or Drury going down with an injury tells me you don't know the Sabres very well, their whole system is built around not becoming too dependant on one player carrying the teams fortunes. Think of the Sabres as a junior version of the late-90's Avalanche, you couldn't shut down one weapon because they had 5 more waiting in the wings. To put things into a bit more perspective, the Avs and Sabres had the same number of players score 15 goals or more last season, 7. The big, gaping, obvious difference there is that the Avs had 20 something fewer goals scored against them, which led to the 7 extra wins that got them into the playoffs. The strides Buffalo has taken on Defense, by adding Numminen and Lydman and cutting loose the leaky sieve that was Alexei Zhitnik, the Sabres will be prime for making a run this year. Everyone picking Washington to be the worst team in the league this year has it 100% correct. Buffalo has a solid chance at the Northeast division this year, and I'm guaranteeing them a playoff spot here and now.

You're delusional. I'd be surprised if the Sabres didn't finish exactly where they finished last year....dead last in their division. Boston and Ottawa will battle it out for first in the division...the Leafs likely will be third (people talking about how horrible they are now are misguided, unless Belfour gets hurt or is just flat out old), with the Habs and Sabres gunning for fourth.

[wellsie316 0]

I've been out of the hockey loop for about a year since last season was cancelled so I was wondering what the expectations are for Ovechkin this year? I know the Caps are gonna be pretty bad this year, but is he gonna have a really good year and at least give us soem hope? Also anyone know how he compares to the player picked #1 this year (cant remember his name)? Gosh i really need to get back into hockey!

[WestcoastCanuck 0]

I've been out of the hockey loop for about a year since last season was cancelled so I was wondering what the expectations are for Ovechkin this year? I know the Caps are gonna be pretty bad this year, but is he gonna have a really good year and at least give us soem hope? Also anyone know how he compares to the player picked #1 this year (cant remember his name)? Gosh i really need to get back into hockey!

He is definatly talented, but he will have no one around him. Jagr couldn't help the Caps win when he had some support, Ovechkin is no Jagr (yet?).

[ajs510 122]

I've been out of the hockey loop for about a year since last season was cancelled so I was wondering what the expectations are for Ovechkin this year? I know the Caps are gonna be pretty bad this year, but is he gonna have a really good year and at least give us soem hope? Also anyone know how he compares to the player picked #1 this year (cant remember his name)? Gosh i really need to get back into hockey!

He is definatly talented, but he will have no one around him. Jagr couldn't help the Caps win when he had some support, Ovechkin is no Jagr (yet?).

Popular opinion has Peter Bondra signing a deal with the Caps on Friday to close out his career there. He's still a good player, although nothing like the sniper threat he was in the late 90's. Even if he does come back, they're still in a lot of trouble.

[dEv~ 19]

Whelp I plan on following the Pens to Buffalo on Dec 17th and to Washington on Feb 11th so I guess we'll see the truth by then. I don't see how anyone can argue that Washington isn't gonna finish in the basement this year. They were bad and they certainly didn't get any better.

[ajs510 122]

Whelp I plan on following the Pens to Buffalo on Dec 17th and to Washington on Feb 11th so I guess we'll see the truth by then. I don't see how anyone can argue that Washington isn't gonna finish in the basement this year. They were bad and they certainly didn't get any better.

The only way they can pick themselves up is if Ovechkin is the second coming of Lemieux and Kolzig remembers how to play like he did when they made the finals. Unless something extremely drastic happens between now and opening night (which is unlikely, since there's barely any top-shelf FA's left and Washington has nothing of substance to trade.

[aadams_22 3]

I'd have to go with Washington.

[digitalmonkey 929]

Sorry aj, but I think Buffalo did get worse by losing Zhitnik and Satan. They need the young players such as Afinogenov to break out and even die-hard Sabre fans like yourself don't seem too confident in that happening. :wink: They still won't finish last though!

[ajs510 122]

Sorry aj, but I think Buffalo did get worse by losing Zhitnik and Satan. They need the young players such as Afinogenov to break out and even die-hard Sabre fans like yourself don't seem too confident in that happening. :wink: They still won't finish last though!

I'll agree that losing Satan was a blow to the offense, but losing Zhitnik will greatly improve the defense. Numminen and Lyndon are just a bonus to the big gaping hole that will be filled by having anyone other than the Human Sieve on the blueline. I watched at least 60 Sabres games last season, and Zhitnik was constantly out of position trying to make an offensive play that would invariably blow up in his face leading to an opponents goal. The guy wanted to be one of the highest paid defensemen in the league, despite the fact that he's only had two + seasons in his career, and is -50 overall. I won't miss him in the least, can't wait to play the Isles so the Sabres can get a little payback. Satan is a good player, and I'll miss his production. I won't miss his attitude, and I look forward to seeing what the Sabres will do with the $$$ he thought he deserved (and received from the Isles). There's no math anyone can show me that will make me believe Miro Satan was worth $4 million per year and Zhitnik was worth $3.5 million. The money could be spent in better ways and the Sabres knew it. I support the moves.

[Slovak39 0]

This is a no brainer, its washington. looking for the no 1 pick next. DN, i think you mae a mistake in draftin Semin. He really really struggled adjusting to North American his rookie year..i'm skeptical of him. My vote for biggest for from grace...St. Louis..yes St. Louis, the playoff streak ends this yead ..mark my words.