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Greg Wyshynski, ESPNJan 12, 2024, 07:05 AM ET
CloseGreg Wyshynski is ESPN’s senior NHL writer.
The NHL’s 2023-24 regular season is nearing its midway point, offering as many surprises off the ice as in the standings.
(Seriously: If the league wants the regular season to be a series of highlight-reel goals and serial drama among players and teams, followed by the single greatest postseason tournament in organized sports, hockey will be doing pretty good for itself.)
There will be more surprises in the backstretch of the season, and we’ll try to predict some of them with another batch of bold predictions in the second half for all 32 teams. Enjoy!
ATLANTIC DIVISION
Prediction: Bruins lose in the first round — again
Editor’s Picks
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Enough can’t be said about the job coach Jim Montgomery has done with this Bruins team, building up fractured psyches and relying on the bedrock of its goaltending to contend for the President’s Trophy again.
But under the hood, some of Boston’s numbers are very un-Bruins-like, from puck possession to expected goals percentage to percentage of scoring chances at 5-on-5. It’s enough to have me worried about a first-round series against another underdog wild-card team like Florida was last season — or a first-round matchup against a Toronto team that finally exorcized its first-round demon last season and would love to do the same with their Boston phobia in the playoffs.
Prediction: Assistant coaches pay, not Don Granato
Despite the Sabres potentially finishing outside the playoffs for a 13th consecutive season — and likely declining in points percentage year over year — indications around the team are that coach Don Granato is expected to get another kick at the can in 2024-25. But when a maligned coach is kept around, and dramatically reshaping the roster isn’t really an option, the most time-tested move is to fire the assistants.
One imagines they’ll be replaced by someone with previous NHL head coaching experience — and perhaps with…
Source link : https://www.espn.com/nhl/insider/story/_/id/39286765/nhl-predictions-trades-stats-standings-playoffs-2023-2024
Author : Greg Wyshynski
Publish date : 2024-01-12 11:34:34
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