San Jose, Detroit, Chicago — I think those three will be great but maybe not as great in the case of the first two.

Vancouver, Calgary, St Louis, Columbus — should expect to fight it out for the 4-7 seeds, more or less. Vancouver can always suck for a chunk of time and make it interesting, but they won’t totally crap out.

That leaves, basically, one playoff spot for the rest to fight over.

Anaheim, Minnesota, Nashville, Edmonton, Dallas, Phoenix, Los Angeles, Colorado. I think the Kings will finish ahead of COL, PHX, DAL and EDM. The other three, it’s a crap shoot.

However, I think the Kings feel they should be able to compete with the Vancouver, Calgary, St Louis, Columbus “group” and I think it’s reasonable to expect at least one of those four teams will struggle enough to make it interesting.

Frankly, I think it would be insane for any team to be confident in their playoff status, unless you’re Detroit. The others, even San Jose and Chicago…it’s not a lock for them.

I think of it in terms of the housecleaning threshold. How low does a given team have to finish in order for there to be a housecleaning? For the Kings, I think it’s anything lower than 10th this year. For teams who “expect” to make the playoffs, the threshold in higher. What if San Jose finishes 7th? 6th? I think that would be it for that regime.

1) SJ or ANA
2) CHI or DET
3) CGY
4) DET or CHI
5) ANA or SJ
6) VAN
7) COLU or NASH / STL
8) NASH or COLU / STL

STL is the dark horse to maybe displace Columbus, but I think NSHV makes it. If any other team upsets this model and makes the playoffs it would have to displace the teams in 7 or 8 and likely be EDMN or DAL.

Pretty close to Quisp, but I put ANA higher and STL lower.

since it depends on story-lines that haven’t emerged yet. Anaheim is an example of a team I have no clue about. I enjoy hating them, so I like to think they could drop out of the playoffs. I certainly had fun last season when they were basically neck-and-neck with the Kings before the wheels fell off. St Louis, without so many injuries, how could they not be better? Maybe the Andy Murray injury plague, I don’t know. San Jose — I really just don’t know what this team is, who they are, etc., and I think they have to make a few moves in the next month, so my opinion will either be more solidified then or even more confused. They could suck. It’s something to hope for.

I just want it to be interesting right down to the wire. And it seems likely, since most teams seem to be trending toward the middle.

ang6666 -

Yes, you’re right. If they finish 8th and then go to the finals, all will be forgiven. If they finish 6-8 and go out in the first round, not so much.

Phoenix doesn’t seem to have really done anything of value this off-season. Am I wrong? I thought they were going to be good last year and they weren’t, and they’re basically no different this year as far as I know.

But I vote D) None of the above

This should have been an option. Of the above three teams LA has the best, (long) shot IMO.