Pensblog Predictions Revisited

The doldrums of the summer are upon us and with the Awards Show happening and finally wrapping up the 2018-19 season, it seems a fine time to revisit our preseason predictions from October.

Things went about as well as you’d expect.

Division Champions & President’s Trophy

Results:

Our picks (correct in yellow):

These were probably the most easily predictable this year unless your name is Pat.  Easy money to bet on Tampa and Washington.  Only a point separated Nashville and Winnipeg in the Central, but the real shocker was the Pacific.  Nearly all of us expected San Jose to be this unstoppable force with the acquisition of Erik Karlsson, but no one figured for him getting injured, Martin Jones’ collapse, or Calgary setting the absolute world on fire.

Same can be said for the President’s Trophy, which Tampa locked up roughly in November.

Playoffs, Cup Champion, and Conn Smythe Winner

Results:

Our picks (correct in yellow):

Well, we all fucked up.

Columbus and the Islanders wrecked our whole ass Eastern Conference lives after a combined 8 games played, while Tony held on only to be disappointed by Boston in 7.

Neither Nashville nor Winnipeg made it out of the first round, both losing in 6 to Dallas (Wild Card) and St. Louis (#3 Central seed) respectively.

That left me, Rez, Peep, Tony, Traegs and Cass as the last ones standing, only to see injuries and St. Louis sit us right back down in 6 games in the Western Conference Final.

Regular Season Awards

Results:

Our picks (correct in yellow):

Only Josh out here picking Kucherov to win the Hart, while everyone else with the McDavid pick found him finishing 3rd in final voting behind Crosby, while Rez and Rad were the only ones to pick both point-based awards in Kuch and Ovi.

😆 pic.twitter.com/TQytOyXIxt

— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) June 20, 2019

Marcus Pettersson’s two 5th place votes got him a top 10 finish in Calder voting, so that’s something.  Vasilevskiy was the runaway Vezina winner, the first in Bolts history, taking 28 first place votes and just 2 2nds.  Not a whole lot of success for us in the Norris (Giordano), Selke (O’Reilly), Jack Adams (Trotz), Lindsay (Kucherov), and GM of the Year (Sweeney, who won by taking a shitload of 2nd and 3rd place votes).

I guess Rez nailed the Lady Byng, while Crosby finished 4th in Selke voting, falling 73 points short of drawing level with 3rd place Bergeron.

Voting breakdowns can be found here.

Hot, Cold, Bold, and Miscellaneous Taeks

Dan Sprong will score 60+ points. – Tony

He did not.  He did, however, register 4 points in 16 games with the Penguins before getting shipped off to Anaheim, where he put up 19 points in 47 games.  That brings his career total to 18 goals, 10 assists and 28 points in 89 games.

Jusso Riikola finishes the season in Pittsburgh. – Leah

He also did not, but did sign a 1 year, one-way deal on May 30th.  So chances are he finishes 2019-20 in Pittsburgh.

One of the DKs will delete their twitter account. – Traegs

They did not.

1. Arizona makes the playoffs.  2. Justin Schultz leads the defense in points. – Peep

1. They did not, though they did go on a run towards the end of the season, but missed out by 4 points.  2. He did not and was actually pretty lousy after coming back from his broken leg.

Letang will be a Norris finalist. – Adrian

He wasn’t, but he had a season where he certainly could’ve been.  He ended up finishing 6th in Norris voting and 6th in end-of-season All Star voting among defenseman.  That Norris finish is the 6th top 10 finish of his career.

Toronto will learn the hard way that they didn’t do anything to fix their defense by way of owning the smallest goal differential of all playoff teams. – Rad

Their defense is still bad and their coach is still a problem.  The acquisition of Muzzin helped, but the possible departure of Gardiner this summer won’t be great for next season.  Still, their +35 goal difference ranked 4th of the 16 playoff teams.  The smallest?  The +8 coming out of Dallas.

1. San Jose doesn’t make it out of the first round. 2. Torts healthy scratches Panarin at some point.  Panarin demands a trade.  Torts gets fired, but Panarin gets traded anyway. – Josh

1. Close, but no cigar.  San Jose needed the help of a major penalty and a Marc-Andre Fleury collapse to erase a 3-1 series deficit and a 3-0 Game 7 lead in the first round to eventually lose in the WCF to St. Louis.  2. Torts did not healthy scratch Panarin or get fired, but Panarin’s probably already gone anyway.  Torts may not be far behind next year.

1. Quennville is fired midseason by Chicago.  2. Toronto wins the Atlantic, but doesn’t make it out of the first round. – Pat

1. Actually yes.  2. The Leafs didn’t win the Atlantic, but did get bounced in the first round.  Half a point for the halfman.

Matt Murray will be a Vezina finalist. – Me

He didn’t, but even in the face of a rough start to the season, he still finished in the top ten in total save percentage (.919) among goalies that played 25+ games and posted the 6th best 5v5 SV% (.934) among goalies that played 1000+ minutes.  May not have gotten him Vezina consideration (this year), but if he has a full season like he played after he came back from injury this year, look out.

I write a hockey article. – Cass

Dominating law school > hockey articles anyway.

Fuck the Mark Messier award. – Rez

I mean, yeah. +1

This season was weirder than hell.  How did you do with your preseason picks?  Sound off below.