Monday, March 19, 2007

West Is Best?

1) Despite having won the past 3 Stanley Cups the Eastern Conference appears to be on a down year. We admit its difficult to compare each conference especially with the unbalanced schedule, but having watched all the teams perform for nearly 90% of the season its now clear where the majority of quality teams reside.
2) While the West playoff picture cleared up quickly following the All Star break, the eastern picture remains murky, even at this late date. Some may see this as depth of quality, but having seen these teams struggle all year with consistency we see it as depth of mediocrity. The bottom 3-4 teams in the East playoff picture would probably struggle to even make the playoffs in the West. We feel only the Devils, Sabres, Penguins and Senators would be playoff teams out west, and of those only the Sabres would be a top 4 team!
3) Another possible indicator of Western strength is the amazing advantage the West has in regard to head to head match ups this season with their Eastern counterparts. Again this can't be used as conclusive evidence with an unbalanced schedule where each team does NOT play each other, but the degree of disparity can't be ignored
4) Will all this mean that the Cup will finally move west of the Mississippi for the first time since the Stars won in 1999? Not quite. With the way the playoffs are structured the East has to win but one 7 game series(The Finals) against the West to retain their stranglehold of championships. Many have used the excuse of increased travel that gives the East a slight edge come late May/June when the Finals occur. True or not, the Finals are probably not the best measure of which conference is best, but ultimately/ironically is all that matters in the end

10 comments:

VLAD THE IMPALER said...

Faux, long time reader, first time responder here.
Would you say that the west has more crappy teams because they have more quality teams at the top, or are the records of those teams better because they have more of those teams to beat up?

FAUX RUMORS said...

1) Yes, Jmol those games you alluded to were one of the reasons we wrote this post.
2) games like those have been going on much of the season in the east. making it difficult to determine who really was good
3) Welcome aboard Vlad. (Cool name) We guess its a little of both. There are a few more 'bad' teams out west, but certainly there are more quality teams as well, who regularly beat up on those bottom feeders

VLAD THE IMPALER said...

I guess I expected that answer. Its just hard to imagine that Detroit and nashville would have that many points if they weren't playing Chicago, St.Louis and Columbus 8 times each

FAUXRUMORS 2 said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
FAUX RUMORS said...

1) Once again we ask those who wish to respond to our blog to refrain from using profanity and/or making threats like the post removed above
2) Will have ZERO tolerance for such content now and in the future. And you 'nutzy 'people know who we're talking about!

FAUX RUMORS said...

1) Oh we agree Vlad, that Detroit and Nashville's point total ARE inflated to some degree, but their recoreds against the rest of the West isn't too shabby either
2) Put lets say the Bruins in the Central and they would have similar records to those 3 mnetioned 'poor teams'

Antzmarching said...

Ya know, for quite some time, I have asserted that many of these Eastern teams were simply "tight" and feeling the pressure of the playoff race... However, I recently adopted a new theory/hypothesis based on yesterday's Caps-Lightning game... This is that, most of the teams in the Eastern Conference just are not very good... With the exception of Buffalo, NJ, Pittsburgh (goaltending aside), and MAYBE Ottawa, the remaining teams suck... Let's face it, the Rangers, with their plethora of injuries and pathetic defensemen, are probably going to get that elusive 8th spot... That's a joke... Montreal, Toronto, and the Islanders should be ashamed of themselves...

Antzmarching said...

It's wonderful that DRACULA has now reared his ugly fangs on FAUX... LOL

FAUX RUMORS said...

1) We wouldn't say those 3 teams should be ashamed of themselves, rather they are playing up to preseason expectations
2) Many of us simply didn't expect the Isles or Toronto to be all that good.
3) The surprise to us has been how bad Carolina has played. As our saturday post discussed, will the win against the Devils turn them around, finally?

Antzmarching said...

I disagree with your anti-ashamed analysis... The Rangers have gone from 12th to one point out of 6th in ONE week... They got a lot of help from pathetic teams... Yes, preseason expectations were surpassed, but that doesn't excuse the apethetic play of some of late... The Pens were embarrassing tonight... Yes, ASHAMED is the word I stick with...

 
Contact the Media