confirmed: NJD Acquire Nikita Gusev from VGK for 2021 2nd-Round Pick, 2020 3rd-Round Pick

agree to disagree. but you're wrong

Who would you pick in a series, the 16-17 Preds, or the 17-18 Devils?

It's average. Depending on the quality of competition, average can be bad. Average can be good. That year, the league as a whole was down, so the middle of the pack was bad, particularly in the East.

 

Good/Bad has context outside of a single season. I mean, we talk all the time about how it's difficult to compare things like goal scoring from era to era. A great goal scorer in 2019 might score 50. That doesn't necessarily mean they're a better goal scorer than someone who scored 40 pre-lockout. In 2004, 3 guys (Rick Nash, Kovalchuk, Iginla) scored more than 40 goals - all had 41. This year, 11 guys did it. Are we going to sit here and say that Alex DeBrincat is a better goal scorer than Jarome Iginla? Is Robin Lehner (.914) a better goalie than Mike Richter (.904) because he has a better sv%? The same thing applies to teams. Being in the playoffs one year doesn't mean your as good as the teams who made the playoffs another year.

I don't think anyone was saying they were a mediocre team in the context of an NHL era. That's a stretch. They were mediocre relative to other teams that season. If you want to call them bad because you think teams with similar rankings in other years were better, then it's completely subjective just like your player example.

Who would you pick in a series, the 16-17 Preds, or the 17-18 Devils?

I dont see relevance. Would you pick 16-17 Preds or 18-19 Blues?

Who would you pick in a series, the 16-17 Preds, or the 17-18 Devils?

2018-19 Lightning or 2018-19 Islanders?

Please, bet money on the matchup, too.

Shoo fly.

You know what? The 18-19 Islanders weren't BAD.

Pfft. You don't know that. Have you cross referenced them with the rest of the Eastern Conference teams between 2004-2018?

I dont see relevance. Would you pick 16-17 Preds or 18-19 Blues?

It's relevant because they were both 8 seeds but one of those teams is clearly better than the other. Nobody sane would pick the Devils in that series but, by your logic, the Devils are the better team.

Based on your perspective, they aren't comparable, because they're different seeds. The higher seed (Blues) is the team you'd take every time, but I don't think the Blues were that much better last year than that Preds team.

I don't think anyone was saying they were a mediocre team in the context of an NHL era. That's a stretch. They were mediocre relative to other teams that season. If you want to call them bad because you think teams with similar rankings in other years were better, then it's completely subjective just like your player example.

I mean of course it's subjective.

I have been saying that being in the playoffs that year doesn't make them good, relative to the era, if you want to put it that way. Others are saying that they had 97 points and made the playoffs so they are. Were they average that year, sure. But average doesn't mean good in a larger context.

No one said “good”. They were “good enough” to make playoffs. No one had them favorites to win.

You just changed from bad to mediocre.

No one said “good”. They were “good enough” to make playoffs. No one had them favorites to win.

You just changed from bad to mediocre.

No, I haven't changed anything lol. I didn't say they were mediocre. I said they were bad and am still saying it.

They were mediocre relative to other teams in the conference that year. You can be do that and still be bad when you don't look at one season in a vacuum.