[Poll] Do we even want the Canucks to win the Presidents Trophy

[IBatch]

1 hour ago, Miss Korea said:

 

The whole premise of this topic was so absurd, it necessitated the OP to pivot and make a new post focused on probability.

 

"Hey fans, do you want to see your team lose more?  Do you want our team be in 1st place or 2nd place?"

 

This is what kinda bothers me about the sports system here in North America.  It's championship or failure.  It completely ignores the regular season success that fans get to enjoy for six months.  Canucks fans love to ridicule Toronto for constantly choking (which is funny given our poor history the last 10 years).  But if anyone tells me they're not enjoying the games right now, they're lying through their teeth.

 

If anyone prefers us to be a wildcard team, we should be exactly like Toronto this year: brutally inconsistent with completely unpredictable defending/goaltending.

Don't mind the topic, it just seems like a thinly veiled old Gaurdian-like, devils advocate, invalidation thing.    There is nothing at all wrong with winning the Presidents Trophy, and sticking a banner in the rafters commemorating that sort of accomplishment.   Something to celebrate, it's a very rare thing, especially these days.   Average would be, once every 32 years.    3 this year, would put a nice exclamation mark on the season, and for sure help our odds too, home ice does matter, and we'd have it for as long as we keep winning all the way to a cup possibly too. 

 

 Winning a division title is tough enough these days with 8 teams (sure Bettman is planning for 10....and hope we can get a traditionalist running the league the moment he steps down - we've had to wait almost 30 years as it is, to see the talent level go up enough to get back to mid 90's levels ... that's my side beef - and you can bet it's that's also connected to the post cap era like a gigantic stamp).    Parity and league size, has a lot to do with the way things are.    21-24 teams was perfect.    Don't have half the league missing every year, just one third.     

 

The bigger issue is, teams missing the show for a decade or so, then if things work out, getting a 3-5 year run before needing to possibly start all over again.    CAR missed 9 years... now a contender.   Buffalo, god knows what's going on over there, but have to think they are close?  Ottawa looks like they aren't done yet.   Boston, TB, SJ, PIT and WSH, are the only cap era teams, to really kept things going.   HHOFers helped that for sure.    Not every team is going to get a HHOFer each cycle, someone has to lose, and not many teams have been fortunate enough, to have two back to back generations, with HHOFers on it.    TB, SJ and Boston managed this...PIT and WSH all about Crosby and Ovi. 

Edited January 26 by IBatch

[DownUndaCanuck]

I don't think we will win it and don't think we want to, we don't want that much of a target on our back and we're nowhere near as good as a President's Trophy winner could be (eg. 2011 team). We do really want/need to win the division though. We've got a 5 point lead on Vegas with a game in hand right now and Edmonton is obviously on a monstrous tear so have some competition. We really don't want to face one of those teams in the first round because they have so much more playoff experience than us, they could easily bounce us. Get that first round matchup with either wild card team (Nashville or LAK, St Louis or even Seattle) and we can cruise past them. The Blues have owned us of late and LA certainly have some big playoff potential but I think we can shut down their offences and certainly out-score them.

 

Vegas will just brutalize us in the first round and Edmonton would be a toss-up, their D and goaltending is doing well right now which I think we can expose quite easily, but if they've got prime Draisaitl and McDavid both chugging in the playoffs for once, I think they'll be able to eat Hughes and Hronek alive. It'd be an exciting first round matchup and probably go 6-7 games and you'd hope Demko comes ready to play but they'll just get so many quality scoring chances that it might break us.

 

The importance of 1st in the division is huge when the 2 and 3 seeded teams is basically a matchup fit for a Conference final. Let them beat up each other and then we go into the 2nd round hopefully a bit fairer of a matchup.

[Hairy Kneel]

PT is the KOD.

[BestCanuck]

Hell no. Came by to post that lol 

 

 

I think they're fine top 3. Most are on contract years. This team got the stars aligned. Its all because of Hughes leadership. Not only are some guys have career years but they got winning mentality. When they lost they look mistakes, learn, move on. No more "woe is me" 

 

 

Hughes and Toch god sends to Vancouver. 

 

 

Get back at it tonight. EP is going to have good game!! Let's go!!! 

[Jeremy Hronek]

On 1/25/2024 at 4:28 PM, Tocchet.A.Hockey.God said:

Do we even want the Canucks to win the Presidents trophy

 

It is kind of bad luck maybe give it to Boston. It be sweet if Boston won it and was knocked out in the 1st round again and the Canucks advanced.

Superstitions are for thespians.

 

Collect as much hardware as you can and don’t worry about the shortcomings of previous teams.  New core, new era, new story, period.  

[kilgore]

On 1/25/2024 at 10:31 AM, The Lock said:

I voted for "just make the playoffs" but "I don't care" could also fit with my view.

 

I don't believe in a curse with the president's trophy. I just think winning the cup has very little to do with the regular season and everything to do with playoff performance, luck, depth, and how many injuries a team receives throughout.

 

On 1/25/2024 at 10:36 AM, The Lock said:

 

2 cups out of 18 means you effectively have just under double the chance of winning the cup compared to the other 15 playoff slots.

 

How is that a curse exactly when it means you have higher odds than everyone else? It only takes a president's trophy winner 1 point to be above the number 2 team. That hardly screams domination every time a team comes in 1st to begin with.

 

Yes I'd agree with your vote.  I don't care. It is not a curse, but it is also not a blessing either.

 

Goalie29 gave those stats about the Presidents winner winning 2 out of 18.  You could frame it as that it is nearly twice a good odds as any of the 16 teams entering the playoffs.  But on the other hand, shouldn't the President's trophy winner also have a much greater chance considering they have the best performing team of the season?

 

Lets look at it from the point of what that advantage really means, bottom line.  It means home ice. Lasts changes. Crowd support.  So of course that is projected to be an advantage.  But lets look at the statistics. This from a betting point of view:

 

https://www.actionnetwork.com/nhl/home-ice-advantage-nhl-playoffs-stuckey

 

of which they come to the conclusion that:

 

If a $100 bettor wagered on every NHL home team in the playoffs since 2005, they would have lost more than $5,000. If that same bettor instead blindly backed the road teams, they would have profited just shy of $2,000.

In fact, home teams are just 75-75 over the last 150 NHL playoff games with an average home line of -145.

 

So winning the Presidents trophy does not help you win the Cup. Home ice does not help either. The Canucks are living proof. We must be that one PT team in Goalie29's chart that didn't win in the SCF in 18 years. Canuck Luck.

 

What it takes is a great team. Last change or not. Crowd support or not. Sleeping in your own bed or not. A great team, with a great coach, with a great system, and talented players who buy into that system.  Also luck with health. That is it.

 

Bottom line: Home ice is NOT an advantage.  Stats show it is actually a slight disadvantage. Maybe its that players bond more on the road in hostile territory, or that the home team is gripping their sticks too tightly. Whatever the reason........