I have no idea what this means, but it’s pretty damned stellar.

AcidQueen: I said, specifically, that I would NOT call Carolina a fluke champ, so your claim that I said so is nothing more than willful ignorance on your part (par for the course). There’s no denying that the Hurricanes got some huge breaks in three of four rounds last year – only someone who drinks the “Canes are great because they won” Kool-Aid would claim otherwise. You’ve done nothing but put words in my mouth. Go back and read what I said.

Redblack: The Northeast went 136-85-29 in non-division play last year for 1.20 points per game; the Southeast went 122-106-22 in non-division play last year for 1.06 points per game. Now we can work with your sample size of 40 games, or we can work with my sample size of 500 games, but I know where any statistician would put his money. Point-blank, the Southeast was decidedly below average last year – the average points per game last year was 1.11 due to OT/SO games, which is higher than the SE’s mark. The Northeast was a better division. Tampa Bay was the worst second-place team in the league last year, and the 20-point gap between the Lightning and the Hurricanes was the largest in the league.

Basically, every reply in this thread has come down to “The Hurricanes won last year, everyone should just get over it.” Fine; good for them. But you flamers can’t discuss last year’s run or this year’s failure at all – it’s a blind spot. That’s just fine. You’ve got all off-season now to think about it.

To rehash, Carolina was 14-5-1 against the “superior” NE division. They earned 1.45 points per game.

Buffalo was 11-8-1 versus the “weak” SE division, inculding a weak 5-5-0 in their own building. They earned 1.15 points per game.

Compound that over a whole “theoretical” season, and Carolina finishes with 119 points and Buffalo finishes with 94.

If the competition was weaker in the SE division, why couldn’t the mighty Sabres do better than they did?

When I 1) pointed to a division that is, in actuality, weaker than the Southeast and 2) turned your “if the Sabres hadn’t been hurt they’d have pwned you!!!1″ argument back on you, your best retort boiled down to “that doesn’t matter, the Hurricanes are a fluke and the Southeast is a weak division, the Sabres rule!”

The only difference between your comments and mine is that I used fewer words.

Thank you, I accept your surrender.

Go to Hell Buffalo

So Detroit doesn’t get a “free pass,” and they really have nothing to do with this thread (which is about the dreaded “f-bomb” coming up regarding last year’s Hurricanes squad). Again, this comes back to what I said about last year: Saying that Carolina put up a better record than Buffalo doesn’t mean much, given that Carolina played in a weaker division. (Check the overall records of the teams in each division.) Detroit is peripheral to the conversation.

Tell you what: Give me your opinion on why Edmonton and Carolina are likely to both miss the playoffs. My opinion goes like this:

1. Carolina was a good team last year, but they weren’t as good as the championship banner made them look.

2. Atlanta improved, which cost them points they usually take for granted (and quickly gobbled up at the beginning of the season).

3. Tampa Bay got its groove back.

4. The goaltending situation just isn’t the same this year, and it’s probably harder for Cam Ward to be The Man than “The Other Half of the Tandem,” as he was last year.

Any of this “waah” comentary is worthless. I could just as easily reply, “Waaah – the haters think we’re a fluke!” I think the Hurricanes were a good team who played really hard and got three major breaks; take away the breaks in the conference finals or the Stanley Cup, and Carolina probably wouldn’t have won the whole enchilada. But again, some fans (especially the two partisans in this thread) refuse to acknowledge that these breaks played any role in their team’s march to the Cup, so they don’t understand how someone could look at their team and think, “Wow, what a fluke.” I understand it entirely, even if I think the sentiment carries the truth too far sideways.

I’m still waiting for you to explain the Central Division to me. In any other division, Nashville and Detroit aren’t any better than 90 points, but in the Central they can feast on their three weak sisters in St. Louis, Chicago, and Columbus.

So what gives? Why is the super-competitive (except for Florida and–for now–Washington) Southeast a “weak” division, yet the Central is not? How does playing in a “soft” division explain the last two Cup champs being from the Southeast Division? Does Detroit get a pass for some reason, because they’re O6?

You’re on the clock, Chester–start ‘splainin’.

BTW, two of you don’t agree with me? Of course you don’t – you’re Hurricane fans. (See where I’m going with this?)

Translation: Waaaaaah! Nobody agrees with me!

I stand by my statement: “The Hurricanes got several MAJOR breaks during last year’s playoffs, most of which their fans don’t acknowledge.” The facts of the breaks aren’t in dispute; the evidence that their fans won’t acknowledge these facts is strengthened by the responses in this thread.

On point #2,

Last season, Carolina was 14-5-1 versus the “superior” NE division last season.

Buffalo was 11-8-1 versus the “inferior” SE division.

Both teams were 6-3-1 on the road against the opposite division.

Carolina was 8-2-0 at home against the NE division while Buffalo was only 5-5-0 on their home ice against the “weaker” SE division.

Make of that what you will.

If by “bring you back in line” you meant “leave you rolling on the floor laughing”, then you’ve succeeded.

Enjoy your delusions, kiddo–and don’t talk to me about weak divisions until you go troll the Central Division blogs a few times with your crack-addled spew.

1. The Flyers being “saddled with key injuries” is a joke. Philly is the Old NHL; Buffalo is the face of the New NHL. It was obvious last season which team was better; arguing that Philly was better than Buffalo is a waste of time. As for the Sens, they’re simply quitters. It was a good matchup for Buffalo because Ruff has constantly pushed his team to a second gear in the playoffs; Murray has done the opposite.

2. The Hurricanes’ regular-season record was inflated because they played in the Southeast Division. The Northeast was clearly a tougher division; it’s still true this season, with Buffalo and Ottawa about where they finished last year (only reversed), and Montreal and Toronto fighting for playoff berths. But what happened in the Southeast? The Thrashers improved, the Lightning returned to form, the Capitals gained some feistiness courtesy of Alexander Ovechkin, and suddenly the Hurricanes have dropped 20 points in the standings.

Finally, if you see legitimate criticism as “hatin’” and constantly say “we” and “our” when you’re talking about your favorite team, you’ve lost your objectivity. Objectively, the Hurricanes got some massive breaks in every round – and if they’d lost their top four defensemen last season and their best playmaking center, I doubt the Sabres would have let them hang around for 7 games. Make of that what you will.

You see where I’m going with this?

Do I hear you say the same things about the Oilers? No? Why not–just because they didn’t have the opportunity to beat the Sabres?

Every team has luck. I guess the Hurricanes were lucky the whole season–or did you not see their regular-season record last year?

Or perhaps you’re just conveniently ignoring it because it’ll shoot your argument full of holes.

That said, the Hurricanes got several MAJOR breaks during last year’s playoffs, most of which their fans don’t acknowledge. To wit:

FIRST ROUND: Carolina goes down 2-0, after which Montreal loses captain Saku Koivu to an eye injury.

SECOND ROUND: No real breaks here, unless you count Martin Brodeur forgetting that he’s Martin Brodeur.

THIRD ROUND: The already-depleted Sabres lose their top four defensemen, yet still lead the Hurricanes 2-1 heading into the third period. And then the puck gets lost in a crowd before Rod Brind’Amour swoops in to knock in the game-winner.

FOURTH ROUND: The Oilers lose Conn Smythe contender Dwayne Roloson in the first game, yet still extend Carolina to seven games before bowing out.

If any one of those things doesn’t happen, Carolina simply wouldn’t have won the Cup last year. I can’t recall a Cup-winning team getting more breaks in a single post-season–the only team that comes close since 1980 is the 1993 Canadiens, IMO, who won an inordinate amount of overtime games on their way to the title.

So–fluke? Not exactly. But damned lucky? Sure. And it’s no surprise that they’re struggling this year–they simply weren’t “all that” last year so much as they were “nearly all that with several large breaks falling in their laps each round.” Which isn’t a bad place to be as a franchise.