Looking towards next season, Topics: agreeing to disagree

Me and Ottawa had a discussion on a few topics and want to see others weigh in as well or feel free to throw their own topics out there.

1. Niemi / Pavelec vs Price / Varlamov

I believe my goalie tandem of Niemi and Pavelec will outproduce his of Price and Varlamov in this leagues current standings. We'd obviously look at PPG stats so injuries don't skew things overall and put him in a early disadvantage with Varly.

2. Will the Jets make the playoffs?

Kind of related to the first point I think Pavelec finds consistency with solid backing up from Mason on B2B nights. I think Bogo takes the next step in his development while Enstrom and Byfuglien keep up their spectacular play from last year. Ladd, Little and Kane take it up another notch and who knows if Burmistrov can do a bit and Fehr show's why he was a 1st rounder. If Antropov stays healthy, they should be fine up front. I think that by a hair they have a chance of sneaking in, as tough as the east has become. Not to mention that their rabid fan base will carry them in all their home games which is also a plus, something they prolly didnt really have in Atlanta, die-hards.

3. Parise...

We were trying to find options in a trade for him but I think one of Pavelski, Zajac, Dubinsky or Byfuglien will outscore Parise in our fantasy format. Again we would use PPG value to avoid skewed stats due injuries...

I know where Praba stands on these, but what about the rest of the league?

my views:

1) price will do better than niemi/pevelec. considering montreal is essentially the same team as last year but will have max pac, markov, gorges, and cole, i dont think any of those two goalies will beat price. so it all comes down to varly.

2) now way jets will make playoffs unless pavelec plays over his head. are they really gonna beat out teams like pens, caps, boston, montreal, philly, tampa, rangers, buffalo, jersey etc?

3) unless parise is playing on one leg no way any of the other guys will beat him.

Parise should outscore them if healthy but Buff could challenge with D-goals worth double and PIM's

I think WPG. will struggle to make playoffs...doubt it happens but never say never

the goaltending is pretty close,Price is the best Goalie but Niemi is on a better team...Pavs and Varly both will be injured..better nab their backups.

1) Price/Varly by a bit in my opinion. I rarely make it a habit to agree with Praba, but he's right about Price owning the other two, and Varly is what it comes down to in making up the bit that's left, and I think he will.
2) Ya, again, side with Praba here. Way too may better teams that they won't beat out. Pitts, Washington, Boston, Tampa, Buffalo, Montreal are all locks to make it. Philly should be, if they haven't ruined their chemistry. I'd put Rangers and Carolina should fight with Philly for those last two spots.
3) Heck no to Zajac or Dubinsky, as they're not even close to Parise. Byfug and Pavelski I think will be close, but I'd still lean towards Parise.

so far:

niemi: 964
pavelec: 990

total: 1954

varlamov: 848
price: 1279

total: 2127

i am winning the goalie bet so far

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you think the jets will make the playoffs, they are currently in 11th. no way they jump to 8th. i am winning the jets playoff bet so far

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pavelski: 795
parise: 435

you are winning this bet so far. pavelski was on fire to start the season and has cooled off a bit, parise shit the bed to start but is now picking it up. could go either way.

so far:

niemi: 964
pavelec: 990

total: 1954

varlamov: 848
price: 1279

total: 2127

i am winning the goalie bet so far

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you think the jets will make the playoffs, they are currently in 11th. no way they jump to 8th. i am winning the jets playoff bet so far

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pavelski: 795
parise: 435

you are winning this bet so far. pavelski was on fire to start the season and has cooled off a bit, parise shit the bed to start but is now picking it up. could go either way.

Well so far with the goalies it is pretty close and could definitely go either way.

About the Jets, I agree the odds aren't good, but they are heating up a bit and guys like Little, Kane, Wheeler have really been pretty hot lately. And if Pavelec can go on a streak like the beginning of last season anything is possible, but they will probably be on the outside looking in when all is said and done.

Parise has started out cold and Pavelski hot, that is true. But Dubinsky and Byfuglien are also ahead of him at the moment. I said one of these 4 (the other was Zajac who hasn't played a game yet) would be ahead of him, so far 3 are. Odds are still good for one of Pavelski or Byfuglien if they don't go too cold for too long.

We can review this once again, when half the season has been played...

niemi = 3608, pavelec = 3074. total GP = 134, FP/G = 53.85 + 45.88 = 99.73

price = 3231, varlamov = 2761. total GP = 118, FP/G = 49.71 + 52.09 = 101.8

note the bolded text in the quote, we agreed upon PPG stats. niemie and pavelec played much more, but price and varlamov had the better FP/G which is what we based the comparison on. i've won this bet unless tonights standings somehow change it.

i have to admit, jets were closer than i thought they would be to making the playoffs. but bottom line is they didnt, so i've won this bet too.

pavelski was the best scoring out of those four, with 2275

parise finished with 2215.

you win this one, by a small hairline. but regardless since this is a keeper, there is no way i would ever trade parise for pavelski.

Why do you use PPG stats for #1 and omit in for #3?

Byfuglien clearly has better PPG stats than both Parise and Pavelski.

And in #1, its harder to have better stats with more games played, as it means more consistency, therefore better players. Aside from that, both of my goalies were better than Price, who supposedly was way ahead of Niemi or Pavelec.

I think you'd honestly have to call it a wash...

you said in the original post that we would be using PPG stats for the goalies because varlamov was injury prone. there was nothing about that for skaters, i distinctly recall in our pms that you said parise would be coming off an injury and be playing rusty, while i argued that he had the summer to recover so he would be fine. i think i pretty much won every bet except the last one which was a wash, but you can interpret it how you want lol.

Hey Praba... Can you read?

last sentence of 3. ... Again we would use PPG value to avoid skewed stats due injuries...

So I think its PPG for both. If we use totals for both I win outright...

With PPG its pretty much a wash no matter how u look at it... aside from the Jets making the playoffs, not a clean sweep by any means as you mention.

Not too mention my predictions where much more bold... you went with what was expected... so the fact it all came down to the wire should be satisfaction enough for me...