True heartbreak requires hope. The only way for an NHL team to have a spectacularly disappointing season is to start by believing things are going to go well.
We already took a long look at teams primed for a breakout season.
Today, we turn our attention to a group of teams who have lofty expectations based on last year’s performance but could fall well short. We’ve left last season’s bottom feeders out of the conversation altogether — you can’t make this list without being a good team.
Instead, we’re looking at last year’s playoff teams and looking for the ones whose point totals threaten to take a dive this season. Maybe they’re the Boston Bruins dealing with injuries right out of the gate or the New York Rangers looking to repeat a run of glory that depended heavily on hot special teams and the best goaltending performance of the year. Maybe they’re like New York but their goaltender — let’s call him Jordan Binnington — hasn’t been elite since he held the Stanley Cup above his head in 2019.
There are also basic analytics and regression to consider, as we did with the one team that made the playoffs last season with a minus-11 goal differential.
So which teams are the best bets to miss on this season’s high expectations?
Read on to find out.
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