Disappointing NHL Teams of 2015

With the NHL 2014-2015 Regular Season coming to a close, it’s time to do a send off for some of the more disappointing teams. Some sites call these obituaries, but these teams are the disappointing ones not necessarily ones missing the playoffs.

Eastern Conference:

Pittsburgh Penguins have secured their place in the playoffs for the 9th year in a row like the team is expected to. That being said, it wasn’t a pretty road to this point and if current play dictates anything, the playoffs won’t be an easy trip of them. I wouldn’t say the Penguins ever blew away the Eastern Conference at any point, but to lead the league by any margin and then to have it come down to tonight, with the season on the line, that’s a far fall for the “mighty” Penguins.

Florida Panthers acquired the golden god of the NHL during the trade deadline, the impossibly talented Jaromir Jagr. In what seemed like the final screw you to the man, the New Jersey Devils shipped him off to a team on the bubble. And the team took off, somewhat, Jagr gave the city a touch of hope in the last few weeks. But alas, another year, another home crowd disappointed that the chance of seeing the original Playoff Mullet in action was not to be theirs.

Washington Capitals this one is on the list for all the fans who declared Alexander Ovechkin a coach killer. Clearly he was just slaying the inferior coaches who could not boost him to a 6th 50th goal season. Sorry that Ovechkin disappointed you this season.

Boston Bruins are the Bruins. They are a Boston team. They are expected to win so they can continue to torture NHL fans by playing “I’m Shipping Up To Boston” and nothing else for the entire playoff run. They are expected to win because. Boston has “earned” that right to demand excellence from all their teams despite their teams being made up of mortals.

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Western Conference:

Nashville Predators were the darlings of the NHL for a good length of time. A plucky southern hockey team burst on to the scene, albeit wasn’t until March before they lead the league, but at the same time it was nice to see a new team up there. A big slide towards the end of the season landed them 3rd in the Conference. Which is super weird, because a 5-10-4 record since March 1st should destroy all chances of even being in the Wild Card discussion but leave it to Conference III to refuse to play by the rules.

Arizona Coyotes must have gotten their memos confused, as their race turned decidedly weird when they decided to have line changes in their defensive zone, basically hand the pucks to the opposing team, and start Mike Smith ever. Harsh to hear? Yes, but the team marched out there and embarrassed themselves and their fans. That fan base deserves more than a tank job, after all the hell they’ve gone through with ownerships and their captain being ill with the most mysteriously foreign sounding sickness ever. Those fans should have a team that shows up every night, that wants to win as badly as the fan bases wants them in town.

Colorado Avalanche were supposed to be the team that proved the fancy stat fans wrong. Patrick Roy and his merry band of misfits were going to rock the league with their own brand of hockey, full of grit and pulling the goalie for the entire third period if necessary. Sadly, heart and a coach with a rocking mountain man beard does not get you into the playoffs. It doesn’t even get you into the conversation of a Wild Card race.

LA Kings shouldn’t be on this list if most people had their way. The Kings are built for the playoffs. For five seasons this team made the playoffs and for that everyone is blaming this playoff miss. Just don’t let the Detroit Red Wings here you say that, 25 seasons of playoff appearances and such. But who knows, maybe this is the start of a new trend. New teams in the playoffs, a new cycle of excitement.

Did your team miss? Were your guesses totally off? A totally disappointing season? Don’t worry only 5 and a half months to October!

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