Name: Down Goes Brown: Finding hope for the NHL’s 10 most hopeless teams in 2023-24
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Down Goes Brown: Finding hope for the NHL’s 10 most hopeless teams in 2023-24

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NHLTeamsScores &amp; ScheduleStandingsNHL DraftPlayoff BracketPodcastsFantasyNHL OddsNHL PicksFantasy cheat sheet 4h agoWe’re now just a week away from the start of the NHL season, meaning hockey fans are being flooded with season previews. That’s great for most of us, as we head into a new year clinging to optimism and best-case scenarios. But for fans of teams that are rebuilding or just plain bad, preview season just means any lingering hope gets squeezed out, as every preview seems to echo the same theme: Your team is bad, and your team stinks.AdvertisementThat’s where today’s column comes in. For the last few years, I’ve looked to offer some optimism for fans of the worst teams. And not just garden-variety optimism, where things might go a little better than expected. I’m talking about a world where everyone is wrong, your team is actually good, and they’re going to make noise in the playoffs.It’s, uh … not easy.That doesn’t mean it can’t work sometimes. For example, heading into last season the consensus was that the second-year Kraken would miss the playoffs and maybe even be in the mix for last place. I made the case for why they could be better, and maybe even win a round. Then they did.Read more: When NHL players get sent down, it’s like going from steak to chicken fingersThat’s the good news. The bad news is that last year, our previews only had the Kraken as the tenth-worst team, and the nine teams below them all missed the playoffs by healthy margins. Sometimes bad teams are just bad, and all the hope in the world can’t trump that reality. But we can try if only to give a few fan bases a break from all the negativity.Here’s the optimist’s view of the 10 teams with the bleakest outlook heading into the 2023-24 season, based on the previews that Dom, Sean and Shayna have been churning out. We’ll start with the best of those teams, and work our way down to the dregs.GO DEEPERNHL season previews 2023-24: Counting down the teams from worst to firstThe projections say: 85 points, and a 14 percent chance of making the playoffs.Why they’re probably right: The Red Wings should be better than last year, with Alex DeBrincat on the top line and other reinforcements added. But the Atlantic is stacked, with four established teams meaning there may only be one playoff spot available. The model likes the Senators and Sabres better, and it’s hard to argue. The Red Wings just don’t seem to have the ceiling that Ottawa or Buffalo do, leaving a disappointing seventh-place finish as the most likely outcome.AdvertisementBut hear me out: You don’t have to squint all that hard to see the Wings being the best of the three young Atlantic teams. Both Ottawa and Buffalo have questions in goal, and while there’s a gap in upside talent, it’s not necessarily huge. If DeBrincat finds his 40-goal scoring pace again, and Moritz Seider moves back into the Norris discussion without Ben Chiarot dragging him down, then the Wings are right there. Mix in some luck when it comes to injuries and goaltending, and Detroit could be the team leading the way for that one spot.But wait — are we sure there’s only one spot in the Atlantic? The Panthers weren’t very good last year until the playoffs, and their blue line is hurting. The Bruins lost Patrice Bergeron and should take a big step back. The Maple Leafs are the Maple Leafs. And the Lightning losing Andrei Vasilevskiy for two months could shake up the entire division. Maybe this is the year of a big shift in the division, and if so the Wings are well-positioned to slide in and take advantage.Convincing? Hopefully, because it only gets tougher from here.The projections say: 83 points and a 14 percent chance at the playoffs.Why they’re probably right: Admit it, this is sooner than you expected to see the Coyotes, since they’ve been legitimately awful for most of the last few seasons. In fact, you kind of feel like getting to 83 points and the outskirts of the playoff race is the optimist scenario, one that Coyotes fans would happily take. The preview guys are stealing our schtick.But hear me out: In a way, the Coyotes might actually be the easiest team in this exercise. They’re very young, which means far more variance in their plausible outcomes than a team like Detroit. They overachieved a bit last year, which could have been luck but could also be a sign that André Tourigny is a better coach than anyone thinks. And their big weakness is in goal, which in the NHL is paradoxically the biggest problem you can have but also the one that’s most likely to luck its way into fixing itself.AdvertisementMix in the Mullet factor that I tried to sell you on in last year’s column, and we’re getting there. While it’s becoming a cliché, in the Coyotes’ case it’s true: The vibes are good. And it’s not like the path to the playoffs in the West is as steep as it would be in the East. If the young players click and the goaltending is at least OK, the Coyotes will be hanging around the race. Once that happens, the underdog energy in Arizona will be off the charts.The projections say: 81 points and a 7 percent chance at the playoffs.Why they’re probably right: The Capitals were good for a long time, and like a lot of teams in that situation, they’ve struggled to navigate the last gasps of their contending window. Really, there are three options. You can push all your chips in on one last swing, like the Penguins did this summer. You can tear it all down and start over, as painful as that might be. Or you can avoid the tough decisions, stay the course, mumble about how you want to reload instead of rebuild, and sentence yourself to a miserable season that ends with something like the No. 12 pick. The Capitals have made their choice, and here we are.But hear me out: They have the greatest goal-scorer of all-time, a 1,000-point center, a Norris-winning defenseman, a 300-goal winger on a cheap deal, and a Stanley Cup-winning goalie. Sure, all of those guys are old, but there are plenty of teams penciled into a playoff spot that can’t boast that kind of core. There’s also a new coach in Spencer Carbery, and we’ve seen rookie coaches have an impact in year one (especially when they’re replacing a cranky veteran nobody seemed to like.) A lot of the best-case scenario depends on guys like Nicklas Backstrom and Max Pacioretty staying healthy, but that’s not impossible.And if you want an even more dramatic scenario to chew on, how about this: Alex Ovechkin gets hurt and misses a few months for the first time in his career, everyone writes them off, the team gels and overachieves without his goals record chase hanging over everything, and then he returns in time to lead a rejuvenated team into a Cinderella playoff run.The projections say: 80 points and an 8 percent chance at the playoffs.Why they’re probably right: The Blues fell off a cliff last year, going from quasi-contender to quasi-trainwreck. That led to them selling some big names at the deadline, so in theory, they’ll be even worse this year.AdvertisementBut hear me out: Like the Caps, we can play the “recent Cup winner” card, although we’re kind of stretching the “recent” part, especially given the key pieces that have departed since then. Still, there’s talent here, and some of it is young enough that progress is possible. If we see a leap from Robert Thomas or Jordan Kyrou — or preferably both — then a decent forward group could be something more than that. You’d still need the blue line to get it together, and Jordan Binnington to rebound, so finding optimism is getting tricky here.But Blues fans know where to start: Dom’s model doesn’t love this team and has underrated it before. That’s not about him not liking the team or some grand conspiracy against them, but it could be possible that Craig Berube has his team playing a style that the numbers don’t appreciate properly. Dom acknowledges that in the preview, and that the oddsmakers like the Blues a bit better.Of course, a bit needs to turn into a lot for the Blues to get into the playoffs. That probably means bigger-than-expected years from Thomas and Kyrou, along with a surprise from somebody like Jakub Vrana. Mix in a big year from Binnington and some excellent work from Berube and/or whoever replaces him midway through the year, and the Blues are in play. Put it this way — we’ve seen a miracle turnaround story from these guys before.Fair warning: The odds are about to plunge for the rest of the teams on our list, so if you’re not buying what I’m selling so far then you might want to just check out now.The projections say: 74 points and a 1 percent chance of making the playoffs.Why they’re probably right: When you’re very bad, like the Blue Jackets were last year, you’re generally not looking to follow it up with one of the most embarrassing offseason debacles in recent NHL history. With a rookie coach with essentially no prep time, a mediocre-at-best roster, shaky goaltending, and the non-zero chance that the Mike Babcock drama left behind a fractured dressing room, the Blue Jackets are obviously on the way to another year as an also-ran-at-best.But hear me out: We can start with the one obvious upside — the blue line, which should be significantly better with Ivan Provorov and Damon Severson added and Zach Werenski healthy. There’s more talent up front than you might remember, and if it all clicks then you can at least picture this team being in the playoff picture.AdvertisementThat’s fine, but we’re supposed to be aiming higher here. And we can, thanks to Babcock.Yes, the hiring was disastrous, and will probably end up costing some of the front-office decision-makers their jobs. But the whole thing played out so publicly, and in such a ridiculous way, that we have to at least consider the possibility that the whole disaster actually brings this team together. I mean, can’t you picture a smirking Patrik Laine doing a postgame press conference after yet another win, and answering all the questions by showing the media a photo of himself giving the thumbs up on his phone?What I’m trying to say is that if the Blue Jackets don’t have a cardboard cutout of Babcock saying “You guys stink” in their dressing room by opening night, I don’t know what to tell you.The projections say: 74 points and a 1 percent chance of making the playoffs.Why they’re probably right: This team is very bad, and also seems to be tanking. Honestly, 28th overall seems optimistic.But hear me out: The best option I can come up with is that I’m not sure I’ve seen Flyer fans get what they want in my entire life as a hockey fan, and right now most of them want to be bad. So … yeah.Other than that, we’re into the section where we have to start playing our “a goalie gets really hot pretty much all year long” card in earnest. And it’s at least plausible for the Flyers, since Carter Hart is only 25 and has shown flashes of potential stardom over the years.Beyond that, you’ve got the return of Sean Couturier, Owen Tippett on the verge of becoming a star, and Travis Konecny looking to take another step after last year’s breakout. If all three of those guys hit close to their ceiling and a young blue line can hold its own, then a big season from Hart gets them close to the playoff hunt. And if so, you know John Tortorella isn’t going to prioritize a draft pick over banking as many points as he can scrounge up. If that gets you into the playoffs, maybe Hart carries you all the way to … well, to losing in the final, which is as far as it’s possible for the Flyers to ever get. Man, this optimism thing isn’t easy.Wait, there are still four more teams to go? Oh no.The projections say: 73 points and a 1 percent chance at making the playoffs.Why they’re probably right: The Ducks were absolutely terrible last year, finishing dead last in a season where lots of teams were openly tanking by the end. And they didn’t do much to improve this year, apart from adding Radko Gudas and overpaying Alex Killorn, who’s hurt.But hear me out: As the preview points out, the Ducks weren’t expected to be as bad as they were last year. That probably means that those expectations were just wrong, but it’s at least possible that last year was more of an outlier than it seemed. The starting point might be better than we think.If so, the upgrade from Dallas Eakins to Greg Cronin behind the bench could be a big story. And yes, we can call it an upgrade even given Cronin’s lack of experience — Eakins has always seemed like a smart guy, but he’s had six seasons as an NHL head coach and has put up a miserable .408 record and never made the playoffs. Cronin will be better. He almost has to be.From there, the optimist scenario pretty much has to involve the young players all making big strides, but that’s hardly impossible. Mix in a weak-ish division and John Gibson finally having that return to form everyone’s been predicting for (checks notes) five years now, and the Ducks make a run at the playoffs. And once they’re there, maybe the kids are too young to know they’re supposed to lose.The projections say: 71 points and a 1 percent chance at the playoffs.Why they’re probably right: The Hawks were awful last year, and that was with Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane around for most of the season. They’re rebuilding, obviously, and it’s OK to be terrible when it’s part of a plan. Which is good news because they will be terrible.But hear me out: As bad as the Hawks project to be, this case isn’t all that hard to make, at least compared to the teams around them. You just point to Connor Bedard, the most heavily hyped prospect since Connor McDavid. Take the most optimistic projections, nudge them up a bit more, and you’re adding a dominant first-line forward. Then there’s Taylor Hall, a former MVP who regains his form. Then the other young players all surprise us, Seth Jones rediscovers his game, we desperately hand-wave away the goaltending, and the Blackhawks are the story of the season. It’s the Connor Bedard Effect. Easy!(Please ignore the fact that all of McDavid, Sidney Crosby, Ovechkin and Mario Lemieux were dominant as rookies and still saw their teams finish dead last in their divisions. The Flyers with Eric Lindros only finished second last. We can build on this.)The projections say: 71 points and a zero percent chance at the playoffs. Yes, zero.Why they’re probably right: This team is awful.But hear me out: (Deep sigh.) OK, here we go. Cole Caufield scores 50 goals. Nick Suzuki becomes the player that Canadiens fans already think he is. Kirby Dach takes another big step toward stardom, and the Alex Newhook sequel follows the same path. Josh Anderson bangs and crashes his way to 30-plus goals, Sean Monahan is reborn, and Brendan Gallagher is back in all his pesty glory. Juraj Slafkovsky pulls a Leon Draisaitl. The goaltending is somehow good enough. The other rebuilding teams in the Atlantic stumble, opening up a path to a playoff spot for the one team everyone’s sleeping on.They get off to a great start, partially thanks to a weak early schedule that includes the Hawks, Caps, Blue Jackets and Coyotes. With Martin St. Louis behind the bench, the vibes are off the charts — after all, who better to lead a “nobody believes in us but we know what we’re capable of” story than a Hall of Famer who wasn’t drafted? Once it becomes apparent that there’s some genuine magic here, Kent Hughes has an arsenal of extra draft picks and just enough cap space to be a deadline buyer. They face the Leafs in the first round, we all know how that goes, the miracle run of 2021 happens all over again, but this time they finish the job and end the Canadian Cup drought.Please tell me that was the last team. (Checks list.) I need a drink.The projections say: That this is a waste of time.Why they’re probably right: Other than this team having exactly one good player, the worst blue line in recent memory, no goaltending, no prospects, no more Erik Karlsson, a very clear mandate to tank for the No. 1 pick, and an absolutely brutal early schedule that will see them start with eight straight losses, I can’t think of anything.But hear me out: No. Come on. I’m not doing this.Look, this whole “hope” gimmick is fun. But I’m trying to walk a line here, one where I entertain you without insulting you. It’s cute to imagine the Blues rebounding or Connor Bedard dragging the Hawks to the playoffs or whatever it was I just belched out about the Canadiens, but we have to draw a line somewhere.We’ve reached that line. There is no chance that the Sharks can win anything this year. Zero. Maybe less than that. For the first time in the history of this column, I’m not going to bother. Sometimes, a team really is hopeless.In fact, there’s only one scenario where this team doesn’t finish dead last: Some dumb sportswriter runs an attempted reverse-jinx that’s so obvious and transparent that its sheer mendacity angers the hockey gods, who make an example of that dimwit by pushing the Sharks to an unexpected playoff run. That Canadian moron then has to hear about how dumb he is for the entire season, culminating in his editors sentencing him to the worst possible fate for an east-coach writer: Actually staying up to watch Pacific games.If all of that somehow happens, then sure, the Sharks have hope.(But it won’t, so they’re bad and they stink.)(Top photos of Cole Caufield, Nick Suzuki, Patrik Laine and Johnny Gaudreau: Vitor Munhoz and Ben Jackson / NHLI via Getty Images)Get all-access to exclusive stories.Subscribe to The Athletic for in-depth coverage of your favorite players, teams, leagues and clubs. Try a week on us.

NHLTeamsScores &amp; ScheduleStandingsNHL DraftPlayoff BracketPodcastsFantasyNHL OddsNHL PicksFantasy cheat sheet 4h agoWe’re now just a week away from the start of the NHL season, meaning hockey fans are being flooded with season previews. That’s great for most of us, as we head into a new year clinging to optimism and best-case scenarios. But for fans of teams that are rebuilding or just plain bad, preview season just means any lingering hope gets squeezed out, as every preview seems to echo the same theme: Your team is bad, and your team stinks.AdvertisementThat’s where today’s column...

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Sean McIndoe

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Down Goes Brown: Finding hope for the NHL’s 10 most hopeless teams in 2023-24

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