auf the Athletic haben einen interessanten Artikel über die Ausgeglichenheit in der NHL gelesen. Hier mal ein Auszug aus dem Artikel:
ZitatThirteen years after a salary cap was instituted in the NHL, you are seeing its most profound impact. Not only has the talent gap shrunk between teams, but the turnover from year to year in the standings is dramatic. Near complete parity is here to stay. “The parity has been in the league for a number of years now, and it certainly shows more in the standings this year more than ever,’’ Penguins GM Jim Rutherford told The Athletic.
The back-to-back Cup champs have played a ton of hockey over the past two and a half years, and perhaps those tired legs are showing, but the cap system’s impact, the team losing a number of players because of it, is just as profound. “A cap system creates parity because at some point between the cap and expansion, you have to let good players go. Those good players get spread around the league,’’ Rutherford said. The Penguins, under both Ray Shero and then Rutherford, have done it as well as anyone in the cap era, winning three Stanley Cups, just like Chicago under Stan Bowman.
Now both the Blackhawks and Penguins are at risk of missing the post-season together in the same year for the first time since 2005-06, the first season of the cap era.
Then again, they both might make it, too, they’re right there. So many teams are.As of Monday, only nine points separated No. 4 Washington in the overall NHL standings from the No. 23 Islanders. That’s 20 teams crammed in a sardines jar.
“It’s tougher than it’s ever been because there’s such a fine line between winning and losing. There are zero easy games on the schedule. None,’’ said veteran Sharks GM Doug Wilson, whose team has been a perennial contender in the cap era.“Other than a couple of teams, everyone is in it, and everyone has a chance,’’ NHL commissioner Gary Bettman told The Athletic. “The comment I get most frequently from clubs when it comes to competitiveness, whether it’s presidents, or managers, or owners, is that every game is a playoff game. Every point matters. That’s what the system was intended to give you, no matter who you rooted for, you would know that your team had a shot, not only of making the playoffs, but of winning it all.’’
The Kings won the Cup as an eight-seed in 2012 and the eighth-seeded Predators went to the Cup final last year. The message is clear — just get in.