So much for my fortune telling

Well in October I posted my wild and crazy predictions for the hockey year. So far I missed the boat by a country mile. Here is my rationale why my predictions have been so off.

1) Sydney Crosby will get 150 - 200 points- eeek what a disaster. My prediction was based on what I saw at the world championships last year. Crosby put on an offensive exhibition as did most of his teammates. As well, he finally had the scoring winger that would inflate his point totals in Phil Kessel. Well, Crosby still has not shown up this year. The coach was fired, Kessel was moved to Malkin's line, and the Penguins are struggling. It is becoming apparent Crosby does not seem to do well with star wingers. They have tried Pallfy, Hossa, Neal, amd now Kessel and no one gels with Sid. Weird as it is it seems Crosby plays better with average wingers. 

2) Phil Kessel will win the Maurice Richard trophy- Don't think so. I watched a recent game and I saw that Kessel was a step slower than he was even last year. Is he reaching that age where he does not have the legs to be a dominant scorer? 

3) Conner Mcdavid will get 100 points- Sadly this will not happen because of injury. I thought he was well on his way with his start. Even though he was not even on the first power play unit, he had shown the skills to be at minimum a point a game player. Hope he recovers well from a real bad injury.

4) PK Subban will get 20 goals. Very disappointed in his lack of scoring. He has had a very good passing year but I think he could probably score more goals on the powerplay if he played with someone other than Markov. Markov has a tendency to telegraph his passes to PK and the opposing team expects this. As well PK's big windup on his shot helps the other team to prepare to block his attempts at scoring.

5) Thomas Plekanec will be traded for a goal scorer at the deadline- I think Plekanec's chances of being traded are lessened if he remains effective playing with Pacioretty. The chances are less likely he will be traded this year but if he does his usual playoff no-show, he will be gone in the summer.

6) Los Angeles Kings will win the Stanley Cup defeating the habs- There is a decent chance this could happen. However, the kings have to get stellar goaltending. Quick has been inconsistent this year. As well, the habs chances all depend on Price's recovery from his knee problems.

7) Tyler Seguin and Taylor Hall will score 50 goals- Unfortunately, the NHL is still mired in a low offensive stat league. Seguin as well is becoming more of a playmaker and he may get Benn to 50. Taylor Hall did not gel well with Mcdavid so he may not reach 50 either. Hall and Seguin  are having good years and 40 goals may be within their grasp.

8) Toronto Maple Leafs finish dead last. There is a good chance of this. Even though the leafs are playing better, the second half of the season is where they usually start to crash and even with Babcock their goaltending is still AHL calibre.

9) Detroit Red Wings do not make the playoffs. Right now the Wings are in the playoffs. However teams that are out of the playoffs include Tampa Bay and Pittsburgh. I am curious to see if the leaders like Datsyuk and Zetterberg can carry this team in the second half on their old legs.

10) Aaron Ekblad scores 20 goals. I may have been a little quick to expect more progress from Ekblad. He still will get in the 12-15 goal range. His team does not help matters especially when a forty year old is leading the team in scoring.

Well anyways time will tell.