x

Already member? Login first!

Comments / New

Winging It’s BOLD PREDICTIONS Review

We made some wild guesses in January. Here’s how we did.

J.J. – As has become WIIM tradition, we started off last season with a set of BOLD PREDICTIONS for our fans to show off how great we are at looking into the future. As is also tradition, we sucked out loud at actually having those stupid things come true. However, since it’s also tradition that either Graham or I win this thing every year because we’re clearly the smartest two people who aren’t commenters around here, it was only fitting that BOTH should win in this lockout-shortened season.

Graham – It’s not just anyone who can out-smart our resident know-it-all, J.J. Last year I was able to best him in a battle of who could be the most insane and lucky at the same time, but this year I was not able to pull off the full repeat. However, a tie only serves to confirm that while we have a great community of writers and readers around here, we’re all smarter than Jeff.

Here’s a look back at the predictions, as well as our comments about each others’ prognosticating abilities.

Chris

1. The Red Wings sweep the Rangers to win their 12th Stanley Cup
[J.J.]: This prediction looks less crazy now than it did then. I have no doubt the Wings would have swept the Rangers.
[Graham]: Stop using video games as your basis for making predictions.
[Jeff]: The Rangers quit on Torts. The East sucks.
[Chris]: I didn’t say it would happen this year. I just said that it would happen.

2. Carlo Coliacovo becomes a top-4 defenseman with the Wings by March
[J.J.]: Top four in man-games lost to injury.
[Graham]: He was so valuable that all the other defensemen got jealous so the Wings had no choice but to buy him out.
[Jeff]: Injury joke.
[Chris]: *barring injury.

3. Gustav Nyquist leads all Wings in points
[J.J.]: If you add the 58 he scored for the Griffins to the 6 he gave Detroit, he’d be there.
[Graham]: Imagine what he would have done had he played the top-6 minutes we all wanted him to.
[Jeff]: … in 2013-14

[Chris]: As J.J. said, if you include the AHL, he did.

4. The Minnesota Wild Miss the playoffs
[J.J.]: I’m realizing how many near-misses we have in this thing and I’m sad they didn’t come true in most cases.
[Graham]: $196M and all I got was this lousy playoff-run t-shirt.
[Jeff]: Parise, I hate you.
[Chris]: I was close. I mean, if you listened to the NBC people, the Wild should have just been handed the Cup.

5. Ken Holland doesn’t make any trades during the season.
[J.J.]: Kent Huskins just made his most impressive stop of the year.
[Graham]: He liked his team.
[Jeff]: Can we really call the Huskins move a trade? They gave him away.
[Chris]: Kent Huskins: Always screwing things up.

J.J.

1. March 15th or later, at least three MSM/MSB articles will write about a player on a chase for “50-in-50”
[Graham]: Unfortunately, Tyler Seguin only had 5 offensive tweets, not 50.
[Jeff]: Good job.
[Chris]: Brunner was on his way there for a while.
[J.J.]: Lazy asshole NHL scorers…

2. Nashville misses the playoffs.
[Graham]: Ryan Suter is better than Shea Weber.
[Jeff]: No snark from me. Glad this happened.
[Chris]: That shouldn’t count as a bold prediction. You can’t predict what is already reality.
[J.J.]: Gosh I’m smart.

3. Matt Cooke will lapse and will earn himself at least a 5-game suspension.
[Graham]: “Next week on CSI: Ottawa…”
[Jeff]: Stepping on a guy and destroying his achilles is legal in the new CBA.
[Chris]: If you stop reading at lapse then all Senators fans think that this prediction was correct.
[J.J.]: I meant Raffi Torres. I swear.

4. Kyle Quincey does not finish the season in Detroit
[Graham]: Pretty sure when his charred body was tarred and feathered it was hung from the rafters at the Joe.
[Jeff]: It’s true… he finished the season in Chicago.
[Chris]: The bigger question is does he finish the offseason in Detroit?
[J.J.]: It just took him a little longer to prove that he’s decent trade bait. That’s all.

5. Mikael Samuelsson scores 15 and has a higher plus/minus than Brendan Smith.
[Graham]: If this had referred to their Words With Friends matches you would probably be right.
[Jeff]: Really bringing your ‘A’ game, J.J.
[Chris]: I wish that this was true.
[J.J.]: He brought more to the team than Brendan Smith did.

Jeff

1. Brendan Smith wins the Calder
[J.J.]: If only he had been sent back to Grand Rapids, you’d have been right.
[Graham]: He was literally the worst rookie defenseman on the team, and that includes a guy who played 10 games and the other guy who was sent back down to Grand Rapids.
[Chris]: Yeah, about that.
[Jeff]: He should have won the Selke. Best two-way player… makes things happen for two teams in every game.

2. Kyle Quincey leads the Wings’ D in points
[J.J.]: Hilariously wrong. Embarrassing.
[Graham]: For the other team.
[Chris]: Two worst bold predictions so far?
[Jeff]: Yeah this was just awful.

3. Damien Brunner leads the Wings in goals
[J.J.]: Great start, but Brunner stopped scoring so fast you’d swear he took a vow of celibacy.
[Graham]: Count all the goals he caused for the other team and you’re right.
[Chris]: Not too far off. I guess you made up for the atrociousness of the first two predictions.
[Jeff]: I won’t laugh at this one. I actually had a shot.

4. Detroit finishes 8th in the West
[J.J.]: Henrik Zetterberg spent an entire week making sure you were wrong and I couldn’t love him more for it.
[Graham]: Non-believers to the left.
[Chris]: Why do you have to be so pessimistic?
[Jeff]: Totally cool with being wrong on this one.

5. Tyler Seguin is nominated for the Hart
[J.J.]: Hahahahahahaaaaa hahahaha.
[Graham]: of homophobia.
[Chris]: Remember what I said in Prediction 3? I take that back.
[Jeff]: He won my heart.

Graham (Reigning Champ)

1. Pavel Datsyuk scores 60 points in 48 games
[Chris]: He scored 36 points in 31 games with the KHL. Still not close enough to make this prediction accurate.
[Jeff]: Maybe in the KHL.
[J.J.]: “I often get Pavel Datsyuk and Martin St. Louis mixed up” said nobody, ever
[Graham]: He was a PPG with Dan Cleary and Justin Abdelkader as his linemates. This should count.

2. Los Angeles plays in the Stanley Cup Finals for the 2nd straight season
[Chris]: If they had, I think that they would have easily beaten the Bruins.
[Jeff]: And they would have lost to Boston and I would have had a ring. F*ckin’ hawks.
[J.J.]: If they had faced a tougher road to the Conference Finals, maybe they would have been ready to take on the Hawks.
[Graham]: Stupid Chicago ruining everything.

3. Tomas Tatar is a regular in the Wings’ lineup by March 1st

[Chris]: He should have been a regular in the Wings’ lineup by March 1st.
[Jeff]: Graham must’ve meant March 1st, 2014.
[J.J.]: I almost want to count this, but I’m kind of glad he didn’t stick, as he won the AHL’s version of the Conn Smythe this year.
[Graham]: So so close.


4. The Maple Leafs finish 6th or higher in the East

[Chris]: I really wish that this wasn’t true.
[Jeff]: Graham is a closet Leafs fan. He was wearing his Kessel jersey while predicting this.
[J.J.]: Thanks to the power of repetitive wishmaking, I’m rethinking my strategy for future predictions.
[Graham]: Finally something ending prematurely pays off for me.

5. The Wings lose in 7 games to LA in the Western Conference Finals
[Chris]: Change LA to Chicago and add in “semi” before “Finals” and this is correct.
[Jeff]: We were a 2nd round collapse away from this happening.
[J.J.]: This one was 1/3 right. Ian White got the rest.
[Graham]: I’m very convinced that had they played this would have happened.

– – –

So now that we got the fun part out of the way, here’s the embarrassing part: the part where we show how much better the commenters are at doing this than we are.

7. Pittsburgh will get demolished in the playoffs the way they were against the Flyers last season. (Yes, I know I just predicted that Pittsburgh would make the playoffs. Tears are streaming down my face.) – uvgt2bkdnme

6. Ovie wins the Rocket Richard

by sprout42

2. Filppula regresses from last season due to his lingering knee injury which will need surgery in the offseason, only putting up 15-20 points and not making an impact in the playoffs.

by playboyperry509

[ed note: This one is arguable because he did actually pot a game-winning goal in the playoffs, but the 15-20 points thing was very good]

9. Every time someone reminds Ilya Kovalchuk he’s signed for the next 50 some odd years in New Jersey, he bursts into tears and runs away.

by greg5897

[ed note: I’m counting this one]

9. Penguins defense is worse than ours.

by joe.cooper.9619

J.J. – Ok, maybe you guys aren’t better at this. There were a few other’s there that were right, but I don’t think they were bold. Let’s just call this one a mulligan (except in that I definitely get credit for winning in two out of three years we’ve done this).

More from Winging It In Motown:

Winging It In Motown Logo
If you enjoyed this article please consider supporting Winging It In Motown by subscribing here, or purchasing our merchandise here.

Looking for an easy way to support Winging It In Motown? Use our Affiliate Link when shopping hockey merch.

Talking Points