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Todd Cordell
I'm going to go with Buffalo.
Despite some of the star power they have, their offense is downright horrible. At 5v5, they rank 31st in shot attempts/60, 31st in expected goals/60, meaning it's no fluke they aren't scoring, and 31st in expected goals for%. They haven't even been a threat on the man advantage as they've allowed six(!!) short-handed goals and have a league-worst +3 goal differential on the power play 20 games into the season.
Their defense is still bad even if Rasmus Ristolainen is healthy so it's not as if they can just lock things down and squeeze out some low-scoring victories.
I thought the Sabres might be *decent* this season but it looks like it'll be another very long year for them.
Jared Crozier
While you could answer this with a slant toward performance vs expectation, in which case it would be the Edmonton Oilers by a country mile, but that wasn't the question. In terms of the outright worst team in the NHL, it is pretty simple, even if I did just watch them beat the team I cover. The Arizona Coyotes just won back to back games for the first time, but those wins finally got them into double digits in points on the season.
That two struggling teams both had their most admittedly embarrassing losses of the season to the Coyotes doesn't change the fact that Arizona is not a very good team and have a lot of gaping holes to fill before they will climb out of the basement and become a legitimate team night in and night out.
I said before they embarrassed the Senators on Saturday that if you were going to run a guaranteed win night promotion, you would want to do it against the Coyotes, and they are maybe the one team in the league where you would expect to beat every time out.
It has been a while since I was legitimately angry watching a game, as being a writer who attempts to be as impartial as possible has weeded that out of me for the most part, but watching the Senators self-destruct and hand the game away to a roster full of primarily AHL level players got me to that point.
That is how I know the Coyotes are the worst team in the NHL.
James Tanner
This is an interesting question and I'm sure people are going to say the Coyotes but that would not be true. Keep in mind before you bash the Coyotes that:
- About half their games featured one of three back-up goalies.
- They dressed four goalies so far
- They played about half their games missing 2 x top-four defensemen
- They have a new coach
- Worst Schedule in the NHL (brutal to the point of unfair)
- Haven't dressed their optimal lineup once this year.
- Have got terribly unlucky results in games they've played well.
Six teams have worse possession stats. Winnipeg is the worst possession team.
The Blackhawks allow the most shots, a full three per game more than Arizona.
Arizona has the third lowest PDO.
The Ducks, Pens, Kings, Capitals, Islanders, and Rangers allow more scoring chances per game than the Coyotes.
The Coyotes have allowed the most goals, by far, and this is due to being down two top-four Dmen and mostly, the inexpressively horrible play of Louis Domingue and Adin Hill, both since cut from the team.
If we just take away goalies, the worst teams are Colorado, Buffalo, and Washington.
Overall, I have to say the worst team is Buffalo though. They are in the bottom 1-7 of pretty much every category and absolutely brutal.
I'd also say that the Ducks, Knights, and Devils are all getting very lucky results and at least long-term I like the Coyotes roster better than all three.
Buttheworst team is Buffalo. Florida deserves some props too, but Buffalo is terrible.
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