re: I'm considering getting into hockey, help me pick a team

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In fact, the Avs have the fourth worst FenClose in the NHL. If you're a fancystat guy, the Avs are an awful choice, and Dallas has far better underlying metrics. They haven't seen the wins yet, but stat geeks would argue that the performance is already there, results will follow.

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Dallas' PP was really bad all season too. Thats a big reason for the results not being there yet. Think they finished in the bottom 5-8 in PP %. If they can improve in just that statistic next season with all things remaining near the same, their record will improve by a lot.

They also need to find a decent backup goalie. I feel like it's an auto loss when Lehtonen isn't in net. Just looked it up, they were 7-11-1 without him as goalie.

Really hope the Stars can beef up along the blue line as well for next season. We need a couple more guys in the build of Dillon and Nemeth to pair with skaters like Daley.

I think Goligoski has served his purpose well enough this season but having him on the #1 PP unit certainly isn't helping the conversion rate much either.

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I think Goligoski has served his purpose well enough this season but having him on the #1 PP unit certainly isn't helping the conversion rate much either.

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Goligoski came on big time offensively in the last month of the season, though (at least with helpers). Daley did too for that matter. But I think Goli had over 10 assist in the final month and Daley wasn't too far off that with 3 or 4 goals mixed in. They went the entire season producing nothing offensively then both just started scoring at a pretty high pace comparative to what they usually do.

Edit: Goli - 4 G, 13 Asst in March/April; Daley - 5G, 9 Asst (that's a monster month for both guys considering what we are used to getting out of them offensively)

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-Can't be too good. I don't want to be a frontrunner/bandwagoner/etc. So it can't be like the best team in teh league
-Ideally, would have something of a good history.
-Has potential to be good in the near future and/or has a star player
-Nice color scheme/cool city.

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WG, did you end up pulling the trigger on Colorado? I think that'd be a good choice. The one problem with them is they are in by far the toughest division in hockey. They just won the division this past year, and yet I wouldn't even be surprised if they miss the playoffs this year, that's how good it is. I also think the maroon/blue combo is pretty bleh. But they're not "too good", do have a very good history, have a ton of young talent and Denver's awesome.

Someone else mentioned the Blue Jackets. I'm a CBJ fan. I think it'd be an outstanding choice if you became a fan right now. We were the youngest (not one of the youngest, THE youngest) team in the league last year, had the best goalie in the NHL two seasons ago (he's only 25), have another potential superstar at center in Ryan Johansen, and have both a cool city and cool color scheme. No way you could be called a frontrunner since we have never won a playoff series (that 2OT Penguins game you talked about watching with your friend in the OP was actually our first EVER playoff win. This, of course, means the only mark against us based on your criteria is the history. But if you become a CBJ fan, you can actually say you saw our first playoff win, even if you weren't a fan at the time, which is kind of neat. And I think we hit your other three criteria VERY well).

Some other potential options if you're still deciding, based on your criteria in the OP:

St. Louis
Minnesota
Dallas
Anaheim
Tampa Bay
Montreal
San Jose (I'd be wary about this one, though. I think their window is closing in the next 2-3 years. Pretty old. But they're also very well-run).

Feel free to ask questions on any of those teams if you want.