I have a hard time seeing how we could do worse.
- Monahan, Colborne, Backlund are all clearly just better players now than at the start of the season.
- We'll have Smid for the whole season, Butler is much improved and Wotherspoon seems to have arrived. Add in a healthy Wideman and we actually have some defensive depth to start the season with.
- Glencross should play more than 38 games. (That said, his five season average is only about 60 games.)
- It's not very likely that Gio misses quarter of the season again.
- Rämö seems to have come to his own, giving us stability between the pipes.
- We'll likely add at least one highly skilled player into the lineup, possibly two. (Gaudreau, Baertchi, top 5 draft pick).
- Odds are we'll have somewhat less injuries to top guys over the season.
Reasons to think we'll do worse:
- Losing Cammalleri. I think this could be about more than just the points. He seems like a leader out there.
- Various slumps and injuries are always possible. We don't have a very deep lineup.
- This felt like a bit of a magical season, and it seemed to be like that in the dressing room too. Lose that, and you could lose a lot more games.
- Other teams should be somewhat better prepared for us.
- Complacency is always a risk, we had very little of that this season.
So basicly, I think it's obvious we'll be "better on paper" even without cammalleri. The real question is if we'll play as well as a team. But that's always a question. Since there's probably not a huge turnover and the coaching staff will probably remain the same, I think the only reasonable expectation is a slight improvement.
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