I don't know. Gio going down has likely proven the D, especially that second pairing is likely better than initially thought. But I do feel the 3rd pairing could use some beefing up, and even within the top 4. Great at moving the puck, jumping up into the rush, but much of their success on the defensive side has come from their pure willingness to sacrifice the body and block shots. We often still get hemmed in and don't have enough puck possession because as a team we simply run around and block block block.
I'm not too sure that strategy or way of keeping pucks out of the net sustainable or even desirable over the course of multiple seasons. It's doable for maybe a year or two, especially when the team knows they have to out compete every night to win. But as much as we hate to admit it, as this team gets more skilled, the sacrifice at the level we've seen this year is going to reduce, and I'm not even sure players like Russell can keep it up for much longer even if they want too.
I think this team is still obviously still a ways off from being elite, and we need both, upgrade on D and in secondary scoring.
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