[saillias]

Checked off most of the options except for:

Injuries - We lived through an injury to our #1 D. Now we're trying to say that an injury to our #2 D is the reason we're losing? I don't buy it. Brodie isn't solving this team's suck. Colborne and Bouma are not saving this team either. And Smid probably creates more problems than he solves once he is healthy.

Competitors improving - We're the team that's supposed to have improved. The Canucks are not really improved, most people expect them to be worse, and the Blues can hardly improve from the perennial 100+ point team they already were. The Oilers hadn't won a game until they played us. So this is a lame excuse too.

It's early no worries! - Just sort of an annoying stance to take at this point, no?