If Gulutzen's system is: "have a great goaltender", then, ya, it's finally clicking. Johnson has been absolutely lights out lately. Unfortunately, beyond Johnson and the PK (something a hot goalie will definitely aid), in the games I watched (and I tuned out of last night's game at 1-1 to watch the Westworld finale, so I'm missing the context of the offensive outburst in the second half of the game, for good or ill), I'm not seeing great growth.
I'm not seeing improved breakouts, I'm not seeing increased scoring chances, and in general I'm not seeing an improved powerplay.
I can't find any game-by-game "advanced stats", so the only objective things I can point to are:
- In the last 12 games (their hot streak win wise, so I'm cherry picking in the most Gulutzen-friendly way), the team is -34 is SF/SA. In the 12 games before that they were -23.
- In the last 12 games, the PP has clicked at 17% (which would be 17th in the league over a season). In the previous 12 it was at 11%. However, that's skewed by an unusually good night against Anaheim; before last night, despite the winning, it was 13% recent vs. 11% pre-streak.
Put Johnson on last year's team and I'm betting they're in the playoffs fairly easily. Put Hiller on this team, and you would be looking at a possibly historically bad team.
All that being said, I'd totally welcome someone posting some convincing stats to counter those and give me hope that the team is really on the right track as a team, and I'll happily eat crow if the team is comfortably above .500 20 games from now.