Quote:
Originally Posted by Erick Estrada
How can I be any more wrong about the future than you can be right?
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You're saying we don't have enough talent to compete with these other teams?
You could argue that the Dallas Stars have more offensive talent up front than anyone in the conference. Where are they in the standings right now?
All it takes is to have a few game breakers and have them play the right way. That's how Chicago has been doing it for years. Defense still wins championships, and this team has started to figure out how to play extremely strong defense and score enough to win games.
It's no coincidence that the youngest players have struggled this year. This is probably the first exposure they've had to really strong systems play with a focus on defense at the NHL level. It's taking them time to learn how to transition into offense after they play defense, but it's coming. They scored more before because they were given a lot of freedom to do their thing in the offensive zone without any focus on defense. It's great for the individual point totals, but bad for team winning strategies.
I am fairly confident that the talent is still there, it's just finding it's footing again after a massive change in style of play. So yeah, your evaluation of this team is off. It's always easy to hedge your bets and temper expectation because often you'll be correct. It's also requires no courage or convictions.
I'll grant you that we still need a goalie long term, but there are possible solutions in the organization, and there may be moves made after the expansion draft to find an immediate solution.