[GranteedEV]

I think Burke's comments about dumbing the system down refer to a couple of stretches last calendar year (The Chicago/St. louis wins and the first handful of games on the "Chad "Carey Price" Johnson" road trip) where the defense basically stopped trying to make a first pass and everything was glass-and-out or dump-and-chase. The simplification might have helped our goalies get on track but sclearly didn't resemble the style of play we saw in the first period of game 2 of the season (our best 20 minute stretch in the first quarter). There were some ugly wins in those "winning" stretches, especially that one time we came out of Columbus with a win. In contrast, the 4 game losing streak in January seemed to be a series of (mostly) well-played games where the other team's goalie kept outplaying ours.

I am just glad Gulutzan has slowly been taking chiasson & co off the top line as that was not a good look on either the coach or management. It took about 55 games too many but Ferland is where he probably should have been all season (or at least where he should have been since he established he isn't snakebit this year) But I will gladly take it because a 22+ goal season out of Ferly would have been a cap nightmare. Burying our two contract year studs Ferland and Bennett on the fourth line or Brouwer line... genius. Like actually brilliant because we can sign both guys cheap and then unleash them next year along with Kulak. It also explains why despite both being two of our seven or so best forwards, neither was playing together.