Quote:
Originally Posted by Classic_Sniper
I think it was very evident what the problem was; we had absolutely awful forward depth. 90% of the team couldn't put the puck in the net this season. By the end it, it looked like we had a 1st line, a 3rd line and two 4th lines. There was no chance we could compete with those other teams.
It was a 2 man team this season. Gaudreau and Smith carried this on their backs this season and that's just not enough in such a highly competitive league.
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This. If plans had worked out, Gaudreau/Monahan/Ferland score at the level they did, Backlund/Tkachuk/Frolik shut down the opposition and add some offence and Bennett/Jankowski/Brouwer (or whoever) feast on sheltered starts. And the fourth line ships in every so often. But as it turned out, Backlund's line contributed fewer goals than before, Bennett/Jankowski were ice cold most nights and the fourth line contributed next to nothing.
Now some of that is possibly an off year. We know that Backlund and Frolik have scored more and probably can again. Bennett has scored more, so who knows. Same even for Brouwer although his decline is maybe permanent due to age and the change in the game. The fourth line couldn't do much worse, so I expect an improvement there too.