Quote:
Originally Posted by Joborule
As Jiri said in the blow it up thread, the defense and goaltending is now fine, but the team's offensive production is still a problem, and that's one component that hasn't been significantly altered still.
That 18-19 season is now looking like a anomaly, where the two scoring lines overperformed rather than play to their base level. The offensive core is underwhelming.
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Agree wholeheartedly. The forwards on this team play with mindset of a highly skilled team, but the execution just isn’t there like other skilled teams. Monahan for instance is on pace for 8 goals this season, Tkachuk is on pace for 37 points, Gaudreau only had 58 points last season. Every year in the playoffs, the top players pull out their disappearing act.
The identity of this team is confusing. They want their skilled players to check, then score from checking. But I don’t find this team particularly good at checking especially against elite teams. But I’m not sure this team can rely solely on pure skill anyway because they’re not great at finishing.
Just watching the highlights of the Jets-Oilers game yesterday to use as an example of skill, McDavid and Draisaitl are obviously 2 of most skilled players in this league, so not much needs to be said there. But for the Jets, they didn’t need a ton of shots yesterday, but Mark Scheifele scores on a one timer bomb, Connor snipes a snap shot top shelf while still pivoting and Ehlers fires a missile past Smith after receiving a sweet feed from Connor. This team doesn’t even employ Laine anymore who might have a top 3 release in the game. Once Dubois gets healthy, this team could be dangerous. I honestly get a little jealous sometimes of all the skill most of the Canadian teams boast.